MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Luke Returns | UFC 278 | Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk | Fight Announcements | Ep 340

Episode Date: August 24, 2022

One Episode 340 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas is back from vacation to break down the latest news in the combat sports world. BC and Luke start off by recapping everything that Luke has missed. Next up the guys discuss the report that Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk will be a 50/50 split and will be at the venue that makes the most money. The boys close out the main topics with some MMA Fight announcements. The guys also give their top 5 favorite strikers to watch and close out with fan subs. (14:10) - While Luke was Gone (52:10) - Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk (79:40) - MMA Fight Announcements (86:40) - Top 5 Favorite Strikers to watch 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

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Reveille, Reveille, dogs Look at us now, tip to tip This is our life, this is our passion That's the spirit we bring to this show I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell

This is Morning Combat Well, well, well Look what the cat dragged in. Oh, I know what it is. It's full strength morning combat. Hello everyone on this 24th of August, 2022. Yes, I am back. Hello.

Merely one half of your hosting duo. My name is Luke Thomas. I am joined with you today with my editorial hetero life mate. He is the king of Connecticut. He's got a weird smirk on his face he's probably tired as balls from having to carry the show for so long but no longer the rest is over for me the work is back that's brian campbell hello bc how are you luke welcome back uh glad to hear you had a great time uh i didn't know if you were coming back luke i'm gonna be honest okay i know when you combine you know bbls and the and you know i thought it was going to be the luke thomas live show for the rest of the rest of my life here but uh you're back um uh you said this is not going to be a normal mk episode this is going to be you know supercharged did you

sprinkle a little uh coke cocaine leaves on top from from the mainland luke did you you couldn't make it one minute into the show without making a cocaine joke huh well look it's a it's a natural uh product from the earth i mean i just it is that's true yeah uh no i didn't need the coca leaves because i was uh uh on sea level i was in cartagena colombia cartagena for everyone else and uh so no you don't need that kind of stuff there well you know they did legalize they legalized the the booger sugar while you were there luke no no no they didn't legalize it petro who's the president said he wants to push it through but it has to go through congress and a bunch of other stuff it remains to be seen whether it will happen but uh it's a good idea i can tell you that much

uh how are you, BC? I know your back must be hurting from all the labor you've had to endure, which I want to, let me just say this to start the show, because whenever one of us goes, it's always a hassle for the other one that stays, but that's life because people have to, you know, go live their lives outside of the show. But it just so happened that I went on vacation at like the worst possible time for BC because there was, I mean, there was all kinds of MK stuff he had to worry about.

Then on Saturday, he had to do stuff for CBS Sports. There was MVP Perry, PFL, UFC pay-per-view, and Usyk Joshua. And there was Bellator that I missed on top of that. Dude,

and you had to call the prelim fights with Keith Thurman down in Florida. My friend, I have to say, I was extremely impressed with all the work you did. And I know it was very hard in Florida, my friend, I have to say, I was extremely impressed with all the work you did, and I know it was very hard. So as your friend, thank you, my friend.

Thank you very much. Well, pour some sugar on me in the name of love. Thank you, Luke. I will use this moment to pat myself on the back. If I could be knighted right now and be Sir Brian Campbell, the honorary Welshman, that would be great. But, Luke, as much as I want to gloat of my own successes, and I do, we're better together, Luke. And I don't have a vacation scheduled right now, and I know you don't either.

So when you look at what the potential for big fights could be over the next couple months, hey, Tui, it's hardy. Let's bang, bro. Bro, from September, and not every month evenly, but from September to basically the rest of the year, basically the rest of the year, there are going to be huge fights, some of which have been announced, some of which have not, some on the MMA side, some on the boxing side.

But I'm glad it's over, vacation and'm glad i went it was great don't get me wrong but we got our work cut out for us for the rest of the year i'm actually pretty excited about it on both sides of the combat sports aisle so happy to be back and um final question on your vacation how dark were your sunglasses to keep away the idea of like there's BBLs? I can't not look at them, but I am a family man right here. Okay, bro. I'll tell you what, you know what? It's not that I didn't know this before, but I changed my approach up a little bit.

So, you know, you got to remember something like the average street person in any place is just the average street person. So you have to go to like a nice restaurant or a resort or whatever to see the grade a quality and believe me there was plenty of it my wife took me to a couple of resorts and i just couldn't believe the talent on display it was like the mcdonald's all-american game of bbls it was fucking insane right but i will tell you what i will tell you what and i again i'd seen this before but for whatever reason i don't know if it was the time I was going to the gym or whatever, there's a bodybuilding gym near where we were staying. And I went about five times just to like, you know, just get some work in and stay healthy and everything. And dude, the gyms, the bodybuilding gyms in Columbia, the level of talent on display.

My wife knows this. She dropped me off one time and saw it. She was like, have fun, because she just couldn't fucking believe what she was looking at. It was like my Instagram search parameters all in one room. I mean, you just couldn't fucking believe. Are there old guys walking around taking pictures, or is this accepted normal? Dude, the gym there, the gym culture is totally different. The first thing I would say is it's majority women like all the time, no matter what time you go.

It's just majority women. Like it's a couple of dudes. And by the way, all the dudes there, they all wear lifting gloves. All of them. It's like they made on Osco. They make me sick. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. Yeah, but does

it does the transaction end in victory for those guys yeah probably luke okay probably they're not very by the way they're not very well built at all like they don't try to get super muscular i think they just go for social hour but if you want to see primo talent uh in terms of you know if latin women are your kind of thing go to the gym go to the gym around 1 or 2 p.m. in the afternoon. It will blow your fucking socks off. I could not believe what I was looking at. It was a joy to get, you know, on that treadmill, let me tell you. Wow.

It was an aggressive start for MK. But finally, Luke, and this is the last time I'll speak, it wasn't me doing all the heavy lifting. I got to shout out Chuck Mendenhall, Rashad Evans, Aaron Bronstetter. I mean, you know, all gave some, Luke, but some of those guys gave all. Chuck on the couch with me and Demetrius Johnson. I mean, we still packed it up. Everybody loaded up.

We got a lot done. So this family that we're building, you know, Shaq, this family that we're building, itq, this family that we're building, it's unstoppable. Yeah, it is. They did a great job as well. I saw the Demetrius Johnson sit down, you guys did, with Chuck, and it was great.

It was really great. So he fights Friday. He fights Friday evening. So we have a lot to get to. All right, as a reminder to everybody, thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube. Hit subscribe. You can follow us on the socials. We'll put up the graphic here. You guys know where to everybody. Thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube. Hit subscribe. You can follow us on the socials. We'll put up the graphic here. You guys know where to go. LThomasNews, LukeThomasNews,

BCampbell or Brian C. Campbell, all that good stuff. You wanted to get some merch, you can go to morningcombat.store. I believe the bomber jackets made a debut while I was out, right? Bomber jacket season is upon us, Luke. So here's the deal. I want to let people know.

Because, you know, styles vary, quality varies. This is probably our highest quality merch. So I know it's a little pricey, but this is the real deal when you put it on. You're like, oh shit, this isn't just like honky MK stuff. This is like

a legitimate thing I'd wear in my real life. You better jump on it now because we don't have an infinite amount, and they are moving. You're going to like the way you look in these this fall. Pumpkin pack pitch in with your woman. I can guarantee that, okay? All right, maybe your time at that pumpkin patch is going to suck the horn,

but you're going to look great for the IG. You know what I'm saying? I'll say this. My wife likes all the shirts and the hoodies that we bring. I showed her the bomber jackets, and she goes, those are awesome. She couldn't believe how good they were. So BC's doing a sell job here, but he's telling the truth. These are probably the highest quality thing we've ever sold.

I mean, maybe that's debatable, but it's in the conversation at a bare minimum. As well, Showtime.com is a label that pays. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. And BC, you know, what can I say? Athletic greens. I mean, they keep us healthy.

They keep us regular. They keep us in good shape. I took mine on the road overseas. They were well. They did good for your boy. Let's put it that way. Yeah, I actually love it. The best on the road, Luke, because sometimes that's when you can't always run

into the best food options. Yet I always start my day with that one green magical scoop. I feel clean because that's what it tastes like. Mild tropical taste, but I look forward to it every morning. This is how I start my day. I'm not a finished product, but I look forward to it every morning. This is how I start my day. I'm not a finished product, but I'm getting there with AG1. Certainly am.

And by the way, like I mentioned, we took the packets. I was able to travel with it, BC. How about that? Oh, and so how about this? It'll cost you less than $3 a day. You're investing in your health, and it's cheaper than your stupid cold brew habit, BC. And, you know i won't get into details but there's been twice in my own household over the past year where

everybody got sick except for me and they're like i can't believe you didn't get sick and i go i can't really explain it but you know i'm putting that green scoop in every morning so why don't you do the math that's right athletic greens hasic Greens has over 7,000 five-star reviews and is trusted by leading health experts such as Tim Ferriss and Michael Gervais. I mean, if you can't trust those two guys, you can't trust anybody. But we're talking about lifestyle-friendly,

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Just one scoop and a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. Wow. What a spectacular duo here at this performance. And to make it even easier, Athletic Greens is going to give you, the MK viewer, right now for free, a one-year supply of vitamin immune-supporting vitamin D.

It's a droplet once a day, adds to the equation, and for that five free travel packs with your first purchase that we talked about, here's the website, athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat. Again, that is athleticgreens, plural, dotcom slash morning combat again that is athletic greens plural.com slash morning combat to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance uh okay bc let's kick this show off shall we yeah all right topic number one while i was away a lot happened let's quickly go over it it says here on the run down vacation stories we kind of already got to we can we can work past that if you want but

uh ufc 278 there was a lot that is to their unpack i suppose is an awkward way of saying it bc i finally i watched the whole thing i finally caught up with it i thought overall pretty good show by the way surprisingly good crowd in salt lake city um which was an interesting little twist i guess the uh the the people from utah are quite nice they seem to be energetic about the opportunity to be there i guess we could start with that main event boy what a result there for leon edwards um i had him winning the first round pretty cleanly. I thought two through four was obviously Kamaru, and then round five, people have been asking about the luckiness of it or to what extent was all of that.

How much can we ascribe to that win as intentional by Leon Edwards? I'll tell you a lot, man. I mean, yes, you had referee Herb Dean break them up in the fifth or the mid part of the round, and then you had Kamaru just sort of willingly strike with him at that point which seems to me like a bit of a strategic error on his part but dude I mean the BT Sport just put out a video about it showing how his team had scouted it and prepared for it a little bit and obviously you know when he threw that kick at the last minute of the fifth round that wasn't the first time he had ever planned

that obviously he had thrown that probably a thousand times in practice and over the course of his career even more than that and so to me like you know what what are you asking of Leon Edwards you're asking him to be intentional you're asking him to be strategic you're asking him to act with viciousness and then you're asking him to like you know have the presence of mind to be on the hunt right like still try to win yes was there something to be said for kamaru allowing the fight to take place in a domain where he didn't have all the advantages sure there's something to be said for that but kamaru's good on the feet and you couldn't ask anything more from leon in that moment you couldn't ask him what else was he supposed to do in that last minute other than what he did.

He was trying to finish the fight up till the last minute, and he did. Fair play to him. He's your new welterweight champion. He had to take a massive L in the pandemic because he was supposed to fight Tyron Woodley, and then the whole thing fell apart. His career got delayed. Here he is two, three years later at this point enjoying the fruits of his labor. What a moment in MMA. What a moment for him and to me nothing accidental about it whatsoever well i i think and that was you know eloquently delivered but i think it's a little bit more of

a middle ground because i don't think enough people are talking about the elevation it's not like this is the only ufc pay-per-view card that's ever been fought at elevation. But it seemed like everybody, except for Usman, really was affected in some way by that. And hearing Edwards just in the past 24 hours, you see some of the news sites aggregating that he said that he felt like his body was just given out during those middle rounds when Usman was sort of controlling things and dominating. And I think that went a long way, by the way, in how big of a shock it was when he delivered that because he had looked relatively lifeless on the ground in rounds three and four. But I think at the end of the day, it's one of those things where it's a perfect storm, meaning if you're Edwards and fans of Edwards, no, it's not a lucky punch. It's not, it's not, you know, a Scott Smith haymaker that connected. It was something that was thought of in advance, set up, and the opening was there, and damn, he stepped up and delivered it. But if you're Team Usman, Luke, I think it's more than okay to remind yourself

or even go all in on the idea. There's not much wrong here. It was a fluke. Now, it's not really a fluke, but it's close enough, I think, if you're Usman, where you're like, I was in control of that whole fight. It's pretty hard historically to do the run that I'm on right now. I'm not excusing that lapse in judgment or defense in that moment. He got served.

He lost the title. That's what happens. But I do think I'm not as worried of how does Usman bounce back, which has to be looked at for how long he was down how you know emotionally devastating this type of result is i mean it's ridiculous you know i think this is you know a historic moment in some ways in terms of how unlikely it was but uh you know i i think it's close enough to a fluke luke where if team usman needs to view it that way to get through the day, I'm okay with it.

It's not delusionary in my mind. I mean, I think if you're arguing, if you're arguing that if your team Usman, do you like your chances in a third fight based on what happened in the second overall? Yeah, you certainly do.

And to be honest, I think when the odds come out, they'll probably have Usman as a favorite. It remains to be seen exactly how much of one, but I would suspect he'd be the favorite. Oh, the odds are out. They've got what? Minus 350 for Usman. Is that what I'm seeing here?

Kamaru. Yeah, they got him in my side. That's pretty substantial, right? To the point is, when you say fluke, it depends what you mean. Do you mean accident? Do you mean unlikely? You know, certainly it is improbable in that sense to score late. I think people jump at that word fluke, Luke, because they're like,

man, you've been counting out Leon Edwards this whole way, and he just head kicked the pound for pound king, and you still won't give him the do? We're not taking away from the do. This isn't even necessarily like Juliana Pena against Amanda. But to act like there's no element of fluke or luck mixed in with the talent and the skill and the way it was set up, then you're, you're kind of missed misreading it. You know? Right. But this is very different than the Amanda one and Juliana Pena. And I think

here's why number one, you mentioned the elevation, dude, that didn't work to Leon's favor that worked to Kamaru's favor yet another factor. Yes. I know he showed up two weeks early. I got to tell you, I mean, I'm certainly no world-class athlete, but I've been been to places with high elevation it takes longer than two weeks to get used to it so that's the first thing I'd say that's another challenge he had to overcome number two we're talking about the pound for pound best who was ready for this who was winning this contest this wasn't like you know Amanda Nunes abandoning what she was normally good at or you know just sort of like running into punches in some kind of unusual way Kamaru was dealing the reason why you have to give Leon Edwards credit is because listen this is not a game that is guaranteed to go 25 minutes we have mercy rules in the sport it'll stop it if you

can't keep up with the with the pace of the fight right the referee will intervene and stop it he was he he was certainly losing but we had never gotten to that territory the point i'm trying to make here is even in the very last minute of the fight quite literally quite literally he was hunting he was setting things up and not just throwing spam not just you know willingly just kind of uh just throwing things out there to see what it does or to stay busy dude he was trying to be a sniper with fight-finishing intent. What the fuck else is he supposed to do other than that? He did everything, relatively speaking, up to that point that he could. And to be at elevation and then to be dejected.

And you can see the look on his face. And Dean Thomas was talking about it as well. He wasn't even making eye contact with his corner. He right dude that's all red flag territory but then to center himself get back to it and then to throw dude that is exactly what champions do now whether he can scale that over another five round performance certainly I am skeptical because we saw what Kamaru can do I'm only saying I just I just want to be clear about this, I'm only saying what could be asked of Leon Edwards after Herb Dean separates them? He delivered times a billion

based on what was reasonably possible in that scenario. That's why it's, like I said, the perfect storm where both sides of the coin are true in their own ways. But yeah, I mean, let's be honest about

what Edwards was able to show and why this moment means so damn much to people. I think as it should, I think the only real comparison between this situation and the Nunes-Pena one was the human spirit element of how unlikely Juliana was yet fought through hell to get there in his own way in this fight, down on the cards, getting kind of handled and dominated. Edwards did that same thing. To the level, Luke, where I've actually been surprised at how much the impact of this moment has touched people.

And, you know, the Juliana moment was great. The Rose head kick comeback. I mean, we've had a few of these lately. But this one in particular, I mean, it looks like John Anik has been, like, changed by this moment. And, God, whatever that drug feels like to call this fight in that moment and deliver. I mean, John nailed it. I'd imagine you'd be high coming off of that. But in light of these reactions, Luke, where does this sort of fit in now historically in terms of, like,

maybe not, like, knockout or head kick knockout or even comeback? How about moment because when people think about those snapshot moments in ufc history that are run in those you know pre-fight baba o'reilly by the who video montages does it actually eclipse um rousey home in just terms of like the holy shit factor i mean it's like the only difference in the rousey home fight was home didn't have to rally it was one way traffic the whole way and then the big moment. This was different. But that was like a moment in regular news, not just sports, when Rousey lost that.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I mean, that was so huge. And here's the other part. I didn't watch it live. So I don't know how to appreciate it in the same kind of way. I mean, that's really one of those fights where you just have to be there live, I think, or at least watching it live to get the full appreciation of it. So it's a little hard for me to answer that.

To me, I watched Silva-San in one live, and I remember thinking this was over for Anderson. It had come and then to put on the triangle last minute when he was beat up and his knees were fucked and everything else. That's a hard moment to beat, but it's, and again, the Rousey thing was one-way traffic, but she was such a towering figure that it was this crumbling of an edifice in the most, I mean, it was a true implosion in that way. Here's what I'll say about what it means for Leon Edwards.

Show me any Leon Edwards press conference moment. Show me anything he's ever posted by himself on social media. Show me any interview he's ever done. None of them will show you as much about who he is as that post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, where he honestly says the same thing over and over. Look at me now. Look at me now. We talked about being from the trenches and everything else. Dude, he showed more emotion, more life in terms of like a, he's not a very talkative guy, right? He showed you the inside of who he was, something I think he'd kept guarded for a very long time in ways that was very brand new. And I think that's what people respond to. People I don't think had made a lot of connection to Leon.

And it wasn't just the major achievement it was the outpouring of you know dude you could see him the the years of difficulty wearing on him and everything else like he he came to life in a certain way that he never had in his entire career after that knockout I think that's what people are resonating with and I gotta be honest I felt that too I felt that too and I like that he's getting this love not only publicly but on show. Some people didn't love that Rashad was on Monday's show, and his perspective was completely different. He was in the front row sitting with the Usman family when the knockout happened as a friend of Kamara.

So I get that. I think Rashad also delivered, by the way, so you can back the hell off. Yeah, he always delivers. How about that? I mean, come on. If you're going to lick a toad and you can choose one shaman luke you're going with rashad right right big time uh yeah so it's good to see rocky get this moment completely i probably had something else in my head i was going to

transition to luke with that moment let's talk about that co-main event i'd be curious i have not heard what you had to say about the co-main event um i know some people had a weird feeling about it obviously we're talking about luke rockhold and paulo costa i will tell you and i i i've been thinking about this a little bit yes that was in many i gotta tell you bc i had two feelings about it on the one hand it's one of the worst performances i've ever seen from luke rockhold right in terms of just overall skill for folks who may not realize you know you want to see skill from luke rockhold go watch the first michael bisping fight that is luke rockhold in full yeah and that is him it's a machida fight watch that one yes where he takes the back and beat the living

shit out of him i mean he for you know what made luke rockhold special was you know obviously he had a certain look but you know just getting down to brass tacks he was highly skilled highly skilled he could strike he was athletic he had phenomenal jiu-jitsu right he could really do a lot this fight with with paulo didn't showcase really hardly any of that but i will tell you what it did look like to me okay uh and again this is not a totalizing comparison but people were wondering why was he smearing the blood and why was he doing all this other stuff to me you're talking about leon edwards and his triumph there after all the difficulty luke rockle was in a similar kind of position but i think he knew that he was you know

on the way out of the sport probably i don't think he just retired on a whim uh it felt to me like in the movie forrest gump when Lieutenant Dan tries to fight the storm and has this like cathartic moment about the whole thing. To me, it was almost like... Was that before or after he lost his legs, Luke? Spoiler alert. Well, I think it's after he lost his legs. It was in the storm

where he was trying to deal with the trauma that had happened to him, right? And the whole point was you can't beat the storm, but you can beat your demons. And I luke rockhold was trying to exercise exorcise some demons that he'd been dealing with about three years off and getting viciously knocked out remember jan blohovich broke his jaw and he had all kinds of other knee injuries and everything else and and the self-doubt and what was going to happen. I think it was a giant, like him getting that off of his, the weight,

so to speak off of his shoulders. And so if it viewed as a cathartic moment, it actually brings me to be honest, a little bit of joy, but you know, he is so not reminiscent of the guy that he once was. I was very, very glad.

And frankly, you know, he's got other opportunities outside of the Octagon. I was glad to see him retired. I think it's time to go. And he did some great things he did but like he needed that moment internally as you're mentioning no question but i think like his how are you going to remember luke rockhold this is the ultimate bow on top of the package because luke the second half of his career which featured so many spectacular losses and time off and you know public spats and all that stuff you know it's

easy to hate a guy like that who's got swagger and like that I don't think he was beloved yet he did like the ultimate baby face turn if this was pro wrestling to not just the fans but to Dana White who afterwards Luke I mean they'd been fighting all week over fighter pay in the back and forth comments and Dana's just like I'm never gonna say a bad thing about him, I mean, they'd been fighting all week over fighter pay and the back and forth comments, and Dana's just like, I'm never going to say a bad thing about him again. I mean, that's the ultimate way to make everybody happy, and he seemed to fix whatever doubts or you know, with all the injuries and all the doubt

of him ever competing on a high level again, and yeah, it was batshit crazy, it wasn't a good performance, he almost gassed out after rounds one and two, but somehow that just, it just fueled what this kind of bizarre fight was like to watch i mean this was ultimate weird theater that does not happen in 2022 like people don't go out like this this was a victory for rockhold and how it's publicly perceived

you know what i mean like and it's i don't know it's freaking wild um dude the fact that he lasted you know and he again he didn't look great i mean luke rockhold was a guy i want to be very clear about this one he was in his prime his very top days he was just known as a very smooth multi-dimensional operator this was very much the opposite of that but but lasting the full three as painful and as exhausting as it looked i think that was kind of important for him i think it says a lot about why he was there which was again to just to just kind of give a fuck you to everything that had tormented him up to that point and to then finally you know to not succumb to everything i just it seems to me like he felt like he was

trapped under a sheet of ice whether it was injury injury or promotional this or who the hell knows all the different things he's dealt with. To me, him lasting the full distance was his way of planting his flag at the top of Kilimanjaro and saying, I made it. And good for him. I'm really glad he got that opportunity, but it is time to go. I got two things quickly to ask you about this. Number one, you referenced Lieutenant Dan earlier from forrest gump given his service the ultimate service to our country and the likely ptsd he was suffering in that wheelchair do you judge him morally for his love of prostitutes luke i gotta tell you if you want to judge the troops for their

love of prostitutes there's not many of them you're going to love okay here you go there's some inside baseball for you and number two luke um this was a big day for for the toques today right huge day for the toques yes uh turkey is not here right now because she is at preschool she today was her first day of preschool she was a little bit nervioso but um but also pretty happy and we haven't gotten a call from the school yet telling us she's in hysterics so i'm excited for her i know this meant a lot to abuela and the family i'm really excited for you guys but if the nelk boys surprised her with a gift uh of a luchador mask would you go all luke rock hold on them uh for i gotta tell you hispanic misappropriation yeah i gotta tell you that was bad form on the milk boys here's the thing

do i think that they were in trying to insult um chito vera or trying to insult latinos or anything like i like that no i don't believe that i don't think that was ever in their mind but it's just one of those moments where you're so fucking clueless, you don't realize what you're doing. And let's be honest, I've had a few of those moments in my life. Not all of them were caught on camera. And so I'm not going to sit here

and beat them up in that kind of way where he who is without sin cast the first stone, as you know what I say all the time. But what I will say is, why the fuck would you ask an Ecuadorian guy, whether he's in san diego or not to put on something that is very much uniquely part of mexican culture it's because you don't

really understand or appreciate the differences between these people whatsoever and so you know i have seen i have seen my wife i've literally i've born witness to this where someone has asked my wife where she's from and she'll say Columbia and I have I watched it with my own eyes at a work event someone told her oh I I really love tacos I I heard it I heard it dude you know what sucks in Columbia tacos they make the worst fucking tacos on earth it's not what they do it's got nothing to do with them and it's only because you just sort of see these people as a monolith so what I don't think is a good idea is just to beat them up ad nauseum, but this should be very much a reflective moment for them to realize

you've got some learning about the world to do, and Luke Rockhold was right to call them out. Well, I don't even know if they knew, or they might have been ignorant to the level, they're just like, oh, this could be a fun gag, let's put this on. Either way, it's ignorant, Luke, but it was just weird to see Luke Rockhold pull up arms over it you know i mean he was well first of all let me ask you a question do you think he was sober when he made that speech i don't know i

don't know anymore luke right i don't try to judge people's sobriety anymore first things first who the hell knows if he was like on weed or you know sober and i'm not judging him for like you know who cares at this point right but the reality is this i bet chito vera came to him and said something about it dude it fucking clearly bothered him it bothered no he loves chito and i love their bromance but um yeah bro i don't know i mean you know he who has the first watermelon vape uh cast the first stone at another man for being i got hole. I got rainbow candy vape here today. How about that? Wow. That's as low class as it can be. That's

great, Luke. That is, you know what I mean? That's just, wow. Yeah. I mean, why don't you just dip a footlong in a beer, Luke? I mean, this is great. Dude, we should do the glizzy beer thing on Friday, but okay. That aside, very quickly, the Aldo fight. I wonder

what you make of that. My only takeaway from it is Aldo was clearly feeling the altitude, is the first thing I would say. And the second thing I would say is dude, that was there was a moment in time where Aldo was happy to just win fights right around the

Korean zombie Lamas fight-ish in that territory and i distinctly distinctly remember people asking him media ask him did you think that fight was close because a lot of us did in certain cases and he'd be like no it wasn't close at all like blah blah why didn't you do more i didn't need to it was that guy it was that guy all over again he felt like yeah he's doing and by the way i think I think he won the first round. I think there's a case to give him the second,

but he clearly lost the third, and the second round was close. Like, tough shit, dude. The other guy didn't get a takedown, but he did a lot more work. I don't agree that he's playing the Juan Manuel Marquez card of I've never lost,

like I should have won, I was up 3-0. I think the altitude's a great thing again to bring up. People keep DMing me, BC, how come you guys aren't talking about the altitude? I think there's enough of a pattern here where I think Jose Aldo, who not only was going to have to use most of his gas tank if

he was going to keep Marab off of plan A to wrestle him, I think he threw everything he had, Luke, into keeping his back off the ground and there just wasn't enough left and the altitude hit him and I think it just got to a point where that was going to be the best, most professional performance Aldo can do at this age, this altitude, this weight class, with a guy nonstop trying to take you to the ground. I mean, it was a Herculean effort.

He basically pitched a no-hitter there, but didn't score any runs. You can pitch a no-hitter and lose, by the way, in baseball. I mean, it was one of those situations, Luke, where it's tough because he fought great, but he was missing that sauce that separates regular me from looking and sounding like every other damn talk show, Luke. You know? Yeah, I mean, also, that fight was what we thought it was.

Elevation notwithstanding, because we did miss that, I think, in our pre-fight analysis. We didn't give it enough consideration but uh what i will say is we knew it was going to be like workhorse versus skilled fighter and just you didn't know where it was going to give the altitude played i think a pretty significant role in that contest but you know aldo's look like he was rolling on the ground and like looking up likeief. Yes, there was one 30-27 scorecard, which I thought was indefensible. I don't know how you could give Murab the first. But that was the first time I'd seen Aldo since maybe the Korean Zombie or the Lamas fight,

where he was like, what do you mean? Of course I won every round. How could this be? There was a twinge of that kind of hanging on to me. But here's the thing. round like how could this be there was a there was a twinge of that kind of hanging on to me but um you know here's the thing it's like marab stock it's a nice win okay you beat aldo but his stock didn't go up a ton i feel like or as much as you might imagine with a win over aldo conversely i don't know how much aldo's stock really takes a hit, but the rankings position will be affected.

But in terms of how we think about them, I think you would agree, right? BC, not a whole lot changes here in that equation. It's very gray. The area is very gray here. I don't think Aldo's reputation or even his standing takes a huge hit, except for the obvious fact that three wins in a row had him on a track toward a potential title shot. Wow. Now he's off of that track. It's not impossible to come back it's unlikely to come back he has a big enough name you

never know you get it but i think i don't it's tougher on the marab discussion because i did argue in the post reaction that like holy shit marab got his entire uh job one game plan a taken away from him and he still won the damn fight but yet didn't necessarily solve all these questions we had about can he strike on the elite level because of what the threat of his pressure ended up doing in disarming all you know jose so you know okay maybe maybe i'm naive to some of this thing you're saying on jose where he thought stuff and takedowns and dominating that was enough. Maybe,

I mean, I don't, I don't even know if every, anybody understands what MMA scoring is really about right now, Luke. So there could have been some of that, but with Merab not answering the questions, there's only so much you can take away from that because of the,

of who Aldo still is and how hard it was to do exactly what Davalos Willie did with no takedowns. I mean, that's crazy. Agreed, agreed. The thing is, if you didn't live through Aldo doing that, you would easily forget about it because the more modern version of him, like after he lost to Volkanovski,

you didn't see any of that. Like he kind of took the L for what it was and accepted it. Same with Max. Of course, that was a finish. But that guy, I think we had thought was long departed. Ever since maybe losing to McGregor, we thought that guy was long departed. And again, if they fought at sea level,

would that fight have gone the way that it did? Maybe not, actually. Maybe not. But it was interesting for me. I had forgotten about that guy. I had these flashbacks of that post-fight press conference after beating Korean zombie, which on the record looks like a TKO,

but it was an injury really. And his foot was blown up and everything else. Um, where the guy was like incredulous at the idea that this was even close. People were like, you sure about that, bro? Like I remember Aldo got a lot of bad press around that time for just not

even thinking shit was close. And he had to know after the third, it was going to be dicey. He had to know it was going to be real close and he just seemed like what like how could this happen no do you know how this happened you didn't do enough that's how this i'll tell you who had no problem with elevation in their time luke fabrizio verdum tenzing norge you know what i'm saying all right real real quickly. That Sherpa should have got credit for that, Luke. Probably should. Real quickly,

Usman told TMZ about the trilogy because we heard Dana say that they want to rearrange the calendar to bring the fight over to England. Here's what Usman told TMZ about it. What else makes sense? I mean, look at the division. Of course, you know, talk about who else he could fight. It's absolutely what's going to happen next. I've talked to Dana. We're going to see. I'll let him do his job. We're going to see what else makes sense? I mean, look at the division. Of course, you know, talk about who else he could fight. It's absolutely what's going to happen next. I've talked to Dana. We're going

to see. I'll let him do his job. We're going to see what date makes sense. I'm going to be top of next year. Excuse me. It's going to be top of next year. I was going to try and squeeze one in this year, but I think it'll probably be the top of next year. And I want to go to England. I've been fiending to go to England. I feel like England is my second home now. And England is half Africa. People don't know that, but it's half Africa. So it's time to go over there, entertain my English people. And what better story? You couldn't write this any better. So I'm excited to see what's next, and we will definitely figure something out.

BC, it was interesting. Folks are saying, you know, should they go to England for this? 1,000% they should go to England for this. Yes. But it's related to the question of, like, should they not go to places with altitude? BC, you know this as well as i do and this is just we always talk about fighter pay as like this defining thing about imbalance between promoter and fighter but the reality is if errol spence is in the main event and the promoter says we want to go to salt lake and he says i don't want to go to salt lake

is there any chance whatsoever when errol spence says i don't want to go to Salt Lake that they go. Fuck no, there's not. He has enough say where they have to agree upon this to go to a place of mutual benefit. And of course, it doesn't need to be anywhere else other than Texas because that's where he's from. But the point I'm trying to make is people like, well, should the UFC go to high altitude or not? The way to look at this is if the fighters had a say, you wouldn't even have to worry about these questions. It would make much more sense about where they hold events relative to who is in the main event now that being said given that uh edwards is now the welterweight champion and just knocked off the number one pound for pound guy and is from england slash jamaica does it make sense to go to england a million percent it makes sense to go to england and why is usman embracing it so

much not just because i do think usman is quote unquote a real champion meaning he does have the right intangibles underneath he's not always the most beloved you know we always debate why or whatever but um he i think he bounces back but i think he also looks at this is okay it's obviously not the intended plan i wouldn't have wanted a loss in this scenario but I was kind of dominating the fight and I'm not sure I would be able to you know short of fighting Chimaev next get a chance to have an event financially important event like that so I think he's excited about this potential of now going to England and and because he look we thought maybe like Colby could be the villain, like Chael was for Anderson to see if this could push Kamaru over the top, like commercially. And I don't think he's hated or nobody cares.

I just think that, you know, when you get to the pound for pound level, number one level, you're like, we sort of look, can you be the complete package? And I think this, in a weird way, kind of helps him financially. And in that area, especially you go back and you redeem yourself and win back the title and now if you do it in enemy territory with a legitimate fan base like this could end up being a a plus for for Usman in the long run that's all I'm saying there yeah no doubt about it there's a lot of way and by the way if Edwards is somehow able to retain can you imagine beating Kamaru back to back and then doing it in England and what that might do for that already burgeoning and developing market? Again, we always talk about how insane the UK boxing crowds are.

Boy, if we can get closer to that, we are going to be in business. Edwards winning would be important and dramatic. I want to ask one question, though, which is something I get asked a lot here, which is how long do you think Edwards will hold on to the title? And that's obviously very hard to know because one, hello, you got to beat Usman twice. Good luck with that. That's not easy.

But even if you do, Chemaev is on his way. Sean Brady's on his way. Shavkat Rachmanov is on his way. I don't think whoever holds this title, do I think Usman's going to hold it for much longer even if he gets it back? Probably not. He's fucking 35. Edwards is younger.

I think just 30 or so, but still BC. This is welterweight, dude. You never bet on longevity at high level MMA. It's just so hard to keep. And those hammers are coming, right? In every division, but particularly this one with that next wave of welterweight is coming on. But I think, again, let's put the focus back on Leon and give him his respect here, Luke. Part of when you looked at Leon over the years, I think part of why it was easy to underrate him was like,

it's not just the marketable side of it, but a lot of his offensive and defensive categories, he's like B plus, A minus across the board. Like in a solid way, but not always a spectacular way. But we didn't know until he was at the bottom of the well here that his intangibles, like I just talked about with another fighter, like they're A plus plus. I mean, he hung in there, rallied back, kept his poise, all that stuff. That it does make it hard moving forward to try to handicap.

Like, do I favor Usman on this rematch? Of course. I saw the first fight. You know, the odds are going to be the odds for a reason. But that's a special power. Not only the level of confidence that Edwards walked into, but what that confidence fuels for him, which is, you know, that grit and determination.

Because he is so sound, B plus, A minus, across the board in every category, he doesn't get dominated and handled too often, right? You know what I'm saying? He may not always blow you away, but he's always very responsible and still in the fight, which he proved in such a demonstrative way in this one,

that it's kind of what I thought on a different side what made Charles Oliveira's run at this moment special, is his confidence and his danger is so damn through the roof that he's getting into these crazy fights he's getting hurt but he's still winning them um it that's usually when someone hits their peak of their powers and then they have this lightning bolt of momentum carrying them it doesn't usually last long

but Leon Edwards might be in the midst of that right now so I'm not I'm not ready to take the bill off of him until I see somebody do it is really what i'm saying here luke and i know people say hey nice to hear bc but you've been shitting on this guy for years he woke up my ass luke he woke up my asshole i mean what do you what do you want me to say people okay all right but also it's like you know i said this before okay bc pop quiz ready discounting saturday so you can't say that as your answer. What's your favorite Leon Edwards knockout? The one where he has almost got him. Yeah, good answer, Luke. Okay, this is my point.

It's not like he's you could say Seth Baczynski from like fucking however many years ago. But it's like this is my point. He had nice wins in a long, difficult path to get here. But the kind of shit he showed, it's somewhat new. If people are sleeping on him, it's not because they didn't recognize he was good. It's just he hadn't done anything quite like this to this point.

And so I thought he had some new tricks, which were interesting in the fight. But the reason why we've been somewhat skeptical of him is because there was a new level of something he could show us based on what Kamaru, what he brought out of himself, but what the challenge brought out of him. And so, you know, we are willing to amend it as a

consequence of that. But if we were a little bit short-sighted, it's because we had a reason to be a little bit short-sighted. All right. Very quickly. Hold on, Luke. Quick. Let me just jump in because, you know, any chance I get to point back at that cinematic classic Dune, I'm going to do that, Luke, the new one the new dune you know how they they hit that button and their body had like a shield over them yes that's what momentum is like at the highest level of the ufc when you're on that rocket ship of it doesn't matter the matchup i can't lose at this moment you know what i'm saying connor may have had the biggest we've ever seen at the end of the day luke that may have been the biggest lightning bolt i mean

bigger than the one he had against Mayweather at the weigh-in, to be fair. God, I mean, I could do this all day. That thing was frozen steak he had in his dungarees, boy. Yeah. All right, BC, real quickly, takeaways from BKFC and PFL. I'll do this very quickly.

I'll start with PFL. One, I saw that Rory lost and lost badly to an opponent on short notice, and I saw he retired long overdue. Long overdue. I thought he'd been done for some time, and I saw he retired long overdue. Long overdue. I thought he'd been done for some time, and I think if he sticks around, he's just going to continue to get hurt.

I really believe this, BC. Hard to say with any certainty, but it's just what my hunch is. I think that Lawler fight changed his career irrevocably. He retired. Did they tell you he retired on Instagram? I just said that he retired. I said it was long overdue.

Oh, okay, okay. I wanted to make sure you got that. Now who's not listening huh huh king sorry i was just i was still in the uh you know that after moment after you just you just land the plane luke and you sit back you were sniffing your own farts and too busy to listen to your partner who's been gone for two weeks um so what i was going to say was he retired i think it's long overdue i'm glad to see it he's only going to get hurt you know yes he could beat some guys here he retired. I think it's long overdue. I'm glad to see it. He's only going to get hurt. You know, yes, he could beat some guys here or there, but, you know, it's just not worth it at this point. So I was glad to see that.

Kayla won again. I saw that there was a lot of guys. I saw this before I left that Umulatov, who, for example, Rory was supposed to fight in the heavyweight guy as well. They couldn't get visas in, which was a fucking disaster for the PFL at the last minute. Yeah, that sucks. No one's talking about that. That sucks, Luke. Dude, it what do you if you're the guy in the semis and you can't

make it because of the visa then someone just slots in it's like if you're going to have a matchmaking system based on a tournament schedule and then the financial considerations are built into that systemic order you can't just change and jumble the shit up later like the whole point is everything is based on that yeah you can sub in guys but it fucks over the people in the semis big time so that tells you they got a really good site feed and go there that's what that's no shit no shit for real that's true uh but the bkfc side here's something we should talk about very quickly i saw that mike perry won i saw that it was a split draw. I mean, I saw most of the fight.

And then, of course, I saw the final round. Dude, if you take this fight, and yeah, MVP is not washed. But Pauly, by the time he fought Choo Choo or Artem, he was long past prime by that point. But here's what I want to say. People think the difference between BKFC and boxing is not just the quality of athlete, but the fact that they're not wearing gloves. Yes, that is a relevant consideration,

but I would argue that the constrained space and the rules about what you can do and what you can't do in terms of grabbing opponents and dirty boxing and shit like that, that makes a grittyitty grimy fighter who's willing to take damage but has big power or it can deliver it much more of a threat to a more sophisticated kind of stick and mover or a guy who's got more you know sort of technical boxing skill it's not boxing it's bkfc it is different and mike perry had to grind it out but dude he fucking did it pretty impressive job by him yep you you I'm out you said you said what I've been saying Luke heading into this fight

after this fight um it's I know it's the last stop for for the veterans who who are gristled but still have a punch left in them or still have a chin to take a punch left in them. But, I mean, look, it's creating these folk heroes, Luke, like Bretton Hart. I mean, it's a market that's working for them. I saw Jon Jones posted a picture on IG with, who is it, Taylor Starling. She's another one of these, like, this women's division is wild, Luke. I don't know if they could have the success in the actual discipline. Some of them have tried professional boxing or MMA or whatever, but you put them in that circle.

Fists only, Luke. You see, it takes a different breed. All right? Yeah. Last thing I'd say is the constrained space and the two-minute rounds. It's just. Well, you can't. You can't land them.

You can't move like you used to. It's like, yeah, we do see knockouts. We do see one-punch to it's like yeah we do see knockouts we do see one punch knockouts absolutely we do and but you can't consistently be all or nothing in pursuit of that you're not only hurt your fist but you know you'll get caught off balance and somebody will dirty box you and catch you with something gnarly i mean it's and then you know just the slicing up luke it's i mean i never would have put any money down that pvz and her prime would have ever come near this i mean you could get you can get caught you can get teddy atlas there okay maybe

that's extreme maybe that's you know that was a night that's a little high that's a little harsh all right let's go to topic number two which was the other big fight that i missed on the boxing side of things uh very quickly let's talk about usik joshua too and then we'll talk about tyson fury versus usik and what might happen there you see I was looking at the tweets when I was walking around the streets of Cartagena on vacation and they made it seem to me like Usyk

dominated in the way he did the first time and so I watched it I don't really agree now here's what I thought I thought that up until the 8th round I had maybe given Joshua like 1 or two rounds. Like I was like, okay, this is what they were talking about. But here's my big takeaway.

Two things. One, dude, that was a winnable fight for Joshua. And I did not understand large parts of his strategy. He did his best work by far when he went in the eighth round and that ninth round continuously to the body. He had Usyk backpedaling along the ropes and continuously Joshua would let him off and let him just roam. And I was like, dude, what the fuck are you doing? I just didn't get it. Like those that was clear.

It was clear it was clear significant continuous body work not only slowed him but had him backpedaling had him leaning against the ropes that was a open invitation for joshua to be the big man there and big brother him and he let him off the hook so who's the better boxer well it's usik usik is the better boxer? Well, it's Usyk. Usyk is the better boxer, clearly, between them. But the idea that this wasn't winnable for Joshua, it's like, I don't know what to attribute this to. Was it fight IQ? Was it, I don't know.

I don't know how to say this because he could have won this. Look, there's always been talk that, you know, because there was always pressure on AJ to shake up his team, get rid of the trainer. He finally did it this fight. But to be honest, he also kept one of his other original trainers, so it didn't even look like Robert Garcia had complete control. There's always been sort of talk that

AJ's got a lot of yes guys around him. I've never known that or I've never been in the camp, so it's hard to know if that's true, but I think it was a little bit still underestimating what Usyk's really about, but very much over-evaluating, if you're AJ,

what you're capable of from this standpoint. There were two paths to go in the woods after that first fight. Either all or nothing on be the bigger man, walk him down and knock him out, or try to do what you couldn't do the first time, which was outbox the best boxer in this division and somebody with boxing skills and footwork that we just I mean if Tyson Fury's a unicorn Luke Usyk's a pretty damn interesting

unicorn himself in this division in this in this modern era where you know you don't see Muhammad Ali's and Joe Frazier's and all those guys walk off the bus you know it's a different breed in the super heavyweight era I think AJ thought because he was close in that first fight, it was a clear loss, but it was competitive. I think he thought, let me just add a little bit more. No stones unturned. I'll produce the best boxing performance I ever could produce, and it will be enough to win. It was almost enough to win, meaning split decision in the end, whether you agree with Glenn Feldman or not. I didn't in this case um but i had an 8-4 usic i mean close enough but at the end of the day you picked the wrong strategy and you had no over inflated value of what would have happened if you made whatever

adjustments that weren't there in the past that you needed to make look he made those adjustments this was the best boxing performance you're going to get out of aj that's right and it wasn't good enough because he's fighting a unicorn. And that is ultimately, I think, what fueled him blowing up and acting like he had a couple margaritas. We know the comparison. But, like, it was – I mean, look, what did you think of that? I mean, this was like drunk uncle at the wedding.

Let me just say one more time, though. I mean, come on. I just want to be very clear about something. I did not think – if you just watch him box in the center of the ring with Usyk, it's pretty clear he can get, you know, a shot in here or there, but he can't win. That's not a way to win. Dude, he had Usyk fucking wincing, visibly wincing and covering up, and he let him off the hook.

I could not believe the lack of urgency along the ropes to just keep him there, wrap up with him if you have to but constantly go back to the body go back to the body go back to the body remember stipe in the in the rematch with cormier just left hook left hook left hook to the body over and over i was like motherfucker do that i got a pivotal question to ask you about what you just said you ready yes in that remember how romanticized and how much i got into this dc steep a trilogy and it was dc's chance you know and they lost the belt but it was this chance to you know cement that legacy and it came up short but what i always said was

in that rematch dude you slammed him like three times in the first round why did you abandon the wrestling which allowed you to lose the second fight and in some ways that we all thought he was going to come back wrestling or nothing in the third fight, but he just didn't have it, and we always talk at the end, well, it's stamina, it's why even Usman, these guys get to a certain level where at that age, you can't wrestle at that pace and level anymore, I mean, we never saw Habib old where he couldn't utilize his plan A, right, but you do end up hitting a wall, that's why people evolve and add the striking, just like that's why Michael Jordan would evolve and add the striking just like that's why michael jordan would evolve and add the you know fadeaway jump shot to to attacking the rim so he could become a complete player so in that regard luke um i don't know where i was going but it was going to

land it was going to be big luke it was going to be great it was really i was really painting you know setting it up it was going to be something special i was surprised i thought based on the tweets that i had read that this was, you know, kind of like the first one, maybe a little bit closer. And for a lot of it, it was. Oh, I got it now. I got it now. You ready?

I'm sorry. You got to hit this. It was about the stamina, Luke. At the end of the day, 39-year-old DC couldn't wrestle Stipe for five rounds, right? It's not possible. Is Joshua something that's always been said about him, too bulked and jacked to be able to have 12 round up and down wild

fights? Yeah, he found it against Klitschko, but he had a stamina dump that led to him getting knocked down. So, he was asking something of himself, Luke, that I don't think he realized wasn't possible. So you say, why didn't he turn it on in round 10? You only got so much in a tank that big. realized wasn't possible so you say why didn't he turn it on in round 10 you know i don't you only

got so much in a tank that bit you know a tank that big gas tank that small luke that's the way okay but he was going to the uppercuts to the body at the end of combinations i thought the chris algeri did a great job as a commentator talking about it early on why didn't why did he wait till the eighth round to start going to the body continuously i mean this is my point about the fight iq i don't know if that's the issue. I don't know if there's something else. Yeah, is he too big and bulky? Maybe. No, he was getting countered.

Dude, Usyk, the difference between the first two fights. In the first and second rounds? No, he wasn't. Not very much. Well, let me tell it to you like this. The difference in the two fights to me mostly was that Usyk needed to establish in the first part of the first fight

that he's strong and accurate enough to put AJ in trouble if AJ gets too cocky, too reckless, goes for the push. He didn't have to do that in the second fight because he changed his strategy and only worked on basically off counters because he was countering AJ's jab so quickly and it was starting to puff up his eye that I think he basically took away not only AJ's hunt for the body, but really the effectiveness of his own jab that it became AJ looking to land

one big punch that wasn't there until he tired him out but couldn't get him out of there I I am I am very skeptical that it took until the eighth round to find openings to the body like that repeatedly I think he waited too long to really do it and even when he did it he didn't do enough of it to me it's it was a conscious choice to some degree anyway uh you're asking about the post-fight rant i don't have as negative things to say about other as other people do i saw people killing him for it and to be clear like the shit he said was weird and like kanye interrupting taylor swift type shit like it was bad it was bad that's a good comparison wow that's really good

here's how i felt dude like he broke down at the post-fight press conference you know he had on all black you know he had the black gloves he had the black trunks the black shoes he had almost like a little mike tyson-esque vibe going on dude i think he really wanted this one i know it sounds kind of obvious but like a lot of times boxers like well i made a bunch of money and i kind of tried and yeah he was a little bit better and they can kind of live with it dude it devastated him it devastated him because he went all in agree with that it's because he went all in he went all in he went all in and i gotta tell you he a he was just in a prize fight and again credit to usic rounds kind of 10-ish and then 11 and 12

he was putting it on aj himself so like aj had been hitting the head a little bit certainly in the last quarter of that or last third of that fight and um a little bit and so what i would say is bc you know do i think what he said was graceful or awesome no it was weird and bad but at the same time after i saw him break down it was pretty clear to me that he really told himself something about who he was and what he was going to do that day and it didn't happen and it fucking devastated him and so to me it's like i forgive him i don't i don't really want to beat him up for it i i agree that it's weird but i don't want to beat him up for it well okay if if it had if there was no conflict and this didn't mean as much to usik and ukraine to be fair and i and you know when you when you

watch the interviews leading up to the fight, you suddenly start to realize, oh, shit, like, this is, you know, a monumental moment in terms of impact for these people in the midst of this struggle. And, you know, it was taken right away from Usyk. I mean, he's got tears in his eyes. He's got the flag over his shoulders. And the flag got taken away from him for this, like, condescending. I mean, the fact that at the post-fight press conference, over his shoulders and the flag got taken away from him for this like condescending i mean the

fact that at the post-fight press conference not only was everybody there on the stage almost like trying to reinflate the balloon so obviously to tell aj no no you're not shit you're great and like they were like they were verbally blowing him luke and okay if that was what was needed to to prevent the you know the former champ from going downhill i'm not here to stop that but the journalists who are grabbing the mic and they're like, AJ, just so much class in the post fight. Class? No,

it wasn't class. But dude, serious question. Given everything that had happened. Remember, he was just in a prize fight. There was adrenaline coursing through his veins and everything else. Somebody's got to grab the mic. Get the Apollo Theater hook. Fair come on Eddie Hearn or somebody should have intervened but do you think and I'm going to ask this honestly do you think at that moment he was in

his right mind because I don't I don't now if he later on like in two months does an interview and like defends it well that's a little bit different but for right now it looked to me like he was not in his right mind right and was just like he had so much grief he was trying to process he he didn't know what the fuck he was doing to be quite honest i'm almost i'm almost not blaming him as much because that was a human reaction and we all can go too far in any you know any argument dispute but there was nobody to check that on a live you know global television event that and there was nobody to check that on a live, you know, global television event that, and there was many people that could have checked. I mean, I don't even think if you watch the video close enough, there's actually YouTube breakdowns of the meltdown where people had

brilliant ways of looking at it. So when AJ right afterwards, when he, he was trying to fist, he was offering fist pumps to Usyk's team, which were all younger professional fighters, but he was like punching their fist. And they were like, and this was adding to the growing tension in the ring where Usyk was starting to be like, oh my God, like he's basically shitting on me. You know what I'm saying?

Like there was almost a fight between Usyk's handlers and AJ for that very reason. So given, dude, given all that, dude, give the guys fucking moment. Hey, Forrest Griffin, get out of the cage. All right, come on. It was, it was, it was, it it was poor it was like the moment at a wedding when uncle richie grabs the mic is like oh god i remember when we used to go here's the thing what if uncle richie

just got divorced the wife took the house the wife took his kids half of his net worth he's now living in a van down by the river he had one too many margaritas at the open bar you can right listen you don't you don't allow him to do it you know you got you're right you got to intervene but at the same time yo my man's going through some shit you gotta be he is so you give him you probably give him like one to two either like accidental slurs or like you know calling women broads or something that but like i think a second time you'd be like uncle rich we got like this is a you know yeah yeah that'ss or something. But, like, I think the second time you'd be like, Uncle Rich, we got, like, this is a, you know. Yeah, that's the issue.

Someone should have been to intervene. But I think he was devastated. And, you know, it's hard to be in your right mind when you're like that. It just really is. All right, so that leads us to the question, BC, of what happens next. Now, Tyson Fury, I think, announced just today he'll fight Usyk if the Saudis pay $500 million. Michael Benson, who is a boxing

reporter tweeted that Frank Warren has declared that Tyson Fury versus Usyk for the undisputed WBA BC IBF BO heavyweight titles will be a 50 50 purse split between the two world champions and also said that it will take place wherever it generates the most money and indicated it's almost certainly not going to be in the UK what do you make of this bc or the u.s to be fair not only does tyson fury have can he even get into the u.s no he can't but look this has yeah it comes down to the bottom line ideally this should be in the uk even though that's a potential home field advantage uh for fury because you could put you know 90 000 at wemble Wembley Stadium. This would meet that atmosphere without question. But, I mean, let's recap.

Why was Joshua Usyk too just there in Jeddah? I mean, probably because when Joshua fought Andy Ruiz in their rematch in Saudi Arabia, it was reported that he made like $80 million. That was the, hey, if you come fight here, you personally get 80 million. Look, that's Mayweather McGregor Mayweather Pacquiao level shit. Like that's ridiculous.

That's for the a side just to show the hell up. Okay. So you have to believe that you, they're going to, they're going to find all them dollars here. It's probably going to be there. I love that Tyson's finally saying, you know,

not dancing around it. He wants it. I think that Tyson's finally saying, you know, not dancing around it. He wants it. I think all that stuff he does, back and forth, retirement, all that, is probably at the end of the day more for this negotiation. But if his co-promoter, Frank Warren, is saying publicly, no, we're doing 50-50. Obviously, Tyson's the bigger star, but Usyk's got three of the four belts and now that mythical Ring Magazine championship.

So, lineal championship. You know, you what my point here if if it's that easy that's look that's the reason why team eddie hearn was all over aj after the loss and didn't care about usic because that was the end of usic's contract with matchroom and his own and you know they knew it and everybody so it's probably going to end up on espn pay-per-view if everybody puts it all together. And we need to protect this at all costs. This is the fight we need, the fight we deserve. Both guys undefeated. Both guys already legends in their own way.

I want to ask you quickly here, Luke. You still got to favor Fury for a lot of reasons. So are the two Joshua wins super overly impressive that shows everybody that no matter the matchup, Usyk can find a way? Or is it a little bit of fool's gold because Joshua tried to box twice and Fury can do everything including lean on him if he needs to?

Well, I think just beating Joshua twice, again, over the course of 24 rounds, dude, that's very difficult to do. Up a weight class. That's very difficult to do. And to not get screwed on the cards and and doing that right that's right that's right pretty pretty fucking impressive right however i think fury is a different animal i think fury thinks on his feet i think they're

going to have a great game plan and i think that usic will make it no doubt about it competitive this is not going to be a guy that's going to be easy to put away either. But I think the buck stops at Fury. I think Fury is not just, you know, all this crazy sales guy and, you know, this carnival show and everything else and these huge dimensions and everything. But, dude, he's a thinking man's fighter. He really is.

Oh, and he'll get off the canvas, Luke. He has no problem. And the heart he showed in the third wilder fight we have to remember that right holy shit we have to again i just go back to round eight you watch round eight of this second joshua and usic fight and you're like dude there's ways for a big heavyweight to put it on usic we just didn't see enough of it fury is gonna find him i feel like fury's gonna and and fury's not afraid to get gnarly whether that's's cheating, whether that's leaning, brawling, whether whatever. That's the other part, too. It's like, dude, Joshua's always kind of a little bit afraid of contact.

You know? Fucking Tyson Fury is not. Tyson Fury has fought the biggest puncher of this generation three fucking times, you know? It was always in Tyson Fury, meaning to have the heart to do like getting up off the canvas in round 12 of the first Wilder fight.

It was always in him, but I think that Otto Wallin fight he had after that first Wilder fight where the eyes busted open, the fight could have been stopped at any round. I think really, Luke, that's where he learned how to use the big man style and really, you know,

I mean, he completely did what you're supposed to do when you're hurt and you're in danger there. And he used all of his advantages. You do that against Usyk. It's going to change the equation, but I want to close by giving Usyk his ups. Did you notice that after round eight and nine, which looked disastrous, Usyk looked ready to be, to be stopped. Really? He took that right cross from Joshua. Luke, that would have folded anybody. Did you see that right, right hand that Joshua hit in round 10? And Usyk just took it and came right back and rallied.

That's like he's a real one. He's a real one, Luke. Yeah, he's tough as shit. There's no denying it. I just feel like Fury, he's something special. He's something special. Yeah. All right, let's talk about this.

Topic number three, we have a shit ton of fight announcements. he's something special he's something special yeah uh all right let's talk about this topic number three we have a shit ton of fight announcements let's go through them here very quickly bc we'll start with this one and i saw this and i was like damn they're doing wonder boy dirty shop caught rock monov versus stephen thompson there's a timetable not set but likely before the end of the year. Holy shit. Now listen. Yeah.

Stephen Thompson, he can surprise people, even in this advanced age that he has. But fucking giving him to Rachmaninoff, it just feels like they're setting him up for an execution. That is Thompson. But yeah, it's also the right fight to make. Seriously. It really is. Timing-wise, the right opponent at the right time. You know, different style from the most recent ones, veteran, former title contender,

all that can still fill up a marquee and help give a little bit of a rub. But yes, that's a lot to ask of a guy at this age. Damn. But Luke, it could be the right test. Could really be. What if Shavkat's got to think

and be really violent and precise, but also really think, Luke? Yeah, he will. He'll have to think and be really violent and precise, but also really think, Luke. Yeah, he will. He'll have to think his way through, but he tends to do that pretty easily. This is an interesting one. Tony Ferguson wants to go back to welterweight and take on the Leech.

Or I want to say back to welterweight. I think he had fought there previously, but Li Zheng Lang confirmed for UFC 279 September 10th. I got to tell you. Wasn't he a welterweight tough champion, Luke? Yes, he had previously fought at welterweight. My point is, I got to say, he went to Jackson's. He went up a weight class, which at this point in his age

is probably not actually a pretty good idea. And Li Zhenglang, very, very tough, very difficult fight. But it seems like like at least in theory winnable for ferguson i gotta say i kind of like this a little bit what do you think yeah so i don't like it but i think tony has deserved a shot a chance to have this opportunity a chance to carve out one more run on your own terms um i'm suspect of it just on what I've seen, and you know, this opponent could do damage on him, Luke,

if it goes bad. So it is an interesting fight from the standpoint that we really don't know if it'll go bad and maybe really bad, or if this is sort of the right matchup that an old sort of legend, and that's what Tony is. The fans treat him like he is. He's deserved it. Again, he's capable of winning it yes

but oh god Luke I just I know hit me in the feels dude I didn't expect I didn't realize I love Tony that much it's hitting me in the feels to watch the wheels just fall off one by one and again there's not matchmaking that can't do him an honor

if they want to do that this is a tough ass fight luke this is a real hard fight he's got uh it certainly is all right andre feely taking on bill algio by the way these are going to go in chronological order so first one i mentioned uh the tony ferguson fight september 10th uh bill algio and andre feely of course a featherweight contest algio coming off that win over Herbert Burns. This will be September 17th, UFC Vegas 60. Fun fight. I like it. Al Geo's due for a step up in competition. And this is a good test. And Feely keeps teasing that he's ready to make that real prime run of his maturation, Luke.

He keeps teasing it. How about this one? He's teasing you. He is. He is certainly teasing me uh Bo Nickel taking on Donovan Beard this will be Dana White's contender series week 10 which will be September 27th for folks who may not know Donovan Beard he just won I'm not sure if he won or defended it but he is the existing CFFC welterweight uh excuse me yes middleweight champion he has a seven and one record I actually like this fight a lot because folks are like I'll just send him to welterweight, excuse me, middleweight champion. He has a 7-1 record.

I actually like this fight a lot because folks are like, oh, just send him to the UFC. And yes, we all really agree he can beat Bo Nickel, UFC-level competition, and maybe he'll just run through this guy like a freight train too. It's certainly possible. But a guy who's 7-1, holds a title on the regional scene, okay, now we are going to get a much clearer sense of exactly

where his abilities lie this fight may go to the second or third round we may see a little bit more of Bo Nichols game or we may not either way this is the first test in his career that will give us at least some kind of indication about where he's at yeah it's aggressive but it's not dangerously aggressive yet because you know there's some criticism of yeah could he already be there right now did he already show you enough yeah combined he did but why rush you know you like this they have made mistakes in the past with certain guys rushing so this is a way of having your own development system it's like on the boxing side people will forever credit top rank for being the best matchmakers they just know how to get a guy from point

A to point B and have him experience what he needs to experience to make sure he's ready for it. As much as we always praise the matchmaking that's like video game level matchmaking, like high on a couch who are the two most exciting guys, let's match them together. We all love that, right?

We get a lot of that. This is also kind of necessary, and I think, you know, the cameras aren't normally this zoomed in on this part of a fighter's career, even a fighter who seemed destined for big things, but we can

still watch that growth and make it must-see, and it has been, and I think it will be. Bo looks like a pretty cool dude, Luke, okay? I don't know if that fights but uh i think i think if we had him on the couch one day i think we'd all fall in together all right that's weird uh jairzinho rosenstreich is our rosenstruck will take on chris dawkus let's be ufc vegas 61 october 1st heavyweight contest chris dawkus i think looking for some rebound opportunities. I think Rosenstruck, same kind of way.

It just seems to me if I'm Dawkus, I might want to consider wrestling a little bit here. I don't know. I was going to say, it's like the perfect loser's bracket TV fight. Somebody's going to get knocked out. Both need it really bad, but you do wonder if this is the point where Dawkus adds on, makes a pivot. This is a

perfect fight for that i mean on the flip side luke rosen strikes stock not not all that high right now no i mean this is this has maker not is this a make or break fight i mean we love to add that on top we like to just put that candle right on top of the cupcake luke is i don't know if it's that but i'll tell you for chris dawkus it would be the biggest name on his record right for sure that um if he can get the win uh how about this one dude can you believe it cm punk is calling But I'll tell you, for Chris Dawkus, it would be the biggest name on his record. Right? For sure that. If he can get the win. How about this one? Dude, can you believe it?

CM Punk is calling fights, which is a good gig, by the way, I think, for CFFC. But Mike Jackson, the MMA media guy, still in the UFC. He's going to take on Pete Rodriguez. This will be UFC Vegas 62, October 15th. God bless Mike Jackson, boy. He has had a much longer UFC run than I thought was going to happen, so good for him. I mean, it's hard because he's acted like a peacock in the

cage, and that really, really pissed off Dana, but it's like, you know, do I think he's a clown for that? I mean, some of the antics kind of made you feel cringy. But he's also proving that not only does he have a chance to redeem his sort of reputation on how we've known him up to this point,

you keep getting chances and come back, it shows you're a survivor and a fighter, and that takes some navigation too. A lot of guys would have gone full-time videographer after that moment, Luke, but he's going to come back and fight it out, so I'm going to be interested. I want to see this.

I got barbecue with him in Texas. What fight was that? I can't remember. And he's a good dude. He's a funny guy. All right. Misha Surkinov taking on Alonzo Mennefield, UFC Vegas 62. It's the same card, October 15th.

Here's why that's relevant. Remember, Surkinov jumped down to 185 to see what he could do there. It didn't go all that great. So Mennefield is a light heavyweight. So I'm guessing Surkinov is now going down to 185 to see what he could do there. It didn't go all that great. So, Mennefield is a light heavyweight, so I'm guessing Serkunov is now going back to 205. And I kind of agree with that. It's like, I don't know really what he got from the 185 experience. It didn't make him faster.

I mean, maybe he was a little bit stronger, but it didn't change the way in which he interacted with his opponents in any kind of observable way. So, why not just go back with the less weight cut? Mennefield's a tough guy to beat you know i think it's winnable in either direction here so i mean what'd he get he got dehydration and probably tighter abs luke from that experience but i think he'll be better up you know it's it's not you gotta you gotta do something here let's make that move let's go for it there's there's still some life in there look

okay same card at i think bantamweight haweight. Rafael Asensio taking on Victor Henry. Asensio in desperate need, I think, of a win at this point. Yeah. I mean, he's just one of those hammers that never got the acclaim, never had his RDA moment to go from behind the scenes. The real fans love him. But he's been in big fights, Luke, and he's always shown up. He certainly has.

Now we move to the next one, UFC Fight Night on October 29th. The Olympian is back, Mark O. Madsen. No, he's not Irish. O is the beginning initial of his middle name. Taking on Drakkar Close. Dude, that should be a fun action fight for as long as it lasts. I love the matchmaking here. Yeah, I'll accept this.

Let's do it. How about this one? Hanato Moikano taking on Brad Riddell, UFC 281. Yes, fucking please. How great is this one, BC? Yeah, that's like when you go to your favorite band's concert and then they're doing a Zeppelin cover and you're like, really?

Okay, yeah. Let's do it. Moicano back at 155. Riddell in need of a win quite badly. This is going to be a fun one. These were all going to be from UFC 281. Look, I once asked you your favorite Led Zeppelin album, and you could not produce an answer,

and it did make me question whether we were really meant to be coexisting. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. It's the one with all the good songs. Karolina Kovulkevich taking on Silvana Gomez Juarez.

This will be, again, UFC 281. You know, I got to tell you, this should be a winnable fight for Kovalevich. I know Gomez Juarez had a nice win in her last fight, the knockout, but I've not been overly blown away by the Argentine's ability. Kovalevich had a nice rebound. Obviously, we saw this is an interesting one for her. Yeah, for sure and you know that rebound was so emotional that when anyone gets that at that age in that moment

you have to like you know was that the moment for them just to get back and prove that or is this the beginning of something she's certainly going to have to come out and prove that because she was so flat during that losing streak that it just something seemed wrong you know it seemed it was weird to see how quickly she fell off let's give her a chance to climb back this like you said could

could be a winnable fight now this it's sad seeing my strawweight heroes uh go away luke okay uh same card matt frivola taking on atman azaitar frivola is guy who's got like a hell of an engine himself kind of been up and down in the octagon against atman azatar who i think was previously cut for that weird balcony incident or whatever the fuck um but he's back he's a hammer uh he's certainly got big power we'll see how much happens there i don't know if you have any thoughts about it uh no does frivola use the nickname rock and rola like anthony crolla the boxer did isn't he steam ro't he Steam Rolla? Something like that? Okay. I mean, that's not that bad.

That's pretty okay. Now, this one is interesting. How about this one? Dan Hooker taking on the Peruvian prince, or Prince of Peru, whichever name he has. Claudio Poyges, again, UFC 281. What weight, Luke? Is this lightweight now?

Yes, back at lightweight. Yes. Dude, that's a hell of a fight. I love this in both directions. And, like, Hooker's a hell of a fight i love this in both directions and like hooker's in need of a win but dude old claudio can fight his ass off he is not to be fooled with by the way obviously but fully bilingual can do media in english he might be poised for stardom that's one to keep your eye on this kid yeah yeah dude i it's this dude hooker only fights great fights. He only fights great fighters in great fights.

I wish he would have had more wins, Luke, during some of those, but somebody's got to take the L, Luke. He just keeps coming back, looking to find that spark, and you want to see him get there. You want to see him find that. But I'll say this in his defense this time. One, full camp, and number two,

the right weight class. So we're in the right weight class for him, and he this time. One, full camp. And number two, the right weight class. Right? So we're in the right weight class for him, and he's going to get a full camp. He's not fighting a top 10 guy. Let's see what he can do. Let's see what he can do. Not everyone's willing to give money to an old hooker, Luke,

but I still pay to watch him fight, you know? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Boop. Carla Esparza. This is probably going to be your co-main event, who's your existing champion at strawweight, taking on Zhong Wai Li. BC, do you like this title fight? Do you like this title fight being on the card?

I think for me the answer is mostly yes in both directions. Yeah, I love it. I love this fight. And this division so rarely ever disappoints, and boy did that Rose Carla rematch do that and made sort of like who's the real champ who's the best fighter at the moment it's kind of hard to tell I do think if anybody Zhang Weili has been coming on and and I mean she seemed to have found whatever she was looking for after the high kick loss to Rose even though she lost the rematch she just looked she

looked she looked really focused she looked really confident uh the game plan changes have been good and then obviously she she made quick work of juana and in outrageously spectacular fashion so this i mean as the co-main to adesanya and potato give me that luke new york city let's let's go bro this is good. This is good. I mean, Whaley may make a run here, Luke. You know what I'm saying? I mean, you can't count Rose out. Rose flip-flops. You can't count her out.

Mackenzie Dern's coming on. There's some fighters here. Always. Always. And we'll see. Tatiana Suarez, she's still out there rehabbing and getting ready and everything. She seems like she's getting pretty close to a return, so we'll see. Yeah.

Okay, we move away from UFC 281. Now we're November 19th which could be the weekend we don't know yet but again one of the rumored weekends that could potentially be the Spence versus Crawford fight they end up making it Vanessa Dimopoulos who we saw out in Vegas our last time out taking on Maria Oliveira Vanessa Dimopoulos showing a little bit of life that in ways I wasn't sure that we were going to see, but good for her. She's done it. And she makes fun fights, Luke. And sometimes she finds...

gets really close to losing before she finds a way to win, and that certainly makes her really... I mean, she's factory MMA approved if you're looking for that answer, Luke, okay? If we were a real managerial team or promotion, we'd be... I mean, she makes fun fights.

Let's keep going. Let's do it. All right right uh bob lawler robbie lawler just taking on i mean we talk about like you know rda's resume and jeremy stevens's resume and it's up and it's down but it's just nothing but hammers how about fucking robbie lawler now taking on santiago ponsonibio dude robbie lawler i mean for folks who don't realize this robbie lawler knocked out tiki gosin who has been a manager for fighters for like over a decade this motherfucker is so old he has knocked out fighters turned managers I don't want to get fearful of you know the amount of damage but he came up in the Bettendorf militant every every practice session is a full-on fight like that he came up old school I mean he fought evan tanner

i mean and shit like that like it's unbelievable that he's still around but i do worry about the damage anyway it will continue ufc 282 december 10th god bless him love the fight that's good it's gonna be a war it's gonna be a war that's right it's gonna be fucking insane wow uh and then last but not least you know this is you mentioned do or die I do think it might be do or die for Duran Wynn. I like Duran a lot, but after that last performance against Phil Hawes, seems like the writing is going to be in the wall. If you want to stick around, you've got to win this one. He's hungry.

I mean, he's tough as shit, but I don't know, Luke. December 17th for this one, Marquez versus Wynn. Former Golden Boy MMA star, Luke. That's right, That's right. Along with Tom Lawler. All right. That's it for our topics here. I want to do the World MMA Awards read.

I don't see one here, but let's just remind folks. We are up and nominated again for Best MMA Programming. Please be so kind as to vote for us. You have no idea how transformative it would be for us. It would be huge, huge, huge, huge. I'm told that I've been giving the wrong info, Luke. I think we are at the final round am i right mikey mikey put me in my place is this the one where no no this is it there's no final

round like we're in the final round this is there's the nominees there's five nominees i think total and we're in it and that's it like there's no second round to this shit you got to vote now maybe i'm thinking of the other podcast award that we're in the final round and now it just comes down to like the select viewers to vote yeah maybe it's not maybe this is open season right now on us yeah okay i'm glad this is the one we went to vegas for last time dude this is the same one and i'm ready i'm ready to win it a second time if our people would be so kind but it's up to them luke okay i can't i can't make you do anything if you're watching the show on youtube there's a qr code on the screen just put your phone up to it and go vote. If you're listening on the podcast, worldmmawards.com

slash nominees. worldmmawards.com slash nominees. Please go vote for us. It would be huge, huge, huge. If you at all like the show and you want to support us and you haven't bought merch because you got to keep your money where it is, I get it. Here's a very simple way for you

to help us that doesn't cost you a dime. Please help us. It'd be you a dime please help us it'd be great all right bc let's try this before we get to fan subs the producers wanted us to do something like our top favorite our five favorite things so let's fill time let's fill time and have fun you know let's do it let's fill some time have some fun so they asked us to do our top five favorite strikers to watch. Now, let's be clear about this. This is not five best all time. This is not our five best even right now.

Listen to the way we are describing it. These are our top five favorite, just who we like for the reasons that we like them. Now, BC, a couple questions for you one do you want to go for an order like five five four four three three two okay exactly okay here's what i'm going to say about mine bc i pick these yes based on a little bit of ability obviously but i want to find fighters who like you know predominantly do their best work in this field as opposed to like ground and pound artists and here's my way of which i selected them which ones bring me the most joy which ones when i see their fights come up i get the spidey sense

same thing i did luke same thing i did by the way okay and i think this is the debut of a new segment we have called cinco de mk is that is that that's not a that's not uh that's not i didn't only if you did it would be cinco de mk that's how it would be okay i don't want to be disrespectful to anybody's peoples luke but cinco de mk is going to be a killer segment moving forward i'm telling you cinco de mk uh okay so how about this you go first i'll go second who is your top five number five favorite striker to watch bc yeah long time watching her first time screaming about it how about a legend to me and sort of my favorite fighters he's been with bellator a long time and he's been knocking fools the hell out andre spartan koreshkov i believe multiple time bellator

welterweight champion had injuries in recent years has only consistently lost to the very best but why do i enjoy watching him fight so much because he is savage as shit and it took a long time for him to round out his game in his you know original fights watch the title loss to ben askren he was raw in many categories but he throws everything into every strike and he's technical enough that he's not some caveman but it is like i don't know if if I feel like I'm watching a street fight sometimes when he explodes. When he lands the type of shots that he patiently sets up, these shots end fights, and he's tough as nails,

and he's been in some very good fights that I'm not even sure everyone's seen against some very good names. If Spartan's going to be back around, that's how it used to be as a fan and journalist for me oh koreshkov's on this shit i'm watching it i was there when he won back the title at the mohegan sun and it and it was a uh it was a fun moment there was that benson henderson i'm thinking of that fight yeah he beat the shit out of him um you know this is not technical you know city kickboxing here lu, but this is a guy who smashes. He makes fun fights, and I've always had a specific love for how he sets up these fight-ending smashes.

He's a smart dude, but he leans heavily into the violent side of him to get the job done. Yeah, I like that pick. That's a good one. For me, though, I'm going to go a bit of a different direction. For me, I'm going to go for my number five pick. I'm going to go a bit of a different direction. For me, I'm going to go for my number five pick. I'm going to go Raphael Fazeev. He is a guy that when I see his name come up in matchmaking, I get that Spidey sense that this is the one to watch.

I like his acrobatic defense where he does the lean back, the matrix type stuff. That's obviously fun and flashy. But BC, the reason why I like him is because he's got a hard nose striking style, right? He can fight you at kickboxing range and he's devastating there, but dude, he can be hit a little bit. He'll fight in boxing range and mix it up,

but he's devastating there too. Obviously with the win over RDA and the way that he got it, he is poised for something special. And he, he, he, he's the best of both worlds. He's got the technical pedigree when he needs it.

And he's got the hard nosed attitude when it's it, and he's got the hard-nosed attitude when it's time to deliver. Plus, at this stage in his career anyway, he likes to entertain, it seems like, a little bit. He likes to give something back to the fans. So for me, I'm always going to side with people that got that slickness. That's, to me, the most important thing. But you sprinkle on top the acrobatic matrix shit, as well as just the biting down on the mouthpiece at times. He's a fun guy. He's a fun, talented striker to watch. He's my number five pick. He's one of those guys where he's so explosive that I'm not really sure how great he can be. Like he's going to be in big fights, I'm sure. But I'm convinced that he can do anything at

any time. He's one of those guys, like prime Anthony Pettis, right? Can do anything at any time and this fight could be over. I get that feeling watching him, so I like that pick, Luke. All right, who's your number four? All right, my number four, look, this is like a hardcore pick. It might surprise you, but how about some love for D-Rod, Daniel Rodriguez, Luke? You know this guy. You know this guy, right?

He's great. I like him. He happens to be pretty damn good and is climbing on a nice run at the moment. He must be injured or something. He's been out for for a while but when i see him on the card i it is must see tv so why first of all does he have a badass side to him absolutely he could take a big punch sometimes he takes too many big punches but then rallies back and it's not that though necessarily it's not even the sort of like nate dia-y swagger that he carries, but it is the whole package. He's got an aggressive tattoo set,

and he carries himself while still being a very interesting and tough-to-figure-out striker in almost a street fight schoolyard swagger to him. I mean, you can confuse it with Stockton there, Luke, but he's got his own rhythm to it. And when he gets in the midst of a fight, which he often pretty much is, he goes for it. The craft that he shows from a swagger stance of his hands off and dropped, it always surprises me. He has an ability to get off shots at very good angles and make them heavy and make them count.

I love his combinations. I love when he's in a fight and he's going downhill and he knows he's taking the momentum and the control. His ability to pick guys apart, it doesn't look like he's going to have that craft, but he also adds some very interesting footwork combination, you know, natural boxing entrances and exits that I think there's a lot more to his game than people realize when you see the blood and guts

and the tattoo and I mean, he's willing. He's willing to make those fights, but there's something intriguing about his southpaw boxing style and how he's adapted to the game without compromising from that swagger that makes him fun to watch that he's good. He may win some fights that you don't think, Luke. He can fight, this guy. He's a problem solver.

You know, that's what you want out of these guys. You want guys to take some risks, no doubt about it. But you want them to, like, you know, figure things you want out of these guys you want guys to take some risks no doubt about it but you want them to like you know uh figure things out excuse me um i would say that rodriguez does that and more like people look at him with the tattoos and they think oh brawler well that's not really fair is it he's a guy yeah he'll mix it up with you okay it's not like he's afraid of contact but to me if you just you just, you, this is a perfect case of don't judge a book by its cover, depending on your, you know what I mean? I'm not against the tattoos, but I know a lot of people kind of see that and think you

must be one kind of fighter. It's not really fair with Daniel Rodriguez. He can do a lot. He can do a lot. I like him and he's fun and, uh, he gets shit done. He figures opponents out and then really kind of is malicious in a good way. He's so good technically that it's almost like you want to tell him to dial down the edge, but the edge is what allows him

to take chances and win big fights. I mean, he's fun in that way. All right, for number four for me, now he's had some troubles, although he's got a big fight coming up against Song Yedong. I'm going to go Corey Sandhagen. I love watching Corey Sandhagen go at it. He's got his own style, man. He's switching stances all different kinds of ways.

He's hitting you from angles, and it's this punch, and he's exiting, and it's back at this angle. And I still think he hasn't fully figured out how he wants to fight or fully apply it. And again, you've seen him come up short against TJ Dillashaw, against Jan, against other guys. But in terms of like the different fun ways the new wave so to speak especially in that bantamweight division but more generally

among the next vanguard of strikers who do I put at that next vanguard of strikers well there's several guys but one of them would be Corey Sandhagen Corey Sandhagen goes out there and does really interesting constant motion constant trickery constant deception and when he's you know in his element and doing the things that he wants to do he's a joy to watch i think we'll have to see about the other parts of his game has he got as well-rounded as he needs to be does he consistently apply it as much as he needs to all the things that have kind of held him back. But I love watching this guy strike. And I think, as I mentioned, part of that future, you see leading the way in which MMA striking is headed.

Very well said. To be honest, him and Cheyenne Valismas just barely missed the cut of my top five, Luke. And I love the innovation, the thought process behind it, how dangerous he's been able to land single strikes, which certainly allows him more control of the it, how dangerous he's been able to land single strikes, which certainly allows him more control of the terms. And once he's got you in his web, he is fun to watch him pick guys apart with shots that they wouldn't necessarily expect in that moment.

It's tough to see him at the current run right now because you know how much he puts into these big fights and how close he's gotten to have, almost like we were talking about Dan Hooker, a fighter that is of that ilk, but in the biggest moments have had more losses than wins of late. But I think there's still time for this guy to put it all together. It's the right fight at the right time, the right moment.

He's been close to delivering those moments, Luke, and it's the striking that's so fun. I mean, yeah, he's a wizard on the ground, too, and can get fights from on the feet to the ground in no time, but it's the way he sets up those creative strikes.'s exotic luke i like it all right it certainly is all right who's your third pick uh a classic here and it's hard not to have this guy because i like guys that jump through the screen that they can finish a fight any time and that is the brazilian legend yes edson barbosa who has such a variety of just vicious knockout performances

of different varieties of ultimate Terry Adam, you know, spinning spectacular, but just also other gritty ones. And on the flip side, because he has such a badass and in two divisions has always matched himself as difficult as possible. He has spectacular losses, but he has the respect and reputation. He didn't just become this highlight reel guy. He's as gritty and tough. I mean, the beating he took against Habib to prove that he could,

he wins a lot of points in those categories. But if you're asking me outside of the moments he's created and the fact that he brings an edge to watching a fight, knowing that it could go you know wild at any time is for a guy that violent in the way the results are there's a a almost jazz like smoothness to how he enters into the spinning back kicks and and the other you know creative setups and he's a threat with his hands too but it's almost like i was just watching on the showtime app, good plug for your 30 days free at Showtime.com, the

NYC Point Gods documentary on New York City Point Guards. And you know, they rightfully really put up Mark Jackson, Rod Strickland, Kenny Anderson for not only being great and representatives of the city, but with that swagger where you watch the old Rod Strickland highlights and Rafer Alston too,

skip to my Lou. And it's like they're dancing through it. Dude, Barbosa is as beautiful to watch. Like baseball, Darryl Strawberry's swing. We used to always say, I mean, it's just so beautiful. Ken Griffey Jr. is so beautiful to watch. Edson's the best example of being like as violent and devastating a dream fighter for a fan to watch. And then also being graceful.

And I told you the story, Luke, I'll say it again, of being at ATT in South Florida for interviews with CBS. Silent and devastating. A dream fighter for a fan to watch. And then also being graceful. And I told you the story, Luke, I'll say it again, of being at ATT in South Florida for interviews with CBS and just hearing the most outrageously loud and obnoxious sound of thwack, thwack. I mean, it was so damn loud you thought they were beating animals outside. And no, it's Edson Barbosa lightly warming up and doing spin kicks against the pads and i know that any pro fighter if you stood next to him i did that you'd get a little intimidated holy shit was like watching an alien just you know just sprout six arms luke i mean this guy i love him i love that man and i mean he's got some he's got some of the best highlight reel finishes literally in ufc history like for example that that knee the vertical knee he hit on uh benil dariush one shot put him out how about the leg kicks on hafaello tractor olivana

how about the the beat down of uh was it mike lulo or whoever the fuck he fought in his in his promotional debut like terry edam where he turned him into a mannequin. I mean, dude, he has some of the most incredible finishes any UFC fighter will ever have. And, dude, eventually he got beat on the feet a little bit, but for the vast majority of his losses, it's because dudes were trying to take him down consistently because they didn't want any fucking part of that dynamite, and who could blame them, you know?

And this is about favorite strikers, and he could be in anyone's top five, but he's also got a backbone on him that I just always, you're going to respect that to the end, Luke. You're just going to, I mean, damn, he's willing. Luke, he's always willing. His resume, the RDA, the Stephenses, the Bob Lawlers. Check out Barbosa's resume.

There ain't a fucking ounce of fat on it, man. I mean, just nothing but hammers the whole way through. All right, for my number three, BC, it's going to be a pretty easy one. We interviewed him. I interviewed him on the show here before the break of a couple months before. Adrian Yanez. I want to see how they put up the graphic too, by the way.

Let's see how they did it. Okay, I'm going to ask a favor. I know it wasn't intentional, but I want to ask the graphics people a favor going forward. You got to put a squiggle over the end. It's an Enyay, and he has, you know, anglicized his name to accommodate everyone else. Let's make sure we accommodate him and get the E over that is adrian yanez but bc how do you not like this kid i mean

it's it's two reasons why i like him one i like that he has this sort of boxing centered game and when i interviewed him you know it talked to him about boxing he loves it and he's incorporating all these different elements and he's trying and he's incorporating all these different elements, and he's trying, and he's theorizing, and it's working, and his understanding of the game, given some of those precepts, is really remarkable. So I'm excited about what he's already shown, which is dramatic, and not who can take boxing sensibilities, bring it to an MMA game, build out more than just that, obviously, as he has, and then still be young enough to be like, wow, what's he going to look like in two, three years when he's really entering his prime? I think he's going to be as exciting as he is.

I think he's going to be even more exciting. I love, love watching him. And if you haven't seen the interview, if you like the kind of interviews where fighters allow you to pick their brains and are candid about the things that they see in talk strategy and talk shop, you've got to listen to this kid. He's phenomenal. My pick, Adrian Yanez.

Great summation, Luke, of the next generation that's growing. It's like, you always ask that good question about boxing, seeing more attempts at switch hitting of both stances and doing it in a flow almost than ever before. It's like this next generation in MMA are starting to just, kind of like when after GSP, suddenly everyone's

training from day one to be a complete mixed martial artist. You're watching it happen, but he's also kind of a badass Luke, and he watches morning combat so adrian yanez with the creativity his love of the box like myself luke right and boxing um i gotta like this guy all right who's your second pick uh my number two luke it may not surprise you because she's my favorite fighter to watch uh consistently but how about Rosnama Yunus and how about her striking game cerebrally? And obviously, you know, this is one of the prime reasons why Trevor Whitman has deserved so much recognition, coach of the year last year. And I

know, you know, this is how the game works. It just so happens that his three big fighters all lost in title fights and it wasn't, you necessarily impressive or inspiring and that's the truth but that happens in this game what rose has done with trevor you know from obviously her debut with tough uh with the ufc to losing the inaugural title fight um she's it's it's beautiful to watch you know talk about watching barbosa where it's so violent but it's also so like there's so much um you know elegance to it Rose is like that to a certain degree only she also can end the fight at any time with one strike and you think of her in the first you want to fight just surprising you with setting up that hook and you think certainly of the head kick against Wei Li I mean at the absolute highest level and the most tense and

poised moment she can go from cerebral and a technician to an assassin. And that's why it's so fun because she was more of a submission threat when she first came on as this next Ronda Rousey in some degree as the marketing push was. And do I love her intangibles and her story and how she lives it all public on her sleeve? Yeah, of course. That's what makes her so must-see, but I think it's fueled by this evolution as a striker where I don't think a lot of people, male or female, have a brain like that, and that's why Trevor seemed to be the perfect coach at the perfect time and what they built together.

I think on the women's side, that's helped evolve striking in a huge way, her coming to prominence in the work they've done together because she's as good as it gets, Luke, on any given night. There's no question about it. So what do you make of what went wrong against Carla? Hearing that extended interview with Pat Barry afterwards,

I believe it was with Ariel, and I think it's sort of, it's kind of been like this recurring theme where Rose is very honest about her mental health journey. And like I said, where's everything on her sleeve and, you know, lost in a state as ridiculous,

you know, crazy away against Andrade, her title, and then found a way to come back and keeps having these big moments. I don't think it's that old narrative of uncomfortability with the belt, but I think as Pat talked about, there was a specific thing that Rose was looking to do to neutralize Carla. And she did that and maybe not unlike what we were talking about with Aldo against Murab but different there was almost a contentment with that and not enough onus to go for it and

she's had some of the most fun career to watch because it's been so up and down and you can relate to it so much but there's a lot of like i mean we're at this level and then we're here but then we're back at that level and i think that's sort of who she is and pat's talking about it just so happens that there's this system if you look over her wins and losses of order of a certain amount of wins and then a loss and um it's weird that it's that consistent up and down but damn when she's the very best she is the fucking very best pat's right and a lot of that is how she's evolved as a striker but she gave away that fight and um you know we'll probably see her rally back and win back the belt knowing her luke you know and it's going to be fun to watch i mean what can you speak to to her striking evolution it's been brilliant

it's been super brilliant the footwork is a big one the footwork and the flow and the positioning was good. You know, she had an off performance in the last one, which tends to happen at times. I mean, no one can be on every time. You know, I think in a third fight, if they have another one, it wouldn't look that way. But in general, I think her body of work and what it's shown is what's,

you know, how devastating she can be and how, to your point, it is almost like a dance in there with the way she's balanced and shifting and moving uh it's frankly it's kind of like just beautiful to watch just the movement itself but but the fact that it's so devastating usually is a a testament to um you know just the level of skill that she occupies. I remember the first round of the first Andrade fight. She looked like a million dollars. Remember that? Yeah, she really did.

All right. So my number two, if I may here, BC, I don't know how people exactly view him in totality. He is more than this, but we're talking about like as a striker, how do we view him? I'm going to go number two, Alexander Volkanovsky. I am.

I am so blown away by what he has done and changed the game. He beat Max Holloway three times basically just striking with him. And I know some of those are controversial, but the last one was not. And it was really just that the whole time. The way in which he talked to me about how he scrambles people's brains, I think this is beyond next level. And I don't think a lot of folks still understand or fully appreciate the level that he's on. They're waiting for some kind of devastating knockout. But the reality is, is he can take

his style, as he's mentioned, apply it across a wide spectrum of opponents. That's the first thing. And then more than that, he's got world-class opponents profoundly confused about whether he's coming or going, high or low, left or right, exiting or entering. And it is a magisterial thing to watch. I get so excited to watch him compete because I learn new things. I get to see the future of the fight game in the present. That's a big thing that you'll

hear me repeat with a lot of these choices. And Volkanovski to me is at the very, very, very front of the pack. By the way, moved to number one on the pound for pound list by virtue of Usman's loss. And I think that's fair. I think he is the most talented fighter in the game right now as more than just a striker, but as a striker, he is not completely unique, but the total package of what he presents and the basic quandary that his opponents find themselves in is, to me, without parallel, basically. I love watching this guy compete.

Look, we were waiting for you to sprout a city-kicking boner on this top five. I mean, we were just waiting, and you know what? I got a dead wrong myself. I've been calling Usman the pound-for-pound king throughout the buildup to the Edwards fight, during and after. And yeah, he was still UFCs.

Look, I had on my CBS Sports, for whatever that's worth, had made him the number one after doing what he did to Holloway in the third fight. And he was already a wizard and worthy of this countdown. Especially if you preferred watching that type of mastery. I don't look at him as much as I look at Rose as she's playing jazz out there. He's like somebody who's playing one of those whack-a-mole games. And is just on top of everything.

And can make people like a puppet do what they don't want to do. And now he's adding more intentionality to finishing and looking to set up to do damage yeah dude striking wise i mean he's as historically great as it gets i mean this is i mean is is it quite like what loma chanko did to boxing where it's like there's just this whole new style and way to look at it it might be it might be the MMA version of that what what the guys at CKB have done yes I mean he doesn't use obviously he's got a different style than Lomachenko and it's a different sport so there's a lot of differences so he's not like as angular in that way although he is pretty fucking angular um but it's more than that again I go back to it the scrambling of the brains. I'm not going to fight you head on. I'm going to leave you so confused, you're just going to be open all the time.

It's death by a thousand cuts. And dude, I'm going to be very clear about this. When you're defending a title at the highest level, yeah, okay, some of these guys have better skill sets than others. Dude, Max Holloway might be hittable, but it wasn't just that he got hit. Max Holloway could barely find him. He could barely find him, and he was standing right in front of him. and others dude max holloway might be hittable but it wasn't just that he got hit max holloway could barely find him he could barely find him and he was standing right in front of him basically you know and it's sort of a general way of putting it for 25 minutes it's fucking remarkable what he

can do and i just think there should be a lot more praise for his striking abilities and there is already a lot but i'd still i still he still, he is going to, he already has, but people like him are going to change MMA. MMA will be different by virtue of what they did during their time here. And you can't say that about a lot of fighters. Well said Luke, very well said. Your number one choice, my friend, who you got, who's your number one favorite striker to watch right now? Okay. I really challenged myself with this answer because in some ways, although not exclusive,

this could be like asking who's your favorite fighter to watch. Is the one I'm going to reveal right now, do I mention him among my favorite fighters? Not normally, but I really wanted to ask myself, who's the guy, whether you're killing time and you go on UFC Fight Pass and you just want to be entertained or when you hear his next fight, you get, oh God, I want to see that.

It's easy for an all-action fighter to make this number one spot just for being all-action alone, and there is probably no better all-action fighter right now in my current UFC fandom, along with what we do journalistically, than The Highlight. How about that for the perfect nickname, Justin Gaethje. If it was only big slugger, take big damage and make amazingly aggressively fun, all fight of the year fights. Again, he could still populate this number one and no one's going to, no one's going to complain. But that evolution again with Trevor Whitman, although it's now failed at the title level twice. I get that. But that evolution to going pound for pound. I mean, he was, you know, there's questions.

Don't forget there's questions. A lot of questions when he came over from World Series of Fighting. You know, can you do that on this level? You know, and there were a lot of people saying, watch, he's going to make crazy, insane fights. That's all he was committed to. But to make that adjustment to now the title slash I actually had him in my top 10 pound for pound. It's because he was able to tone down the violence just enough to craft and disguise it better. But he's still through with everything he had in creative, aggressive ways that not only are you there for the carnage?

Absolutely. But the craft is dynamic and uh it wasn't enough to to overcome the top of the division as we found that he's not a complete fighter on the same level across the board by any means but he'll die knowing he was maybe one kick away from putting the greatest fighter of his time in peril and i'll know luke that when it comes down to it at the end of the day yeah i guess i am i'm a justin gaethje super fan just like all the rest of you because he freaking delivers and what he's done with his tools to to craft them in this second chapter damn i mean i could have put michael chandler here i could have put anybody that that entertains me on that level but i also love the highlights craft and uh that's why he's my number one i got he's fighting don't hold my calls okay luke

hold my calls yeah he's he's pretty hard to beat he's pretty hard to beat justin gaethje is and you know obviously you know i don't know people kind of think of him as like he has the wrestling background not that he's a wrestler he's the anti-wrestler but they think of him just as entertainment they think of him just as like brawler but dude the way the performance he turned in against tony ferguson to me was you know not just devastating but epic but even before that like the leg kicks in short range that he throws like where he can put a hand on your shoulder and then he'll leg kick you right there it's innovative devastating stuff and it's also a killer be killed style so i i love that i love

the guys who bring a little bit of smarts a little bit of you know they definitely work on their craft but then at the end of the day i'm gonna marry that with the most blood and guts attitude you've ever fucking seen that's that's just engaging and that's that's why people love him no doubt about it hell yeah all right i'm gonna go for a very different direction i think most folks who know me probably know what i'm gonna say which given his last performance people didn't like it you know i'm gonna get shit for it but i really don't give a fuck because i think his body of work is just beyond remarkable my number one choice is very easy israel adesanya is is my number one striker to watch right now and i understand i understand everyone out there

is going to be like i didn't like his last performance he's boring listen this is just my list as we say about our rifles in the marine corps there are many like them this one is mine i'm not telling you what you have to have on your list but for me yeah was his last performance the most thrilling i've seen no it was not pretty far from it but in the total body of work, no one has shown me more about the science of striking than him. He has been, if you want to really understand MMA striking, again, who is changing it, who's at the front of it, why things work, why things don't, and how effective it can be, undefeated at middleweight, multiple contenders now getting multiple chances, and they still can't do shit to him.

This is the guy. This is the king to me. And a point to be made here, obviously Kamara was winning the fight against Leon, but you can see that in short windows, he can still be hit. He got finished off. Dude, this guy, Izzy, whatever you want to say about the lack of offensive urgency at times in the later chapter of his career at this point fine make your argument but they still can't lay a fucking glove on him defensively sound his again his body of work

offensively is remarkable and i have gotten more joy more more information, more insight, just more clarity about what is happening in MMA striking by watching him than virtually anybody else. I couldn't imagine another choice. And by the way, I want to make a point. There's a lot of other guys you could have put on this list, like Charles Oliveira, Jorge Masvidal, Wonderboy, whatever. Make your list.

Let us know what we missed. But for me and for what I'm looking for and the kinds of things that matter to me, I could not imagine putting anyone else at number one right now except Izzy. He's my top choice. You said the things that matter to you and the kind of things you like. That's why I had two women in my top seven, Luke, okay?

At the end of the day. No, look, here, yeah, this is a no-brainer. Even for my list, he should have shown up somewhere, and he's right there on the outside looking, and I've always loved and respected his game, whether, like you said, whether it fits your entertainment palette for that moment, for him it's not about that,

and the fact that it's not is probably going to allow him to go even further than trying to please everybody with performances like I was lucky enough to be ringside for there, cage side in the Kelvin Gastelum one. But, you know, Luke, what I love about, you know, sitting in the eighth row on Delta and throwing on UFC fight pass and going, oh, who am I going to watch tonight? They always start the fight when you click on demand there with the video package that was leading in the broadcast. So it's always Joe Rogan, and it's always at his most, like, not obnoxious, but like salesman, extra level.

You'll be like, Robbie Lawler, still to this day, one of the most dangerous and entertaining strikers who's ever stepped foot on planet Earth. You're like, well, yeah, I mean, through 2016, sure, Joe. But it's like, yeah, it's 2020, 2022 now. But when he opens those and is like, Adesanya might be the most dynamic and creative striker this sport has ever seen. He's actually right.

So, yeah, number one, number one with a bullet. Watching this guy ply that craft and knowing what he is capable of, by the way, if you press him and make him bring that out of him, the times that that's happened, it's been fun to watch. I mean, I'd love to redo on that Romero fight i wish that never happened luke but you know it can't be perfect not all the paintings can be perfect we've seen that so far on my on my easel luke okay i understand i understand uh all right i have to piss badly so why don't we do the next topic because i'm i'm about i'm about to just have an accident here okay why don't you urinate and i'll set up the final segment sounds like a good idea be right back all right it's been a while since we've done this i don't know if we can do them all i don't

know if we have that time but here we go morning combat at gmail.com every week is your chance to reach out and touch somebody mostly mikey morms our producer uh with your wednesday fan subs with your friday dead wrongs. We haven't read them. This is a BC and Luke only thing. But we're back today to hear from our fans, from our people, in a segment we like to call Fan Submissions. You've got mail. We've got mail.

Viewers. And a lot of these mail viewers. Thank you very much. By the way, Mikey i gotta call you out live uh david appleton says you've been rejecting his submissions like mutombo lately i can only imagine the nudity in these that you needed to tone down but shout out to appy over there in france uh you know doing doing doing the lord's work there in terms of in terms of creatively with with mk not what he's doing in his personal time with the students. That's really on him. But Luke finishing up here, I think I heard a zipper. Too bad we couldn't have had a naked gun. Leslie Nielsen moment. Probably be gross. We probably rethink the way we look at Luke

or think about him hygienically, but yeah. I'm sure we all have our own assumptions, though, to be fair. Right? I mean, yeah. All right. We're going to kick off with Charles. He's from Hawaii. Aloha, Charles, to you and yours.

He says, my girlfriend Bree and I run the family business. Bree Ann and Company Jewelry Boutique in Kauai, Kauai, Kaui, Kaui, Kaui, Kaui, Kaui, Leonard. I told her I'd agree to selling her handmade fine jewelry under two conditions. One, I can watch sports on Saturdays, meaning football, boxing, and MMA. And two, I could listen to morning combat in between customers.

Once customers are happy and the store is restocked, it's back to watching you washed, walking, midlife crises give fucked up on camera. Thanks for all your hard work. A donk like me and the millions around the world appreciate it. Take care, Charles. And P.S., I thought of a cool drinking game. We will watch BC's Feces and take a drink every time Brian says Luke

and every time he says wow. I think we're going to get shit-faced. Luke, this is Charles from Hawaii. Him and his wife own a jewelry store, and he's allowed to watch our show in the shop. I mean, there's also no customers here, Charles. So, you know, you're not really doing it. You're not a martyr here, okay?

Well, I appreciate his patronage, but, yeah, I mean, less's also no customers here, Charles. So, you know, you're not really doing, you know, you're not a martyr here. Okay. Well, I appreciate his patronage, but yeah, I mean, less MK, more, more sales, more guys flipping signs on the street corner. We do appreciate his wife's support of our product as well. We don't really have too many female viewers. Let's go over to Jason S. So it goes. Hope it goes well. He says a cabbie tried to rob me with a knife and I hit him in the head with a mini bat i'm in jail felt cute might delete later laughed my ass off okay i hope that's not true

well although he's wearing the hoodie i see the hoodie i'll give him credit if you're gonna commit a felony the mk will keep you will keep you comfortable okay so i don't know if that happened or if it's true but his boys representing luke okay So I don't know if that happened or if it's true, but his boys represent Luke, okay? Yeah, I don't know what happened to the eyebrows, but I also don't know what's cool. It could be the thing. Look, if I see Jake Paul wearing it, I'll know it's arrived, all right? Fair enough, fair enough.

Shout out to Jason S. and his buddy there. Let's keep it going from JB Jopa. Greetings to the whole MK team. I have one fan sub, and I should say to Mikey that BC did pre-approve my sub. This is true Mikey. I went over your authority. It is a drawing of Alex Podeta by my wonderful friend. Her name is

Anna Vitalic. The C in her last name is pronounced the same way you would say Miocic. Anna Vitalic. Just like me and Miocic's parents from wonderful Croatia. I just want to let the MMA community see this great work of art. Much love.

It's JB. JB's friend, Luke. She can work that art, right? Not bad. He looks a little bit more like the Coneheads we are from France. Oh, boy. Mr. Hibas. Sorry, Mr. Hibas.

I'm teasing. I'm teasing. It's very good. It's very good. That was his friend, Anna, from Croatia. Shout out there. Hopefully, Stipe can get back on track, Luke, or Cro Cop or something. I don't know.

Right? Yep. The late Drazen Petrovic. Respect on that name. Also, don't we have that guy? Jopek Barup. That guy. My guy.

My guy. I butchered his name. That guy also representing Croatia. Connor says, hey, guys, my wife and I had identical twin boys a few weeks ago. that guy that my guy my guy i butchered his name that guy also representing croatia um connor says hey guys my wife and i had identical twin boys a few weeks ago so now i'm a wash dad like you they were born too much premature two months and weighed three and four pounds but are doing very well also my wife's family has a tradition where they get each other a push gift my wife's been giving me crap about not giving her a push gift, Luke. I gave her two kids, right? I got her a gold chain

with our twin boys' initials on it, and she got me my favorite podcast merch. I think we know who won that. Her. 10-8. She may have got the wrong size, and it may look like I'm wearing a shmedium, but I guess she thought I was built like a dirt road and had no shoulders. Anyways, the shirt's awesome.

Say hi to your youngest of fans from Canada. Also, I fixed my cable management thanks to Luke's constant ridiculing. And my dog, his name is Nacho. Well, first of all, he's got a great family. He had a nice little home gym there. And these two little ones, Tanlindos, they are very, I'm very happy to hear that their story is ultimately a very positive one. So that's awesome.

Let's do a shout out to Joppa. I know, I know, JB Joppa. I know the people always say, Luke, you know, you've been through something BC. What I went through wasn't as much. No. You go through stuff one day is equal to a thousand years. You understand it. You guys are fighters. I appreciate that. Let's close. We'll do one more

here, Luke. We'll catch up next week with the others from kimberly she says hi luke and oh yeah to bc here's a couple shots from cheetos event in san diego my baby brother who is deeply embarrassed of me yet was the one who got me into mma and mk in the first place refused to take my photo until after the fights so please excuse my sweaty and disheveled appearance absolutely love you guys but i would be remiss if i didn't mention how upset my brother still is that you never discuss tension versus takaru yeah we didn't we don't do a whole lot of kickboxing on this i gotta say we don't think we have female fans but they do exist she says also luke don't be harsh on my tattoos the crow is technically unfinished

and my uterus snake is very fresh and peeling did i just read that um oh i see yeah there it is hope you guys do a live show in vegas for nate hamza i'll skip the concert that i'm supposed to go to and i'll go to yours all my love it's kimmy and her brother's name is kai if we want to shout him out yo Kai right Kai who is the uh the main villain in Kung Fu Panda 3 which my daughter loves all right shout out shout out there Luke uh Mikey wants us to keep going but I'm sweating bullets here we may have to call an end to the show all right it's hot in this base it's hot as balls down there your call your call I can keep going or not I mean you have two and two hours and five minutes is that enough Mikey

you tell me you want me to read another one Mikey which one let's bang here this might be the best one ever you can't let that go you can't miss that right he says they get good after this one all right you know we love our fans here we go luke saul not the guy anthony that i thought was saul the real one he says took the wife out for mid-tier Mexican on a beautiful day. She suggested as a joke to wear matching shirts, but this was no joke for me. I knew exactly which pair we would wear. MK all day, nearly every day. Do they wear the same shirt? Bro, look at that fajita flatter.

You got the lomo. You got the pojito. You got the camarones. You got the whole bit up in this motherfucker. Nacho Suancheros. Yeah, you got. I see you, motherfucker. I know you've been dying to do that.

Luke, they're eating well in the neighborhood. I mean, if my wife let me release a photo of her eating, I don't know if we'd still be married. But shout out to Saul. I mean, could you have more beer? I mean, that's just the biggest glass of beer I've ever seen. That's just one of our best fans. I love Saul. All right. By the way, I way i gotta say this is like the best food to fucking

eat man this is it right here this is i mean people like italian food's the best and it's pretty good but i don't know man a skillet with fucking cooked meat and some guacamole and some beer and some chips with your beautiful lady dressed in mk that's a that's a date right that's a winning is what he's doing winning yeahning. Yeah. Thank you, Saul. Thank you to your lovely wife as well. Luke, you know I'm always trying to remind you who JP is. You know Jay Paquette from Mount Uniac, Nova Scotia? You know this guy? I don't even know who works on the show.

All right. He's got a little bit of web scream in his blood. He's coming for this fan thing. Here we go. I've been a fan of yours, Luke and mk crew before since before the mma beat days and i've decided to resort back to my birth name of jason for all future fan subs to help reduce your saltiness towards all things jay like fuck you jay aaron you're ruining everything i'm working for motherfucker long overdue it's the luke thomas ag1 vape product promotion where health

and nutrition meets a dirty old and washed 40 year old habit benefits of daily use for less than three dollars a day i can get the appropriate amount of healthy nutrition to be like fuck jay paquette anyone associated with the same name as jay i'm now salty with that because of jay aaron love you guys keep up the award winning show fan for life that is fucking good that is really good blow back up real quick blow back up it says here warning vaping with AG1 will not

reduce the fact that you're plus 40 old and washed then Thor love and thunder that is just fucking great oh boy he's this is the same guy that made the super sloppy graphic for me when I pick out my fight of the week to watch. This guy's fantastic. Shout out to Nova Scotia.

Never been there, Luke, you? Nova Scotia. Not yet. Not yet. Mount Unike, maybe? I don't know. All right. This is from Notch Rubel.

Tell Luke to stop hugging the frame. Oh, God. That's brilliant brilliant that is so good this one this one made the rounds on mma twitter i got uh well i mean everyone was just making fun of the whole scenario so good dude that's so good yeah look at that i mean definitely he was not we were not the same size human um there is that there is that what could i do man i and they always give me the littlest fucking chair too yeah you're like andre the giant on an airplane right now you're like so close to just shitting your pants with a curtain in front of you um luke finally danger mouse is here he says hey bc i guess you've been the real lone ranger this week but as i fired shots at you upon your return it's only fair to do the same to luke not that you're escaping unscathed i mean i guess it's

summer but what the hell i like this template plus it's true for you too right now let's see what he's talking about here first there's luke i hope silver away on vacation again oh fuck off everyone i'm gonna by the way can i wear i mean hold on go back i want to point out something those aren't my normal shoes that i wear i don't think they gave me, like, dad shoes in this motherfucker. Ah, they're close, Luke. They're close. But, you know, you took off 12 days during the biggest fight week of the year. Luke, that's your preference.

You can't be heckled for that. We had to. We had to. We had no choice. Going on vacation is so hot right now. Yes, that's true. Very true. And finally, Danger Mouth says,

you cannot be, another you cannot be serious, featuring guest host Chuck Mendenhall. No clever meaning, I'm just riffing here. You said only one beer. Yeah, you know, I did. You know how many beers I drank on vacation? I think like six, maybe seven total over the course of all that time.

I had one six-pack I bought the first day and it lasted the entire time. That was very good from Danger Mouse. He was a contender for Donk of the Year. You got to believe that. By the way, that John McEnroe doc out the first day and it lasted the entire time uh that was very good from danger mouse was one of a contender for donk of the year you got to believe that by the way that john mackin wrote um doc is coming to showtime soon uh we got one more luke apparently mikey's got jay paquette on here a second time you know him from mount unike yeah i said it nova scotia he says at the end of episode 334 luke reminded bc about getting tattoos if and when sean brady wins if we look into the mk

crystal ball after the win at ufc 280 what exactly would the trip to the philly tattoo parlor look like how about bc going balls deep and all in with the official mk city of brotherly love tip to tip tattoo of him and luke keep up the award-winning show. That's amazing. And we are going to do that. I mean, we've got to figure out a way to get Showtime to pay. Dude, look at your face in that. That's just brilliant.

That's from the Max Holloway interview. That's great. That's really, really, really good. These are good fan subs. I'm impressed. We should hire people like JP and Web Scream and do like an MK reality show spinoff where they, you know, it's kind of modeled after one championship apprentice.

Look. We'll bring Chaudhry in. It'll be great. Alright, there you go. It'll be great. I gotta get going because we gotta fix our AC here. You're sweating bullets. We're both sweating balls. That's all I got this week. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Alright, well I hope everyone enjoyed the show. We're caught up. We will be

back Friday, so obviously stick around for that don't miss the demetrius johnson sit down bc chuck mindenhall tons of other good content on the site coming obviously as we return we got a big big fall and winter coming man really cannot wait for all of that so for bc for cbs sports for malca for showtime you can follow us there on social. Don't forget to vote for us for the World MMA Awards. Don't forget to get those bomber jackets for the winter slash the fall. There you go.

You can vote for us right there as the QR code to take a look at that bad boy. And of course, morningcombat.store for the merch if you want to get a bomber jacket for you or your loved ones heading into the AG1 flu and cold season. You know what I'm saying? Alright, that is it for us today. That's BC. I'm LT. Thank you guys

so much for watching. We really appreciate it. We'll talk to you on Friday and until then, may all of your gains be loyal.