MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Major UFC Lightweight News | Chandler-Oliveira for Title | Ennis-Lipinets | Ep. 132

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

Friday. MK. Lets go. Dana White finally admits Khabib is 100% retired. What's next? It's looking like Charles Oliveira will be facing Michael Chandler for the vacant lightweight title. but that's not the only fight rumors we are hearing... TJ dillashaw vs. Cory Sandhagen is in the works along with Cody Garbrandt vs. Rob Font. The boys preview this weekend's UFC Fight Night event headlined by Derek Brunson facing off with Kevin Holland. What's at stake? Also, Showtime announced an April fight between young star Jaron 'Boots' Ennis and Sergey Lipinets. How big of a step up is this for Ennis? Plus weekend previews for the boxing events. The guys close out the show with Dead Wrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Reveille, reveille, donks. 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. What a time to be alive. Breaking news flooding the overnights. Who's better to wake up next to in the bed than the boys from Morning Combat? It is Friday, March 19th, 2021. You know when the orange background is around. It's time for the man with the BDE, the BB to the c brian campbell of cbs sports coming at you and you know the guy next to me he's the best in the world at what he does it's a surly bastard it is luke thomas also of cbs sports this right here is

morning combat and luke uh always love friday shows because we get the folks fired up for the weekend of fights to come. But so much news to get to on this one. This is the kind of shakeup in a division when, you know, somebody loses a fight. Like this feels like a Sunday morning show almost, right? Like we just got done with all this new change to a division because all these fights happened and all these results came in let's react to it now on a Sunday but it's actually a Friday which tells you that it's got to be some pretty big news if it didn't happen around an event absolutely I'm coming to you live

from Puerto Rico of course fresh off a wild night of fights on the boxing side we'll get to that a little bit later my skin looking John to see only because of the J Aaron GoPro cam that I've been sent on the road with thank you so much Malka and CBS and Showtime for that but hey folks like this video subscribe because uh there's one thing about Luke and BC right we do make it look easy we hit you all the time three live shows shows per week, of course. There's our social channels below. And so much bonus content from Luke's fabulous live chat yesterday to how about a must-see interview with Brian Ortega that I had

ahead of next weekend's UFC 260 card. Guys, you're not going to want to miss this. It was wild. It was wacky. It was weird. T-City with the BBC. And yes, we did talk Halle Berry. So I think you're going to want to miss this. It was wild. It was wacky. It was weird. T-City with the BBC. And yes, we did talk Halle Berry. So I think you're going to want to check that shit out. Let's get through this housekeeping very quickly. Great time to be a Showtime subscriber. So shout out to our partners from that network. You can get 30 days free right now at Showtime.com. And the deals just get better from there. If you're a first-time subscriber, your next six months, $4.99 a pop.

Why is that important? Well, not only movies, documentaries, Showtime Championship, boxing, which of course returns April 10th. But how about the launch of Bellator MMA exclusively on Showtime? April 2nd is the first show. Pitbull, Sanchez 2 as we continue to consummate this featherweight world grand prix but obviously luke the folks are fired up for what happens next after that the kickoff of this eight man 205 pound light heavyweight tournament uh i'm fired up i want the folks to be too you have one place where you can watch rumble romero and it is on showtime so so get ahead of that. Also, I want you wearing our clothes, all right?

In fact, some of these Merch 1.0 options are selling out like hotcakes at the moment. So get onto store.show.com to make sure you outfit your abuela in that green hooded sweatshirt, that tight black t-shirt that Bill and Jen wear in their RV. You gotta be wearing what we wear. And of course, we've been teasing it multiple times.

Merch 2.0 is right around the corner. Look, aren't the printing presses working as we speak? And the international shippers preparing the infrastructure for the folks in the UK, down under the Congo, Myanmar, Burma, Bangladesh, all them going to be wearing what we wear. Well, you've said one country twice, but what I would say is yes, yes, I do think that. I'll say this, BC. We've been told that is happening. We've not seen it with our own eyes, but we've been told that all of these things are in motion. So a little bit more patience and I'm told we'll be across the finish

line very soon. Speaking of patience, I asked for yours on this show today with my road set up. Hopefully Luke, the camera doesn't turn off. The microphone doesn't go down. You don't lose your patience, whatever. We're going to try our best to keep this together because we got big news to get to and let's get into it right away there's basically three or four breaking news headlines overnight from the usc and they are all really related to the lightweight title picture and the ongoing soap opera of habib nurmagomedov is he your ufc lightweight champion is he retired is dana a hopeful man? In the end, it was what we thought it was. Habib Nurmagomedov's incredible unbeaten run will end.

29-0. And, Luke, it was an Instagram note put out there by Dana. A picture of them together. The words especially were this. 29-0 it is from Dana. He's saying Habib is officially retired. It was incredible to watch your work. Thank you for everything, and enjoy whatever is next, my friend.

Luke, that's a pretty big foundational piece of news, although I think we all knew that was coming. I was going to say, is that foundational? I'm not sure that that is. I mean, you needed to get past that hurdle, though, to get what is next, what becomes of that lightweight title? And here's the deal, and this might be a little bit of a shocker to you. I can't wait to hear your reaction to this.

The title has gone vacant, and it will be Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler slated May 15th in Las Vegas to fight for that vacant crown. Not Dustin Poirier, not Conor McGregor, not anyone else. Luke, your reaction to this wild turn of events overnight. Let's break these two up because they're two huge pieces of a puzzle. And I want to treat them as separately as I can. Although, to your point, they're obviously connected. Let's start with Habib. First of all, I got to say, I mean, obviously, it's a very nice sentiment from USU President Dana White. I did see some well wishes from some

other folks towards Nurmagomedov, which you can understand, a generational talent. I don't think, as we've said before, personally, I don't think his resume is, it doesn't have the breadth and depth of Jon Jones's, but for what exists, it's the most dominant one that I've seen, right? I mean, really just an incredible talent, and we're going to miss him as a competitor, I think, pretty badly. The one thing I just didn't quite understand was the way it was sort of framed. And I'm not here to say it's some kind of nefarious conspiracy. I don't mean that. But just sort of the natural way it kind of flowed, they made this kind of like a function of Dana White telling us that it was official. Now, yes, there obviously has to be a bit of a handshake

coming or going between the athlete and the organization. And so taking this as kind of the UFC weighing in on it, I understand. Again, I don't think it's a scandal. But all along, it just felt like this was his moment and story to tell, not anyone else's. If you listen to what Habib said at UFC 254, and then every, literally every subsequent interview

he did, it didn't really change tenor and sometimes athletes say things for the media. I understand. He didn't leave the USADA testing pool. Dana White, I'm sure, cares about him. He has a right to comment about these things. Again, I don't want to make it scandalous. I just feel like it's a little weird. Like we're waiting like, oh now it's official. It was official

before. It's just now like double official or or whatever i don't know what you want to call it let me ask you it wasn't it's not mine or yours or dana white's call to say when it is and when it isn't official it was official when he said it was official to your point it makes dana white look uh nefarious ignorant whole you know overly optimistic and hopeful a lot of things but i want to stay right there and ask your opinion on this. Because Habib in the past 48 hours, and I think Maniche, one of our guys in production here, can throw up the Instagram.

Do we know Habib as a troller, as a jokester? I'm not sure. Habib put out that picture with him and former UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta. And he did the whole at dana white send me location playing into the jokes this was just what march 17th a few days ago luke and this for a moment was like is he toying with us is habib really coming back so is dana lying this whole time or did it really take the final meeting with Lorenzo, who Luke, who no longer is with the company, yet still seems to hold a tremendous amount of power, considering even

Conor McGregor always says, I go to Lorenzo directly. I still meet with him to get things done. Did it need one final meeting with Lorenzo to offer Habib whatever it was, whatever their Trump card was? And did he turn that down to make this official? Or is this part of some ruse that we just don't understand? And again, it's not the promoter. Obviously, I said it on this show. The promoter has a right. I wouldn't know.

I don't have a responsibility. But if they feel like they want to get a guy out of retirement, whatever else they say about the necessity of retirement, especially one like this, who was undefeated, I think we can understand that. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. So it's not even about being upset at Dana White or something. It's just the way we converse about it.

I just feel like we should police our own framing and language around it to more accurately reflect what the situation probably was. And listen, we're working off a lot of speculation here too. Who knows why he made that Instagram message with lorenzo to your point was there a dinner where he was offered a final like you know lucrative way to perhaps clear a hurdle i i don't know i'm i'm guessing here too but all i do know is what he did after ufc 254 and anytime anyone stuck a microphone in his face it just never changed it never wavered it never in fact if anything it just solidified over time,

especially after McGregor lost. It got like real bleak at that point. And so I just feel like, while you can sometimes understand fighters may say things in media that are not exactly accurate, I don't do as many interviews as I used to for that reason. This always kind of felt authentic. That moment at 254 felt authentic. So listen, I understand UFC trying. It's okay. But let's just be honest about it. That was like a last-ditch effort that was not the confirmation of his retirement.

When Habib said it, that's the confirmation of his retirement. All right, let's stay with Habib. I want to jump to all the other stuff that's linked to this, but this is obviously huge news just in itself, even though we already felt like we knew it to be true. Look, we talked about Marvin Hagler passing away, the great boxing middleweight champion.

And one of the big themes was him doing it his own way. The conviction. You know, he thought he got screwed on the cards against Sugar Ray Leonard. He just walked away from the damn sport. Went to Italy, made movies. Probably slayed, Luke. Let's be honest with that. But the key point was there's a man of conviction.

We held so much respect for him how much respect do you have for habib to not just decide to walk away at the absolute peak of his powers pound for pound number one unbeaten which nobody does at this level in this sport and then let's guess surviving multiple attempts from the ufc to probably back the Brinks truck up to him and say, what's your price? You are a man who doesn't, you know, suffer fools, doesn't, you know, get swayed by flashy packaging like I do. How much do you respect in the end this move by Habib? Totally. I mean, St. Pierre actually said something I disagree with. He was defending Habib. He was saying something like, you know, UFC wants a fighter to go past when they're comfortable with it because, you know, they want the fighter to go out

on the UFC's terms and not theirs. Well, of course, I think any organization probably would. It's up to the fighter to resist it. So for that reason, I really admire the principled stance that appears that Habib has taken. And listen, if he wants to come out of retirement and fight because that was more important for him too, I would have respected that just the same. But if he's sticking to what he initially had um suggested was his future then even more so but Sapir had said something like you know they want

you the title to be uh handed to another fighter by virtue of one beating the other they want that talent to be uh you know the the halo to be transferred to the next generation of talent and I gotta tell you that wouldn't you if you worked for the UFC? It's like, it's a lot better for their division, frankly, for the sports sake to a degree, that the title neatly passed through the hands of fighters, not so much back to the promoter, then the promoter has to like restart things out of, you know, a whole cloth. And listen, this is a great situation at lightweight. We're going to talk about this amazing but actually i'll defend the ufc there and dana white's an extent there yeah it's a lot better when that happens habib doesn't have to take part in it but i

understand both parties here when it comes to that particular circumstance and uh again finally on habib no one walks away again at the peak of their powers with so much left in the tank it's so rare and the sport you know rocky marciano but even he was maybe closer to the end in the beginning habib it just seemed to get better with each fight so you mentioned in your personal view maybe john jones is still the goat for you and i i tend to agree with that across the board but look you can't argue with what habib has done even though injuries uh layoffs you know uh the inability to fight a full 12-month campaign due to his commitment to Ramadan we may have never seen Habib against everyone we wanted to the Tony Ferguson uh soap opera was its own chapter in

UFC history but I don't think we can argue this unless you want to argue with me if your belief is he's the best fighter we've ever seen the proof is kind of in the put in floyd i mean luke go back and watch that tape he lost a round to connor yeah what he lose around to gaethje when he's getting kicked in the legs maybe we can conspiracy theory that gleason tebow got robbed on a couple of those cards for good wrestling maybe michael johnson hit him with one clean punch in round one. Outside of that, the Shmesh factory was open 24 hours a day. And if you think he's the GOAT, I'm really not going to argue with you. Yeah, I mean, listen, he doesn't have the same resume as Jon Jones. He doesn't have the same resume in many ways as St. Pierre and some other ones around as

well. He's got his own resume. And for those reasons, it's a little hard to make comparisons. So with you, I'm with you. If you want to say he's in that conversation, that echelon and that guy, I think that's okay. It's just, you got to be clear about what you're looking for in his resume that stands out versus some of the other ones. Yeah. I mean, if you want to say Kurt Cobain was the greatest rock star of all time, well, the resume is shorter than the others, Luke. Okay. And Courtney Hall was kind of a dirt hole. So that's another side topic for another day. To close again on Habib, I keep saying this, but he also put out an IG, which he said,

it was a good dinner with some great people at Dana White. Thank you so much, brother, and the entire UFC team for the opportunity to prove myself. You guys have changed many lives forever because of this sport. And Dana, I'll never forget your attitude towards me. My father did not forget and my sons will remember you. Today, there was a real conversation between real men. Thank you all to my team, sparring partners and fans. I hope you will accept my decision and understand me. Habib, look, we've got nothing but respect for you. The way you've handled and and carried yourself the way you've destroyed opponents in the cage a special career comes to an end but luke what happens next is hella intriguing just the same get out your hot takes brother um dustin poirier not fighting for

the title next i think he already should have been your lightweight champion are you okay with how this whole situation was handled as much as i love charles oliveira versus michael chandler may 15th and believe me that fight is going to bang i don't think this feels like the right transition to who will hold the gold next what say you i'm with you i mean, let's be very clear about something. This fight, Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler, it is impossible to dislike. I mean, on its own, it is absolutely perfect. These are two super elite lightweights. Obviously, they have their own skill sets, and we've told that story from each side a million times, that fight is going to be amazing.

And that's the kind of fight that if it's not on a card with a bigger fight, probably won't do the same kind of buy rate, despite the stakes and the significance. So that's going to be one that, depending on where they put it, BC, that could be a bit of a hardcore delight. That's where being a hardcore fan gets rewarded. When the casuals miss out on the good stuff, you're locked in and ready to take

it in. And it is going to be quite interesting for that reason alone. But I don't like how this is going for Dustin Poirier because now he's in a spot, BC, where he has to beat the same guy back to back, which is not the end of the world. But now he's got to win two more fights to get the title. He has to beat Conor. And then if he's given a title shot, he has to win that fight as well. When you can make a pretty clear case, when Habib retired, it should have been honored. He has to beat Conor, and then if he's given a title shot, he has to win that fight as well, when you can make a pretty clear case. When Habib retired, it should have been honored, and when it was honored, Dustin Poirier should have gotten it when he beat Conor McGregor.

By the way, if you look at where they're ranked, you have Chandler and Oliveira third and fourth. Dustin Poirier is sitting at number one. How are you having a title shot where you're having guys three and four, which is not a scandal that can happen sometimes, but the guy sitting at number one is coming off of a win. That's a newly claimed position and he's not in the stakes. So listen, I'm not going to complain about the fight. I think Justin Poirier is probably pretty happy with the payday BC, but I got to say, I think any title plans really needed to involve him. Yeah, this feels like a bit of a debacle and i don't think historically it will be remembered as a debacle why because this division is so historically

deep and loaded right now that again any combination of fighters in the top six seven eight it's going to be incredible it's going to feel like a title fight but the fear here luke is that if chandler or olivera win and then let's say they lose to Dustin Poirier next, it's going to feel like an unnecessary transitional title reign, just like if Poirier should, let's say, lose to Conor in the trilogy. You know, I'm no Poirier superfan, but I'm going to feel bad for everything he's accomplished that he didn't rightfully wear the title when he had the chance look um i know people say well he lost to habib he had his chance okay everybody lost to habib and got smashed in the end yet literally everyone he fought fucking did that so yet dustin bounced back be dan hooker in a five-round thriller and then did to conor mcgregor what no one had done previously and now he's not fighting for the title.

So I don't want to miss the nuance here, though, and I do want to read a tweet that Ariel Hawane had, and I appreciate him being on the inside with the sources. He said there was once a hope for McGregor-Poirier 3 that it would get done on May 15th, and look, I'm assuming that means there was hope for it to be for the vacant title on May 15th, but it's taken longer than hoped or expected.

So they moved on from that a while ago. Sources say it won't happen on June 12th, Ariel saying, because that's Figueredo Moreno on that card. So the latest hope is that we get the trilogy between Connor and Dustin on the July 10th card. We'll see, obviously Luke,

if it was an international fight week main event, no one's going to complain. It's going to be a super fight. So the key question within that knowledge from Ariel's reporting, and I really want your opinion on this, was Dustin offered the chance to fight either Chandler or Oliveira for the vacant title, and did he, in fact, turn that down for the money, prestige, and opportunity that comes

with fighting Conor McGregor in a trilogy, which would be the biggest fight this calendar year, and really one of the biggest selling pay-per-views of all time? We need to talk to him. We need to talk to him if we can, because that's a great question. I think it's a central question. Here we are saying, oh yeah, UFC should have done it, and I do think that they should have, but perhaps the fact that they tried and Dustin Poirier said no. Here is my hunch on this, BC. Here is my hunch. My hunch is that he wanted the, I should say the trilogy, fight with McGregor.

Poirier did. He wanted that to happen and he wanted that for a title. I think that's what he wanted. Not just the one before, but now this one. I mean, he was saying afterwards on Morning Combat and every other place he went, you know, I'm the champion. Sorry, I fully consider myself the champion. Where's my belt? You know, to that point, quite literally, he was saying that. And I wonder if UFC, by virtue of the delay in negotiations, and who knows where that's coming from, maybe Dustin, maybe Conor, maybe both,

they want to get that thing moving. But to me, it's like, this was a problem you probably could have solved the first time. When UFC 254 came around, he said, I'm retired. If you had listened, and I understand, I understand the promoter had a, had a absolute, uh, uh, opportunity and they should be afforded one to, to do what they can to secure the talent for the fights that people want to see. I understand. But had you honored that and then give it to him when that fight happened, we wouldn't be in this mess we are in today. So listen, Dustin Poirier is not suffering. Conor McGregor is not suffering. The fans aren't suffering.

And neither is Chandler and Oliveira. We should be very clear about that. This is a bit of a first world problem kind of scenario. At the same time, I do feel like there could have been a better way we could have arrived at today's position. I know. It's like I can't complain, yet it's still pretty embarrassing the way this kind of was handled.

And look, I hate interim titles more than anyone. Yet at the very least, Conor, Dustin, too, should have had an interim title on it, especially if they really weren't sure on Habib. And then the moment they were sure, you go, OK, interim champion Dustin Poirier, now you're full champion. Get ready to see him in July against Conor for the belt. And oh, by the way, Chandler Oliveira would have made a fantastic number one contender scenario. Luke, we are talking about the power players at 155 and one name not in this discussion, which was just the other day when we were referencing rumors that the idea that Chandler could be facing Justin Gaethje.

Where do you think he fits in now that we sort of know where the top four-ish lightweights are headed over the next three, four, five months? I don't know what they're going to do with that because that was a fight that made a little bit more sense to me, although it left Oliveira out in the cold a little bit, which was not good for him, but it at least made more sense at the top. This gets you to a space where you've got number one busy. You've got, I think, three and four busy. I don't know if I have my rankings up. Oh, yes, I do. And so you've got

Gaethje sitting at two. Well, he already beat Ferguson sitting at five, so that's not going to work. Number six is McGregor. We know what he's up to. After that, it's RDA and Dan Hooker and Benil Dariush. So maybe they go Dariush because obviously he's looked tremendous of late. Maybe they go Dan Hooker because they're both coming off of losses. I don't exactly know what you do here, but it's not. I think Gaethje was hoping for a more high-profile, inside-the-top-five kind of situation, but that doesn't really work this time.

So he's going to have a tougher, tougher road. And Darius does have Tony Ferguson coming up. So to your point, maybe Hooker Gaethje. God, Hooker Gaethje would be violence personified. If you're Dan Hooker, do you take that fight? I was just going to say, how many more times can we throw Hooker into the lion's den and hope he doesn't get a limb chewed off, Luke?ke if i'm dan hooker after all the abuse that i've taken

i i'm looking more for like dan hooker's at eight rda sitting at seven i like that fight it's not like fighting rda is like you know some walk in the goddamn park he'll put it on you too but i just don't know that the violence quotient would be as predictably high as it would be like it is for someone like Justin Gaethje. And he's had two rough goes of it. And remember all that quarantine time? I feel like if you're going to be away from your family because of the way the rules are, and I don't envy his situation, it's tough, you've got to make sure you take the right

one for the right moment. A win over RDA, that's a big deal. And I think it's a more manageable physical task. Dude, if I'm Hooker, I'm asking for videographer Mike Jackson, former CM Punk Slayer. That's what I'm asking for, okay? A get well fight, indeed. I did want to add this, though.

I'm being critical of Dana because I think the way this was handled was a little bit messy and sloppy and not how they typically do it. They typically make swift, fast, hard decisions and just say, deal with it, right? Deal with the consequences. And this was sort of very transparent in their intentions and why it was dragged out. But at the same time, Luke, well, one, they had a lot of financial reason to drag it out because we can't underscore what the potential of Habib Conor 2 means to their bottom line at the end of the day, whether we like that or not. But I am glad that Conor, coming off of a knockout loss,

even though he's going to get rewarded with the Poirier fight because it's great business, I didn't necessarily want to see Conor fight for the title coming off of a knockout loss. So I am happy that didn't happen. But, Luke, i want to hear from dustin poirier as do you but if we're just guessing what do you think the difference in money is for him between a potential opportunity to fight either chandler or do bronx for the title

or the trilogy with connor is it light years the difference if you had to guess? It's only different if there's some kind of provision in the contract that he has that stipulates something about main events or if he has pay-per-view points. Because if he's just got a bump in pay and it's what he would get no matter what, whether he fought Chandler or whether he fought McGregor, maybe he wants to fight McGregor because that matters more to him. He didn't seem interested in fighting Mike Chandler before. Remember that? After the post-fight press conference? Seemed a little bit like, eh.

So maybe there's something to be said for that. So if he's getting pay-per-view points, then the answer is obvious. He's just going to get a shitload more money doing that. And you get the prestige of beating McGregor two or three times. I mean, that's pretty game-changing. If you're not a number one contender at at that point then you just close the whole thing but again we need to talk with him to see exactly where his priorities sort of sort in this whole arrangement all right look I can can I have you put on your tinfoil hat here can I have you

entertain my bullshit can we get into conspiracy theory hour Can we call Eddie Bravo on line one? I want to ask you if this other news of the past 24 hours that may or may not be tangentially. Is that the word, Luke? Did I have the temerity? Did I have the temerity to use that level of omerta to put out a word that intelligent into the ether sphere Luke um sportico.com reporting that Endeavor the parent company of UFC has filed contravent confidential paperwork for an initial public offering to go public and sell their stock Luke if you remember Endeavor was all about going to try this in 2019 and in the very last minute they pulled back due to changes in the market didn't think it was the right time for them why that may

or may not be connected to this Luke is we remember the last time UFC was about to go up for sale 2016 which was my favorite year covering UFC by frickin far not just because it was the final days of Ronda rousey's pay-per-view run uh the the launch of mcgregor into just global otherworldly uh brock lesnar came back but it was the idea that to make that sale which was four billion plus bang they loaded up card after card after card after card at almost gratuitous levels luke we've been on here praising ufc to kick off 2021 that they already saved sports in a lot of ways in 2020 by getting out ahead of everybody now they are offering this new year with i mean look ufc 261 is ridiculously stacked with that

triple header is this connected with the idea that you want the company's value to be so freaking high at the time of public sale. And is that connected at all to Conor? Our CBS colleague, Brandon Wise, had a really interesting thought that is there any idea that Dana and Lorenzo and Ari and Whitesell all got together and said, you know what, if we keep the idea out there that Khabib's still around and he's our champion, and that the Conor rematch could happen, that this just helps the brand strength entering a potential public sale. Luke, am I connecting any of the tinfoil dots here?

I don't think that's that tinfoil. Now again, do we have any evidence for that claim in terms of internal documents that reflected the UFC's priorities? No. So we're guessing here. That's a reasonably, I don't think that's a crazy guess at all. You're trying to go for fights that wouldn't necessarily be, they would be made by virtue of their size, but not by virtue of like their competitiveness. And you know, you got a guy retiring, you're trying to pull him back in sort of an unusual way. That is something of unusual behavior.

They have a strong financial incentive to do the things they mentioned. In 2016, folks don't remember this, you had Conor, I think, fighting three times, Ronda once. But if you just do the math there, you got a Conor or Ronda fight every quarter in 2016. I mean, that is crazy. I'm sure... And Brock, bro. And Brock, okay? And Brock. And you just raised the value of that brand tremendously in that year.

So I think that's a reasonable thing to at least speculate about and wonder, but we don't know. But did UFC save sports in 2020? No, I don't think that they did. I think there's a lot of – they saved themselves. They saved a lot of people's jobs. I'll give them credit for that, but they didn't save sports. All right.

Okay. That's fair. Luke, I'm not, you know, John Q. Wall Street here, John Nash, Kevin Nash, IRS, Mike Rotunda, anybody who knows numbers and money. But as a UFC fan and journalist, is there anything that this potential of going public means to the change, short-term or long-term, of the entertainment we see?

Can you enlighten me at all at what this actually means functionally? It depends. There's a lot of ways this could go. But let's say the big disclosure would be there would have to be significantly more transparency about the financial arrangements. If you're going public, then the public has a chance to buy into ownership. And when they do, there's a series of financial disclosures, not just initially, but ongoing, that the UFC heretofore does not have to disclose absent the court case. And again, some of those things would

not be, it would still be some degree of privacy and secrecy about it all, but it'd be a lot more day-to-day, month-to-month, week-to-week, year-to-year transparency about the financial arrangements, costs, sources of profit, where they come from. And I don't think that they typically like that kind of transparency, but WME has been, as you pointed out, had a failed IPO and that whole WeWork collapse moment that they decided to pull out. And they're back. They are back at it trying again.

Yeah, fantastic pullout. Haven't seen it that quickly since Luke at William & Mary. But, Luke, let's transition here to our next topic. All things surrounding the very top of the UFC's bantamweight division, maybe a temporary bottleneck due to the craziness between piotr jan aljermaine sterling the transfer of the title through disqualification and all that so luke in terms of what's next top contender corey stanhagen is in the works for a may 8th return and former champion tj dillashaw is the name we are going to see, Luke. Interesting bit of matchmaking.

We didn't know if Dillashaw was going to be allowed to parachute back in fresh off the two-year USADA suspension and get an immediate title shot because of his brand name. Instead, Luke, he's got the toughest possible matchup he could have to shake off that ring rust. Your thoughts at what this fight might look like, Maeve. Well, as you know, and I said on this show, I felt like TJ Dillashaw taking on Jose Aldo

was probably the best way to go. But if you weren't going to go that way, the one thing that I was dead set on was that TJ Dillashaw should not get an immediate title shot. No one, BC, as you are well aware, has more lax attitudes towards anti-doping and anti-doping infringements than me, but even I thought, you know, you couldn't deny that no one had taken the title off of him at

135 pounds, but the rules. A fighter couldn't do it. That has to be respected, but so does the fact that he's just not been around for two years. Whether you like that fact or whether you hate that fact, he has not been competing for two years. The idea that you can just jump right into a title fight seems like a bit much. So a number one contender fight, I think, is the right way to go. This is a situation where, to me, BC, TJ Dillashaw is, to an extent, benefiting, sort of, in a way. Maybe Corey Sanhagen, actually, I would say, is benefiting from the debacle in the Bantamweight title fight. You got to run that one back, right? So what's Corey Sanhagen supposed to do? Well, now you can stay busy by welcoming the guy who people did not take the title of at 135 pounds, who was building a pretty big name for himself. He and Cody Garbrandt

in that trilogy fight had sold big numbers on pay-per-view and at the Staples Center, I think was where the fight took place. And they had shown some promising growth at the box office with 135 pound division he had called scory san hagen for that fight several times here on morning combat interviews we had done with him there are former sparring partners a blah blah blah but i'm just pointing out san hagen was in a bit of a tough spot after that debacle well now you have a situation where you're fighting a guy with a big name former champ obvious number one contender fight I love it it's a great fight on paper it's a difficult challenge for TJ Dillashaw it's also a very contrasting style matchup in terms of their size especially cannot wait to see this in uh

Sanhagen Luke I thought had already really secured number one contendership now he's really going to double down on that you have to believe he beats DJ Dillashaw, he goes right to the top of that title next, whether we see him against the winner. If he beats Dillashaw and we get Jan and Sterling one more time. Also, the justification

for this bout is, to me, it's a little bit Conor-esque. In other words, you were like, oh, we wouldn't want Conor fighting for a title coming off of a knockout loss, which, of course, you're absolutely right about. The sort of way you could kind of look at that is to say, well, that's true, but maybe you could argue that

if he beats Dustin in the third fight, he'd be beating the number one contender, the clear number one contender. That kind of gives it a little bit more legitimacy in the end, and, of course, if Dustin wins it, well, that was the guy all along. Here you have a semi-similar situation where Dillashaw is coming in off of two years away. It's not the greatest circumstance, but if he beats Corey Sandhagen, you know he's ready for a title shot. This is a huge question. How good is TJ Dillashaw, two years two years older 35 years of age BC

at 135 pounds those young guys are probably going to age a little bit quicker but he's had two years off he had double shoulder surgery the whole nine yards when he initially got popped so I'm super curious and this is a huge huge test he has in front of him and vice versa I would argue love this fight dude we this is a great I mean seriously i'm not trying to get myself off of a future four minute video from dana but this is such a great fight we've been littered with great fights i'm considering a round of vpo just to get myself extra jacked up for this one someone be staying real quickly let me see the last thing on this someone in the chat yesterday asked me like is 2021 lining up to be the best year in mma when you look at what everything's in the spring?

And my caution was, hey, we're still in first quarter. You don't know what's going to change. You don't know what's going to fall out. Let's inventory that when we're maybe in the last quarter of 2021. But as you can see, BC, 2021 is looking like, looking like, knock on wood, pretty damn good year. Not just for UFC. Bellator's coming back. All right, Bellator's coming on wood, pretty damn good year. Not just for UFC. Bellator's coming back. All right, Bellator's coming back.

PFL's coming back. There's a lot cooking in the kitchen. And, you know, the Apprentice One Championship is heating up. Luke, also, but serious about that. I mean, if McGregor fights three times this year, that's great for business. Lightweight and Bantamweight are overloaded with great fights. The Women's Championship fights are incredible. And Jon Jones at heavyweight. I mean, this really has the making to be very, very,

very special. Staying with Bantamweight, though, how about this fight in the works for May 22nd? Former 135 champ Cody Garbrandt not moving down in weight, as was scheduled a while back to fight for the flyweight title. He's going to stay here, Luke. Rob Font in his future. How much do you like this fight? Love this fight. Rob Font is a guy that's had a really interesting resume. If you just look at him, BC, when he's winning, he looks like a guy you're like, how is this guy not a top three kind of guy? And I'm talking about a while ago before he actually was top three. Always had a good jab, clean footwork, good movement, really understood the blending of the fight game and had just really solid

fundamentals in the standup. And then he fought John Lineker and went the distance with him, by the way, took his best punch, but didn't win. Then he went up and fought Pedro Munoz. He did get submitted there, beat Thomas Almeida, and then fought Asuncao in 2018, and he lost that one, but again, he went to decision. He was pushing elite guys, like they just don't run over him for the most part. Then he beat Sergio Pettis, Ricky Simone, and then Marlon Marais, who he finished inside of a round in his last one. It does feel like to me, BC, how old is the guy? 33. When did you get the chance to know him? 2014. So we're talking about seven years ago. What was he, 26? He wasn't who he would ultimately become. And I don't know exactly how good he is,

but I know he's worthy of an opportunity against a top guy like Cody who came back and dusted Marlon, or not Marlon Marais, excuse me, Pedro Munoz, not Pedro Munoz, sorry, Rafael Sanzo, as BC loses his camera again. I'm just pointing out for the folks at home, Rob Font is very, very deserving of this opportunity. And I think it's fine if you want to consider Cody your betting and or just odds on favorite guy to win. I don't think that's crazy. He's looked pretty good, despite whatever issues he might have with lingering COVID symptoms. But I think that Rob Font is very much a live dog in this fight. Very winnable for him.

Even if it's more of an uphill climb, perhaps, than for Cody, it is going to be super, super interesting. Rob Font, good jab, good chin, durable, good composure. He's got a lot. He's got a lot going for him, BC. Are you back? Yeah, great composure out of me, too. Look, my camera is going to turn off when it wants to, Luke,

and that's really up to Aaron's camera. Is it overheating? What's happening? We're good. We're good. Okay, thank you. Luke, let's get into Saturday's UFC card. Nice transition here. Las Vegas, the Apex. An interesting fight in that card. I love this main event.

It's time for the middleweights, Luke. Veteran Derek brunson against possibly the division's next big thing and kevin holland to set this up of course kevin holland was as opportunistic as anybody in 2020 five fight winning streak all in last year's calendar year he stayed by the phone it rang off in luke and of course that finish of jacare soza in his last outing with his back to the canvas, a very unique knockout. He's a brash trash talker. We know what we get from him. He'll invade his women if they have COVID. It's not a problem against the veteran. And I don't think you can

say 37-year-old Derek Brunson as a negative here, Luke. He is also reborn on his own three-fight win streak. He, you know stunted out the the rising hype of Edmond shabazzian in his last outing the wrestling's there the recommitment to to a proper training camp and inspiring Partners and all that is there for the cisco-esque blonde fighter Luke your expectations and what's at stake here for these two middleweights when they touch club Saturday? This is an interesting fight because it's such a style of contrasts, as I think most people know. If you look at the numbers in close detail, I won't give you a whole lot of them. In fact, I'll just give you one, but it goes much deeper.

The takedown defensive rate for Kevin Holland is just 52%. That is not high. Now, we've seen other fighters lower than that, like Corey Sanhagen, and it doesn't really reflect the accuracy of who they are, but it does a little bit with Holland. He's been taken down enough where he does stuff takedowns per fight, but if you spam enough of him, he tends to get overwhelmed in that situation. Although, as you saw in the Jacare Sosa fight, he can get taken down and it doesn't matter because he can find ways to win. In fact, one thing he is quite good at on the floor, BC,

is he doesn't take a lot of damage once on the floor. And on the feet, obviously, he's got great numbers there as well. Lands 4.74 strikes per minute, which is very high, and only absorbs 2.77. So he's got nearly a two-integer positive differential. That's very, very good. And on the floor, doesn't take a lot of damage either. But, BC, here's what I'm worried about. What if you get a guy like Brunson, who can get the takedown,

doesn't do a whole lot of damage, and then just rides him out for five rounds? That is a very real possibility, so I think that Derek Brunson has been in exciting fights, and I think Kevin Holland just naturally fights in a way that is very crowd-pleasing. But if Brunson has his way here, you may not get the most exciting fight on Saturday night. That's not a reason to watch, but just kind of know what you're in for a little bit. I had a very nice talk with Derek Brunson this week on Morning Combat, which I encourage everybody to listen. We're going to throw to it in a bit.

Maniche can get that loaded up in the slot there. He thinks he can get a top-five opponent, Luke, if he can, again, snuff the hype out of another riser here. And he did break down what we've seen in the cage in recent years. You know, he's not the same guy that ran out guns blazing against Whitaker, that talked a big game and got handled by Adesanya, yet he feels like he's smarter now. When we talk about opportunity and what's at stake, though, Luke, we know UFC rewards the kind of chutzpah that Kevin Holland's putting out there. If you trash talk, you're willing to fight anybody. You're constantly tweeting at Dana, oh, if someone fell out tomorrow,

put me in that card. Dude, they reward you. We know Adesanya's the champion coming off a loss in another division. We know the players fighting for a title a shot opportunity Whitaker and Gastelum Till and Vittori what would this do for Kevin Holland if he beat somebody with the credentials of a Derek Brunson and extended that win streak to six that would put him in a space where he, he'd be more than just kind of a bit of a sideshow, which he's more than that now, but he currently sits at 10, Brunson at seven. So to answer your question, in real terms, it just pushes him closer to back end of the

top five, so around six or seven or so, somewhere in that space. But if you think about it, that's where the division gets really interesting. That's where you have the best players. That's where you have Paul Acosta, Jared Cannoneer, Darren Till, Marvin Vittori, and Jack Hermanson. That's the meat of the division. Those are guys that are either in number one contender fights or title fights. This is where the sorting for who gets a shot at the title begins. And that's the part of the conversation he'd be entering, the conversation he'd be entering, the space he'd be entering, with a win over Brunson.

Brunson is, he didn't like the term gatekeeper, and he kind of tried to redefine it in a way where, you know, if only the very best guys beat me, I guess that makes me a gatekeeper, great. And he's right. That's actually not what gatekeeper usually means. Gatekeeper means far outside, like outside top 15 kind of scenario here he is we're talking like deep inside the top 10 uh so he's kind of an elite gatekeeper

something like that i mean he's very very good but does have a bit of a role where the very best ones to do tend to get past him it's an important fight for kevin holland i wonder if it's coming on a little too quickly but we will find out on saturday well important uh note about the gatekeepership there or not, right? And this is something I talked to Derek Brunson about. Let's go to the videotape. Kevin Holland said that Derek Brunson will always be a gatekeeper. Just accept who you are.

Your thoughts on that comment? I mean, honestly, if someone's definition of a gatekeeper is being relevant for numerous years, I mean, you have guys that's 36, 37, 32 that nobody knows, nobody pays attention to. Like, I'm always fighting at the top. I don't know. It depends. What do you call a guy like Johnny Hendricks? Is he a gatekeeper? He was champion, but look, he lost like eight or seven in a row at one point in time.

Like, what is that? You know, I'd rather be in a position that I am to be at the top forever than hit stardom and then fall drastically and never able to recover, you know? So, like, when I'm done with this fight game, I want to go out as I still have a lot of fights left. Not I'm fighting because I need to, or I'm fighting at my worst. You know, I want to be up and competing at the top and always competing at the top. Luke love Brunson's fighting spirit there. Don't know if Johnny Hendricks is the right reference point because I would call him unemployed these days, but Luke final bit of note on this one. Um, would you be surprised given Holland's red hotness of late if we're talking monday

morning about a uh a knockout here of derrick brunson yeah yeah that's big i mean that's really i mean who many how many people get knockouts if some people beat derrick brunson how many people knock him out you think in your mind you're like robert whitaker knocked him out uh out of sign you knocked him out there's probably some other ones i'm not thinking of right now but you know it's a fairly small list you join that company I'm telling you man this is where he gets to redefine himself as like a guy who's very good very fun says outrageous shit in the media let's see what this you know out of control on fire vehicle where it takes us and and if you beat Brunson it actually tells you you have a coordinated ability to marshal all of

this into a very productive end. And that's when you get into the really deep, fun end of the division. He's got a huge, huge bout in front of him. And I will say this. For Derek Brunson, we're not really talking about him as much. I'll say you beat Edmund Shabazian. Now you beat Kevin Holland. You're the hype killer.

You're the guy where people think you're being gassed up by the promotion and he'll check it. He was supposed to be that without a sign, you know, to a degree, if you'll recall. They sort of use him in that way. And so it's a good moment for him. You build two wins over Shabazian and Holland when they're on their hottest streaks of their careers.

You better put some respect on Derek Brunson's name. By the way, some people do call hype killers gatekeepers. Just going to put that out there. Luke, no one's talking enough about this co-main event on Saturday. I love the absolute ish out of it. You remember there was a time Gregor Gilebski was 13-0 in his professional career, the former four-time All-American wrestler, Division I national champion. Luke, some people thought is he

a poor man's american habib uh future champion kevin lee uh had kicked him into the cage and into the deep hole of death there a little bit more than a year layoff and this is not an easy test city kickboxing's own brad riddell a three and oh run in his UFC career. Looking very good. Luke, we should not sleep on this Colman on Saturday. No, we shouldn't. I love this card. Well, I mean, that's a bit of a... Am I exaggerating a little bit? I'm exaggerating a little bit.

It's a good card. It's a decent scrap. I'm more focused on the main event than anything else, if I can just be candid with you. But up and down this card, there are some interesting gems along the way gregor gillespie has been an interesting case where he hasn't he never says a whole lot you never really hear from him he goes on these long hiatuses he loves to fish um and brad riddell i think is probably if you're doing city kickboxing like power rankings i've got adesanya number one you might might have Brad Riddell number two, pound for pound, in that gym.

So hell of a scrap, hell of a return for both of those guys. I think Volkanovski and Adesanya are one and two in the CKB rankings. Yeah, but see, Volkanovski is sort of like a side member of CKB because his coach is Brad. So that's how they actually know each other. That's the pairing there. But he does a huge portion of his training outside of it, so I don't really consider him full on.

It would take a CKB superfan to know the intimate details. I like that, Luke. No, but seriously, give me a layman's man description on how good Riddell is. I mean, is he of the stereotype, a positive stereotype that comes with these guys from New Zealand there from coach Eugene Behrman because their IQ their game planning is different is Riddell in that category sort of yes he certainly is yes yes he is and obviously he has a pretty good background

as a kickboxer so he's got some of the same I think um he does not fight the same way Adesanya does, but I think he has some of the same sensibilities. Certainly has a good, you know, deep, deep, intimate knowledge of the striking game. So, you know, he's very much his own man. I want to be very clear about that. But there are some similarities there between those things. I mean, Volkanovsky got to the point where he got, in part, because of the way in which Brad Riddell among other coaches guided it for there to be that sort of like unifying feature in their games even if they're all pretty different games tells you that there is obviously some shared wisdom there Luke it's a couple interesting fights up and down this card how about that heavyweight bout to open

the main card when Tai Tuivasa takes on harry hun sucker and an interesting stipulation in this fight the winner gets to take a in the loser's shoe luke okay all right really really look really just you know you're better you're really better than that joke i mean i've seen your work okay you're better than? Listen, I'm not much in this world, BC, but I'm better than that. Okay, Luke, great. Anything else you care about on this? You big JP Baez fan? What else you got, Luke?

No, no. I want to move on to the next topic. Thank you very much. All right. Let's keep it going here, Luke. We finally have an announced main event for a Showtime Boxing. Hey, we just lost you again. That's fun.

All right. I'll take over while BC gets reconnected with that McDonald's Wi-Fi. Yes, he's talking about the Jerron. And I don't have the notes up because BC is hosting but I'll see if I can find it here. He's talking about the Jaron Ennis fight that was announced with Sergei Lipinets. This is a fight that I believe

was supposed to happen a while ago and didn't. I think because someone got COVID or it got delayed or something at the last second. And they're going to make it now. Let me pull this up. Ennis and Lipnitz. Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, here we go. Official for April 10th on Showtime. This comes to us from Bad Left Hook. One of boxing's best pound-for-pound prospects, welterweight Jerron Boots Ennis out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the way. Officially set the headline, April 10th, Showtime tripleheader against super lightweight champion Sergei Lipinets, Angus Wilkinet against Mohegan Sun.

By the way, Ennis, 26-0 with 24 KOs, will be looking to wash the sour taste of his December no contest against Chris Van Eerden out of his mouth. The result snapped a 16-fight finishing streak. Look, you don't have to read other people's reports. I'm here to host this show, okay, Luke? Are you? That's a great question.

Are you? Are you here to host? This fight is announced. What I was going to say, look, that's a big weekend for Showtime. April 9th is the kickoff Friday night of the Bellator MMA Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix, Luke. We're going to get Ryan Bader against Liotta Machida, the rematch in the main event. Who do we got? Corey Anderson against Davlet Zan, Yagsham Muradov

in that co-main. The next night is the triple header. You laid out that main event. Luke, this is a fantastic fight. Nobody loves unbeaten, rising Philly welterweight Duran Boots Ennis more than you, Luke. And I don't think anybody loves under-the-radar

Sergey Lipinets more than I do. Luke, let me tell you why this fight bangs and is important because when you're somebody like Abutsenis who has been blowing away those, you know, step up incremental fighters above him, you're obviously watching him be spectacular. You're going, man, what would he be like against a legit world-level contender? Lipinets is that. Former world champion at 140 pounds. He may have lost his title to Mikey Garcia, but Luke, he dropped Garcia in that fight.

He was in that fight. And since moving up to welterweight, dude, he took Lamont Peterson's soul and retired him in one of 2019's best fights. I know he had that draw with Castillo-Clinton on Showtime last year that maybe felt a little ho-hum, even though it was an action fight. But Lipin Yates, Luke, gets in your kitchen, and he's more skilled than the average, let's say, brawler. He mixes well, some craft in there. You're still going to rightfully favor Boots because he looks to be the real deal. But Luke, this is a very, very capable veteran in front of him who can do some things. I cannot wait for this fight. How banged up is Lipinitz?

I don't think he's all that banged up. And I feel like I'm the only one banging that drum that this guy is really, really good, Luke. I think he's certainly a live dog in this fight. And he has the chance to expose in boots the things that we haven't seen challenged yet the full 12-round stamina in a firefight the chin the ability to keep a guy off of you whose goal is to get inside of you i cannot wait for this i'm telling fans that that weekend uh you're going to want to activate that 30 days free on showtime because that's going to be worth your while right there thanks yeah that's going to be a huge weekend. If I'm not mistaken, is that the

left side of the bracket or the right side? Is Romero and Rumble, that's the 16th? Luke, you just heard me announce the night before that it's the first half of it. That it's Davis, Machida, too. And it's Yagamura. I know it starts on the 9th. What I'm asking is

which side of the bracket starts on the 9th? The left side, bro. That's the Machida side. Yeah, B. The left side, bro. The left. That's the Machida side. Yeah, Bader Machida too, brah. But if it's Phil Davis, then that's the right side. No one said Phil Davis. Oh, I may have said Davis.

All right, maybe I'm the asshole, Luke, okay? Forgive me, all right? I'm jaundiced. Yes, huge, huge weekend. You're not going to be there, but I think I will be for both of them. So we'll see how that goes. Yeah, I'll be on vacation, okay? People are going to have to deal with that.

You know, you plan a trip eight months in advance. You don't know what's going to happen. You don't know Bellator's going to Showtime. You don't know there's going to be a World Grand Prix, all right? Sorry. They don't tell us shit. Okay, you're going to have to carry the flag for us at the Mohegan. I'm sorry.

Luke, speaking of the box, and this is my favorite portion of the show when we drive away all the MMA fans Luke I'm in Puerto Rico for NBC Sports Ring City USA the up-and-coming boxing series that Profiles guys on the way up guys on the way down and when they meet in the middle Luke Do you remember two weeks ago when we played the highlights of the dramatic upset when Brandon Adams was down on the cards against unbeaten? Sergei Boachuk and he scored a late knockout. It happened again last night at the Olympic Training Center in Salinas, Puerto Rico. Here's the deal.

Angel Fierro, he's trained by Eric Morales. He's from Tijuana. Luke, he took the fight on six days' notice against former 130-pound champion Alberto Machado. Let's go to the highlights here. Early on, Fierro dropped in the first round, Luke. And here's what happened in the second round. Oh, God! But he popped back up. He got drilled.

Luke, it was Mexico versus Puerto Rico all night. The Mexican Fierro. That's the no-fuck-around zone right there. Nope. And he got right back up from both knockdowns. Fast forward to round six as the tide turned. Here comes Fierro Luke. Great shot from the baseline here from Constantino Garcia.

Fierro in the yellow trunks. Walking Machado down he's keying off his jab see it parrying it there it is again ah here comes a left hook right there

got him got him moving into it a huge dramatic upshed knockout. Let's watch this over again. He cornered him and then forced him in that direction and then lit his ass on fire when he moved into it. What a fucking win, man.

And look at that emotion, Luke. This is a guy who has been unproven, grew up in the gym that Eric Morales, the great champion, owns and trains fighters. Six days notice, fought his way into our hearts here, Luke. Look at this. That's great. What a great job that is.

Wow. Miguel Cotto was the promoter of record. He was in attendance here in Puerto Rico. What a time we had there, Luke. Did you talk to him? Yes. He was actually, him and his wife, Melissa, were the people that signed you in as you came in and gave,

I got a temperature check from the Cotto family, Luke. It was great to see you right there. You know, I don't think his wife has were the people that signed you in as you came in and gave I got a temperature check from the Cotto family Luke it was great to see you know I don't think his wife has ever had plastic surgery oh that's not nice you know about Luke what that's not nice you can't you can't talk like that I'm just like every everyone who's rich in Latin America male or female gets plastic surgery okay I did I do love Miguel's uh pink backpack there but shout out to what's going on showtime did you Sean Porter. Did you talk to him? How does he sound? Oh, he sounds great, Luke. He's got a little pooch packet of a gut on him.

I like that he's enjoying his retirement, Luke. Sean Porter was on the call with me, Luke. We were jumping up and down. It was a wild night at the fights. But yeah, I love me some Miguel Cota. We've received nothing but love in Puerto Rico. We're back one more time next Thursday, Luke. I want you to watch that show.

Why? Because we're putting in a ring in Old San Juan on the edge of the ocean. Luke, this is the real fight Island. That is awesome. That's cool. I've been saying it, man.

Puerto Rico is a, um, they've had some hard times, but they provided some good times for a lot of people. And, uh, you can give back to Puerto Rico by just watching, showing people that it's a good time to go there. It's fun. And, uh and you should enjoy it, dude.

It's cool. I like putting money back in the economy, Luke. I'm not here in Puerto Rico for a long time, but like Michael Chandler, I'm here for a good time, bro. Believe that. All right, Luke, let's set the stage for the boxing this weekend. One of your favorite fighters is back for the first time in 18 months. You can argue one of the top 10 pound for pound fighters in the

world unbeaten unified life heavyweight champion artur beater biv he's a chechen born fighter fights out of ma i'm sorry fights out of montreal great friends with gsp he's finally back after long layoffs and delays in moscow on espn saturday at 3 p.. Luke, he's going to take on mandatory challenger from Germany, Adam Dynas. And here's the deal on Bieterbieb, 15-0, 15 KOs. Last time we saw him, he knocked out Alexander Vazdik, the unbeaten champion, and sent him into retirement, Luke. How excited are you to finally see this guy back? A lot. I think it's been an 18-month layoff. The only thing, BC, and again, boxing odds don't necessarily mean the same thing that MMA odds, in terms of when you see a wide disparity. You got to kind of round that down a little bit, because the betting is a little bit different. That being said, BC, I tell you what, I am excited

to see him back. Guy's an absolute hammer, has a chin, granite for punches. I mean, he's ridiculously hard as a light heavyweight puncher. But according to our oddsmakers at William Hill BC, they've got Arturo Pateriby at a minus 3,000 underdog, and they've got Denise, or whatever you pronounce his name, as a plus 1,200. I'm not expecting anything here other than an execution. Yeah, it's going to be an execution. Here's why. Adam Dynas is 30 years old from Germany, Luke.

He's 19-1-1, but here's what happened in his last three fights. Suffered a loss, beat a guy who was 1-0, and then beat a guy who was 10-12. Excuse me. People hate when I burp on air, Luke. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, all right? It's Friday, all right?

Ain't got shit to do. Dynas is going to get, yeah, he's going to get slaughtered here. But, Luke, Beaterbeave is back in the headlines saying, hey, Canelo, when you're done down there at 168 unifying belts, bring your balls up this way. So, look, did you, by the way, did you see Saul Canelo Alvarez, who never speaks English publicly ever since the incident with Jim Gray the day before the Mayweather fight when he said,

I was born ready, yet he was on the Hot Box podcast with Mike Tyson with Henry Cejudo serving as co-host and translator. We didn't need a translator. Saul speaking English, Luke, on camera. No one does. This never happens. That's great. His English is good.

It's really good. Dude, it's hard to speak in a foreign language, man. It's hard. Like I told you, I went to Columbia. I tried one time, and they all laughed in my stupid gringo face. It hurt my feelings, BC. So I can imagine a guy like Canelo wanting to roll that out when it's ready. You know, take some time.

And he did. He sounded great. Good job, Mr. Sal. He's born ready for that. Yeah. Well done there. All right, Luke. Also a good fight on Saturday night on DAZN.

It's going to take place in Fort Worth, Texas. Unbeaten welterweight prospect. Really arguably golden boy shining light besides Ryan Garcia. His name is Virgil Ortiz Jr. 16-0 with 16 KOs. Luke, he's passed every step-up test up to this point, and now he gets that real close-up fight. We talk about Lipignetz is going to be that for Boutsenis.

How about Maurice Hooker, your former 140-pound champion, just one loss, Luke, and that was in that thriller slugfest in 2018 against Jose Ramirez, the unbeaten champion at 140 pounds. Hooker's now a welterweight. He can punch. This is a very interesting test, even though Virgil Ortiz Jr. is a massive betting favorite, Luke, which I don't necessarily understand. Look, Ortiz is the goods. He can punch with both hands. He's a boxer and a finisher, great body puncher, but Hooker's got pop and he's got experience. And I'm really interested to see how well he can do in the deep end if Hooker can take him there. And Luke, I'd caught up with Virgil Ortiz Jr. a couple of weeks back ahead of this fight. I want to throw to some sound here

and then get your reaction. If you get a win over Maurice Tucker here, obviously you'll be on the doorstep. You would think of a title shot, but you know, is there a name that you look at as sort of the, the, the big, you know, the big glossy sign down the highway that you want to fight the most that to you is like the breakthrough fight that could make you a critical and commercial star across the board? I think that, uh, you know, I've said this many times before. I think that me and Errol Spence is the fight to make, you know, not only because of my personal reasons and they're not bad personal reasons. I just, my, my personal reasons are to clarify.

It's just that I grew up training with him in the same gym, you know? So I just think that it would be a really cool fight to make, for uh a lot of the people that knew us i think that would actually be pretty crazy it'd be an awesome fight but you know he is one of uh he's a unified champion at welterweight division and uh he's he's one of the pound for pound fighters right now um i don't i don't see why not. Let's make that fight. Luke, I love the ambition. I love the big plans there. He's got to get past Hooker first.

Have you had a chance to see Virgil Ortiz fight? What do you think of him? A couple times. Heavy-handed, very good, aggressive, technical. A lot to like. This fight, a little bit closer than the fight previously we discussed. Ortiz Jr., according to our friends at William Hill, is a minus 1,200 favorite. And Maurice Hooker sitting at a confident plus 650.

So, a little bit closer. You know, something in the territory of winnable-ish, maybe, if he gets really lucky. But I suspect Virgil Ortiz is going to stop this guy within the first eight. I don't think he's going to go very far. He's overmatched. He may end up knocking Hooker out, and it'll be a big boon for his career. I just think there's way more danger than those betting odds show,

but again, the betting odds sometimes are to sway movement and action. Luke, I love that Ortiz wants Spence long-term, and they are friendly, and they grew up near each other. It would be a big fight for Texas. But here's what's interesting is Oscar De La Hoya, who's the promoter of Virgil Ortiz, said a couple weeks back, I think he can be any welterweight champion right now, and I'm willing to put him in there. And De La Hoya said this week, if Virgil Ortiz wins on Saturday, he's ready to match him in a title fight next with unbeaten WBO champ Terrence Crawford. And here's where it's interesting, Luke, okay? Virgil Ortiz fights on Golden Boy on his own, right? We know Crawford has probably one fight left on his top-ranked deal, which expires in October.

Didn't we see a picture on Instagram just a couple months ago of Oscar De La Hoya and Bob Arum of top-ranked, you know, breaking bread, having dinner. I think that's a makeable fight. I think that could be in play this calendar year. Virgil Ortiz against Bud Crawford. Look, that would be fantastic. Well, I would be all in favor of that. What I'm not in favor of is seeing consistent boxing main events where both competitors

are in the minus or plus 1000s. Yeah, I'm with you on that that a final bit of note on boxing luke we already knew canelo alvarez was going to return may 8th against billy joe saunders it's a unification at 168 pounds uh saunders of course your unbeaten wbo champ some more of the details are coming in i believe it was uh no there's no source here it was straight up announced luke that is going to land at at&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Jerry World, with 60,000 fans expected to be in attendance May 8th. Luke, that'll be a month after UFC packs the arena in Jacksonville for the UFC 261.

Are you ready for 60K for Canelo Saunders? Wear a mask. wear a mask wear a mask luke um covid isn't as isn't as prevalent in um in warm climates uh that's not true brazil is being overrun by it okay well it shows you what i know luke okay but i there is There is some research to say that in general, it may not necessarily be able to thrive as well in those kinds of climates, but it's still strong enough if you don't do what the fuck you're supposed to to ruin your life. But to the point, BC, by May 8th, who the hell knows?

Like I said about the Florida show with UFC, maybe there'll be a lot of vaccines. Maybe there'll be a lot of masks. Maybe it won't be a big deal. Let's see what happens, I guess. Let me ask you this. Let's say our employer, I guess. Let me ask you this. Let's say our employer, we have a few different employers,

but let's say our employers at CBS Sports put you and I in a conference call and said, hey guys, Canelo's the biggest star in boxing. We want MK on the road all day in Arlington, Texas. I want you and Jerry World for the big fight. You coming with me or not? That's what I want to know. With a vaccination? Sure. Without a vaccination,

no. I'll vaccinate you right in the damn prick to get you out there all right hey luke um did you know that you can create a pool to compete against friends or fill out your bracket for the ncaa tournament for a chance to win a nissan rogue and a trip to the 2022 final four you can play on the cbs sports app or at cbssports.com slash brackets. You can also join our podcast bracket group called Morning Combat Brackets and compete against all of us here on the Morning Combat team to see who knows the best about March Madness and swiveling down 64 teams down to one NCAA champion in college basketball.

Remember when we smoked on the hookah before Bryce Drew shot in Jeff Hurd's garage in 98? Luke, we'll never forget that, right? Right. Woo! Woo! Yeah. Yeah, baby. Yeah.

All right. Hey, Luke, you want to do a little dead wrong here? You ready? I am ready to take my medicine, BC. Give it to me. I'm ready. Luke, a card-carrying marijuana medicinal member. Hey, Luke, what we do each week is sometimes we take the L,

and sometimes we straddle that L, and we sit right down on top of it. When our fans hit up morningcombat at gmail.com, they tell us what we got wrong, and they want us to pay the pauper. So here we go. This one's called Dead Wrong. Dead Wrong. This is our accountability segment, BC. Yeah, it is.

But sometimes we have to turn the tables back on the people. You know, I thought about that, though. Hold on. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. I thought about that for a second. I mean, you get what you pay for. We're asking the audience for free to fact check us.

You know, not the most rigorous people have been hired if through a very systematized process we're just letting you know hang out so you're getting what you get one of your favorite producers on the show cbs sports his own mikey more mile you've challenged him to send the names in right put put your name on it right we want to know that was that was you well yeah but it was based on your displeasure with the people. Oh, you know, you're going to come with the king. You best not miss there, Omar. All right.

All right, here we go. Tom is coming for us, Luke. He says on Friday's episode, Brian refers to The Wire season two, which he says he agrees with me. It's the sneaky best season of the five seasons of The Wire. Thank you, Tom. However, BC is dead wrong about Leon Sabatka's girlfriend. It was, did I say Leon? I don't think I said Leon.

He says it was Ziggy's cousin, Nick Sabatka, who had the live-in girlfriend that we all remember for two reasons, Luke, if you know what I mean, right? You remember those two reasons, Luke? I am familiar. Yes, thank you. They were famed. Nicky Sabatka, by the way, he had a cameo in season five, remember?

He kind of came back. He was protesting with the Longshoremen. I don't remember at this point, but you're probably right. Yeah, love season two. I'll take that L, Tom. I don't know if I called him Leon, but I do remember not remembering the name, so shout out to that. All right, Luke.

We have a lot of people that called us out for the next one greg jordan goran brett m and someone who calls himself that one guy on morning episode combat episode 130 where bc showed up fan fashionably late did that happen you were flying to puerto rico oh yeah okay i was late as balls yeah you're you're right. Luke said that the Bilal Muhammad eye poke happened in the first round, but it in fact happened 18 seconds into round two. Right.

Fair enough. Okay. Take the L, Luke. Take that shit. I will take it. Alright, take that. Okay. One more for you, Luke. This one's from Michael C. So thank you very much. Yeah, this one's good. Got one for Luke here. At one hour and 22 minutes of episode 131,

he was looking at a fan submission that came in from Juan from New Hampshire who had that spectacular basement theater with the baller home theater. Yes. He says the picture next to Juan's TV, wow, we got it referenced here, is of J-Lo or Elizabeth Shue from that semi-porno, Luke said, unquote.

Sorry, Luke. I'm almost certain due to the general style Juan is going for with that room that that is in fact a picture of Deadpool from the opening musical scene in the second movie. I really thought you'd have caught that one player. Loved the show. Couldn't resist getting one over on Luke. I hope he gets

mad wow wow i don't i'm gonna take i'm gonna get mad about motherfucking deadpool trivia like i'm not 14 but yeah he probably first of all shout out to juan in new hampshire and by the way juan i might make the couple hour drive up just to sit in this theater with you and whatever women you have in in your basement you know slaved and and tied to those chairs but i'll take the l as well luke that deadpool poster is obviously based on the flash dance movie of the yes you know i'm so excited and that's what i thought he was going for i've still never seen dead look should i see deadpool people keep referencing i honestly think i honestly think among any superhero movie it's it's kind of funny you haven't seen the pc because that's the one for you when i think of funny you haven't seen the bc because that's

the one for you when i think of like that shit i'm being i'm being i'm being 100 serious when i say bc i have a strong suspicion that you're gonna see it and go where have i been all this time that's the dude for you for sure okay i'll watch that maybe i'll watch that in juan's home theater luke right we should go to juan's home theater evict him take over his house torch it and then get the insurance money well don't go that far bro i was just saying we do a contest like wwf in your house and the winner gets to host an episode of this show in their damn house they have to feed us luke you think you think i'm playing i'm 100 down for that 100 down for that okay okay all right that's great uh luke also um didn't you and i get together for a little piece of business on the water there in

jersey city to get folks fired up for the conclusion of the Bellator Featherweight Tournament, the kickoff of the Bellator 8-Man 205-lb Grand Prix. I believe we have a promo to play to tease for this show, which is dropping early next week. Maneech, can you hit us with this, bro? In terms of that division itself, the actual players who were in there, you know, it's funny. I had my eye on a lot of different guys. I had my eye on Adam Boric. I had my eye on, obviously, A.J. McKee. You knew you had to watch out for what he was doing. And, of course, who could forget about the champ, Patricio Freyde.

When he put him in there, you knew it was going to be kind of special. But I didn't quite know how some of the other matchups were going to shake out, where guys who were previously good are going to fizzle. We know that the tournament is usually places where underdogs go to deliver some uncomfortable news to tournament favorites. But in the end, it's not, I have to say you would agree with me, right? It's not really surprising that the last three we have remaining are Sanchez, are Pitbull, and AJ McKee. That actually makes a lot of sense. Wow, a whole lot of Luke in that video but uh Luke we

look damn handsome right I have my moments on occasion they look good but we shot that at a nice restaurant in uh Jersey City I forget the name of it but they were very nice people it's a very nice place and we had some good convos uh we got this one and some other stuff headed your way don't want to spoil it but uh I'm excited to see what we have going on and i'm excited for april 2nd baby yeah luke just a fighter a fighter she's new on the card ufc card i i'm mispronouncing it i'm sure bc but this is serious julia julia i'm not sure pronounce it stole thearenko was weighing in and then fainted on the scales dude like 100% she stumbles and then just falls backwards and goes out yeah um check out Grubaka Hitman on Twitter I suspect that that fight is now off whoever she was set to face yeah that's

we really hope for the best for her physically on there we've seen scares of that another time aspen lad was teetering right on the scale there we don't want to see stuff like that luke uh to put a button on that bellator piece of business nice shot of the freedom tower behind us luke and i hope that uh you know our folks at showtime burns the footage of me needing 37 takes to say the name of that show luke i don't even know if they know what the name of that show is. In fairness, for folks who may not know this, you'll see some of the outtakes of this later at some point. They didn't know, oh, Jesus.

All right, well, this is a good moment for me to do this while Brian is getting reset. We had to do this stuff for Showtime. But even Showtime didn't know necessarily what it was going to be called one way or the other. There was a lot of names and a lot of creativity and a lot of ideas. So we had to record a bunch of, like we did the normal sit-down, but at the end and the beginning, we had to record a bunch of different versions

because we didn't know exactly what naming convention we were going to go with. And to say that this gave Brian, that gave Brian Campbell more trouble than explosive diarrhea from eating a pecan log at Stucky's on 95 South on the road to to North Carolina I mean it was it was a bit of a disaster for him right look I'm still not sure that you and produce super producer Matt Snyder weren't playing a organized joke on me to try to change the name of it constantly to try to get me to screw up and i don't know luke but uh here's the deal about us returning you and i to the kickoff of this bellator mma on showtime relationship april 2nd is obviously pitbull sanchez to uh alejandra lara by the way returning on that card as well

a big fan of her luke we will be in attendance that week uh setting the stage for what's happening and luke i I hear the documentarian, less than Jake, will also be allowed on the premises with a camera. So Luke, I know your involvement in these projects hasn't always been, you've delivered, your one-liners, your ability to put me down is fantastic, but your interest level hasn't always been there. I'm wondering though, if you've watched the second doc more than once and you realize, I mean, it was BC heavy. I mean, I wonder if there's a part of you going,

you know what, I got to put my big boy pants on. I got to get back into this, all right? I'm not really worried about you getting attention. I think it's good for the show, and I get plenty of attention. So I think it's good that you get attention. All right. Hopefully I can get a good road camera that works, Luke, okay?

Are we going to do a room service diaries yeah road sodas are welcome yes we will be uh we will be there do you know i haven't had a drink since the last one of those well we don't you know we can do an all edibles edition if that's legal i don't know if probably not legal in connecticut but i don't i don't know what the rules are for what showtime willow won't tolerate, but I haven't had a drink since. I have not had one sip of alcohol since. Meanwhile, Showtime's got a show called All the Smoke, and Luke's like, yeah, I'm not really sure what they'd tolerate. Yeah, sure, Luke, sure.

Okay. Okay, fair enough. Touche. Touche. There's another show coming up called Crank that they're developing. Yeah, but I don't know if we can. Yeah, all right. You're right.

Okay, fair enough. Luke, that's our show for the week i hope people enjoyed it uh you can start your 30-day trial as mentioned go to show.com slash bellator mma for that special deal first time subscribers only free for 30 days 4.99 a month after that you get the championship boxing you get that mini series action which i need luke to check out and you get the championship boxing. You get that miniseries action, which I need Luke to check out. And you get the exclusive home of Bellator MMA. Also, please, store.show.com is the only place right now to wear our cloth on you. We want you spreading that MK word. Look, the best way that you can tell your friends about what we do here on MK, which, by the way, I don't care if this isn't your favorite combat show.

One, it will be. Two, where's our competitors? Did they wake up early today and react to this news? They didn't, Luke, okay? So I need you wearing our clothes to let other people know. When you go to Walmart because you need a new ratchet set, I want people looking at your chest,

wondering your cup size, and wondering who the hell is Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell, right? Yep. Morningcombat at gmail.com is the place for your fan submissions, your dead wrong submissions, you know, all that good stuff. Also, Luke, your friends at the band Chevelle have reached out to me and shared their pleasantries.

Luke, they would love to have us backstage one day. Shout out to 92,000's Nu Metal new metal right let me just say something we get a chance to go do that we're gonna go do that that's that's just what it's gonna be i don't know when that's gonna happen i don't know how it's gonna happen i'm gonna get my vaccine asap i know you are probably as well i am hoping that we can make something like that happen if not this year maybe early 2022 luke i love the the cross-pollination we're getting in the music world your friends at cannibal corpse are aware of us you know who else I call him the best bassist on the planet hotel Burbridge you may have remembered him from the Allman Brothers Tedeschi Trucks band how about

dead in company along with Bob Ware and John Mayer hotels a huge fan of what we do here on the MK Luke he said he'd love to get us backstage at a dead show. Luke, I'd love to see your abortion rock ass jamming out jam band style with Bob Ware and me. What do you think? It would take a lot of drugs for me to do that. Take a lot of drugs. They do that.

Yeah, they do that at that show. Oh, okay. Then it sounds like exactly the right opportunity for me. Shout out to everyone who loves us because we love you back. Subscribe to this. Please like it. All that good stuff. There is our social channels below.

Look, we're at 81K and growing in terms of subscribers. But if you've been freeloading this show and not subscribing, please look, do it. All right? Because we want to take this. Look, what they need to understand as I close here, and I'm aggressive, I'm inside of the camera, is we want to do things that you will love. We want fight companions.

We want weird things to happen. They only happen if you get us above 100K. You get us to 500K where BC gets the MK tattoo. Keep spreading this. Super spread this, okay? Right? Just like UFC fans will do in Jacksonville in April, super spread the shit out of this show, okay?

Because it will come back to you. It will pay you back. Agreed. It will pay me to put braces on my kid's mouth, all right? Oh, your kids are going to get braces now? I had to get braces. Yeah, yeah, I've got teenagers. It's time, Luke.

It's time, okay? That's fine, though. Look, for the great staff here at Malka, CBS Sports Showtime, real happy, Luke, because I send them last minute a lot of video to throw on this show. So real happy with what they're doing. For my great co-host, Luke Thomas, I thank you for another week in the life of MK.

Luke, do you have any closing words for the people as we exit? I am going to watch. I started the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League last night. I'm going to hopefully finish that either tonight or tomorrow. Going to watch a bunch of fights and going to do a bunch of drugs. Going to do a bunch of drugs over the weekend. All right. I'm going to take my BDE energy, Luke,

and head up to the rainforest of Puerto Rico this weekend, okay? Got a little bit of off time. Hopefully, BC comes back in one piece. Yeah, it should be good. I'm going to enjoy it. Head out to Old San Juan. So if you're out there, give me a high five. All right.

A hot dog and a handjob for everyone. It is BC signing off with two words for the people. We out. This is not just another streaming app this is football football and this is the best of cbs sports on paramount plus live sports breaking news and a mountain of entertainment now streaming you you