MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Makhachev Stops Volkanovski | Chimeav Defeats Usman | UFC 294 Recap | Morning Kombat Ep 505

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

On Episode 505 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell recap UFC 294. Was it a mistake for Alexander Volkanovski to take this fight? What does the result of this fight mean for Volkanovski and Makhachev's legacies. How much did Khamzat Chimaev's stock improve with the win? Did Usman breathe life into the idea of him as a top middleweight? What happened in Ankalaev vs. Walker and what should they do with each fighter? As always the guys close out Monday's with Dm's from Donks and HYSTS. (00:13:00) - Islam Makhachev Stops Alexander Volkanovski (00:52:30) - Khamzat Chimaev vs. Kamaru Usman (01:19:00) - Ankalaev-Walker (01:28:20) - UFC 294 Doctors, Judges & Refs (01:34:00) - Biggest UFC 294 Prospect (01:38:00) - Dm's from Donks (01:47:45) - HYSTS Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Reveille, reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. 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. Yeah, we be tossing and flossing. Our style is awesome. Awesome.

I fucked that up. Jesus, what a dumb piece of shit I am. Hey, take two, right? Take two. Yeah, there we go. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Morning Combat, a post-UFC 294 bomb shelter edition. BC, boy, this looks unfamiliar to me back here.

Do you think this is the last time we ever stepped foot in this room? No, it's not the last one. But second to last, third to last. This feels like senior year, last week of school when you start cleaning out your locker. A little bit of that. A little bit of that, yeah. Hey, my buddy got me this in Cartagena. Can we get this, Tristan?

Can we zoom in on this? Cartagena. A friend of mine purchased this for me in Cartagena. Although I'm more of a Medellin. Medellin? Yeah, I've done more than that Medellin, right? Yeah. Right? Look at that. You just look like the biggest gringo on Earth.

There he is, Uncle Gringo. Hi, everyone. Luke Thomas, Uncle Gringo, Brian Campbell. We are here. A post-UFC 294 edition, a Monday morning combat back in the bomb shelter. When was the last time we did a Monday show here? I honestly cannot remember. Maybe our first episode. Yeah, it's been a while. It's been a while. So we have a lot to get to today. All of UFC 294 from the main to the co-main to the rest of the card. DMs, have you seen this shit the whole night? We have, because I was ambitious knowing that this could be the last time we step foot in this building, an ambitious pile of shit for you to sort through. I need to see just elderly abuse for hours.

Did I hear or did I not hear that Jake von Amsterdam is recording for the unreleased Doc 8 today? Yes, Jake von Amsterdam, world's biggest douchebag, is here. No, come on. That guy's an artiste. I'm just being mean. I'm just being mean. It's what I do. But yes, he's here. He's filming. We're getting some extra content for you today, but of course we have a big morning combat. Thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe. What's up? No gummies in my tummy, but my skin looks extra rock lobster today, doesn't it?

Any particular reason? Were you sunbathing yesterday or something? No, I just think that's what it starts to look at. Your body fails slowly, incrementally, right? There it is. Alright, yeah. I thought you said the doctors I am. I'm doing great in that. I am. No, I'm doing great. I'm doing great in my health right now. Also, it's the white balance because

I'm looking at you here and you don't look as sickly, but then I look on video and you look sickly. Yeah, it is. It's the Caucasian balance. Very non-supportive of our crew here, but thank you very much. We're going to make the whites look terrible. Alright, so we have a lot to get to today. We have an update

with OKBetBC. Why don't you tell them what the update is with OKBet? Why don't you tell them? You want to tell them? So for only the second time in OKBED history, one of us has gotten the golden sombrero, the 0 for 5 bagel for breakfast. Yes. And it wasn't Luke. So people want to know, BC, as soon as you catch the lead,

as soon as you finally pull ahead and get a taste, you go 0 and 5. That's true. But, Luke, I'm not going to stop betting with my heart. I'm not going to stop feeling. Well, then you're going to start going through the turnstile to see a dying fetus show. I'm not going to stop feeling those vibes because the thing that you don't understand is sometimes vibes win fights. Sometimes. That's true.

That's true. Just not very often. But when there's like a defending all-time great champion who like. Well, you know what? Vibes want to fight on this card. The Mike Breeden and Anshul Jubilee fight. Did you see this one where he was fucking barking at him? Yeah, I did. time great champion who like well you know what like vibes want to fight on this card the mike breeden and antral jubilee fight did you see this one where he was fucking barking yeah i did i did a little bit of vibes going on victor henry though that's bad vibes that is uh poor victor henry

geez louise the ref was like actually it hit your taint sir yeah okay he's like this is more of a butthole shot to learn to cope and i'm like, where did you go to medical school? But okay, neither here nor there. Let's remind everyone, Showtime.com. I mean, do we want to pitch the streaming service? It's free right now, by the way. Yeah, just get a free. You know what you should do is sign up for the free one like the week before the whole thing goes out of business. Is there, I don't know if looser is the right word yeah is

there uh looser women in medellin than in cartagena so what's funny is do i've told you about this before do you know what a passport bro is is that a guy who bangs in every land and territory yeah but only because he can't get banged here right so it's somebody who's maybe not so like tyson fury he can't currently currently can't bang here because of Kinahan, so he's... Yeah, I don't think it's that. What I mean to say is imagine you're like a dude and you're like a six here, okay? You could probably get some women, but you know, you're going to go hogging at the bar at the end of the night.

That's what you're going to do. Imagine you can get on a flight with a passport and go to a place where the women would be significantly more attractive and more higher in number. I'm not talking about business relationships, if you know what I mean. No, I'm talking about, oh, you mean like, so that would be like prepago. That would be like a hooker. I don't even mean that. I'm not looking to buy hook or crook. I'm looking for actual...

What I would say is that the ratio of women to men in Medellin is very, very high and there's dudes called passport bros who can't get laid in America, so they go overseas and flex, like flex what would be like obviously they can spend more in a place like that than they can here. They look a little bit better. It's called sex tourism. Yeah, and also it's weird.

Latin America is weird where women are expected to look amazing but men have zero expectations about how they're supposed to look. That explains a lot. Like I've said before, if you go to the gyms down there, it's only women it's only women there's no dudes which is the exact opposite here so anyway neither here nor

there uh let's remind everyone we got merch that's still kicking alive and kicking they got the bomber jacket we think about the bomber jacket bc looks so good how about this one i wore this i wore this on the train this morning got got some looks from uh suzy HR. Well, I would think so because that's disgusting. Anybody that would wear that shirt, even with our logo on it, it's telling. Why don't you pop that zit on your nose? I didn't think anyone would notice that. That's the first thing I noticed when I walked up on you. It could just be my rock lobster skin color that you're...

But BC, we've got the Average Joe art. Look at that. We've got the full thing going on. You can go to morningcombat.store. Okay, key question though because you know I love Average Joe art. Look at that. We've got the full thing going on. You can go to morningcombat.store. Okay, key question, though, because you know I love Average Joe art more than anything, but is that a proper representation of the American flag on that luchador mask? You know what I mean, Luke? Well, I don't know that it's the American colors.

I don't know if he's doing the flag. Okay, because I'm okay with that. I'll put the American flag across my ass cheeks if needed. Yeah, I know. You'll shit on it quite literally because you're Osama bin Campbell. That's really what you do. Osama Brian Campbell is really the thing. Yeah, I know. You'll shit on it quite literally because you're Osama bin Campbell. That's really what you do. Osama Brian Campbell is really the thing. I treat the flag with reverence,

but you don't. That's the difference between us. Well, no, the difference between us is that you stand to wipe, which is so weird. Yeah, I like to get clean. I like to do a Romanian deadlift to get clean, if you know what I'm saying.

Is that what they call it? Yeah. Anything else we have to plug? Anything else we have to plug? Oh, thanks to everyone who watched the post-fight show. It did well. There's an extra credit they can get when we talk about nothing. BCI went through it.

If you pick a judging issue, a reffing issue, a fouling issue, or anything, every single fight on the prelim card had a problem. Every single fight. Yeah, and I saw Brownsteader tweet out that the main card only had 24 minutes of cage action. Nothing. It was one decision, and the Komei and the Hamza, everything else was early finishes, weird finishes. Yeah, they got to get the commission together. They were self-regulating.

Is it true that they're self-regulating? Yes, for now. There are attempts to create the architecture for an independent— Can't you just call Mazzulli? So here's what's funny. I think when Bellator goes on the road, they do. They do. The Mohegan Tribe Commission essentially

extends their territories and goes around the world. We'll talk about some of the issues. Three fighters having staff. I mean, it's just... No, but not just any staff. Ass staff. Well, okay. Ass staff is certainly on the table.

There's other kinds of staff also on that table, like genital staff, right? I don't think you could rule that out based on what she said, right? Blood is on the table. The fire is cooking. You're a disgusting man. I'm not the one with ass staff, so I'm not that disgusting. Neither am I. What's grosser, okay?

All right. First of all, who had the ass staff on Saturday? If it was anybody, it was Victoria Dudakova. Would it be more disgusting to fight Saturday's version of Victoria Dudakova or three years ago's version of Justine Kish in a fight? Or what if they fought each other, Luke? I think you would need the wet wipes that I have for Tukey no matter what. You know what I'm saying?

No matter what. Who do you think is my coffee runner today? Because I'm aggressively tearing through this guy. Well, I got to say, everyone is already on their phones, so that's going to be hard to tell, you know? All right. Jake, bartender Joe Boo needs a refill. All right.

Thank you. Up your butt, Joe Boo. Remember that one? That was a good one from League of Their Own. You can follow us on the socials. Or from Major League. Major League. Yeah, whatever.

I got it right. There's no crying in women's baseball. There is all of the socials right there. You can follow us. Look, I have loved doing this show. Me too. I think we should continue it. Yeah, we should continue it.

Just probably not here. Just not in this room. Yeah. Just not in this room. Do you ever think of the memories? I watched the full. Four and a half it. Yeah, we should continue it. Just probably not here. Just not in this room. Yeah. Yeah. Just not in this room. Do you ever think of the memories? I watched the full. Four and a half years? Yeah, yeah.

I've watched the full 50 Greatest Hits, and I've gone down memory lane a few times. Does this feel like we're like, we've graduated, we're moving out of the dorms, we look back at our, you know, angsty young age. Yeah, but this feels like we're moving out of the dorms back into our parents' house. Yes. You know what I'm saying? Yes. We're sleeping on the couch and eating Hot Pockets all day is really what it comes down to.

All right. If my family perished in a fiery auto crash, it would be the worst thing that could happen. God damn. Why are you starting a day like that? That's probably not a good transition. All right. Let's keep going. What the hell are you doing?

Now it's time to break down UFC 294. Here we go. Beginning with ass stab. Last thing. BC hates when I do this. Personal channel. There's a breakdown of the main break down UFC 294. Here we go. Beginning with Ask Staff. Last thing, BC hates when I do this. Personal channel, there's a breakdown of the main event from UFC 294. Oh, the competitors you're talking about? I'm sure they can watch Ariel today if they want. I would love to know what evidence you have that in anything I've done on that channel

has done anything other than promote this one. I would love to know what that is. We can have talks offline. All right. Neither here nor there. Let's get this party started. I did the post-fight show, but we've not heard from this one. I would love to know what that is. We can have talks offline. All right. Neither here nor there. Let's get this party started. I did the post-fight show, but we've not heard from this gentleman. Unless you watch CBS Sports HQ, you heard a lot, all right?

Okay. But, you know. Can I get to the goddamn start, please? Here we go. Topic number one. Topic number one. Islam Makhachev, ladies and gentlemen, what can be said. Basically, I think this is a fair description, easily dispatches Alexander Volkanovsky winning via head kick at 3-0-6 of round number one.

There are a lot of things to discuss here. Of course, Islam remains your lightweight champion. BC, let's start the conversation here. Yes. Number one, give me your reaction to the win. And then secondly, as Jake Vaughn, look at this. Look at this. Jake, you put sugar in there, too, and cream?

Wow. This guy knows how I take my coffee. If you did anything other than dip your balls in that, you're fired. All right. Do you know I like my coffee just like I like my women? White? All right. BC, reaction to the fight overall.

And bigger question, without doubt, Islam Makachev is number one pound yeah i think that's what this this accomplished and i get that the ufc has had john jones since he sat on gone for a minute and a half and won that fight and i have nothing bad to say about john jones i in fact i'll tell you he's the greatest fighter of all time but in the greatest ranking countdown of who's the best fighter in the moment i was happy for islam makv. I know that this shh that he did afterwards producing that incredibly cold photo of Volkanovski behind him was more of the reaction in the post-fight interview that a lot of the fighters had, sort of talking down the war going on in the extended regions and focusing more on let's just leave fighting as is. But that shh was also cold in

the standpoint of what Mahachev was here to accomplish, to prove to everybody that the first fight was not some situation where Volkanovski is on his level. Here's what I love about Mahachev at the end of the day, that say what you will about whatever he's into outside the cage. When it comes down to business, almost in like a Floyd way, this guy is all about business. To hear him say, look, the first time around in Australia when we fought, not everything went my way in terms of the timing, the setup, how they did weigh-ins, all this stuff in terms of that. And I think Mahachev gutted out that first fight in some ways, we're finding out.

Well, this time when it was more on even terms for him, not even terms for Volkanovski, but Volkanovski's choice, right? Then I don't think we even mention in this case, the turnaround on 12 days. We have a whole nother arc and angle to talk about on Volkanovski on his mental state and all of that. But what did I learn in this fight? That with a bullet, number one, the best fighter in the world is Zislam Mahachev, who has now proven it twice over Volkanovski, only this time he did it in near perfection, Luke. Keeping him away at distance, hitting him with hard strikes, which really kind of forced Volkanovski into like a little bit of a shell,

and then finishing him viciously with a strike that left no doubt, no debate. Who's the best in the world? It's that guy. And I know that I got irregularly or wrongly labeled as a Habib hater in this space. You're not a Habib hater, but you're like a Habib skeptic. No, I'm the one who fought you that Habib has a shot at goat ship for what he's accomplished in his life. But if you're looking at Mahachev still in the shadow of Habib, boy, was this a big win to escape that shadow, to separate these two from each other.

I'm not saying that Mahachev is now higher than Habib in any sort of all-time ranking. I'm just saying that what he's accomplishing on his own, this fight was the perfect example of how great he is. And the reason why I don't think we can lean on that 12-day turnaround and all that for Volkanovski was who was more confident that he was going to go in there and knock out Mahachev? Volkanovski was. And the fact that Islam went there as the taller, longer fighter,

leaned onto his strengths and did something to volkanovski that nobody else does yeah he's the best fighter in the world luke what's that's the end of the discussion right there and i get people responding to me like crazy and i get that like fan interest a lot of times is linked into national nationality or or country and all that but so many people going yeah man that's that's real great that he went in there against us no that smaller fighter was confident as shit to the point that he tricked me luke into believing that this was possible take away the size take away the short turnaround he fixed the glitch from that first will you now admit and maybe you maybe you weren't hard against this but i think some other folks might have been i mean i was hard first of all i bet

you were during that dudakova and Jinyufre fight. But in terms of this fight, do you now admit that Islam, like looking back at the first fight, it was 4-1 Islam. Looking at this fight, this was Islam's fight the first time. The second time, he was the better guy. He was the better guy everywhere. Yeah, I think he— You asked me the first time who did better in the striking and again i know the first fight is a little more debatable it was five rounds i get it i think he gave volk too much respect in the first fight too i think he did i think that's exactly

right everyone talked about volkanovski giving him too much respect and maybe that's true i'm not saying that's not true but the opposite was true but here's what you can say he acted like the bigger man he walked in there and definitively definitively as good as volkski is, and we have nothing but good things to say about his ability. By the way, still champion at 145, undefeated at 145. But in this rivalry, Makachev is better everywhere. He's better everywhere. He's better on the ground. He's better at range.

He's better in the clinch. Better everywhere. And it's time to, like, really respect that. And, B.C., you talk about the Habib thing. You know, listen, Makachev even afterwards is still kind of like he kind of talks almost like a fax machine yes you know there's not really a lot of charisma to it in a way that habib could command attention i've never seen habib strike like that now maybe habib's got the most impressive ground game display over his rivals that we've ever seen. That's certainly debatable too, but he's in that conversation.

But this was a time where I felt like Makachev, you were so right, moved out of the Habib shadow, like really began to show, here's what I'm about. He can do a lot of the other things that Habib can do, some of it, most of it, but he's got a whole other range. And by the way, not a combination striker. Did you notice that? I did.

Single shot, single shot, single shot, and they all land. So obviously, Luke, I want to spin this back at you. The finishing kick, the high left kick, it was something that they obviously seemed to scout, even Volkanovski in the press conference afterwards saying, look, fair game, man. They must have saw something in my game. He thought he was going to block it, and it kind of looped over.

Did you see earlier he just missed it? Yes, at 358 of round one. Where Volkanovski's head was sort of already in motion to try to set up a punch and he sort of kind of at the last minute got out of the way no it did hit him but just not that was telling that that he was that close um it's interesting here luke maybe separate from the mental side of this for volkanovsky but still in this realm it's almost as if man he just bit down on himself meaning vol Volkanovski was like, he said, I back myself. I'm going to win this no matter what.

And nothing else mattered. I'm going to win this. And yet it was the guy that we almost weren't talking about this whole build, right? I mean, obviously we weren't talking about Islam a lot because it was all about what Volkanovski was doing to save this card, save this event, dare to be great. I still appreciate the dare to be great element of Volkanovski. But man, did it catch up with him

in terms of, I don't count the short turnaround against him because meaning like, I don't use that as an excuse to why he lost. He signed up for it. He was confident. End of story. He would have willingly taken the, he would have willingly taken the second title and the, in the upper room status and all that, that would have come with it. So we have to flip it around on him when it doesn't go his way. It disastrously didn't go his way. And it was odd to see not a simple strike, but a strike that he himself said, I saw it coming. I thought I was going to block it.

And I didn't. That was a little surprising for somebody that great. So I want to say three things. And then I'm going to ask you a question to follow up on it. Like what were three things that really won Volkanovski, or excuse me, won Makachev the fight and i would say uh everyone knows the one of them which was he was going low and then going to the middle he went high once but then going low going front kick right sort of all these body attacks all these leg attacks there's numbers to this effect if you look at

the targeting from fight metric from fight one to fight two you can see he actually very much dials back the head and prefers to go to the body. But everyone saw that one. But there was two more components that were really interesting if you go and watch the first fight. In the first fight, Makachev was very willing to move to his own left side, which was his power side. But this time he was throwing constantly from that side. His activity went up. So he closed the door on Volkanovski moving that way. So Volkanovski wants to move to his outside.

He cut that off too. So now he's cut him off. And then the last part was, if you actually go back to watch the last like 20 seconds, he feints Volkanovski constantly back to the fence. In other cases where he was going to the body or even the head, there was times where Volkanovski was able to simply step back. But when he got up against that fence, you can see he has to, by the way, he didn't see it coming to the head. If you watch it in slow motion,

he backs his hips out, which is a common way to get away from a body kick or something like that. And his hand doesn't do a good job of blocking it. The one that he threw at 358, his hand caught it a little bit, which is why it slowed it down. But the point I'm trying to make is,

Islam was very good about corralling him. Islam was very good about using the fence to make him plant and defend and then tricked him with going low, low, low, then high. So this was a Islam who was very sophisticated, very smart, dialing up what he needed to, dialing down what he needed to from the first fight. Volkanovski landing a whopping total four significant strikes in round one islam in round one of the first fight 10 of 16 round one of this fight 24 of 29 damn so first of all that's just incredible efficiency uh and and violent and that's how the fight ended when we look at what volkanovski didn't do i mentioned that he said afterwards that like you know he he reiterated in the post by press conference i told you guys my goal was to come in here and hurt him and that that was his plan he thought he was going to catch him is what he said he thought he was going to set up the

perfect strike and catch him what volkanovsky also said though was he was surprised at his own inability to essentially launch that mahachev early on was showing him looks that forced him to hide behind i think if you're mahachev this was perfect strategy for him and his team they knew that volkanovsky was going to have to get out of character to win this fight unless he was rusing us and setting up a big lie. So the distance control as the bigger, longer man was so key in that. Only the distance control didn't ultimately set up the opening for why Volkanovski exited. Volkanovski just got caught on a perfect strike that, that Machev set up.

But when you look at Volkanovski, and if we can't use the short turnaround as an excuse, are you then going to dump on him for being a genius fighter, being a guy that I actually picked to win because I bought so in on what he was saying, his failure to let his hands go when in theory he needed a stoppage to win without five-round cardio, this has to be as disappointing as possible. I mean, he didn't—I'm glad that this wasn't a cardio issue or why he lost. We don't have excuses. Right. But at the same time, he did not show up in the three-plus minutes that we saw right here.

He didn't put his best foot forward. All he did was defend a single takedown, essentially. Yeah, he had a little bit of punching in the clinch. He reversed position in the clinch, which I thought was nice. He did do that. But if you're coming in and you don't know if you have 25 minutes to get in there and we know you're going to have to get down with this guy, you essentially spent four minutes standing here cocking your fist and doing nothing.

That's out of character for a guy that smart to lose this way. That's really what I'm saying. So I think that's a fair point. So I would point to two factors. One, Islam had a really – him and his team had a great strategy and they implemented it very well he had no hesitation from the word go uh and one of the sort of point bc like go back to it for example at range we're already telling you that islam is more active so he's throwing more making you defend more that's one big part of it he got the takedown or he attempted to take down early which

volkanovsky stuff but then he just walked him back to the fence. He walks him back to the fence twice in this fight. One thing I want to point out about this is when he was able to get off the cage, there was one time they got away. Another time, as soon as he broke off, Islam went right to the clinch. I have to give credit. And I think everybody has to give credit to Islam for putting Volkanovsky consistently in must-defend positions. If he's shooting, you have to defend. If he's locking up with you with a clinch, you have to defend. If he's throwing the leg kicks or any kind of kicks, really, you have to defend. In that sense, he never let Volkanovsky get going.

But there's another component to me, and I know it's hard to quantify. This is just a guess. But to me, man, it was a tragic fucking mistake to take this fight on 12 days notice. I think it was a huge mistake, personally speaking. All right, break it down. Break it down. What do you got? It's easy.

It's obviously so easy to say now with that type of ending. Sure, sure, sure. I mean, I didn't know he was going to win that easily. Certainly, I thought he was going to be able to win, and thought when you know without controversy but not that did you think it was going to go the distance in your heart of hearts yeah yeah it did i thought islam would win three or four rounds again you know something like that um but you know holy shit here's what i think first of all uh to borrow from stephen breadman edwards did you notice how and it's understandable a was up a weight class b it's 12 days notice.

He had some loose change on him. He did. He had some loose change. He had some loose skin, obviously, because he wasn't in impeccable shape. I think there's something to be said for that. But more to the point, I think it's hard to competitively dial in. This is why you need a full camp because you need all the repetitions to be second nature. You need everything to fire when it's supposed to fire. And if you're just coming off the couch, it's hard to steal yourself for that moment, to be prepared,

to know what the game plan is, to know what to execute. So I give him credit. I still think he does a good job of defending the grappling aspects of Makachev's game. He flew Craig Jones down there instantly when they booked this fight. I thought he might improve on the wrestling instincts that he showed in the first fight. At the very least, the one good thing he did was stuff an early take. Stuff a takedown, and again, he reversed position using his head, using his frame, and then using his head. He did some good work in that way. It wasn't

like this was a total loss, but he never got his offense going. Again, for reasons that I think Makachev put him there, but I also believe that that 12 days also did not put him in the appropriate competitive mindset and BC now he has a situation where he gets viciously KO'd and he said he wanted to come back and fight Ilya Teporia in January according to Mike Bond of MMA Junkie the because the UFC is self-regulating here they gave him a 45-day suspension now he can

get that lifted earlier but in all likelihood it'll probably go the full distance yeah technically how the rule works is all you have to do is get dr clearance because i know this from when michael bisping got submitted by gsp and turned around less than two months later again less than like two weeks three weeks later against kelvin gastelum they just gave him an extra checkup and he was fine and then he right which ultimately proved to be bullshit because he clearly was compromised when he went to go fight gastelum but the point i'm trying to make is it puts it very, very dicey with Teporia. Now, I want to talk about that in just a second, but I do want you to answer this question. If you disagree by all means, say so.

Was it a mistake for Volk to take this fight? Because is that what everyone's going to say? Here's my honest answer. Hey, you never know. You never know. If they give you a chance to unify, you've got to do it, and I understand that. But now looking at the results, he was not prepared for that. My answer at Saturday afternoon before the start of the fight would have been, it's worth it.

Who knows if this fight would have been able to get made given the bottleneck of both divisions. You only get certain chances to really double on your legacy resume and ultimately your financial status, which is what taking this fight did for Volkanovski. So coming in, I would have said, yes, it's worth it. You only get certain chances to make calculated risks that can lead to so much more then luke thomas i watched his post-fight interview which we're going to show right now from the press conference and boy did my mindset and reaction change hear it for yourself and we'll react to it again he's not somebody you should be taking a short notice with, but I needed it.

Again, obviously a lot of people will say it's for the money and all that, but it was much more than that. It is hard, it really is hard for athletes. I never thought I'd struggle with it, but I mean, like, for some reason, when I wasn't fighting or in camp... Fuck, sorry. I'd just do my head in, you know what I mean? I needed a fight, and then this opportunity come up, and, you know, I'll be honest,

I wasn't training as much as I should have, but I thought I had to, you know, I had to do it. I had to take it. I had to take it. I thought it would be, you know, I'm telling myself it's meant to be. Obviously, I was struggling a little bit, not fighting. Doing my head in, I don't know how. Everything's fine. I've got a beautiful family.

But I don't know. You know, you just need to keep busy. So that's why, you know, I just ask the UFC to, you know, just keep me busy. Because, you know, I need to be keeping busy because I need to be keeping busy. I need to be in camp. Otherwise, I'm going to do my head in. Yeah, so this is not good. This is almost like a cry for help, and I'm not downplaying any elements of the mental health reveal.

In fact, I applaud Alexander Volkanovsky because nobody is talking about this type of thing enough. But, Luke, he didn't come out and said, look, it was worth it no matter what, because you only get that one shot sometimes to get true greatness. He came out and said, I accepted this fight because not fighting was essentially, he said, doing his head in,

which means it was essentially making him stir crazy. It was activating the negative side of his mental health, probably anxiety, probably some level of depression, all that mixed in. That's the wrong reaction in my eyes in particular to take a fight this dangerous, this important when the root reason is an obvious sort of imbalance with his own character and sort of understanding his own identity. Look, what is the thing when I get real? I mean, I talk a lot of bullshit, but when I get real about life, being a man, carrying a job, you know, raising and supporting a family, the biggest fear in my life without question

is getting laid off. Why? Because there's a potential to have a financial lapse where you're panicking and struggling to feed your family? Yes. But more than that, Luke, I worry like a lot of people that my identity is so tied into this job and the fringe benefits of it or the attention I get or whatever, that if you took it away from me, who am I? Do I register and identify as dad and husband first,

my two most important roles? Or do I look at myself as some sort of like, you know, performer, artist, player in this game? My work is a lot less dangerous than Volkanovski's work. And if his work decision-making was heavily compromised by a thing that I'm not going to hold against him, some level of attack of mental health, some level of not really knowing for sure who he is or what he should be focused on. Look, he's going stir crazy as an active fighter, as a guy who's fought what, like six times in 18 months, as a guy who fought once in 20 and once in 21, did Alex Volkanovsky. But since the start of 2022 has fought five times now, this guy's more active than normal stars. And he's basically saying, I accepted this fight because I needed something, something to get behind, something to identify with.

Again, I don't damn that these are problems that he's facing with. I'm damning, in this case, the decision-making here. He said it himself. You don't take a short-notice fight against that guy. Luke, if he had said, look, my ball's got a little bit too big, I was reading my own headlines too much, I thought I could do anything, and I found out I couldn't, you would understand that.

This, unfortunately, is some level of a cry for help, where if I'm UFC, the best prescription I'd give him is no. Don't come back in January against Teporia in Toronto headlining a pay-per-view hoping that your scar tissue has healed on the cuts you suffered over both eyes. Take some time off and figure out the root cause of this because he's never going to be back as a truly whole and healthy man, which would then fuel the healthy fighter he could be unless he figures out whatever this is. I don't damn him for having this issue, but that's a monster cry for help for me when you're breaking down in tears afterwards and you're saying, look, I only kind of took this fight because I couldn't deal with my own mind if I didn't.

Luke, how do you address to that? Because we have a heart for this man in this, but also that's a really poor decision. He's a human being. So to the point that you're raising, I think it's all well said, which you said there, which is, by the way, I saw a lot of fighters on social media afterwards saying, I've had the exact same feeling, right? When you have a fight on the books and you're training, you have purpose, you have identity, you have goals. Everything is focused on that. Your life all of a sudden becomes centered and understandable and everything and then we take that away it puts everything into question that's sort of what you saw here i saw someone else on twitter say this and i cannot remember

who it was so please forgive me but it's not my idea it's somebody else's they were also wondering you know maybe volkanovsky is also wrestling this is just a guess but could he also be wrestling with the fact that he probably knows that his time at the top of the game is not over oh he knows about the stat not this well the 35 year old stat very much in in uh stays in place um again but you damn you damn grim reaper like for example if people were talking about the ea curse and it's like oh everyone gets on the ea curse and you know i what does this mean i had somebody write me who is a, I'll say this, a famous person in the fight game. This is what they wrote.

They wrote to me over the weekend something that I think is actually pretty interesting. I'm explaining exactly why that's the way that it is. Let me show this to you here. Give me just a second here. I had it at the top. God damn it. I had this thing at the top and now. Is this a male or a female?

Well, I mean, are there any very powerful people in the fight game who are women? This is a very closed off industry. Yes, Laura Sango. All of a sudden now I can't fucking find it. But the point being is what this person wrote to me was the reason why there's a curse is, of course, there's nothing that has to do with EA. It has nothing to do with the video game. But by the time you get selected to be on that cover that means you've probably been in your prime two to three years sure and then when they put it on you finally

you're actually closer to the end of your prime and that's when all the problems begin to emerge it's nothing that has to do magically it's just a function of timing and there's a subconscious this person theorized there's a subconscious probably worry that volkanovsky has about how much time is left what he's going to be able to do with it. Is it coming to the close? And he's might be wrestling with all of this uncertainty. And to the point that you raise, these are thoughts I've had as well. Like if all of this got taken away, what would I do? I, I know I could do other things, but, uh, this is the only thing I've ever tried to do as a craft to genuinely get good at. And everyone can make a decision about how good I've gotten,

but I've at least spent time working on this year after year after year after year. If you took it away, I could do other jobs. I don't know if I could do other jobs that make me feel like me. And I can't imagine as a fighter where that limit is much more severe and the consequences are much more um dire that you would have to wrestle with that so i agree like i'm just gonna say this if anyone from volkanovsky's team sees this or hears this listen you guys know him better than we do i think it is a huge mistake to try and come back and fight ilia toporia in january for any number of reasons you could even take away the component that you've addressed just getting concussed in the way that he did and then coming back against a devastating striker if i'll say it

right now on the record if volkanovsky tries to fight in january against to pour you you can mark me down for to pour you now you can mark him back for you now i think that would be a huge mistake to take that fight yeah just like you wouldn't want to fight Volk on Islam on no notice, would you want to fight Ilya Teporia on two months notice, fresh off of a knockout loss? No. So this is, to be fair, this is kind of the first

misstep we've seen of Volk at this level. Yes, he did lose to Bahachev, but it was sort of above his natural weight. Sorry, one more thing. I apologize. I think the thing you said is the most important, which is if he took this fight for glory, if he took this fight because he genuinely believed he could win, there probably is some of that involved. That fueled a large part of this. Of course. It fuels all these fighters who are great.

And he is great. But the point that you raised was maybe some of the bigger motivation for taking this was kind of an act of desperation. Yes. And if you cannot fight Makachev as an act of desperation, especially with short notice. Look, even if him admitting if he had gone, if the truth was that he got a little bit too big for himself and he admitted, like, look, I just started to believe that I was like Superman, I'm not going to hold that against him. Because to accomplish things that people don't think you can accomplish,

you've got to be a little bit off. You got to be a little crazy. You can't see things in a rational way. You have to essentially operate irrationally because you're bringing the walls out. You're raising the roof of what's possible. But that wasn't in this case. There were major red flags, in my opinion, as to why he took the fight and the timing that he did. So I'm hoping here that Alex can get all of that settled,

take some time off, rest his mind, rest his body, put in some time with the family, and, you know, some long walks and try to just figure this out. You know what I mean? Whatever, I don't pretend to know Alex or know whatever his base of beliefs are, but whatever it is, milk that, get in that,

work through that. But just think about this for a second, dude. Imagine you're Volkanovski, which is impossible for us to do. But like, like you know we are proud of what we've done with mk but imagine you're so good at your job that basically everyone or most people tell you certainly a lot of people your own home country tells you this that you're the best in the world at what you do you know you're gonna fight like hell to hold on to all of that sure that's gonna i mean imagine like the kind of focus just to get there that you have

to put in. That's one thing. But then everyone begins to tell you that. I don't mean to blow up his head, but I mean how he must covet that, how much he must want to retain that, how much he must find an identity and purpose and joy in that. I can understand how that could lead to what I would call, well, I think what you're basically pointing out is dysfunctional decision-making. Look, when you are imbalanced, and again,

I'm not speaking to Alex's balance of family and work and all of that, but I know from my own experience, when you are imbalanced, when I'm trying to, look, I eat, breathe shit morning combat, right? It's a different level than a fighter who's putting their body on the line. But would you agree that, you know, in your own walk, when you are imbalanced and putting too much focus on the job, the fear, the angst, the planning, and maybe not wife, kids, keep up the house, when the balance is off, you're going to find dysfunction. You're going to find major pockets of that. Bad shit starts happening. Exactly.

So I fear for that in this case for Volkanovski. I still commend him for taking a big swing, but now we're finding out the reasons behind the big swing, and then you mix that with just not a great performance. Not a good performance at all, really. You know what I mean? A disastrous performance. It doesn't take away from everything Islam Mahatchev accomplished,

and that's why I led with that. But this is time for Alex to not put a Band-Aid over the wound, but to take some time and walk it out and heal it out. Look, I'm sorry. Tupori can wait. I know everybody wants to be a company guy. Everybody wants to get the big payment. It can wait.

Yeah, it can definitely wait. Your health long-term and, you know, whoever you have to fight, whether it's Tupori or Max, either one of those is going to be tough as shit, right? So let's talk about – well well let's think about that uh bc question for you we kind of have an idea but let's explicitly state it what does this result do to the legacies of both guys now of course let's be clear the legacy is the sum total this just adds another chapter to it but what does it do and when you're in your prime you're only as good as your last fight in this game because these guys fight so uh sparingly in the large picture but for maha chev look it's absolutely huge it's it's the cementing double down for me of that's the best fighter in the large picture. But for Makhachev, look, it's absolutely huge. It's the cementing double down for me

of that's the best fighter in the world, pound for pound. No disrespect to Jones or anybody else in this conversation, but that's the guy. He now has two wins over Volkanovski, including one by no controversy, devastating stoppage. No one's ever done that before. And by the way, he won the title against the greatest finisher in the history of the sport

and absolutely dominated him in doing it so luke for everyone that has said because of the way islam came to the title heavily under habib's sort of you know arm around him as that's our next guy maybe he didn't fight as many elite guys on the way up he could not have fought three any more elite opponents than he did in his last three fights volkanovski twice and now Olivera so he's number one with a bullet and I think he's gonna have a big opportunity now whether that's bring on the next big names and it could be some of these aging names still lingering like a Justin Gaethje whatever at lightweight or his hopes and goals which he keeps stating of

going up to welterweight himself and maybe eventually fighting the champion there and trying to become a two-division champion. This was everything Mahachev needed. Because look, if he goes out here and he loses by upset, what are you going to look at him? You're going to be like, that's Habib's boy who, it wasn't Habib. He couldn't hold it together, which it's barely impossible to hold it together and defend titles multiple times in divisions that are this stacked.

But this was so huge to his critical resume that I got really upset at anybody who responded with, oh yeah, he beats a smaller guy in 12 days' notice. Great win. No, it's actually a great fucking win. On the flip side. Did we not – did I not caution people? And I know everyone hates it.

I told you so, shit. Well, you are the king of I told you so. Fine, fine. You love it. Absolutely true. That's what this USADA thing was about. It wasn't about USADA. It was about I told you so.

Oh, 100%. Guilty as charged. Guilty as charged. But BC, I'm just saying this. There was not enough countenance of the negative potential of this. I think everyone was drunk on the upside, and there was

not enough countenance of the downside. And now, and now, and now, and now, and now, the downside has arrived, and it's time to reckon with it. I know, but you are now talking with a lot of confidence after we watched that video, which I do think explains a good amount of it. Sure, absolutely. Now look, just for the record, he may have lost to Islam head to head under any circumstance.

I'm not debating that, but I'm saying the way that this went down and then watching that video, it's kind of hard to do that. I told you so now but i get your point where it's not that there was no risk but i do think he took a swing meaning volkanovski big enough that if you're going to have the potential to double down your legacy and resume and all that then what does it do on the flip side when you get knocked out in the way he did it it humanizes him and i and fighters hate to hear that especially fighters like volkanovski who was looking not human you beat that version of max holloway three times and kick his ass and bloody him in the third fight. That's not human. Okay.

The run that he's been on is not human. I was cheerleading his chance to become a two-division champion and essentially immortality. It didn't happen. So, Luke, the reality now, whether you want to sit here and say I told you so or not, and yes, to some degree you do have the room to say that, is how human. Is the reality now that he's an aging champion in a tough division and there's a bunch of killers lining up? Is that how quickly it goes from if he had won, we would have been putting him up in that Habib category.

We would have been putting him up in the Jon Jones category. So now he didn't. So what is he, just another great fighter, Luke? No. Well, I mean, he is a great fighter, yes. He's still one of the greatest fighters I've ever seen. That's not into contention. Yeah, again, let's see what happens with 145 going forward.

But right now what we can say very confidently, he's either the very best to have done it or right at the peak, depending on who you want to give it to, whether it's him or Aldo or whatever. But he's the most talented guy I've ever seen in 145 far and away, far and away. So that is very much held together. None of this to me changes any of what he's done in his natural weight class. Again, given the circumstances, up a weight class on incredibly short notice, what are you really going to get?

But I will say, BC, what he was knocking on the door of, of being an all-time great, of being more than just a divisional great, that has gone up in smoke. This is what I mean. There are major consequences to losing bouts like this, even if you take it on suboptimal things and bc the reason why i think it's important to have a little bit of this conversation is it's not just that folks were drunk on the upside of what volk could do which i think is understandable it was remember what dana and islam and all these guys were saying well you know this is what champions do if you're

a champion you got to fight on short notice, you've got to do whatever. And it worked out great for Islam, but of course Volkanovski's a champion as well. It's not true that champions should fight anyone on any condition. No, you should be fighting the toughest guys. That's true, but you should be doing it with adequate prep or adequate mental space. The kind of things, the kind of worrisome signs you're highlighting, BC, I think are very, very warranted. If you're having those kinds of things go through your mind, it's not going to put you

in the best competitive space to win. This idea that you can just win by will or just because of what you've done before, it's simply not true. That's aping what the promoter wants you to do. The promoter wants you to take these fights under suboptimal conditions to deliver for them and the fans. Sometimes we grant. It works out. Sometimes it works out great.

But this is a clear scenario where, again, the fighter made some decisions that has nothing to do with that, that, you know, we're also suboptimal. But I really hope folks examine this logic. Oh, remember what we were saying? The card is better now on paper. Yeah, it still was. It still was better on paper. I don't think that's right. It still was better on paper. I don't think that's right. I don't think you can look at what happened after the fact and say that was better than it was. Okay, but we're not after the fact.

We're saying on paper. That's why the on paper was part of the sentence. On paper, it was better, Luke. I know we can hindsight after. So what I'm saying is after the fact, can you really look back and be like, oh, that was a better version of what we were ultimately supposed to get? I don't think you can. I don't think you can say that. It was clear in certain ways.

It was good in a lot of other ways. But like, this was better than what we were originally scheduled to have. You got a washout in the main event from a guy who wasn't ready at all to compete, and you got a fine co-main event, and then the ref fucked up the guy, the thing in the... There was a lot of ref and doctor fuck-ups. We're going to get to that.

As much as there was a lot of undiagn fuck-ups we're gonna get to that as much as there was a lot of that either either either way either way bc um you know a very difficult scenario i gotta ask you a very important question please please how much do you think is our volkanovski got paid for saving this card hard to say like let's try to make it worth it financially do you think it was worth it all things considered mental health the the fact that he went from a possible immortal to now a human but great champion, is it all worth it? What do you think the bottom dollar was? Based on what I've heard from what other guys have gotten for short notice, this is just going to be a guess. And it could be high. It could be low.

Just a guess. I'm going to guess somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple million in addition to what he was already going to get. Okay, then what do you think he made, for example, against Yair Rodriguez in his last headlining title? It's hard to say because I don't know what the pay-per-view buy rate. Was that the headliner when he fought Yair? I believe it was. I believe that. I have to go back.

I mean, he's the best fighter in the sport. He should be headlining pay-per-views. So you're saying he made, let's just guess, against Yair, it may have been like a million on paper, then plus bonuses. Yeah, so i mean maybe closer to two or three before pay-per-view uh by would you say that he took home in totality what i'm saying is what i'm saying is before pay-per-view buys he's probably going to get an additional two million on top of what he was ordinarily going to get and may when you look at the when you look at that your career is just that yeah profession and we and we stop which is hard

to do especially on podcasts when you have three to four episodes a week putting everything in the terms of greatness of this will not make him the fourth greatest fighter to ever lose up a division up i don't know but when when you're talking about that luke um i forgot well i was gonna say this dude listen about the money it's gonna be great volkanovsky's a winner he's a winner he lost on saturday but in the game of life he's a winner in the in fight game, in mixed martial arts, he's an insanely good winner, and he got fucking paid for this. So whatever else happened on that night.

That's what I was saying. Do you think it was in the end that forget all the other things, that for the rest of his life, this was actually a really good financial decision? That's a question between him and his family, and I suspect this. Of course, they're going to support him no matter what. I'm going to say this. I am glad that he got paid a lot extra, I'm going to guess, to do this. I'm going to guess that it was a very, very happy additional sum.

I hope he got a nice Nelk Boys bag at the end. Yeah. And by the way, whatever he's going to get on pay-per-view points, this will do well on pay-per-view. He could end up with between $5 million and $7 million, I think, in the end. That's a decent chunk of change to take back to your family. I mean, that's a great thing that he's doing for them. Did you hear Mahachev's statement about, even though he says, I'll fight anybody that's staying in his job, not mine,

he did say he doesn't think Oliveira is the next fight. He should be the next fight. He doesn't think he, I guess, earned it or because he pulled out, he thinks he should miss it. There's also talk about Gaethje. Yes. Where do you think the UFC is going to go? Where should they go?

Sort that out. I don't really know with this one. I mean, here's the thing, right, BC? Like, we were all in on Oliveira too. And then there's this kind of like bubbling belief out there, whether there's anything to it or not, that he orchestrated some kind of escape plan because he didn't want to compete in Abu Dhabi. I don't know if it's nonsense or not, but there's certainly pervasive discussions about this. You're conspiracy theorizing this?

Not totally, not totally. You're saying like Ken Shamrock before the Seth Petruzzelli Kimbo situation, he gigged himself, that's what you're saying? What I can say is I don't think he wanted to compete in Abu Dhabi. I don't think he wanted to compete there. But Ii. I don't think he wanted to compete there. But I do think the cut was legit. I think it actually happened.

So the question is, like, are they bitter at Charles for, like, by accident or not, just not being available to them? Well, they're selectively bitter. They're bitter at DDP. They were bitter at Amanda Davis for a moment. We've talked about it all the time. Like, what's the most important thing a UFC fighter can do for the UFC? Be ready. Be on time. make weight, and say yes. I'll say this.

The Gaethje one is picking up steam. It's picking up steam. He obviously came off the head kick win. It's a fresh challenger. It's a fresh challenger. Mahachev dismissed his chances aggressively. Remember when he was talking about the BMF in the past? That's like a regional JV bill.

I mean, the odds should tell you they'll fuck gaethje up do you would you give gaethje a real chance sir i think you i think you have to give gaethje a real chance in any 155 pound fight but like would i pick him over makachev no but i will say this um you know gaethje is an english speaker for a pay-per-view buying audience that's a big deal uh he's coming off arguably one of the better wins of his career, stopping Dustin Poirier. He has the BMF belt for whatever value that is. He wants it. And I'm going to say it one more time. It's a fresh challenger.

We've already seen the Ola Vera fight, right? He got just dusted off very quickly. I see a smirk coming. I mean, it's a joke. Because if Gaethje, English speaker, those pay-per-views would probably sell well in Chechnya. You know, that's all I was saying. Okay, that's all. I wasn't really trying to get anything political or Twitter debates or X debates.

Yeah. Anyway, Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates are a repressive authoritarian government. This is a, Islam said it himself, this is a second home there. I mean, that's not that far from Dagestan, right? Yeah. I don't know how far it is, but it's – But from the standpoint of Muslim fighters are very embraced here. Big time.

Big time. Which is fine, which is cool. Like you want all corners of the world to have their guys and cheer their guys. That's a cool thing. I'll say this. If they really are – based on what they did to DDP where they're just like, yeah, fuck it. You fill in for short notice. You're going to leapfrog the guy that just stopped Robert Whitaker.

Yeah. I think Gaethje might be the guy then. I think it might be the guy. But again, fresh challenger, BMF champion. Well, the champion once had a name, Luke. You know, that win over Darius for Oliveira. Which one would you rather see? I'd rather see Oliveira.

Let's get it done. What do you think the fan base would rather see? Gaethje. Well, no. I mean, Charles has the— People love Chucky Olive. They do. They do. They do.

They do. I don't think you can lose in this spot. What about Poirier? No, no. He did beat Chandler. No. Never got Islam yet. No, he'd be a fresh challenger, too.

But he just lost to Gaethje. But how do you leapfrog Gaethje and Oliveira? You can't get head kicked by Gaethje and then leapfrog him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. That just doesn't work. That doesn't work. So interesting results in the 155-pound division.

All right, let's go to topic number two, BC. Let's talk about that co-main event. Hamzat Shumayev earns a majority decision victory over Kamaru Usman. Now, there are some interesting features about this, where he goes in there, BC, and beats the brakes off of him in the first round, then has kind of a ho-hum two rounds where you could kind of argue, if not Kamaru winning, certainly won the majority of the time that the fight existed, meaning 15 minutes.

So, BC, let me ask the question this way. How much did Chemayev's stock improve with this performance? Not by a whole lot. And the reason why I say it is this. Here's what we've learned about Chemayev and his UFC run, which hasn't been without some hurdles, injuries, visa issues. And look, by the way, he revealed in that, remember that double COVID battle where he temporarily retired?

Yeah, and then Kadyrov was like, get your ass back out there. Chimaev, in an interview in Russian, revealed that he was misdiagnosed with cancer. That's why he retired. What? Yes. I mean, I got to check the sources, but I read this. How did I miss this?

I read this online. So, okay, my point is that. It has to be true. But here's the crux of my point. When he's in there with anyone below sort of an A- level, it's such domination that the hype, the hype, the fact that he in his, not his first middleweight fight, right? He already moved up against Amir Shard.

He already fought Holland after missing weight at middleweight. But his first, like, official we're making a run at this, they put a title on the line. So did he live up to the hype of how he's defeated all these sub-A- level guys? No. He created a whole

string of questions. I'm not saying, Luke, that business-wise it's the wrong decision to have put the stipulation of a number one contendership at stake and to now take Chimaev, who really, really has crossover star potential on a lot of levels, and put him right away into a stricken fight. I'm not saying that's promotional malpractice, even though it's surprising because DDP's already earned it. Adesanya is a monster name lingering. So is Whitaker. There's a lot of big names on here. But did Chimaev give me confidence heading into a title fight that he's ready or that he's that monster name lingering so is Whitaker you know there's a lot of big names on here but did Shemayev

give me confidence heading into a title fight that he's ready or that he's that dude no he didn't and I get that he injured his right hand in round one okay I want to ask you about that I get that possibly he shot his load in the first round trying to so aggressively come out and make a statement but anybody who's going to negatively after the fact go to the extremes. Oh, he's just a one-round fighter. Oh, he's just a bully. Rashad, Rashad texted me saying a lot of bully tendencies coming out of Chamayev. And I don't think he's – so my point is this. If you're going to go the bully way or you're going to go the one-round fighter way, is there actually enough evidence to support that?

I wonder because Luke, sub-A- level. So everyone else, Holland on down that he fought dominated but we now have three instances of questionable responses or behavior when in theory Chamayev steps up one would be the absolute brawl with Gilbert Burns which not only do I think not enough people in hindsight have looked at the scoring of that fight and maybe made a bigger argument for Gilbert but what do we at least see that he sort have looked at the scoring of that fight and maybe made a bigger argument for Gilbert, but what do we at least see that he sort of eschewed the game plan and his potential strengths to get into a war and left you at the end wondering if he'd won? That's one.

Two, if there's not a controversy and conspiracy with the UFC over the weight loss, then that is monster red flags that Shumayev in a pay-per-view showcase opportunity against an exiting Nate Diaz that he would miss weight by nearly eight pounds that he would succumb to the the pressure the anxiety of of being put up there in that spot three now is this fight against Anusman who will play the sound shortly afterwards basically said I couldn't I couldn't pull the trigger and he comes out there right hand injury or not looks like a million bucks in the first round and looks human if so you know below that at times in terms of his cardio and his response the rest of the way did he do just enough to win this fight yes i have no problem

with the scoring he scored a late takedown around three there was some ground and pound but luke did he look anything like the hype that would support him getting a number one contender shot and essentially his middleweight debut now that we know he's moving up? No, he didn't. I got way more questions than I have answers. And if you want to do the whole thing that he's a bully or he's a one-round fighter, I think we have enough evidence now in three instances where disappointing results for the hype that he was lift up. Maybe that's unfair. Maybe he was never going to be the killer that he looks like against Holland, Mearshar, uh, uh, the, the leech, all this stuff. I mean, he absolutely dominated that level of fighter. I'm not saying you have to then dominate Usman or Gilbert Burns on that level, but how are you going to overlook now the three

warning signs I just mentioned? Because if UFC did not tell him to miss weight and this whole conspiracy thing is a big joke and a misunderstanding, then how do you explain that, Luke? There's a lot of pressure on this guy with the whole connection to Kadyrov. Did he not have two of Kadyrov's sons in his corner? Yeah, he had both the Kadyrov's sons in his corner. Obviously that shows that there's a deep-rooted financial relationship between them, right?

Maybe like a sponsorship. Am I going too far with this? I'll connect the two because I wanted to ask you about this. There was complaints about his hand. Now, if his hand was in fact compromised after the first round that could explain why you can't grip why you can't punch like there's a lot that could explain it but there was a video that came out after the fight i guess had a private plane sent to abu dhabi for him and then they flew back to chechnya and in the video so this is like you know several hours after the fight, there's no bandage on either of his hands,

and he's using both of them. Now, I'm not saying there's no injury. I don't know what to make of it. But what I can say is if you do have a broken hand, typically it swells, and it would require medical attention. It didn't look like either of his hands had received any kind of medical attention nor any kind of, I want to say this,

visible physical distress. Did you see the intimacy of the hug? It looked almost like father-son relationship. Yeah, I mean, look, I don't know what to make of the thing with Kadyrov because if that guy wants your attention and you're from that area, you don't say no, right? You have to say yes.

So I don't even really know what to make of it. But I can't believe I'm forcing you to answer this question, but I need you to answer the justification for the weight miss in the Nate fight and try to connect it with what we saw in this fight, which was, tell me if I'm crazy, a disappointing performance even though he got the win against a former

champion and a veteran with tons of experience who's tough as nails. This is all kind of disappointing and at least red flag-ish, correct? Yes, I'll say this. For example, did you see the videos that came out of Chimaev after the fight where I'll try to do it? Like, here, put the camera on me real quick where they were doing this number. Oh, while he's waiting to fight?

Fans and other people in the community, they love to turn fighters into the Avengers. They love that they want to turn them into these comic book heroes so that they can you know watch them do these incredible things and feel the the glory of what superheroes do they they're not human to them and so the point i'm trying to make is a lot of the chamay of hype from day one has been bordering on that yes he had impressive performances before the g fight and since then as well in different ways. But there's just this natural tendency to elevate him to these extra human levels and these desires. So you're saying it's unfair of us pundits to expect him to do to Usman what he did to the other people? I'm saying there was going to be a degree of inevitable reputation decline that was going to happen once he started fighting good guys.

Market correction. Yes, a market correction. There was inevitably going to happen once you started fighting good guys. Market correction. Yes, a market correction. There was inevitably going to be one. I also want to say this, BC. What he did to Kamaru Usman in the first round, no one's done that. No one's done that. Oh, dude, that was impressive as hell. He transitioned to the back.

Let's just say it. In round one, and we're going to give Kamaru his flowers in a minute, but in round one, he fucking handled him. He handled him. Yeah. No way. Dude, Kamaru went into that fight after being a champion for how long and fighting how many guys and going undefeated for how long?

And 93% takedown defensive rate, and he couldn't do shit but survive against Hamza Chamayev. No one has done that. So when you say it was a ho-hum. Okay, so did he shoot his load? Then is that your justification? I can't tell. I can't tell if he's got bigger issues, if there was a hand issue.

I don't know. What I can say is the guy in that first round can beat anyone in that division. So is he a first round fighter? The guy in rounds two and three can be beaten by anyone in that division. And that's why I'm like, I don't know what to fucking say. Okay, that's a fair comeback. But I do need you to answer, if we're going to remove the conspiracy element,

please answer the nearly eight pounds weight miss when you are being set up by the company to be the next star. They're putting you in there against the fan favorite old name of Nate Diaz, giving you the ultimate rub and then basically saying, which division are you going to fight for the title first?

That's where we were at last fall. How do you explain that weight miss? That's a monster red flag that I think is connected to all of this. So I think he was overweight when he got to Vegas. And there are two explanations, one of which is the UFC coordinated this, which is the nefarious one that I'm not necessarily advocating, although I do think based on what he said, we said it on Friday. There's definitely more questions that need to get asked about this.

The other explanation would be that he came in heavy and they said, fuck it, you're going to be at whatever weight you're going to be at, and then we're just going to rearrange it at the last minute. So his team basically was like, we're not going to risk you losing. No, no, I think UFC doctors might have been like, this motherfucker, because you have to come in. So for folks who don't know how it works, when you show up on fight week, typically the Tuesday,

they weigh you in everything. They want to see where you're at. They want to know what's coming they don't want surprises on friday and of course everyone's going to be different there's a history where you come in on tuesdays blah blah blah um they had an idea on tuesday they had an idea on tuesday he was over so there is a conservative response to this which is he came in a little bit heavier than normal the doctors were afraid if he tries to make the cut that he could injure himself right he could he could force himself out of the fight by accident.

I guess that's right. So if I separate that, then is there a full explanation with the combination of the hand injury, the possibility that he shot too much of his gas tank in round one, and that's why in the second round. Okay, but explain this, Luke, because here's my biggest question. He did fight back in round three and at least did the minimum to secure the win without a debate in my book, right? 10-8 first round. He did not have great ground and pound in that round not great but

enough to secure that round yet enough to so then here's my question about round two is it is it enough to just say that the combination of the right hand hurting with he gave so much cardio in that first round just ragdolling Usman that there needed to be sort of a round that he gave back or could you actually watch that round closely and see a lot of wasted movement did ragdolling Usman that there needed to be sort of a round that he gave back. Or could you actually watch that round closely and see a lot of wasted movement? Did you notice what Hamzat was doing? He essentially established himself from a certain distance and then was just constantly doing little feints. But the feints were never leading to combinations.

The feints were never like, oh, I did this feint. You reacted. Now I'm getting you. It was just like he was going through the shadowboxing moments, the motions motions what the hell is that about so because he was wasting energy while trying to save it so he's probably so used to running over training partners that it's uh helped make a style that is not scalable i do think that is real right he's maybe the best first round fighter in all in the ufc right now like who fights a tougher first round than hamza chamayev i'm not really sure who that might be well he's okay but he's on the ufc so it you know shemayev

is near near the top of that list bc here's the problem right so if you're constantly going against guys in the practice room that you're better than or you know even if they're good it's going to inform your style about what you can get away with what you should pursue what you shouldn't pursue and to your point every time he goes up against somebody who's real battle-tested, Kamaru is battle-tested, Gilbert Burns is battle-tested, you just don't see that same level of stuff after a little while. I do think there is something to that. Like a little bit of a bully mentality that when someone stands up to you?

Here's the thing. I don't think he crumbles when people push back in the way that a bully ordinarily does. But what I will say is, does he have some of the tendencies where i'm just going to shoot overwhelming offense at you and just assuming you're going to crumble i think he assumed uh usman was going to crumble and he just didn't and then he was like all right well fuck it this is going to go the distance and i'm going to have a more reserved plan he left the back door open dude usman almost backdoored either a draw or if he had a little bit more success in round three where you could have argued that he could have won the round.

Could you imagine if Usman pulls off a split decision win here? It'd be like the most ultimate BS win in which he got dominated and just barely hung on. Instead, it was Chemaev who just barely hung on. Luke, there were people, hey, you know Coach Phil, right? Coach Phil McKagan from the NFL, our great buddy. He's like nah i see your warning signs the guy's still gonna wear a title he might still win a title in the next fight he might yeah i think i think shavkat rachmanov is gonna take it off of him that's

what i think shavkat at walter way oh that's right he's no longer in the division fuck not anymore if they had fought i think shavkat is kryptonite for him yeah okay well the whole question here is now we've seen the early odds of him against sean strickland which is where the ufc is going next yeah and shemayev is the early betting favorite i'm not sure how i feel about that now look he's so dominant in the first round in his a gear that there is any possibility against any fighter in the world that he just wins with that first a gear and this is all a moot point and he when he holds up the belt anyway he's good enough where yes that can still happen but i got questions man i got long-term five round deep cardio questions when you've got somebody who's also a dog on your level this is where the flowers have to go back to usman and sort of pause the stricken conversation

for a second i'm really impressed by the way that usman didn't succumb by the way that he at least fought back and had a a say in this fight to some degree i am really i am impressed by kamaru usman i did i expected him to get you know what happened in the first round basically and then that to be you know close the show in the second and he didn't i mean here's the thing how far can kamaru usman go at 185 i thought heading into the weekend he was going to lose and make that question fairly irrelevant i think with the performance that he had even in a losing effort that he is definitely entitled to be taken seriously at least for another big fight at 185 to see where he goes from here i think he performed

well enough and the fact that he was kind of i won't say stronger down the stretch but really giving hams out problems and then after the fight being like I should have taken the five rounds I mean dude if he had taken five rounds and outlasted him on the conditions that he took the fight dude that would have been fucking legendary it would have and even though I'm giving Usman rightful flowers for surviving that first round for even taking this fight right you're coming off two straight defeats and you're going to move up and wait against you know one of the biggest badasses in the game but at the same time dude he's gonna he's gonna kick himself watching this fight back because there were openings there where he could have won it

and i want to throw to some by the way the hustle he had pushing hums back with the dude i was watching that in my in my office being like and i even tweeted it i was like dude this response from kamaru is fucking impressive. At times, yes. In that third round, I'm spot on. Dana did say afterwards that Kamaru saving this card gives him enough sort of money in the bank that he can go any direction. If he wants to go back at welterweight, wants to go to middleweight, Dana will give him a big fight. I want to throw, though, to Kamaru talking to Megan O'Leary immediately afterwards because I think it's pretty revealing here. You know, leaning more into the side of showing the the inner battle that goes on here's kamaru explaining why he wasn't able to like fully go after it in this fight with hamza

i know that that was a difficult one for you i can see it on your face knowing you so well can you just tell me you know obviously it was just a few minutes ago but how would you assess all of that? You drop two razor-thin ones to Leon, and it's been a while. I mean, you go years without losing for a long, long time by all the hard work. And you drop two close ones like that, you start to kind of question things and start to doubt yourself a little bit. And, you know, you almost forget what it feels like. But it's, you know, if anything that I can say I take away from tonight, forget what it feels like.

But if anything that I can say I take away from tonight, it's that I need to trust myself more, trust my coaches, and we'll be back. I mean, I kept coming off the couch in 10 days and fighting a young, hungry bull like that, who's big and strong, who's had a year and a half to really grow into this weight class. And I didn't. And I think, you know, I didn't trust my shape.

I'm a championship fighter. And you can't start slow like that. You know, I say give me a couple extra rounds. I think the world knows what that result might be. Luke, let me tee you up properly because I uh kamaru opening the curtain almost like volk did with that with that video and saying like look this is what really happened this is what affected me and i do think in hindsight you can watch that fight and see a failure to to launch a failure to let go in some key moments even though he did fight back and made that close

it was a majority decision in the end is this repairable because what was the one thing i said last week there's getting old where you just your chin falls off and you fall apart. But then there's the way Tywin Woodley got old. When it happened, it was overnight. It was basically the Kamaru fight. And from then on out, it just, he wasn't the same guy. Just couldn't connect the, still had some physical left, just couldn't connect the wiring to bring that out.

Is that repairable? What Usman just revealed was sort of his hold up in this fight and maybe it's the leaning hangover of those two straight losses Luke maybe that's really killing his confidence and making him question so recently I did an interview with Kieran Fitzgibbons it's on youtube.com slash morning combat he runs CSA gym one of his students is Jessica Rose Clark Jessica Jessie Jess she's Australian but obviously she lives here now and she's not fighting mma at the moment she took a muay thai fight over the weekend and she won and they're about to do the announcement

and you can see her wiping away tears and in her the in the comment the the caption of the instagram uh post she had said that it'd been two years two years since she'd won and it did a number on her mentally like living in the shadow of the weight of l i don't know how many losses it was but whatever it was that amount of time can you imagine that being a professional athlete and you have i mean you know even if you're on a shitty basketball team you're gonna win at least one game a week or so something like that you're gonna get a w once in a while but imagine just hanging in the shadow of an l he get he called it two close fights with leon i know what he means but he did get finished in the shadow of an L. He called it two close fights with Leon.

I know what he means, but he did get finished in the first one. But the second one, you know, it was a tough fight. Majority decision. Yeah, majority decision. And I can see why, you know, you begin to be like, okay, I guess I'm not that guy anymore. I can't do what I said I could do. Who am I? Who am I?

What is true? Can I believe? Remember, these guys tell themselves, they brainwash themselves. Year after year, I am that guy. I can do it. I can overcome. And then reality comes to a screeching halt for very great fighters, which Kamaru Usman is a very great fighter. And now it's like I don't know what to believe about the world anymore.

And so he didn't trust himself. He didn't believe in himself. Not fully, obviously. But that was a winnable fight in hindsight. It was a winnable fight in hindsight. It was. I shat on him and doubted him with the knee and all that by the way knees looked fine he came in here and told us to shut the hell up he did with his performance right yes but yet

he still left now is that fixable for the future for him depending on which way so i'll say this it's to me different than the anthony joshua situation if you guys aren't following anthony joshua like this darkness retreat like literally sitting in darkness at all. He paid a shit ton of money for four straight days to sit in like isolated darkness. And he's trying to recover something I don't think you can. Anthony Joshua, and I know Kamara was viciously KO'd, but Anthony Joshua has, you know, after that Klitschko fight, I don't know if he was ever the same, which he won that contest, but you know, getting stopped by Andy Ruiz and everything else, he's been physically traumatized in a way where the body's natural response physiologically and i think mentally as well is to avert these kinds of scenarios as a self-protection mechanism

i think it's evolution taking its course that he doesn't have that killer mentality anymore in fact so the way i put it is i don't think anything's broken for job purposes but he's not broken as a person he's trying to heal as a person i don't think kamaru is suffering the same okay i think kamaru's having bigger doubts about who i am what can i still compete in yeah which is those are big i don't want to minimize those but i don't think it's the same as the physical trauma that has kind of undone Anthony Joshua. I'd like to see him get an old guy fight. I'd like to see him. It's not a bad idea.

He's 36. Yeah, not on like a, not like, you don't have to go too far down the matchmaking, but you've got to give him a winnable fight against another aging name. I think that'd be a nice sort of see where you're at. I love what Kamaru brought in his time on top. I respect him. I respect him more after that performance. One more question about this. So now it looks like, to your point, Hamza's going to get the title shot.

You were talking about Sean Strickland. Sean Strickland, by the way, cardio for days. Cardio for days. Are you surprised they made Hamza the favorite after this performance? Not that they made him the favorite, but that they made him the favorite by such a wide margin. I think he was like minus three. Because be honest, when we are trying to judge right now how good Sean Strickland really is, he threw a no-hitter against Izzy, against one of the best fighters in the world.

Like, I don't know if that's sustainable. I don't know if that— No, no, no. I mean, Hamzat's going to fight a different fight. Sure. But just ask yourself this. If Sean survives the first round, because, you know, Hamzat's going to come out of there like a bat out of hell, and it turns into what the Kamaru Usman fight was for rounds two and on in a five-round fight,

which, by the way, we've still not seen Hamzat go the full five. Haven't seen it. Not in the UFC. He may have some other ones on the regional scene. I don't know. But certainly in the UFC against legit world-class guys, we've not seen it. Let's see if he's ever gone that. Right?

So BC, if it looks like that against Sean Strickland, does Sean Strickland win? I got to tell you, he might. Well, that's a great topic, and we've got some sound to throw to. Sean Strickland was on, do you know what podcast this was over the weekend? He did something with UFC Fight Pass because it was him and Don Fry and TJ DeSantis. That's right. They were doing like a live thing. Which, by the way, did you see they cut out when Sean Strickland was trying to warn people not to be MMA fighters because it makes no financial sense?

He ran about fighter pay. I wish we had that today. He ran about fighter pay. And they cut the broadcast. So he took what was left of it and put it on his personal. You can see on Sean Strickland's Instagram page. Holy shit, that was insane. All right, so here's on that same sort of live broadcast with TJ and Don Fry.

This, I believe, is Strickland reacting to the victory from Hamza and talking about what's going to be next, the title opportunity for Hamza. Let's listen. Let me tell you about Chemaev, guys. This is a f***ing true story. And, you know, since we're going to talk about training. One day I made fun of Chechnyan, and he misunderstood what I said.

And I wasn't, it was more of like a compliment to the fighter, and he sent me a message talking s***. And I said, Chemaev, you misunderstood, but I will see you tomorrow about three o'clock gloves or no gloves turn up and then guess what no show no answer we talked it out he's no no no it's okay we talked about it but here we are give it to him he sells a lot of fights I'll go fight the man for five rounds but no he has not earned it he doesn't deserve it and getting a decision with a welterweight off the couch is not luke let's start right there he didn't earn it he didn't deserve it is are these true facts about

hamza chamayev's middleweight title status right now at the moment uh i mean the promoter gets to say who's earned it i mean are we saying that he's got the most credentialed case i don't know so there was a bit of a debate i had with some folks this morning i said the best win that any contender has and it's more than one win to deserve one but if you're picking out one win what win is better than ddp beating robert whitaker some folks said well cannonier beat. Guys, guys, you cannot seriously tell me that a fairly low-action, technical but low-action Apex main event to close out the year, that was, by the way, disputed decision,

is the same as DDP polishing off Whitaker. I think one is just a much better fighting performance than the other because everyone's like oh well then you know sean strickland went on to beat izzy right but cannoneer didn't so you can't play the mma math there you're just looking at which person had a i think a better fighting performance with more skill more tenacity higher level it's ddp what he did to whittaker man yeah that was a wake-up call. Not to say that Cannoneer beating Strickland is no big deal. He's there too, but he also

just had surgery. He told Submission Radio today, so Cannoneer's out. If you're DDP, dude, how are you not fucking furious at this? Oh, he didn't take the fight when he was injured? Yeah! Look! Look what happened to Volkanovski! Look what happens when you take a fight when you're not fucking supposed to.

Bad shit happens. Why would he do that? Are you furious that Tristan, our camera guy, just fell asleep? Are you furious? Dude, my man Tristan is out there just, I mean. Oh, he's awake. He's awake. Sawing logs over there.

Do you think he was considering new rabid animals? By the way, fun fact, Tristan farts in his sleep. He doesn't know that, but we do. Huh? How about that? He's denying this fact. Where's the extra camera here to pick this up? We need to document our lives. Okay, I'm with you on all these

takes. We caught up with Eric Nixick, and we had a fantastic room service diaries with him and had some previews. He talked about the sparring between Hamza and Sean Strickland, which I think is now valuable ahead of this fight. Super valuable.

He made it. Now, sparring is sparring. You never know what you can glean from that. Sparring can be very different. Did our friend Eric sort of present that those were some very competitive, interesting sessions where they learned a lot about Hamza? He did not make it sound like Strickland was overmatched at all.

But he also made it seem, you know, we asked him his prediction for what we thought was going to be the original co-main, which was going to be Hamzat versus Paulo Costa. Eric Nixick's prediction in that fight was Hamzat round one. So it's not like he doesn't believe in Hamzat. He clearly does. It's just that, you know, Sean has turned into an,

you know, we were wondering how long is this, he pitched a no-hitter, as you mentioned, against Izzy. But, like, does a pitcher go back to having a no-hitter in the game after a no-hitter? Like, they come back down to earth a little bit. Yeah, unless you're Johnny Vandermeer. They've only got to throw no-hitters in consecutive starts in major leagues. Okay, well, maybe he's that guy. Maybe he's that guy.

Well, I've got to ask you this, Luke, on timing. Because there is an elephant at the corner of the room, and that's not Tristan sleeping in that corner over there. He is farting. The elephant is that April could be UFC 300. So do we get Strickland versus Hamzat out of the way with enough time, in theory, to have the winner face Izzy at UFC 300, or is that unnecessary? Can Shemya fight in the States? I don't know.

Right, I don't know the answer to that. I don't know if he can fight in the States. I mean, he's out there palling around with Kadyrov. I don't know if you can come and, you know, enter the United States with that shit. All right. There you go. So that's that. All right.

Keep it going. All right, BC. Topic number three. This is a very simple one. What the fuck? The Megaman, the Uncle, yeah, the Megaman, Uncle Ive and Johnny Walker fight. Just an absolute disaster. By the way, the doctor who came into the arena, excuse me, the octagon,

for both the Basharat-Henry fight and this one, every time he entered, it ended up being a no contest. So he was the grim reaper of this. BC, very basic question. We all saw what happened. What should have happened in this fight after Ankalayev hit Walker with the knee? What should have happened? He should have gotten the full five minutes to recover.

I get that. Wrong. Why? Why? Why? No, why don't you jump in? Why is that wrong, Luke? Ankalayev should have been DQ'd.

That was a DQ. This was not a case. I saw Big John talking about this. Shouts to Big John. Big John was right. He goes, this was not a case of Mokaev having hands on the mat. Magomed. No, Mokaev in the Elliott fight. Mokaev having hands on the mat. Mago-mat. No, Mokaev in the Elliott fight.

Mokaev had hands on the mat. This guy had a knee down. Like, no ambiguity. He looked down and then fired it. This unintentional – dude, that is the definition. All right, I don't disagree with that. Of intentionality. Fucking DQ. End of story.

Then do you give flowers back to Rashad for what he said on Friday? Because when he said it in the moment on our show as a guest, I was like, he goes, and Goliath makes poor fight decisions inside the cage. He makes very poor decisions. Rashad nailed that in the end. All right, look, I'm not against that because it was a very stupid move. Would you say it's akin to the one Piotr Jan did to lose his title against Aljo? It's up there.

Now, look, I'm not a fan. That might be worse because because the whole thing that undid him after that but yes it's all right so what should have happened i think in that scenario he should have gotten the full five minutes why because does it feel like there's a language gap as to why the fight was stopped they asked walker where he was i kind of watched in the moment he kind of was looking all over but according to dana he said the desert in response to the cage side doctor which as dana said that's not inaccurate whatever seemed to happen there you've got two probably non-natural english speakers trying to speak english in a very was the doctor was his english native i don't think so no i can't i can't remember anyway either way look like could you have gleaned from that if

you're a doctor looking into the eyes of Walker? Was he concussed? He was probably concussed. He was probably concussed, Luke, okay? Based on his reaction, which we're going to throw to you in a second, it may have actually been concussed or confused. But I just don't think there was enough clarity in that little question and answer session. I think they could have said, okay, he kind of looks a little fucked up right now, but let's give him the rest of the two and a half minutes. Let's let him walk a couple steps around and let's figure it out.

This is disastrous. And, Luke, I think it does tie into the Henry situation with the low blows, which we'll get into and have you seen this shit. The three fighters who would admit afterwards that they had staff and they kind of got it through the pre-fight medicals, including ass staff, Luke. She said she was bleeding all over her damn ass cheeks. We've got to figure out if we're going to keep going back to Abu Dhabi which they just signed a deal late last week

that'll say that they're going to keep going there's going to be fight nights there's going to be more sort of major pay-per-views like this you got to get that together why this was so disappointing is you're trying to sort out this light heavyweight division and I know we have Padeta Alex Pereira versus um versus the former champion Prochazka coming up at MSG but Ankalayev is still sort of that dude who may be the uncrowned champion only now he's got two consecutive situations where both were his fault not his fault that the judges didn't score it for him against Blachowicz but his fault that he didn't leave no doubt to get the victory then you package in with this massive mistake.

Yeesh. This is not the way the UFC would have wanted it. It's also like, is it their fault though, Luke? No, it's the, it's the, it's the, it's Ancalaya's fault. No, no, no, no, no. If you self-regulate and you bring in bozos who don't know what they're doing, it's your responsibility. So Dana came in, you saw it in the picture and he's like, don't worry,

we'll get it sorted out. I'm sure we will get it sorted out, but let's throw to this video of Johnny Walker losing his mind. Do you think this video supports that he actually was concussed? Because I do think he – I think I can have it both ways. I think he was concussed, but I also think he deserves a five-minute. Unbelievable. So explain Johnny's reaction here.

What's going on? Hold on. Pushing the ref, by the way, all was a bad idea. So he thought that they were going to restart the fight, right? In his own head of like, yeah, what are we doing? Let's start it. They get out. But then Ankalayev was like, yo, if you're going to look at me,

I'll fight you right here, right? That's what he was basically saying. Ankalayv is tough. Yes, Victor Henry, that he was okay. And he just went... Did Kadyrov tweet about this, like he did after Blachowicz? I don't know. I haven't checked up on Kadyrov's socials. He asked him where he was. And if he can't answer that, though, guys...

Okay, with all this said, I got Nashville Strikeforce vibes off of this. And I kind of like a little bit of chaos, Luke. Here's my deal. I like chaos. I didn't hate this. I didn't of like a little bit of chaos, Luke. Here's my deal. I like chaos. I didn't hate this. I didn't hate that they had to bring in Dana to be the dad and sort of be like, no, shut the fuck down.

Sit down. I kind of like a little chaos, even though this isn't good for the sport. But what do you make of that whole thing right there? Was Walker concussed? Probably. I don't know. I'm not a doctor. I don't know what he said.

I think I'd say this. This should have been a DQ if it was not going to be a DQ. The one thing that I think I can agree on is that i would actually say johnny walker's english is pretty good you know it's pretty good good enough to get laid in scotland plenty good to just lay pipe and infrastructure all over uh scotland but but if i'm being serious for a moment bc if you have to give an answer to a set of questions and that answer is what makes or break whether or not a fight continues you should have the option to answer that question in your native language right if you've been if you've been hit in the head yes and whatever answer you give is going to determine the future of this

contest man it should be in your native language it should be in your native we get fabio busque up there or should have john cavanaugh fabiano busque or they can get on jorge gergel or anybody by the way i saw people being like you know i don't know where because someone i guess there Bousquet up there or should have John Kavanaugh been on it? Fabiano Bousquet or they could have gotten Jorge Gergel or anybody. By the way, I saw people being like, you know, I don't know where – because I guess there was a belief where someone had said the doctor asked him what country you were in. I don't know if that's what he actually asked him. Maybe I just asked him where you are. But I saw folks being like, well, I don't know where Abu Dhabi is. if you take a plane to go to a place and you get your passport stamped in customs and you're in that place when someone asks you what country you're in, that's a fair question.

That's a fair question. But can't I counter that and say if you're— It's not—I didn't say, name me three Nordic rivers. What's the capital of Mozambique? Okay, here's my counter to that, though. It's like, hey, you just went through customs. What country was that in? I get you.

If Walker would have said UAE, Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi would have been fine for me. The Middle East. You know, the desert. I guess he did say the desert. My question is this, Luke. What should we expect from fighters in this scenario when they're in the midst of a fight? That's a great question.

Which has its goal to concuss each other. I'm basically saying that you're going to be lightly concussed in a lot of moments of fights that you're still— The question is— When is it ever going to be fit to stop a fight and say, yo, where are you at? Never. Right. Well— It's fight or flight, dude.

So yes or no. Here's the interesting part about this. Under normal circumstances, if you're in a country, you should be able to say what country you're in. But I also have to wonder this, BC. What is the appropriate response to any of these questions? In other words, how much give should the doctor, how much leeway should the doctor give to the fighters to get the answer basically right? I don't know what the answer to that is. Not that I'm comparing to boxing, but this is what they would have done in boxing.

The referee would have said, can you walk this way? Now can you walk to me? Can you put your hands up and then they shake the hand in that process well what they're they're not shaking their hands they're rubbing their hands against the chest of the referee's shirt to rub off anything that when they went down oh i thought they were choosing to see how much sturdiness no no they're they're rubbing off the gloves but through that process you're looking at the eyes you're looking at their response time and you're getting a sort of cognitive understanding of whether they're there. But in boxing, they're not asking you a series of questions to determine that.

They're just determining are you – You're doing a sobriety test. Yeah. It's like – but my whole point is it's not an all or nothing answer. It's not like – they're not looking for perfection. They're just looking that if you can defend yourself. Could Johnny Walker in that moment have defended himself once he was done with the five minutes? I think so.

I say yes. I say that fight should have restarted. That's all I'm saying right there. If you want to put the blame on Ankalayev, no problem. Luke, what do you say about him moving forward? How much of a, should he get a rematch with Walker here and still get a shot at? I've lost a lot of confidence. I thought for a while he was really kind of the guy. And then as he stepped up and tried to move forward, there's just been so many weird missteps. This was a big one. By the way, I thought Walker looked pretty good up until, you know,

taking the knee or whatever. The leg kicks I thought were pretty interesting. And Ankalayev didn't have a great answer for it initially anyway. So they're going to run it back is my best guess. We should move it along, BC, because we still have two more topics to get to before we even have DMs with donks, but let's do that now. There's no reason to slow down a great show. I'll be here all day. I agree.

There's no reason to slow it down either. BC, what can we say about the level of officiating from the doctors to the judges to the refs from this card? You had not one, not two, three fighters admitting afterwards to staph infection. You had a doctor who, every time he went into the octagon called it, told Victor Henry it didn't land on his balls,

and the guy was writhing in agony and had to get a testicular ultrasound. Nathaniel Wood taking not one but at least two ball kicks and a glove grab. Yeah, and the ref is like, no. In this Drikus Dumas fight, his hair gets clearly pulled. No point taken. What the fuck happened here? Unfortunately for the UFC, a total shit show. And I think you combine it with the fact, this is how I let off my post-fight story.

In a fight card that essentially had the three biggest fights or three of the four biggest on the verge of being canceled that they had to cut and paste and throw a ton of money at Volkanovski and a former champion Usman to save it, should we have expected that it could go just far off the rails too when it rolled out? Unfortunately, it was a perfect storm of shit. And I'm not here to rail against UFC because, look, from a regular tour standpoint, they tend to get a lot of the shit right, right? Even though like they're leaning on commissions, they tend to get a lot of it right. But when you're telling me, no, BC, they are self-commissioned in this regard,

then I do have to point the finger on them and say, this has to be used as a lesson to clean some shit up. This is bad. This is bad for the fighters first and foremost at the end of the day, for the health and safety of the fighters to have other fighters in there that obviously have compromised health with contagious elements. Diseased, quite literally diseased. Then you have – I mean I know these referees aren't like local guys that picked them off the street.

These are referees we've seen in other areas. So Dan Movahedi I think got a little bit overwhelmed. I thought – I love Jason Herzog. He's one of my favorite referees. But I think he – if I'm not mistaken, I believe he refereed the Cedricus Dumas and Abu Azhar fight. And Azhar got a clear, visible handful of air and pulled it down and didn't get a point taken. If it's not Herzog, then whoever it was. But the ref didn't take a point.

I'm like, guys, what the? This argument, BC, drives me nuts. Well, they're like, we don't want to intervene. Dude, if someone breaks a rule and you don't take a point, you've already intervened. You are already not letting this fight take the course that it's supposed to take. So if you intervene and you take a point, that's one thing.

But this idea that if I don't, I'm letting the fight evolve under its natural courses is simply not true. You are letting it evolve in a different artificial direction where you're not enforcing penalties and people are getting away with it. Fucking take a point. Fucking do something. Please quit letting these guys commit foul. Where's the crux of the UFC's sort of blame in this regard? Because like if they're self-governing, then they're responsible whether it's their fault

or not. But the reality is they're hiring officials that are appointed by a commission normally. So they can't – should they be judged harshly for poor – constant poor referee decisions, constant poor doctor decisions that sort of – Listen, some of this was bad luck that fell into the officiant's lap. We can admit that. Like guys just kicking each other in the balls and pulling hair. That's not a problem that the officiants lap we can admit that like guys just kicking each other in the balls and pulling hair that's not a problem that the officiants created these are things that they inherited my issue is you had the doctor who doesn't seem like he's a very experienced ringside physician i think it's

probably a fair way to put it you have referees who i think are good referees in many cases but overwhelmed by some of the situations there was the other one who was the M1 rep, Lucas something. It starts with a B. This guy was completely out of his depth and didn't know really what to do. So then Dan Movahedi, who I think is a good referee, but also that wasn't his best showing. So a lot of it was bad luck that they inherited, I understand. But between this and then the guys and the lady, too, having staff and everything else in between, it just created a first situation where it's like, guys, if you're going to self-regulate, it's one way or the other. It's got to be a tighter operation than this.

Yeah. And I know you're thinking, oh, BC, you're always going to play on the poop and dick jokes. But, Luke, it wasn't just staff, dude. It was fucking ass staff. Yeah. What did she what's her name, Luke? Victoria Dudakova. She revealed late afterwards that her whole ass was all bloodied up.

Staff, yeah. So look, this is where you got to point at those fighters. You, so it's like Dana afterwards was like, he gave a rant that basically said, you know, if you're going to lie to us, then you should just lie at home, blah, blah, blah. TJ Dillashaw kind of did the same thing, right? No ass staff involved, but he sort of not kind of lied or fudged the reality of the situation. Yeah, look at the result. I know.

That's what I'm saying. So you're going to have to, if you're the UFC, force and push through to have tighter medicals ahead of time. But here's the other part, too. Dude, if you go to the doctor, if you go to the doctor and, you know, you don't have anything visibly wrong with you, You're not puking. You don't have a cut. You're just kind of there.

And you refuse to tell them the truth. The doctor is going to have a hard time figuring out if you're okay. All right. Well, the only issue I had with that of Dana going heavy-handed and being like, why would you do that? Why would you lie to us and buy that? The reason, Luke, is because of the fighter pay discrepancy. That's why you would lie even though you've got chapped all up your ass, right? That's why you're going to lie so that you get your show money.

So you can get paid. Right. So Dana, there's your answer, guy. All right. Last one on this for the questions. I'm going to give you four names, BC. Okay. Four names.

Here we go. And they all end in the letter V, I think. Yes, they do. Are these all hammers? They are all mostly hammers. So of these four names, topic number five. Here we go. Ready?

Sharabudin Magomedov, Mohamed Mokhaev, Ikram Alaskerov, and Saeed Nurmagomedov. Who had the best night at UFC 294? Okay, the best night in terms of how they can instantly catapult on this, even though it wasn't the best performance of the four. I do think it was Mohamed Mokhaev because the questions we had coming in to this Tim Elliott fight was basically, is he for real at age 23?

The subpar performances of late, was that enough? I mean, he's the predator. Luke said he ain't no predator. Look, he didn't hit a grand slam, but he was in there against a tough guy who was sort of rejuvenated, post-divorce, win streak, all that. And did Mukhaev do enough to tell you that he's coming on, that a title shot is soon?

I think yes. Look, he did enough. Not perfect, but did enough to put it on the tracks. But who was most impressive of that group? Dude, take that anvil out of your pants and put it on the table right here. The hammer of the month is Alice Scarab, Luke. Holy shit, I know it was a last-minute opponent. Everything he threw sent Worley Alvarez flying across the cage, dude.

This guy's a freaking maniac. Yeah, I mean, you can't give him anything other than a ranked opponent. He's going to fucking hurt all these guys. He wants top ten next. How can you say he's not ready? He's what, 2-0 in the UFC? Yes. Both disastrous.

Phil Hawes and now just kicking it. And I know he's only got the one loss to Chemayev, which is interesting because he's in the division. And now down the road, they can have like a Armand Saroukian rematch with Mahjab, which is inevitable. Yes, yes. I mean, this guy is so fucking ready for the next level. It's crazy. Same question I asked Sabatello when he was sitting next to me Yes, yes. I mean, this guy is so fucking ready for the next level. It's crazy. Same question I asked Sabatello when he was sitting next to me here, Luke. How hard were you?

Yeah, it was a throbber. It was a throbber. I mean, just look at this gentleman. He went out there and demolished this other dude. He is beyond ready. You know, top five, no. Certainly top 15 and probably top 10, I think you can give this guy. He might finish them off, too.

He is very talented. Does he look like a Dagestan Pete Davidson? A little bit. A little bit like a Dagestan. Is he from Dagestan? I believe so, yes. BC. Could he be a top 10 guy right now?

Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What about him against Bo Nickel next on a pay-per-view? See, I don't know, because Bo Nickel's that wild card one. I don't know how that goes. But let's talk about this very quickly.

Saeed Nurmagomedov didn't make a big splash, but that was a nice win. The Ninja Choke slash Power Guillotine. That's a good enough splash to come out there and get that early submission. You mentioned Mohamed Mokhaev. By far his best win. Yes.

By far. This was the first time I saw him really show me something extra special. Would you buy stock, though, and shower a bullet? Okay, so on the feet, he's dynamic, right? Even when he's on his back, with his feet, he's dynamic. He was a good, I mean, Bruno Silva donked it up. He donked it up.

Like, he wasn't even trying to pass. Dude, on his feet, share a bullet, legit. On the ground, major, major question. Yeah, even Dana's like, you're from Dagestan? Yeah. It's like, okay. dagestan yeah it's like okay by the way that was a little shitty i'm gonna say that uh because he can wrestle a little bit but obviously his game is lopsided that's like me going hey dana you're from connecticut but you're an absolute dick really really okay you know he is he is by the way from connecticut

i thought he's from boston born in manchester connecticut all day in a way what's manchester connecticut like like the rest of connecticut just an absolute it's it's staff it's in the I thought he was from Boston. Born in Manchester, Connecticut all day in a way. What's Manchester, Connecticut like? Like, is the rest of Connecticut just an absolute ass staff? It's in the midst of a bunch of quiet towns, but it's like the aggressive city town in that midst, and you can die there. Yeah, you can definitely die in Manchester, Connecticut, no doubt about it.

They have a very famous turkey trot race, though, every Thanksgiving that gets, like, thousands of people. Yeah, that's not that famous. No one's ever heard of it. But the point I'm trying to make is, I thought Cheryl Bullitt looked good for the most part but you know and you know striking off your back is nice but not against someone who's actively passing which bruno silva wasn't so i have some questions there for me hey katie taylor lives in connecticut very quietly for the last decade we should get her in the studio here oh we're not coming back to yeah i mean this thing

is all right ariel has cornered the market on, we're not coming back to this. Yeah, I mean, this thing is, you know. Ariel has cornered the market on Katie Taylor. Just set fire to this place. It's, you know, we're going to be good for it. All right, that's it for our top five. Now is the point where you guys get to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from the diggity donks. Hee-haw, hee-haw.

We should get some new animation, said no one on staff. We've got angry. All right, here we go. DMs from donks. That's not true because Mikey did. Alright, Jimmy underscore read. Jimmy eat world over here. Alright, Jimmy eat world. Jimmy eat

ass with SARS and what's the other thing on it? By the way, I've got a little game that I play. Do you get text spam? Yeah. Every time I get text spam, I always reply with nothing but the same message over and over again. Which is? I have full-blown

AIDS. I don't think that's funny. It's not funny at all. Like 90% of the time that people reply, I'm sorry this must be the wrong number and I just reply again. You're like, oh, you've got Rock Hudson jokes now. I have full-blown AIDS. I just keep saying it. This person asks, with Kosta not being able to fight due to injury, once he's healed, who do you boys... He fought on Saturday. He didn't see that? Yeah, I know. I just keep saying it. All right. This person asks, with Kosta not being able to fight due to injury, once he's healed,

who do you boys... He fought on Saturday. He didn't see that? Yeah, I know. I hope you have that. But who should he fight once he's completely healed to go? Well, let's add to this. Jared Kananir...

Easy answer. Ikram Alaskarov. Well, Jared Kananir has revealed that he was called first to fill in, and he said he was offered a chance to fight either Jab usman but after saying yes he injured himself so i believe that takes him out of it you wanted against ikram yeah dude that was the original fight that was the original fight he was it was supposed to be alaskero versus costa it was the original yes that fight got delayed and then they made it with hamzat and then that guy got fucked up yes yes that's the original fight no i don't want that. I want Costa against... He hasn't fought Kananir yet, right?

Costa has not fought Kananir, no. Let's make that one. Because Kananir is the odd man out in the larger title picture right now. We have to admit that. So they have to start eliminating each other, right? Yes. Unless you want to do Izzy-Costa 2 as a win this and you're back in the title. I think he's going to be out for a while.

Izzy's going to take a lot of time. Say again, Gaff? Gaff wants DDP. DDP is up there too, yeah. All right, from Brody Bulger. Do you think Mike Breeden barking at Jubil, I think it's Jubilee, should have counted as a significant strike? BC, my man was literally barking at this dude and he fucking collapsed.

One of the weirdest turnarounds in history. You go from getting your ass kicked to barking at your opponent and walking him down. Yeah. By the way, Jublia is the topical solution I put on my gross toenails every night. I'm glad we're losing our jobs. You know what I'm saying? Do you know that my skin doctor, which is awkward because she always makes me derobe completely and check crevices.

You take foreign people's names and turn that into conversations about your bacteria. She claims that my gross toenails are in the position of rejuvenating and she can see at the bottom of them that within a year, I'll be in the clear. And I can wear off uh slides again openly in front i just wear them openly so do i especially on planes yeah i don't give a fuck yeah because well you're a gross piece of shit uh real kempi asks if you had to pick one camp

to represent earth yes in a street fight with another planet this is the worst question ever who are you going with i'm going with habib's dagastani crew what fucking kind of question well is this i'm gonna what was the name of the camp that had randy chail dan and quest i'm gonna go with the team quest oh no sorry the one before that was the raw team okay from with rika as he proved in that luxor battle, Chael has still got it if you back him up against the wall and pump him full of, yeah, all right. You know what I'm saying, right? That's probably a good answer. Yeah, there you go.

Okay, that was a funny joke, but I like Chael. All right, from Volley Jerry. What sort of challenges should a champ have to go through to contend for a second division? Three straight, one top contender in another division, crystal clean highlight. Just be famous enough where the UFC can sell a main event, charge $900 for the world's I don't really, yeah, I don't believe that there should be a formal criteria in this way because it's a bit of a feel thing. But Volkanovski got there because he beat Max.

Yes. Became like a top pound for pound guy and really just very, very much deserved the opportunity. In my opinion, when Cejudo got the opportunity to fight for a two division, when back then the only people that had done that were Conor, Cormier, right? Nunes would do it after. But you're talking about like all-time greats. I felt that was a little too soon for Cejudo, that he hadn't done enough. But what did he do with that opportunity? He put together a bunch of huge wins that have now sort of put it –

I mean, if Cejudo never fought again, he does have one of those unique resumes where you can – Crazy resumes. You can argue to overrated and underrated at the same time. But I do think that changed it where it was sort of like, look, if someone is in the right spot at the right time, we're going to do it. GDR tried to fight for a title in the second weight class and almost did it. Yep, and did it. Holly Holm did it off two losses. She did it, technically speaking.

Yeah, why is this thing itching me so much? I clean my ears twice a day. I have a nervous habit with that, Luke. I clean my ears twice a day. That's probably why you're having problems. You should not clean them twice a day. Well, I know doctors say that. That's not good for you.

Do you know I couldn't hear out of one ear for three quarters of my sophomore year because I went too deep? I was like up in the cochlea, I clean that shit out because I just, I love hygiene so much. You know, you're giving me a really weird look. Can you explain? There are times

where I'm like, I cannot believe I have partnered with this absolute. Yeah, so for three quarters of my sophomore year, I can only hear out of one ear because my hygiene was so good. I mean, I think technically you're a primate, but just barely. Just barely. All right.

Last but not least, I can never read these Irish names, BC. Ciaran? Charon? I think, yeah, it's like Aaron Go Bra. Like, Aaron, just go topless. You know what I mean? I'm into that, too. You know what I mean? Do you have a favorite or memorable Halloween costume that you've dressed up in?

Dude, my parents were so fucking awful with this their rule was when i was a kid whatever halloween costume you could pick whatever they were very generous in the sense you could pick whatever you want but you have to make it like they'd buy like you know uh if you're gonna use makeup or like if you needed like you know nails or whatever teeth but yeah in general you had to make it so i always had the worst fucking costumes because i have no talent for this so like everything i've ever had has been bad. Now, I did for this year, I'm going as Michael Myers. Oh, wow.

I got a toy machete and I got the mask and I got the jumpsuit and I got boots. So I think it's going to be fine. But I had to just buy everything because I can't do this shit. Yeah, I always went cheap. Like I just put on the football uniform I had in middle school that I was like wearing in the football league or the basketball. I always did like, oh, I'm the referee this year. Like there's bullshit. But even though I've – so I never went to Halloween parties as a late teen, as an adult

where most people every year, right? They put on a costume. They go get drunk. I'm going to one this year. And it's like a good one where people make their own costumes. So I didn't go that level. I still got a cheap one I bought. But I'm going as Willy Wonka.

My wife's going as Veruca Saul. That's interesting. Yeah, not the 90s band, the original character. Yeah, yeah. Tookie is going as Princess Poppy from The Trolls. Oh. From The Trolls, yeah. I thought she was going to go as Alibrote.

No, but she's, no, an Alibrije? Alibrije. Yeah. That's Mexican. She's not Mexican. Yeah, but if you remember from Doc 7, you explained during the tour of your office that Tukey loves Alibrije. She does love Alibrije. And then you were like, got my toe spacers?

Yeah, my toes. I have a toe spacer on right now. That's weird. No, it's not. My toes are fucked up. I need help. She's going as Princess Poppy. And then she looked at my hair and she said, and only people

with kids will understand this, she said I should go as Tiny Diamond. And I was like, you know what, Tookie? Go to your fucking room. Wow! She's like, Dad, why don't you dress up as Blood Diamond? He loses all the time, right? Do you think that, um, um, I forgot. See, I have short-term memory issues.

Remember the scene from Beetlejuice where his arms rolled up into, like, the thing? issues. Remember the scene from Beetlejuice where his arms rolled up into like a thing? My brother one time went as Beetlejuice from that scene, and it was really good, and I was really jealous of his costume. And I tried to do like hipster Frankenstein, and it just fucking sucked. Yeah. Should I send you a picture of me as Wonka this weekend? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I'm definitely going as Michael Myers and shit.

So I'm going to be scared. But I bought like the cheesy one off Amazon that like, it was like the shirt and jacket connected together. I already scared the shit out of Tukey. I came behind the corner with all my shit on and I took the machete and I was like, ah! And she was fucking terrified. Ah!

That's not good parenting. And then I was like, yo, I love you, Tukey. There's a homeless man outside our house lifting plates. That's it for this part. You have told me that there is an epic dose of BC's feces ready to go. We're in person today, so I dug deep into my archives.

I'll do this so I can see a little bit better. To scour the globe for the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly in combat sports and beyond. This one's called, Have You Seen This Shit? Oh, God. Oh. Oh, God. UFC 294, Luke.

Lukito was in Abu Dhabi. Paulo Cruz pulled from the card due to, what do you have, SARS? Luke, I don't know, but he's still fighting with the injured elbow. Look at this. So, Luke, we're told on Twitter that these are Russian MMA fighters? Chechen, I think. Chechen. What do you make of Paulo's response?

This was after the Hamzat fight ended, so the tensions could have been high in that area, right, with Cruz being the original opponent here. Did you see him throw a punch with the injured right arm? I did, yeah. What do you think about this? I don't think much about this. Okay.

All right. He proved like Chewbacca, though, that he was about it. He was about it. He was about it. I give him credit. Indeed. Indeed. Well, Luke, here's the soundbite of the weekend.

The doctor we talked about and good old Victor Henry, whose balls were not hot, Luke. They were hurt. Yeah. Poor bastard. In my balls? No, it wasn't your ball. You didn't kick your ball. Oh, no.

Oh, come on, man. All dicking balls. And now the doctor's going to tell him ball. You didn't kick your ball. Oh, no. Oh, come on, man. All dick and balls. My dick is the most. And now the doctor's going to tell you that it didn't hit his testicles? Come on, man. Okay. There's so much here to peel apart. First of all, the response of, no, no, no, my dick and balls is just hilarious.

How about Anik losing his shit over this? Yeah. I mean, he's right. It's like, doctor, my balls hurt. Then they're like, no, they're fine. Your balls are fine. They're fine. Yeah. I mean, he's right. It's like, doctor, my balls hurt. And then they're like, no, you're not. No, they're fine. Your balls are fine. You're fine. Yeah. Not a tumor. I don't, seriously, have you ever seen either in boxing or MMA, a ref or doctor tell a fighter that they're malingering? I don't know if I've ever seen that. There's a rule in boxing

that the referee, if a corner throws in the towel, if they feel like the surrender is not necessary and isn't aligned with the fighter's beliefs, they can pick up the towel, if they feel like the surrender is not necessary and isn't aligned with the fighter's beliefs, they can pick up the towel and throw it out. Do you remember when Uri Foreman fought Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium in 2011? Vaguely. That was the thing where Bob Arum told Ariel that MMA was full of skinheads. Another head, a bunch of skinhead white guys rolling around with other skinhead white guys.

Which, by the way, he was semi-right. He came in with a knee injury, had a knee brace, re-aggravated it, gets knocked down because of the knee. The corner throws in the towel. Arthur McCanty Jr., New York referee, son of a legend, picks it up, throws it out. No, no, no. And then any time Foreman would go down after that, McCanty would get him back up. Be like, you're fine. You're fine.

Keep fighting. that was weird i've seen that a couple times where they disregarded the towel throw and but no this was i mean but the guy's poor balls dude so josh barnett's his trainer yeah josh barnett's tweeting at ariel the rest of the time from the hospital saying yeah there it is yeah we're in the hospital right now to get an ultrasound and some exams his balls are swollen to the size of satsuma which is like a really large orange, right? I believe that's right. I mean, I feel terrible for Victor Henry. When I was in the Marine Corps, there was a guy in my platoon, because I got injured

at MCT, Marine Combat Training, and you have to go to like the injured platoon if you get injured bad enough, and you have to go back into training once you're healed. And the dude who I was bunked with he was running a train huh running a train no no he was running and one of his testicles overlapped the other one and apparently that's a real big problem apparently that that happens you have to get surgery and the whole nine yards this fucking guy could barely walk he had balls the size of hippity hops i mean they were gigantic and he was always in agony. First of all, did you see that guy's balls?

They were weird. He lost a testicle, by the way. He lost it. My uncle's friend one time told me that story about how his balls switch spots in the sack. No, they don't switch spots. One wraps the other. Yeah. God, that's the worst thing I've ever talked to. Look at Tristan. He just woke up. He doesn't want to hear that shit. Tristan's like, you know, he just twists his balls by himself.

Yeah, he'll just remove them himself. All right. Sorry, Tristan. I know you're a nice guy. Speaking of balls, Luke, Johnny Walker, his walk into the fight included this dance before. Let me guess. Gyrating his hips? Yeah.

Rewarding? No one turns the Harley Davidson prep point into browsers. Oh, sorry. First we have Johnny Walker, Luke, slipping up the stairs. Did you see that? Dude, this guy's physical comedy makes me fucking laugh. So this is planned, you think? Either way, it's great.

It is great. It is great. Either way. The recovery is very funny. Yeah, yeah. Look at Annex tell the joke there, too. I love that. Then when we get to the walk to the cage, Luke,

the sex show was on, okay? Here we go. He's just going to start masturbating. A little robot. But it's like a sexy robot, right? Not to me, it's not. I'm actually down with these moves. So far, so good.

Once he starts getting, you know, the crotch thrusting. Speaking of fire crotch, this was better. Shara Bullet. This was the kick from the bottom that he landed. This is legal, right? So let's see. Oh, yeah, if he's up like that, it's legal.

That's legal. Yeah, that's legal, too. Dude, that's nasty, right? Pettis has landed that on people at times. Okay, would you say, though, that as good as Shara Bullitt looked in the first round, he also kind of looked a little human down the stretch? Yes, definitely. He's got to take down defense and get up issues.

Get up, yeah. His get up and go must have got up and went. Luke, let's transition out of UFC. Let's go over to this Alabama fan. This is after the game running on the field. Oh, my God. And look at them taunt him, dude. Look at them taunt that shit.

The fucking security guy taunted him? He's talking that. Look at the guy in the blue. He's talking that shit. So, first of all, the guy in the yellow probably used to be all-conference at middle linebacker, and he's just taking it. He's some D3 guy. Yeah, he's like, oh, this is how I used to do it back in the day. But look, the guy in the yellow probably used to be all-conference at middle linebacker and he's just taking... He's some D3 guy. Yeah.

He's like, oh, this is how I used to do it back in the day. But look at the guy in the blue. Look at that donk. Just fucking shit. That guy leveled him. Yeah. And they're trying to get the guy up and he's obviously concussed. They're like, get up, you concussed piece of shit. Damn. All right, let's go to our WWE fan of the week. Luke, here's Natalia,

right? Daughter of Jim the Anvil Neidhart just hugging that kid. And this kid's like, second base, baby. Oh, yeah. Not bad, right? Not a bad idea if you're that kid, right? How did the wrestling show go? Great, I grabbed a bunch of tits.

That's assault, brother. Yes, it is. That's a crime, it turns out. Well, Luke, you're NFL fan of the week. NHL, excuse me, sharing this betting prop with the coach. Your thoughts? Took the over. Need six goals, please.

Yeah. Look at that guy. You know he's had his car repossessed. Absolutely. Big fan of that guy right there. All right, Luke. Finally, we're combining the two things you love the most. Let's listen to this bearded fella.

You've got to love how the Turbo S spits those flames. It's just crazy. Send this to someone who's addicted to big booty Latinas. Luke, I sent it over to you. I mean, if you're going to have a weakness for some kind of woman, you could do much worse. Well, Luke, I've had a weakness most of my life for the silent killer that is known as a hot dog. Yes, right, Luke? A glizzy?

Is that what they call it? What do you think about this? They call that in New York, they call them glizzies. What do you think about this cigarette hot dog? Yeah, I mean, I think if you eat that, you should go to jail. Okay, we'll keep the weird hot dog things going. What about this wedding cake, Luke? I would love to go back in time and get a piece of this, right?

It's all black. It's correct. All right, well, that's a great one. All right, well, Luke, it was a wedding cake made out of hot dogs. It was fantastic. You would have loved it. All right, let's go to this. This is a creation I'm creating.

I'm inventing in my kitchen. Check this out. This ingenuity right here. Because who has time to walk the dog over to the landing spot, Luke, right? You into this? That's the greatest thing I've ever seen. That's the greatest thing I've ever seen. Would you say that whoever invented that deserves a PhD, Luke?

Yes. All right, I would agree with that whoever invented that deserves a PhD, Luke? Yes. All right, I would agree with that. 100%. Let's go to the next slide. Speaking of PhDs. So let me just explain something to you. This is not the guy at the Cannibal Corpse show. This is the guy at the metal shows that my wife likes,

where they look like they've never done a pull-up, but they probably have a AK-47 in the car. They're just going to shoot up. Okay, I'm not into this at all. You know, my dad says where he comes from, where he grew up, it's illegal to put a ketchup on a hot dog. It's mustard or nothing, Luke. So I'm not opposed to the idea of mustard being a superior choice to ketchup.

No. Together, mustard and ketchup together is not bad with baked beans over the top. So the real answer to the question about what's the number one topping for a glizzy hot dog, it's chili and then mustard. That's the answer. Oh, I can get down with chili.

But old guys love mustard. Let's hear this old bastard. Put a little hot dog on that mustard, will you? All right, well, I'll put some mustard on here. You can suck on it. Dude, I had so many fucking supers when I lived in New York who were just like this guy. Well, if you're going to eat with that much mustard, you need something to drink it down with, Luke. How about a Schlong Island iced tea?

You ever have that? Okay, whatever our last day is in studio, you're schlong island shit you're drinking that motherfucker all right drinking that as long as it's not attached to the man i'm okay with that all right we got one more to luke you got to be careful on the roads don't make an illegal u-turn these are called shaboings you into these youtube u-turn shaboings how the fuck are you supposed to eat this piece it's a It's a sausage that's like a – yeah, you're supposed to eat them across the – That's just a whole kielbasa and they just put a couple buns on it. Yeah, you're not into that, no? No.

All right. Well, we love hot dogs in this place, Luke. We also love no spears for days. Here's your Halloween costume of the week. Your thoughts? If I said they were Colombian, you'd be so mad at me. I would be mad at you. Okay, okay.

What I will also say is... Is that Oscar? No, no, no. I just don't want to get fired. That's not Carlos Condit. That's not Carlos Condit. Please don't put that out into the ethos sphere. It's not Craig Jones.

Gaff's in our ears being like, is that Carlos Condit? It could be Craig Jones. It could be Craig Jones. Craig Jones. Is this Craig Jones approved? Would you say that there are many countries, though, that benefit from cocaine production? Benefit's a strong word. You mean are involved in cocaine production?

Let's go to our next slide. Some earnest fans wanted you to respond to this, Luke. Cocaine is set to become Colombia's main export, overtaking oil per Bloomberg. Yeah, I believe that. This is the thing that I've, again, I don't know why folks have such a hard time understanding this. They're exporting it. We are buying. Our government is buying it, you think? I don't know if our government is buying it, but we are buying it. So like, I keep telling, you know what the problem with the Colombians are? They're drunkards. They're drunkards. They're massive drinkers. And of course there's coca parties and stuff like that,

but like, it's not like what you think. They're getting it out of the country. Oh, I got you. All right. Well, Luke, you would agree that the N-word belongs nowhere, especially not on local news segments, right? Oh, fucking hell. What happened here? Yeah, Jason, the wet weather might be the story this weekend. Yeah, this weekend really is going to feel not even like mid-October. It's going to feel like late October, Dare I say even the N-word.

Yeah. Yeah, how about don't? How about don't say it? Alton Panis, please. I don't dare you. That'll be the end of your newscast career, Jim. What word was he looking for there, Luke? November?

Maybe, maybe. All right, Luke. Dare I say the N-word? No. Here's how I know if people are P1s or not. When people start sending me the same video a thousand times, and I'm like, dude, we ran that video three years ago. I remember it. So what I've decided to do, Luke, was create a have you seen this shit Hall of Fame.

And for whatever reason, this clip has been DMed to me at least 75 times lately. I figure it's worth an induction into the Hall of Fame, Luke, right? You know what I'm saying? Dude, fuck these honkies. This is the best video ever. That's what I want to do to those people at the bar. Speaking of white people just mixing it up, let's go to a rugby match. Oh, my God.

Oh, no. Dude, why are they fighting in Civil War? Revolutionary war get-ups. War never ended. Luke's still going, right? Look at the whites. The whites will just battle. Look at them throw this guy in the blue vest.

Just fucking, just get the fuck out of here. All right, let's go over to Jeopardy, Luke. Let's listen in. Presumed to be 14 in boys and 12 in girls. Tom, what is the age of consent? No. Presumed to be 14 in boys and 12 in girls. Tom, what is the age of consent? No. Presumed to be 14 in boys and 12 in girls. Oh, that joke a million miles away.

That guy's so great. Sorry, Coach Sandusky, but you can be more... He's like, that's when you can fuck him. I mean, what is the age you can fuck him? Hey, Luke, you know Chef Cass, right? Nutritionist to the stars. He pulled out an archive photo here of him with TriStar, What is the age you can fuck them? Hey, Luke, you know Chef Cass, right? Nutritionist to the stars. He pulled out an archive photo here of him with TriStar,

GSP, Rory McDonald, and a lot of pee. What you can't see is, first of all, they drank that urine. Yeah, well, the cup's open with the silverware right there. Do you think Chef Cass has tasted Rory's finest? There's no doubt he drinks piss. Oh, come on. That's so unfair to a friend. I'm just guessing. This is my opinion.

I don't know for a fact. But I just want to point out, he's got two lightning orbs that he has put on the backs of both of them to track them. Instead of around their testes? Yeah. No, we can't do that. We can't do that. What do you think is the foil? Like, what's going on in this table?

Check it out, Luke. Nothing that I want to know more about. Okay. Thank you, Chef Cass. Luke, this is Sean Strickland strictly do you remember the time shop was talking about rolling with uh rashad he's like yo he's got like he's got a giant hammer yeah what do you think and god who's got one are you asking because he's big and black well let's listen to the video for one time oh god we know we're talking about fucking you know we're in a

gym we talk about fucking a lot and i was like francis let me tell you right now i love my girlfriend i'm a cheat on her but if there's ever a point where i'm single and i'm about to girl you've ever you gotta tell me dude you gotta tell me and like francis it's not that it's not it's not that it's a hard show to follow it's not that i don't it's not that i don't respect you as a man. Francis, I would be honored to be your fucking Eskimo brother. I will fucking shake your hand, bro, and I will say, we conquered this mountain together. But what I'm saying, Francis, what I'm saying without saying, Francis, that's a hard act to follow, man.

That's a hot dog through a fucking hallway, Francis. So Francis is such a solid fucking Francis so Francis is such a solid fucking guy he's such a solid guy and he starts trying to build me up in my little penis okay I don't care about Sean Strickland's cock can I just be honest about that it's not about his cock

about my little white penis he goes Sean when you know a woman's body you can pleasure them with one finger. I'm like, Francis, your one finger is bigger than my dick. Okay, I got to tell you. You know, I'm happy Sean Strickland won a title. I don't want to know any more about his company.

Luke, it's like a hot dog in a hallway, Luke, right? I understand that. I understand the point he's trying to make. I just got to tell you. Sorry, Luke. I don't want to know more about make. I just got to tell you. Sorry, Luke. I don't want to know more about his cock. I didn't mean to anger dad. Here we go.

Here's your scorpion of the week to cleanse the palate. Look at this honky. He's got a helmet on, Luke. Look at this stupid crack. Do you think that helmet? Flying in the air like the dumb piece of shit that he is. Look at him. Just ass over teak.

I'm so glad that he not only wiped out on this fucking thing, he's not going to walk the rest of his life. He's never going to walk again. Thank God. Good thing you had that helmet on, though, Luke. There you go. There's your white person dying for this week. Let's go over to a Russian restroom,

or at least right outside of it, Luke. What the fuck? No, no. Turns out not a Russian bathroom. This is FedEx Field. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Could you imagine sitting outside of a restroom, probably in the hallway of like a dentist office,

and somebody took a shit so aggressive that it... I've done that to the Malka bathroom a number of times. Okay, there you go. Hey, Luke, we always have fun when we play a game called Rate That Tat. Are you ready? I guess. All right, here we go. This is Rate That Foot Tat first.

You into feet? I'm not into feet tats, particularly the soles of the feet. Yeah. Oh, I know this creator, by the way. I don't love these. I mean, I think they're okay done. That's got to hurt like shit. Yeah, this is a creator, by the way. I don't love these. I mean, I think they're okay done. That's got to hurt like shit. Yeah, this is a particular style of tattooing.

I think it's off the, what's the name of the Hindu style? I forget. But it's okay, I guess. I'm not really into it. Do you prefer tattoo on to T on to T? I don't. I really hope this person is put to death. It's kind of hot, right?

In a weird way. I really, really hope this person is executed. Okay. All right. There you go. Well, Luke, why don't you rate that mouth tat? Right? We keep this going in the right direction.

No. No. But as you say, those go away over time, right? Some of them do, yes. Yes, yes. But his, do you think he would risk SARS to? This gentleman? I don't think this gentleman's thought very deeply about anything. So ass staff is not a turnoff, not a deal breaker for him?

No, for this fucking degenerate? Okay. That's a funny bit. Let's go to Andre Touchy Feely with a new tat, Luke. Your thoughts on this? Oh, I didn't think we were going to see some ass play here from Andre, but he was good in that weed thriller that Mr. Faber produced? Yeah, he's very good in that. The stencil is excellent, I can tell you that. Yeah, but what's with the that weed thriller that Mr. Faber produced. Yeah, he's very good in that. This is, the stencil is excellent.

I can tell you that. Yeah, but what's with the ass? The line work is excellent. What's with this? I mean, what is, I mean, I don't want to be looking at this, Luke. Is he going in the right direction? Yeah, okay. I've had enough of Andre Feely's butt cheeks.

Thank you. Well, you're a provocateur of ass tatting. Okay, I don't, but I don't just cycle through it over and over. I get texts from you all the time that have asses. All right, let's go to one more tat. Luke, this is called a 3D back tat. Your thoughts? Is that the greatest tat of all time?

No, not really. It's interesting, but I don't really... You don't like it? It's okay. You put a different color, you see a different thing. Listen, it's a well-done tattoo. It's kind of interesting. This guy really committed to the bit.

It's a big piece. But if I'm just being honest, it's not gimmicky tattooing like this doesn't do shit for me. All right. Well, I've got one more clip for you, Luke. Let's just watch it and enjoy it together. Speaking of white asses. Please get hit by a car. That'd be wild.

Where'd he go? Get going! Get going! Get on your horse! Oh! Wow! Going streaking. I gotta tell you, my only regret is that I wasn't the one driving that car.

Wow. And Luke, I've got to close it. Hold on. Let me see this fucking guy get hit one more time. Detective Buttcheeks here. This is now the third recorded death that we've shown on this show. Yeah, watch that animal just fucking get hurled in the air. To close this segment, I've got a text from CBS Sports producer extraordinaire Michael Mormyle who says,

do me a favor and ask Luke about my Giants handing him that L once again over the weekend against your Redskins. Fuck you, Mikey. You don't know shit. Yeah, first of all, it's the Commanders, the worst name ever. Next to fucking Redskins, I guess. Fuck you, Mikey. You don't know shit. That's the shit of the week.

I hope you enjoy it. Now, would you grade that shit decently? I mean, come on. A minus. A minus. Okay, I'll take that. A minus, B plus. I'll take that.

God, the guy getting lifted by the car nude was great. Getting egged on by his stupid-ass friends. Yeah. That was awesome. They say we're better together in person, Luke. I don't know if this episode really you know, really put that point forward. Does it even matter anymore? They're just going to take this shit away here in a couple months.

What do you think is going to become of our stuff? It's going to be like a dentist office. This place. You think they'll leave the remnants of it on the wall? No, they're going to send that shit to the trash pile or something. I don't know. We got to, hey, let me see the hand. So for real, this is not our last time here, for real. No, it's not our last time. the hand. So, so for real, this is not our last time here for real. No, it's not our last

time. I know. Well, so for, we're definitely coming back in November at least once, but I don't know about beyond that. Hey, look at that. Also, we have the candle. We have the, sorry, we have the cannibal corpse liquor and the shop liquor, which by the way, I keep saying to people is pretty fucking good. Do you think, um,

that Strickland and in Ghana will become Eskimo bros like shop and Dana did? Doannou will become Eskimo bros like Shab and Dana did? Do I think who will become Eskimo bros? Strickland and Ngannou. I got to tell you, I don't care about his sex life. I really, I'm not interested. I know they're interested in that, in that gym. I'm not interested in that in this life.

All right, I got to urinate. Do you want to take us out of here, Luke? Hey, look at this fucking thing. Smash your motherfucking hands. Ooh, Mikey's texting us. What's he saying? Mikey is saying, PFL reportedly offered Nate Diaz a deal to fight Jake Paul, and Jake has accepted.

In MMA? In the smart cage. In MMA? Yes. Yeah. Do you think Nate will accept? The question is whether or not the commission will accept. Doesn't Nate want a boxing rematch first? I think, I don't know what he wants. I don't know what he wants. You're done with it. We're done with influencer boxing. You and I,

right? We're done. I don't know if we're done done, but I hope I don't have to cover one on the ground anymore. Dude, check out this shirt, man. Check out this shit.

So rate that, rate that concert. It's a top five concert I've ever seen. It was the 20th anniversary. Beacon Theater, right? Yeah, which is such an amazing.

Beacon Theater is the best. It was, it didn't best the, the two MMJ shows that I've seen in the past two years, but it was electric and special. They were almost hamstrung by having to play the album in full, you know what I'm saying? So it was a lot of long, haunting ballads, but fantastic. You know who I'm going to see in February in New Haven? Portugal the Man.

That's who I'm talking about, all right? Awesome. All right. Looks like I don't care. Alright? Awesome. Alright. Luke's like, I don't care because they're white. No, that's not true. Most people I listen to are that way, but I just don't like the annoying. That way? They're white, yeah. They're afflicted. I'm afflicted. Oh, good. Okay. I didn't know. I thought this was like Steve Martin and the jerk,

which would be an apropos title for a movie about your life, too, where he didn't know he was white, Luke. You're also the jerk, Dickhead. That's what you don't understand. I know that about you. You don't know that about you. All right, everyone. Hey, thank you so much for watching this episode here today.

We hope we made you laugh and enjoyed some of the content along the way. Morningcombat.store to get some of the merch. That's true. You can do that with like this and this, right? I'd tell you about Showtime, but, you know, no one really gives a fuck at that point. They had a good run. They had a good run. Hey, I just don't think you should sign up for streaming.

I don't know how much that would benefit you, but, you know, there's that. So Brian Campbell is there. YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. Tons of stuff to go see. You can also see my breakdown of the main event on my personal channel. Oh, who was your baseball team as a kid?

The Braves, probably. As a kid. That's lame. That's so lame. Why? Yo, the Braves suck. They're the worst. Who are you going to share?

Chipper Jones? Chipper Jones was a great player. Ruined his first marriage. He's a Hall of Famer. Ruined his first marriage. What the fuck do you care? Hall of Very Good. Hall of Very Good.

Hall of Fame? I bet you were a big John Rocker fan. Same beliefs. No, he was a little too racist. He was a little too racist. But he could play ball for a little while. All right. Luke, any thoughts a little too racist. He was a little too racist. But he can play ball for a little while. All right. Luke, any thoughts on Moneyline's Hammer of the Month? I mean, thanks for... I mean... We'll leave the light on for you. All right. Yeah, thanks, I guess. All

right, we're out of here. That's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. Appreciate you guys watching. Until next time, may all your gains be loyal.