MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Makhachev vs. Oliveira 2 | Costa vs. Chimaev | Israel Adesanya | Nate Diaz | Ep 467

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

On episode 467 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian kick off the show with some big time fight news. The guys react to Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira 2 and Paulo Costa vs. Khamzat Chimaev. The guys also discuss the report that Dricus Du Plessis might not be ready to fight Israel Adesanya at UFC 293. Will Sean Strickland fill in? The guys also discuss Devin Haney's current situation and the $10 million dollar offer that PFL made to Nate Diaz. As always we close out friday with Ok, bet and Dead wrong. (10:00) - Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira 2 (22:00) - Paulo Costa vs. Khamzat Chimaev (31:30) - Israel Adesanya's Next Opponent (44:00) - Devin Haney (51:20) - PFL offers Nate Diaz $10m (68:00) - Ok, Bet (82:00) - Dead Wrong Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher 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 passion

That's the spirit we bring to this show I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell This is Morning Combat Yeah, you hear that sound, you know what to expect Art by the Bushels, alright This is Morning Combat, the best damn combat sports show period we have many awards to prove that but do we have a future that is the million dollar

question these days hey you're looking at me right i'm on that beige guy with a big attitude and and all the uh all the alpha you can handle in one day. Brian Campbell, thank you for populating my show. No, this isn't my only pipes channel, cameo.com slash Brian Campbell, but please scam that all you want, just the same. My partner in crime, though, no stranger to scams every Thursday afternoon. It's Luke Thomas. Luke, how the hell are you here?

That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That one never gets old, actually. I'm liking that bit more and more. But BC, you can't bring down my mood today. You know why? No. Because it's hail to the commanders.

Oh, yeah. Hail victory. The Redskins got it. Brains on the warpath. Luke, the redskins got an injection the redskins got an injection of magic over overnight wow i mean what do you think about that luke what do you magic johnson and company taking the multi-billion dollar takeover of the nation's capital also bc one of the one of the minority owners is uh this colombian dude who BC, one of the, one of the minority owners is, uh, this Colombian dude, who's like one of the richest families in that country that owns half the things everywhere

over there. So, uh, my family was pretty happy that he's involved, I guess, but I'll tell you what, dude, we I'll just leave it at this for years. We've been having a debate. What would it feel like when Dan Snyder was finally gone? What would it act? act would it would it feel like a championship bc i gotta tell you it feels like we're the city of champions again my friend this feels exactly like when the nats one feels like one that well not quite when the caps one is a little different nevertheless it's a championship parade day here in your nation's capital wow now did you call that other colombian owner a minority owner because of his nationality and heritage? Because that would be wildly. No, he actually owns a small minority stake.

There's a there's like it's like it's the Josh Harris group. So it's like Josh Harris, Magic Johnson and then like 50,000 rich people. So Dan Snyder. Yeah. Oh, no, he's gone. All right, Luke. Friday, July 21st right here, 2000 and 23. And what we have cooked up for you today are the tightest 90 minutes in combat sports. So tight, Luke. It'll give you flashbacks to the junior prom for sure. But, Luke Thomas, what I'm trying to tell you is we got okay bet today.

We're going to look at the biggest news over the past 48 hours, including a Colmane and Maine monster splash for Abu Dhabi in October. You know, we got other shit set the stage for boxing and maybe a little bit of dead wrong as well on the way out. But Luke Thomas, we also in the midst of, to be very honest with the folks, and I appreciate everybody outpouring love, DMing us, making multiple Reddit pages about our show's demise. MK, like my heart, Luke, it will go on, right? And it will carry on. That's not the question. We are awaiting some larger sort of behind-the-scenes things

that dictate a lot of the future of the show, mostly technologically and stuff like that. But Luke Thomas, you and I will still be working together, but we are waiting on things we can't necessarily talk about that do dictate the future. But shout out to Mikey Morms of CBS Sports, our extended CBS Sports crew behind the scenes today, bringing you this classic piece of entertainment. Throughout all that uncertainty, Luke, about the future, there's a little bit of light coming next week, right? A little bit of a big MK announcement

that we want to start the show and plant the flag with. Luke, can you get people excited about what I'm trying to tell you? And don't just say, oh, BC's birthday live chat post Inouye Fulton. That's big enough news for next week as it is. But what about next Thursday, July 27th? Well, first of all, BC, you should know that I plugged on my live chat yesterday your post Inouye Fulton instant reacts that's going to happen.

So I made sure everyone knew about that yesterday. But okay, you're asking about the future. Now again, there are some bigger questions. I think most people should understand that we're going to be fine. But we're also going to be more than fine next week. We're going to be great next week. So here's what's going to happen.

We all know that next Saturday, not this one coming up tomorrow, but a week from tomorrow, is going to be one of the greatest days in combat sports history. You're going to get UFC 291. You're going to get, I think, Bellator versus Rizin 2. And, of course, you're going to get what I consider to be the crown jewel of the weekend. You're going to get Errol Spence Jr. taking on Terrence Crawford. That fight is, in fact, so big that Brian and I have been invited to host live on television on CBS Sports Network,

which you can get if you've got YouTube TV or any place that has all the sports and cable channels. We're going to be live two hours, MK on national TV, for two hours getting you ready in every way we possibly can for Spence versus Crawford. Ladies and gentlemen, it is an MKTV takeover to get you ready for the biggest boxing match in about a decade. BC, I don't know how you feel. I'm buzzing at the opportunity. Yeah, I'm fired the heck up.

So it's next Thursday, July 27th, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Eastern Time. A live two-hour, in-your-face to 12 p.m. Eastern Time. A live two-hour, in-your-face, every-angle look I've had. Some of our best MK fans behind the scenes who are MMA strong telling me, look, BC, I never bid on this boxing thing you've been trying to sell me for years, but man, Spence Crawford feels different. Tell me about this fight. What do I need to learn?

What should I expect? You got two hours of greatness coming your way next Thursday live 10 a.m. By the way, I want to be clear. BC and I aren't going to be doing it like this. We're both going to the television studios and we're going to be on the television set. We're just going to bring the MK energy to CBS Sports Network. So we're really appreciative of CBS for the opportunity and the invite. We're excited about this fight and we're really appreciative of CBS for the opportunity and the invite. We're excited about this fight, and we're going to get you guys ready for one of the best fights you're going to see in a long, long time. Yeah, just before Luke gets on that plane and heads to Las Vegas for the, really, the

biggest boxing match in at least eight years. Maybe we've had Mayweather-McGregor, things that have been bigger commercially, but if you don't know, now you know on Spence Crawford in terms of the stakes, in terms of the royalty, in terms of the talent coming together. This is as big as it gets. We are excited to be a big part of that. So final reminder, next Thursday, July 27th, 10 a.m. Eastern, on the CBS Sports Network, check your local cable listings.

MK taking over. Luke, so MK will go on. People can chill, but what you and I want is not necessarily more money and all these things. We want MK to continue to grow. So that's what I'm hoping over the next year, Luke. We'll figure that out behind the scenes. MK's still going to bang though every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

until either they tell us to stop or I say something, Luke, that forces us to stop. Thank you. Going to bang like Stifler's mom, you know what I'm saying? That's what I got for you. Oh my gosh, Luke, before forces us to stop. Thank you. Going to bang like Stifler's mom. You know what I'm saying? That's what I got for you. Oh, my gosh, Luke. Before we get into the real show here, there was some explosiveness, explosions on the

Reddit sphere, Luke. Nuke Thomas apparently arrived and said- Can we just not talk about this bullshit, please? It got very meth-y yesterday, Luke, and it was, you know, you were just like Rambo. But, you know, there you go, Luke. Maybe we'll just move on with our lives, all right? Let's just move on with our lives. Yeah, thank you very much.

All right, Luke, we have, as I mentioned, a banger for you. So, hey, Tui, let's bang. Topic number one. You heard the drums banging. We know we're having a super card coming up. October 21st, Abu Dhabi, UFC 294. Now we got a main event. And for as much as we've been talking about the idea of Mahachev versus Volkanovski 2 or even Volk versus Deporia, no.

How about this for a rematch and a main event, Luke Thomas? The lightweight title will be at stake when Islam Mahachev welcomes back former champion Charles Oliveira, fresh off a resounding comeback victory of his own. 294, October 21st. Luke Thomas, your instant reaction to this fantastic fight. I love it. I love it. I mean, this was the one that actually, when we looked at the calendar, when things started to come into focus, this was the one that actually made the most sense, right?

Because there was some hope that Volk could turn around, but we knew even if he was healthy, it'd be a relatively quick turnaround. Sure enough, he had to get some surgery done, so that wasn't a great option. The Leon Edwards one, I didn't hate it per se. I just was never really all that interested in it. It didn't make a lot of sense to me to go that direction.

It wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world to have your lightweight and welterweight champions fight. But I wasn't looking in that way. I don't think a lot of fans really were. It was really always going to be Charles Oliveira. Or if there had been some other resolution in the lightweight division that could have put someone else in there, maybe we would have gotten there. But Charles Oliveira had the one loss, comes back, beats Benil Dariush, let's just say convincingly and thoroughly.

And what he had done was at the UFC X fan event and the convention, he told a friend of the show, Aaron Bronstetter, he just wasn't going to be ready by that date. Now all of a sudden he is. I don't know what changed in that. Maybe they just came to him with more money, BC, because he was publicly on the record of saying that was too soon. He wasn't going to be able to do that, but he would be able early November or even December if he had to. Now, all of a sudden, he's doing it. I think he's healthy. I don't think that's the issue. I'm not sure what the

scheduling portion of that was, but okay, either either way the question you have to ask yourself is not not not really is Charles deserving because who else would it be at this point in the lightweight division if it's not him there's really no good answer but rather do you do you actually believe that Charles can make a better fight of it the second time around and BC I don't know how you feel but I gotta tell, I actually do think he can make it a much different fight this time around. And for that reason, who would be against this fight? Yeah, I mean, I always would have thought he could make it a better effort

the second time around because of his ability. But obviously that victory over Dariush and sort of the further reveal of the character of what makes up Charlie Olives, it has made me a double down believer, Luke, that he can come back and mix those fortunes up. Don't forget, he had said relentlessly, Oliveira, after that loss to Islam, that that was my worst night at the office. That was 10 really bad minutes. That wasn't necessarily indicative of where I'm at. And obviously he put that out there so aggressively as sort of a

rallying cry for himself to not only come back and beat Darius, but to use that victory to springboard back in. But I'm glad you brought up the fact that we didn't expect Oliveira to come back this soon because it's Friday. I might as well dead wrong myself in the moment for all the talk that I'd been trying to get this Mahachev-Volk rematch to go down. I forgot about this potential of this actual rematch, which will happen. So Luke, I love this fight, even with the first one going down so surprisingly one-sided. Oliveira is a special talent. He's still in that stretch of greatness that he turned himself into when it all came together for him. He is absolutely a live dog going in there. It is interesting though, Luke, from the Islam side, because some

of the, I don't want to say negative, but just critical feedback against my excessive want for a Volk rematch for more of the larger Grandois historical implications for Volk. A lot of people rightfully say, hey, BC, like you're talking as if Islam isn't his own star, that he doesn't have his own wants and needs or his own contenders lining up behind him. Now, I think we can all agree that lightweight isn't as insanely congestive and contested atop the division as it was a year ago or two years ago. But that was a little bit unfair, Luke, to just automatically say, no, no, no UFC, throw Islam back in there with a rematch with a guy that may be unnecessary to some. Do you feel like the Oliveira rematch at the end of the day is necessary, though?

Necessary for who? Like, is this a fair ask for Islam if you were the promotion? Do you think there was any parts of Islam's team that was like, do we have to do this again? Or maybe they're ultra-confident because of how one-sided that first fight was. I mean,

I don't expect Mahachev Luke to turn anyone down. He doesn't seem that type of guy. but is this the best move in the entrance of Islam in your eyes? Yeah. I mean, look at these stats. They kind of tell you the story in every way that mattered. Islam was better with the knockdowns, more significant strikes, more total strikes, two or three on takedowns. He obviously had the sub-attempt, which won him the fight in the end. And look at the control time, 5.05 versus 0.42. I mean, we're not even talking about in the end and look at the control time 505 versus 0.42 I mean we're not even talking about in the same universe of what one guy did to the other I mean I'll say this BC I don't you know if you ask probably Islam and his team they're gonna have a very different perspective

right they're gonna say hey listen we beat Oliveira clean as a whistle which is true and then we fought Volk and you know he was tough but we won that one too we don't really see what the need would be to fight Oliveira but I go back to it in two different ways. Number one, if not him, then who? There really is no better answer than that one that you currently have available that makes sense. That's the first reason. And the champion has an obligation to defend his title against the worthy contenders, so we can put it that way. But two, here's the interesting part about this fight, BC. It's almost better that it's happening under these terms,

where some of the mystique around Islam following the Olivera bout has been, let's say, a little bit dulled by virtue of how well Volk performed against him. And I'm not saying that it should have or shouldn't have, but rather what I am observing. And on the other hand, hey, Olivera got a bit of a boost from that Dariush fight. And I want to say it one more time, BC. What was one of the things that we said following the Oliveira fight with Dariush in terms of what Oliveira did? It was that he stopped doing a bunch of the crazy stuff that got him in trouble, which, by the way, he still did in the first Islam fight. So there is

really good reason to believe. I'm going to say I still favor Islam to win, but I have high hopes for this fight. They're actually meeting at a much better time. It is very difficult to put away a contender who gets the opportunity to learn from his lessons. There isn't anyone better. I can understand why Islam and his team might feel like, Jesus, we got to do this one again. I get it. I get it. But there's no better answer. And in fact, not only is there no better answer, sorry to say, this is actually a pretty good one. Yeah, indeed. And obviously for Islam, there's just another massive name on his march through this division. And, you know, look, he's picked up the whether or not he's gotten a huge bump from being a Habib guy. I think he has. Right. He's sort of this kind of breakout star in his own right, especially in this side of the world.

And it makes sense that the UFC would put him in a main event here again in Abu Dhabi. So we know that another chance against another, you know, potential all-time great here in Oliveira. But look on the flip side. Dude, if Oliveira pulls this off, we are going to continue to have to dramatically recalculate where his standing is in sort of this division's history. I mean, this would be a very, very big win to come back

and regain the belt against somebody so dominant who dominantly put him away the first time. I'm fired up. I am very fired up. This is the type of main event that does get me shadow punching, shadow boxing in the hallway randomly, Luke. Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. You're asking about, for example, Islam and his team's motivation when they've already beat this guy.

I mean, dude, they beat Oliveira thoroughly. It was one-sided, to be honest with you. So in their mind, how much better could we do? But okay, let's answer that question. Let's posit a world where he stops Oliveira even quicker this time. Yeah. What would Makachev, not asking what would the UFC do with the best option, if you're Makachev, what would he be entitled to after that

in terms of a next big appropriate opponent? When you get to that point where he's getting, where they're giving you literally the toughest fights possible, right? Two Oliveira fights and a Volkanovski fight in succession. You come through that on top, you're almost in a way owed something and how this business works and what that can mean is you know a quote-unquote easy blockbuster fight but i don't think he's getting conor mcgregor luke for example which you know you never never can hold it against the ufc to try to throw to try to pull that card at any point but if not that

then it's got to be the type of opportunities that we were trying to argue to get that Volk should get a second time. And that's the opportunities to move up and continue to spread out his greatness and and achieve. And I think that would be potentially a welterweight title shot. And I don't think it's a coincidence that he put out that tweet to try to lure Leon Edwards in, whether that was an attempt to sometimes a lot of these public moves or just, you know, public negotiating behind, just public negotiating to fix what's going on behind the scenes. But look, I would have to think that means greatness, knowing what we know about Mahachev's makeup, which is, I guess, the proper spin-back question to you is how many more lightweight title defenses

before you think Mahachev is thinking that same thing of how do I double down and maximize on what I'm doing here, meaning a welterweight title shot i think he will want one i think he absolutely want me you can already see him telegraphing it now and if it ends up being colby i think he you know i don't i don't know what they would want to do with that given how colby do you think he looks at at the b rematch, Dustin versus Justin 2, and goes, hey, man, I'd love to fight the winner for a lot of money. No, right? A lot of money, maybe, but like, no. I mean, okay, so let's think about this.

Let's say Dustin, I'm just going to posit something, but let's say if Dustin goes in there and just KOs Justin Gaethje flat, you'd be like, well, is he actually owed a title shot at this point? There's certainly a debate to be had about that, but you could conceivably do it, in which case, then maybe that's the next appropriate fight. But I just feel like for Islam, I mean, it's kind of funny, right? There's this argument about, oh, if you pay fighters more, they'll stop fighting. And we know, for example, it example, that it's true and it's not. So, like, let me give you an example. Like, look at Canelo. Canelo makes paydays that most MMA fighters will never, ever, ever, ever see. And most even A-side MMA fighters will never see in their life. Like, literally a handful of them ever will get something even approximating it.

It's the most absurd thing ever. And he just keeps doing it. He just keeps collecting these enormous paydays. So, like, you're like, well, and look at Floyd. Like, it's not true that if you pay someone in combat sports a lot that they stop competing. But MMA is different than boxing in terms of what it does to the body. Not so much on head trauma, but literally the rest of the body. It is a traumatic thing to go through, which is why these guys want to get in. They want to get a couple or triple of big paydays and then be on

their way. So for that reason, BC, I do think he's going to look for a welterweight title shot afterwards. And we have to kind of figure out, will the UFC bite on that? Do we want to see it? If it is Colby, is that the fight to make? What if it's not? What if it's Leon? Is that an interesting fight one way or the other? These are things that I think are going to be in play,

assuming that Islam comes out of this fight, able to call his shots. Yeah, but don't assume. Because, Luke, the champion once had a name, right? And it might be the same name again. Looking forward to that. So let me give you, as we head into topic two, foundational structure of what this supercard looks like up to this point. A reminder, October 21st at T-Hot Arena, it's UFC 294.

Mahachev, Olives, two in the main event. We already know about Nasruddin Imamov vs. Ikram Alaskarov Ikram also Mohamed Mokhaev vs. Tim Elliott which we referenced on Wednesday well Luke what a day for announcements

the co-main event is also set middleweights Paulo Costa vs. Hamzat Chamaev the recent rumors which we did address, are true. I did have a lot of viewers coming at me going, BC, you're not reading the tea leaves close enough. It's actually going to be Chamaev-Kanonir. And I was like, wow, I never even considered that fight. Luke, this seems to make more sense, though, from the standpoint that they've had beef, they've tried to make this fight in the past, and this seems like it's the UFC's decision to push Chemaev toward middleweight now full-time.

I still, again, do not understand what really happened on Chemaev missing weight that badly in the build-up to the Nate Diaz fight, and then he took care of Holland last minute. But he's been off a while, he's back. Luke, we echoed this on Wednesday addressing the rumors, but let's say it again. This has action written all over it, and I think it's the right fight for both guys. I'm fired the hell up. I love it.

Costa currently sitting at seven. There's a consideration like, hey, what if Hamza wins? What does that mean? Does it mean title shot? It almost certainly could. Listen to this. Sitting at number one is Drikus. Now, again, he's injured. We'll see how long it takes for one is drichus now again he's injured

we'll see how long it takes for him to come back obviously he's got probably got the feeling that he's got next but then it's pareda who's no longer in the division whittaker he just lost cannonier is certainly coming off of some wins but i don't know that he has like fully claimed his stake to a title shot yet then there's marvin, not nowhere close, even though he's sitting at five. Strickland's sitting at six. He might get it next, so he's not really even in the equation. And then it's Costa. So is it a guaranteed title shot if Hamzat wins?

No. But I mean, this is what I love about this fight. Hamzat has no wins over any ranked fighter in the middleweight division. But of course, none of us really believe that that's really a true reflection of how ultimately how good he is. And so the question becomes, well, how good is he? I'm not telling you that Paul LaCosta is the perfect measurement for this, but he's a pretty good one. He's a pretty good one. Physical for the weight class, big, experienced, heavy puncher, I would say decent to good takedown defense, which will become relevant. Certainly

much more experienced against elite competition in this weight class. I would argue a little bit more battle-tested, although the fight with Gilbert Burns was a pretty testing battle in the end. You get my point. You will learn a lot about Hamzat Shemaev as a middleweight performer in this contest, if for no other reason of the size of Paulo Costa. And someone might say, what if he goes in there and just one-punch KOs him like he did against Gerald Mearshart? Fine. Let's see him do that against Paulo Costa, because that would tell you what does his power carry to that weight class

in a way that matters against the top guy who has been, to our point, battle-tested. That would be incredible. Or he loses, and we and we say you know what maybe he needs to go back to welterweight either way dude i love this contest to your point they got the beef they got the story they've got the footage of them having beef in the performance institute in las vegas what is there one more time i'm going to say it what is there not to like about this contest it's an awesome awesome awesome fight. I push back just a bit and say the combination of the Mearsharp fight and the Holland fight, the Holland fight becoming a middleweight fight

after the weight miss, I mean, it gives us some level of indication on how Hamzat may be able to handle himself as a 185er. Not against top guys. True, but against guys with a pulse for sure, and boy, did he knock the stuffing out of both and take care of it now luke on the flip side here although costa always brings action and i gotta say him leaning so heavily into the secret juice gimmick over the last couple years has really made him not only so much more endearing but it's kind of replay you know

erased over the bad feelings we had in the mouth after his stoppage loss to Adesanya and how ill prepared he seemed to be particularly mentally. And then their whole red wine story and all that just, just weird. But Luke, he's only fought four times in the last four years and they could not be four weirder pieces of information to try to figure out exactly where he's at. Those fights include that incredible brawl in 2019 with 2019 with Yoel Romero, UFC 241. That is, you know, I mean, that's one of the best first rounds in history. You can put that fight on any time.

But then the weird fight without Asana, the decision loss to Vittori, where he kind of left stuff on the table and fought recklessly. And then the weird-ass comeback victory this pastust over luke rockhold four fights in four years there's been weirdness surrounding him do you think this leads to i don't know where the odds are right now and i'd love to talk about them if we can grab them quickly but do you think this has led to an overall like downgrade in what we where we look at Costa's stock to be entering this fight oh yeah there's no doubt I mean like when he was like after he beat Johnny Hendricks people were like whoa this dude I mean even Hendricks was you know quite literally on his last legs at that point in his MMA and UFC career and we were still like damn he just he just burned right through

that guy like that's incredible and then he's had know, obviously losing the way he did to Izzy hurt his stock. And the other ones you've pointed out, the Romero fight was controversial. But, like, the Romero fight was a true, he proved he was a savage. But I don't know if he proved he was better. I thought Romero won that contest. And then, again, following that, the Luke Rockwell fight was just absolutely bizarre in both directions. All four fights have been bizarre. All four of those fights I mentioned have been bizarre in odd, different ways.

Yeah, in different ways. And that's the weird part about it, too. There's not really, the only thing, the only common denominator has been that they're just weird. But they've been weird in different directions, you know? Like, this dude just courts madness in ways that's hard to explain. So I guess I would say he's got some proving to do. And this is why the title shot thing, it's like if Hamzat goes in there and blows the doors off this guy, he probably will get a title shot. The passion at that point would be too strong. If he struggles against him, I don't

think that's the end of the world, but it would be yet a further display of weirdness in the career of Paulo Costa. So in some ways, this is what I mentioned, is he the perfect suitor for this moment in time for Costa, or excuse me, for Tremayev? No, but with Tremayev's time off, with what we do know about what it means to be Paulo Costa, there's still plenty there to be excited about and either guy has an opportunity frankly to prove a lot about maybe some of the questions that both of them still have albeit different questions for different guys no question i love this card the updated odds from draft kings luke on this just announced fight chamay of minus 360 costa plus 280 I actually

kind of like that because Luke I do look at this for all the questions to both fighters oddly enough I think Chumayev has less than Costa has in this spot and you could say that's crazy because Costa is so much more established in this division but for everything we just talked about I'm not

really look the thing about Costa is now he's had a lot of time off in between. I don't think he's physically damaged or anything like that. I just question his true care and focus. I don't think he carries out game plans like he should to utilize his talents best. I think he just kind of settles into a brawl, and he's okay with it.

Costa, yeah, I do. I mean, I think the Vittori fight showed that. I think even to some degree the Rockhold fight showed some gaps in his game. I mean, you know, Rockhold turned that into a really weird fight, Luke, to be fair, across the board. Yeah, but I mean, if you go back to the Gilbert Burns fight,

can you really say Chemayev sticks to game plans? No. Okay, that's a great comeback because you have that as a question mark. You got the weird weight situation with Nate as a question mark. But maybe because when he did step in against holland he dude he just like he just ran him over i mean he just eviscerated him so i'm gonna say i think vegas has it right even if minus 360 chamayev feels aggressive we got questions about costa but hey this is the ultimate fight for all the talk we're saying is Chumaev go right from here to Izzy with a win.

Costa would very, very much be an attractive player once again. I mean, if we ever ended up without a Sonia Costa too, Luke, I think it's actually one that you could not only sell, but you can sell well because you can talk about the weirdness of that first fight and almost the aberration. I mean, Costa came out, and would would you say is it fair to say that costa came out and laid an egg that wasn't more extreme than the ones laid by gone versus john jones or aldana versus nunez but spider-man mean meme not too far away luke like on that level the thing is is like we forget that Costa has to an extent redeemed

himself since then Aldana has not you know so there's a little bit there's some differences there but yeah that was pretty bad dude I mean again getting back to the Islam and Charles conversation if you're Izzy it's like dude why on earth would you want to fight this guy again you know I mean like how is it going to look better than the first time you did it it's just probably not right it's probably not going to be any easier than the first time that they competed. Sort of goes back to this conversation again about whether Izzy should have moved to 205 at this point, but neither here nor there. I will say this though, this is the weird part about Costa for me, BC. I'm not going to say he has fallen off because I don't think that's true. In many ways, like in terms of like his

social media presence, he's as relevant as ever. And ever and I think well liked by a big portion of the fan base but I don't know if he's gotten better you know what I mean like like from him just going through and then destroying guys to where we are now I don't think he's gotten worse but I can't say he's gotten like he's made dramatic improvements since the fight to Izzy can you really say you've looked at his game and like wow it's like night and day I just don't feel like you can do that no no you can't um man I love this fight though Luke I think if I you package these main and co-mains together and ask me for a grade I mean a minus feels right it's about right a minus yeah I mean it's you couldn't you couldn't give this a b it would

be unfair it would be unfair it's this is fantastic business 291 we'll see it coming up in the 94 294 excuse me i'm all over the place uh we will see that luke october 21st in abu dhabi i don't expect to see you there though i don't expect to see no no i'll skip that one maybe you could fly to saudi for the inganu fight and just and just stay in that area of the world for a while, Luke. My dad lived in Saudi Arabia for a while. He was like, yeah, you're not missing much. So I was like, okay. Well, you know, wouldn't say.

All right, Luke, speaking of Adesanya, by the way, he did pronounce himself in that Sunday conversation on Barstool, Adesanya, he did that again. He third-personed himself, Adesanya. He did that again. He third-personed himself, Adesanya, Luke. Well, here's Adesanya from Izzy. Topic number three, Luke, his next title defense. Hey, it doesn't look like it's going to be DDP after all. Adesanya jumped to the social webs and put out his own video attacking DDP, but also talking about maybe a spinoff to a new opponent. Let's listen in from the champ.

I don't even know how to start this, bro. Rikas the b****. All you have to do is put on some gloves. I was ready to go again. No, you weren't. That's why I'm not taking this fight. Your foot's sore. My knee Was jacked

Two for my last fight Guess what I did I showed up Cause that's what a Champion does Championship caliber Built different A lot of you fighters

Talk about I'll fight anyone Anywhere anytime No you won't I do Alex Volkanovski does We're built We're built different

I'm at the gym right now. About to get some work. So I'm fighting in Sydney. I don't give a f*** who. Dickless, do p***. Dickless, f*** off. You're out. Strickland, you're in.

Let's do the man dance. Show you how to really dance. Yeah. Well, yeah. I just, I'm tired of what you guys talking s*** about. I can fight. I can fight. No, you can't. Do p***.

Yeah, p***. I don't know what you guys are talking about. I can fight. I can fight. No, you can't. You're a bitch. You're a bitch. So, Luke, Dickless apparently is out with an injury. Ariel Helwani confirming this on the Twitters. Let's go to that right now, Luke. According to Helwani's reporting, it's not quite official, but pretty close at this point, that DDP won't be able to fight at 293 in September in Sydney against Adesanya. He was banged up going into the Whitaker fight. That turnaround is just too soon, I'm told, and if that ends up being the case and Izzy stays on the card, which is his desire, and you just

heard him say it, it'll be Adesanya versus Sean Strickland September 9th for the title. Luke, a little bit of a switcheroo, understandable given the injury here. Separate from the dickless comments, how do you like this as the next potential challenge for the stylebender? Well, I got to tell you, that Abus Megamedov fight was a gift to Sean Strickland. A gift.

A big gift. Because he kind of looked the part. I mean, he's sort of Megamedov. He kind of looks the part. And early on, you know, he is a guy in that first round. I mean, he's sort of mega made off. He kind of looks the part. And early on, you know, he is a guy in that first round. I mean, all the jokes were like, well, that's all he's got. But okay, in that first round, he is a handful. But he was tailor-made for Sean Strickland.

Sean Strickland is battle-tested. He is built to go the distance. He has fantastic cardio. And obviously, he is a skilled fighter. And then he goes in there and he gets not only a win, but he gets a finish over the guy. So he's got this budding popularity by just being this sort of very public edgelord, which may or may not be of interest to you. But on top of that, he is a skilled middleweight fighter.

Izzy is begging for fresh contenders. So in many ways, it makes sense. These guys go into fights banged up. They always say to themselves, I'm going to go in. As soon as the fight's over, I'm going to get healed up. But you know, the UFC just constantly churns. This is what I mean. Like the most important thing you can do for the UFC as a fighter, I genuinely mean this, is just be ready and say yes. Like they want to keep the machinery moving as often and as fast and as seamlessly as possible. And BC, when you

think about it, who are two guys who are very good at keeping the machinery moving and helping the UFC in ways large and small? Sean Strickland and Izzy. Yeah. Izzy, his level of, I should say his frequency of competition is very high. Remember that one time he fought like six times almost in a calendar year? Some absurd amount for the UFC just constantly fighting. McGregor did the same thing early on in his tenure.

Sean Strickland, happy to take these main events that no one else cares about at the apex against fighters, good or bad, whatever kind of condition, filling in on short notice, doesn't care. These are guys who stay ready and over time through their own achievements but also through UFC favoritism by virtue of what they have done for the organization, they end up in pretty good spots at the end of the day. That's really what this means. You're asking, what do I think about the fight? I mean, is there, listen, you know, I do respect Sean Strickland as a fighter, very much so. And we have had his coach on this show innumerable times in Eric Nixick. I couldn't say more nice things about Eric Nixick,

and I think he'll get Sean Strickland as ready as he could be. But candidly, what do I really see that he has over Izzy? I just don't know what that would be if I'm just leveling with you. Yeah, deep-rooted craziness, Luke, and some gross statements. The thing is, Izzy's got some craziness too. Even on that one, he's not the same. That's a fair point across the board. I will say this.

I've not been a huge fan of Strickland's shtick, and I think he'll rightfully be a big underdog in this fight. It's a tough style matchup for him. I'm not going to argue against does he deserve it, even though the Abus win was a setup. Well, he still got it done, Luke, against a guy who we weren't exactly sure what we had there. I will say this, though.

As much as I don't like Strickland's shtick, because some of it is purposely out of bounds, but it's ridiculously out of bounds. I mean, especially, Luke, the way he talks to female interviewers while being interviewed. With that said, it's probably going to be a fun build. It's probably going to be comical, ridiculous, over-the-top. And I think Izzy wants this. That's why I think from the beginning, Izzy seemed, remember at the press conference they were both at when Strickland was going to fight Poiton on the same night?

And Izzy was, he wants this, Luke. Maybe part of it is he looks at it as a guy he should be handily, but I think he loves this type of crazy build-up. Speaking of crazy build-ups and DDP, Luke, I won't call him Dickless, okay? He appeared on the Cameron Simon YouTube channel and was asked about Izzy and basically said, I don't want to be a part of this. That's why I walked away with all those racial stares and stuff. It was unprofessional. He would go on

to further say Izzy was drunk, I guess. I hope so for his part. The UFC brass was just like, is this a good idea for us to face off? But I needed to get out of there. I needed him to feel my energy, but he basically said all that other stuff. Luke, the N word drops. That's not been a part of who he is and that's not what he's trying to bring to this fight. So those, that's the official reaction, Luke, from the old, uh, diamond Dallas one there. Uh, drink is to do. Do you think Luke, all right, do you think DDP-Izzy happens first quarter of next year? And do you think that the race plays a big part in it and that it will most likely be Izzy who's continuing that lane on there? Yes, they will happen first quarter of 2024. Hard to say after Sean Strickland gets through with him.

You know what I mean? Like like sean might take all the bandwidth uh i don't even not even like in a directly you know racial way just by being an edgelord just by being the guy who's like constantly pushing buttons he might he might take all the appetite out of izzy for that one by the time drickus comes around you know but there i just feel like this racial or otherwise this kind of African identity thing. I don't think that's going to go away by itself. Even after the fight, I don't think it's going to go away. So, you know, the thing you could say about Izzy is he sort of always been floating in and out.

I don't want to say in and out of good graces, but he's always been true to himself as a public figure, like whatever comes with that. Right. And what I say is like, do you remember when he had that big closeup against Brunson at Madison Square Garden? but he's always been true to himself as a public figure. Like whatever comes with that, right? And what I say is like, do you remember when he had that big close-up against Brunson at Madison Square Garden? You remember that pay-per-view, right? Afterwards, he was like the darling of the press conference before Dana came out because it was a big win. He was charismatic.

He was talking junk. But I remember even in that, Luke, he was going down some lanes that I'm thinking to myself, UFC's not going to like some of these lanes he's going down and the way he's talking about the promotion, his relationship to down some lanes that I'm thinking to myself, UFC's not going to like some of these lanes he's going down and the way he's talking about the promotion, his relationship to them and all that. I mean, you know, saggy nipples or not, Luke, he's kind of always been who he is.

And he's a little weird. He's a weird dude, Luke. He's always been a little bit weird. Actually, that night I spoke to him privately. So he, I think it was, where was it? Was it before? Oh, it was after his comments. Because this was at Madison Square Garden and they were giving out pizza and

beer to the media shouts to the ufc for doing that you know yeah that was gary shaw gave us chocolate chip cookies and hot dogs i just want to point that out you know dana comes comes correct with the beer while wearing a while wearing a sweatsuit gary shaw while wearing a track suit just looking like the worst man on earth uh dana was much better about it but the point being is he was back there and we were talking a little bit. And, dude, he's – I don't know how to explain it. Izzy is very much – and not in a bad way, actually. Like, he's kind of got the right mental makeup for this career path.

He's in his own little world. He's in his own little world. He spends his time in his own little world mentally. He lets certain people in at certain times, but he doesn't, it looks to me like he tries to not corrupt that little, and when I say bubble, I don't mean like, oh, protective safe space. I don't mean it that way. I mean like, this is the thing that elevates him.

This is the thing that makes him unique. This is the thing that makes him thoughtful and work through problems and blah, blah, blah. It's got this own little bubble he sits in. And until you've really sat with him and talked with him, you can see it in the media stuff, but you really see it in person. I got the first glimpse of it that night. So not surprised things have, like sometimes he comes out and says stuff that I don't agree with or I don't like, but you just have to go back and be like, he is, I mean, very rarely,

very rarely do you actually see someone mentally work through the world in a very different way, for better or for worse. And Izzy's that guy. Did anyone win that face-off? Separate from all the spinoff debate we had over was that injected by race? Should it have been? Was Izzy justified? Was Izzy, did he go way too far like I thought he did?

Luke, do you think anyone actually won that face-off? Did it actually? UFC. UFC, all that's fair that's fair UFC won that I mean dude they're going to use it again and they can take whatever part they want from it like here's for let me make a public declaration and of course I don't know what they're going to use but if I just putting my producer hat on at times BC because you know I do have producer credits on this show which you have forgotten about but if I may so has everybody else who runs the show apparently just so you know if i may if i may um the part where he says i'll show you where you're from they're going to use that they're going to use that line over and over and over the n-word probably not but that line they're going to go back to because it's

such a hard line in the sand it sets the tone it sets the plot basically of the fight like this is where what it's about so to speak um so yeah like the UFC won big time with that absolutely I loved afterwards when Dana was like wait who made it about race in the case I know I know who said look that was a very similar response to you at the post-live show in Las Vegas after dinner party when you were like, I thought the show was great, man. I thought it was fantastic. Well, you've got to remember, BC, what you fail to appreciate is I went through the show drunk, so it was great, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, that is true. In my mind. In your mind, yeah, yeah, yeah, indeed. All right, spinning forward, Luke, and OK, Betts still to come, focusing on this Saturday's UFC London card. Let's go to topic number four, and hey, the WBC, right, the sanctioning body has essentially told undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney, shite, or move off the pot.

He has until today, Luke Thomas, to declare to the WBC whether he will defend his four lightweight titles against WBC mandatory Shakur Stevenson, which would be, ah, for me, Luke, or officially move up to 140 and challenge the WBC champion Regis Progray as the champion one weight class below in the WBC. If you decide to move up, you can become the instant number one contender. Regis Progray, as the champion one-way class below in the WBC. If you decide to move up, you can become the instant number one contender. So, Luke, this plays into the current free agent status of where Haney is at. He's in a very advantageous position. He could go, you know, in a lot of ways, three roads. Go the DAZN route, the ESPN route, or the PBC Showtime route. Big opponents potentially in all three.

He's also a growing young man. Which direction do you think he will or even should go come today's deadline? Should go to fight Shakur. I don't suspect he will. I suspect he'll go to 140 and fight Perogre. And my reasoning is not very difficult to understand for anyone who's been paying attention. Haney, tough fight against Loma,

certainly a lot of controversy about it. And you just have to imagine if Loma and Shakur are not the same fighter, but many of the same problems that Loma posed to Shakur, excuse me, that Loma posed to Haney, Shakur could pose many of the same kinds of ones, including some other ones that Loma can't. Shakur is one of the best young talents in all of boxing. He is a phenomenal, phenomenal fighter. I just don't believe Haney. And by the way, Haney, not that he's getting old, but I don't know how much he really wants to make 135 unless he absolutely has to,

like he did to become the undisputed guy against Lomachenko. Progray, in addition to being a little bit heavier up at 140, just came off of a fight where he didn't look great at all. And in some ways, you could argue maybe he got gifted a bit of a decision. There was a knockdown that he suffered. The referee in that contest didn't even really notice. I mean, it was not a strong showing, but he's got a name. Again, he can go and do some big things up at 140 for his title. So here's my official prediction. My official prediction is he goes to 140 and fights Regis Broglie.

Which, by the way, BC, I don't hate that fight. I don't hate that fight. I like that fight fine, but it's not the same as fighting Shakur Stevenson. Not even close. Just so we establish, I don't hate any of these fights. And Haney has been, in my opinion, really trying his best throughout his pro career to maximize opportunities. Even if the Eddie Hearn relationship didn't get him the big fights he originally wanted, him signing that three-fight deal with ESPN, which forced him to go to Australia twice to fight Cambo,

so that was to get increased leverage. Well, what did he use that leverage for? Fought Lomachenko in a big close-up, and whether you believed he won or not, he survived in advance. So he's going to call his own shots. What's more interesting to me is not necessarily which fight he picks that's next but which lane he picks on the side of the street as we say in boxing in terms of the network exclusive rights with promoters that will lead to that next fight what's the best package for him so what i mean by that is if he picks pro, which seems like the easiest of his big fight options,

potentially, although that's on paper, we've got to see him move up to 140, and you know Progray can bring it. What does that lead to if he aligns on a multi-fight deal on the DAZN side? Well, that could lead to a Ryan Garcia fight. So that's an interesting proposition, Luke. They fought, Haney and Ryan Garcia fought in the amateur six times, and according to all reports, split those fights. We've always wanted them to fight each other.

But if he did go the Shakur route and signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank and ESPN, what about win or lose against Shakur if he decided to defend his lightweight titles, then fighting Teofimo for that 140 belt afterwards? And we know that Top Rank has more big names at 140 when you consider Josh Taylor, Jose Ramirez, that direction. Could also, Luke, go to PBC. We'd love that.

Give me some Gervonta, Frank Martin, all those names, right? He's in a great spot. But there was a tweet that he reacted to here. We can throw that up there. Where Rougarou tweeted, yo, Eddie Hearn, I'm fighting real Devin Haney in November or what? It's on you with the emoji of a sand clock there, whatever you call that thing, Luke. Hourglass?

Hourglass? Yeah, well, I said it. I said it before you did, so give me that credit, Luke, okay? The quote tweet from Haney was October, so I don't know. I wonder, Luke, who comes with the best offer, but do I think he'll go into a difficult fight against Shakur? If he doesn't have to no i agree with you i don't think he will i mean let's just be honest let's just be honest for a second

it's like here is the way to understand boxing you have to accept on terms like are you the toughest are you the toughest shut the fuck up please if you're that guy you have to understand it is a business it really is a business and it's a business. It really is a business. And it's a business that, you know, well, our family has had the sandwich shop on Main Street for 70 years. That's not what's going to happen here. You have a short amount of time to make a maximum amount of money. Okay? So, inevitably, rational considerations about who to fight at what time are going to be a part of any elite fighter's calculus. It is inevitable.

That doesn't mean that you give in to them. Like, for example, when Tyson Fury says, I'm not going to fight Usyk and instead I'm going to fight Francis Ngannou. Now, maybe if he fights Usyk next, we'll forgive him. But that's a clear abdication of responsibility, right? I mean, that's clearly so far outside of what should be acceptable. But Progray is not a bum. He is a good fighter.

He is a decorated fighter. His fight with Josh Taylor, even though he lost to me, was fantastic, BC. I know you co-sign on that. He has shown some flashes of real high-level ability. And so what you're trying to get through to the audience is that sometimes they might take the softer landing between two options. But what you want is that eventually they take some of the tougher fights along the way. That's really

a best case scenario. Anyone who's like, I'm going to take the toughest fights every time, you simply will not have a very long or successful career in boxing. It just doesn't work that way. You have to be able to maneuver with the right opponents at the right time pro gray is not what i would want for him i'd prefer shakur but given the way things are going if he ends up if he takes the shakur fight dude i gotta

be honest i gotta come up here on the next show and just eat crow completely which i'd love to do to be perfectly clear hell yeah but but but but i'm just saying bc you know this too this idea that like oh he should take the toughest every time. That is simply, it is not a realistic expectation. Not merely for Devin Haney, but for any of these guys. You got to lose it. Did you see the quote tweet dunk that Haney landed? Luke, we don't have the tweet to pull, but you know Tom Holland, the actor?

He was on some podcast where he said his favorite. Oh, he was like, I like Zendaya. Yeah. Well, thanks for ruining the reveal, Luke. But Holland basically said, Loma's my favorite fighter. I think he got robbed against Haney. I hope he gets a rematch. And then as you revealed, Haney quote tweeted, I always have a thing for Zendaya.

His girlfriend, Luke, star of Dune II coming out in November. That's a, I like that. I like that saucy play right there online. Also, in that same interview, Tom Holland admitted he liked Barcelona, the football team. So, you know, I've always been more of a Venom and Carnage guy anyway. Hey, Tom, why don't you just eat a well-done steak with ketchup after all? All right. You know what I'm saying right there? Yeah.

Oh, God. There you go. Oh, we're going to mix it up. Speaking of, no, we'll get to that later. Topic number five, Luke, let's keep the train rolling here. Hey, PFL, they're doing some big shit, Luke. Like offering Nate Diaz $10 million to take an MMA fight in the smart cage, in the Ash Jeeves showcase against Jake Paul,

who's expected to make his PFL debut next year. So as we already know, August 5th, the Zone pay-per-view, we are getting Jake Paul and Nate Diaz in a boxing match. But Don Davis had a PFL, quote tweeted a tweet from Jake Paul about fighting Nate Diaz in the cage. And here's what Don said. Official at PFL MMA has a 10 million dollar offer on the table for Jake and Nate it's an opportunity for both to accept the second part of a boxing and MMA duel Luke I tend to believe still that PFL is going to go to the zone because of this connection to Jake Paul but do you think Nate accepts this win or lose in the boxing match august 5th if anyone's going to do a two sport

deal like a gimmicky crossover two sport deal are these two the one for this is it what do you care about this i don't could you get an athletic commission to license that fight probably is the answer probably right you could probably get jake paula licensed to fight nate but jesus man that'd be a real bad idea you know he'd get fucked get fucked up proper by Nate in an MMA fight in all likelihood. But neither here nor there. You know, I got to say, I like what PFL is doing, just chucking money at guys. Like, just get to the heart of the issue. We'll pay you guys a fuck ton of money to do fights that we want you to do.

Now, Nate has since come out and said it's going to take a little bit more than that. That's not enough money. Plus, here's the issue, right? You see, if you're Nate, you probably have a handful of fights left in your career, period, right? So you're going to want to maximize opportunity. If you're still Nate and you're doing the Francis Ngannou thing

where you're like, you know, patience, we're going to plan this piece by piece, you have to be saying to yourself, after fighting Jake Paul in boxing, what would still be a reasonable big fight you could get in the UFC for the most amount of money? And it's, of course, going to be the Conor fight. So then you have to ask yourself, what are you going to make more money doing? And it doesn't matter how many fights you have left

in a set. It's going to be a small number no matter what. So you're going to say, would I rather fight Conor in UFC or would I rather fight Jake in PFL? I can understand why Nate would be like, listen, I'm going to make more money. He probably may, I would venture to say when it's all said and done, could he make 15 million fighting Connor? It's possible. It's possible, right? That's not out of the realm of possibility in the UFC. So he's just going to want more money. But listen, if the PFL came and I don't think they should do this, I don't know how wise it would be for their business, but if they came around and said, Hey, 20 million to the winner, that could change the equation a little bit, actually. I just don't think that they're going to do that.

So what about this for early projection as PFL launches their pay-per-view division, whatever that means, next year? Jake versus Nate, would it sell? Hell yeah, it would sell. Francis versus the winner of JDS versus Verdum in a bare-knuckle MMA fight under the Masvidal banner, Luke? Is that another option in play? Maybe, maybe. If they acquire Bellator, then you could do Cyborg versus Kayla, right? I mean, I guess there's... They got some options here.

They got some options. I think they need the Bellator acquisition, though. But this is aggressive. People would care, even if it's a lame idea. I don't know how the boxing match results will dictate whether the MMA fight happens. Like, do you think there's a scenario in the boxing match that guarantees we see the back end of this two-fight deal? So you have to ask yourself, what would have to happen in the fight such that you would need to see it again under MMA rules. Is it that Nate gets tuned up and stopped? I guess so. You know, like, okay fucker, then let's fight in MMA.

I guess so, right? That's a little bit different. Maybe, but like, if you're, here's the problem. If you're Jake Paul, and let's say, how many fights, how many rounds did I fight? 10 rounds, right? Because they bumped it two extra rounds, as I recall, from eight to 10. So let's say nate gets stopped in like the sixth or seventh like full-on you know flatlined or something like that if you're jake why the fuck would you fight nate diaz and mma at that point you know what i mean like oh what's for the money but it's like if you're jake could couldn't you have another fight with tommy fury again and make similar amounts if not more so like this is the problem that pfl is up against these other guys just have better options than each other twice.

This is a good option one time, could be a good option the second time if they hit the right notes, but in all likelihood, they've got better options in different areas. All right. All right. Look, two bonus news bits I want to get your reaction to. Chhatri Sidyongtong, CEO of One Championship, announced yesterday that after the blockbuster success

of their U.S. debut this year in Broomfield, Colorado, next calendar year, 2024, One Championship will hold four U.S.-based cards that'll air on Amazon Prime. Hell yeah. You down for that, Luke? You down? I'm in.

I am super down with that Chachere is a lying goober but I gotta tell you like the one product we say it all the time I know I sound like a broken record BC but the truth is what the truth is they are the true genuine alternative in the combat sports space in MMA they have different rule sets which I think are much better than the existing rule set and they're not strict promoters of just MMA. They promote Muay Thai. They promote grappling. And also in Muay Thai, they've kind of innovated a little bit by making them use four-ounce gloves.

Dude, it's a great product. Four shows, I'm happy to see. The only catch for me, BC, is for wear. Because the Athletic Commission would have to sanction it. We need other states beyond Colorado, which already has laid the groundwork for them. We need other states to do that. Are they just going to go to Colorado four times?

I'm not against that, but that's not going to get them the footprint in the market. I think that they're looking for, they need to go to New York. They need to go to Los Angeles. They need to go to Florida. Potentially. They need to go to Texas.

Some of these like kind of hubs in MMA where they've got some of these communities, they need to go to Los Angeles. They need to go to Florida, potentially. They need to go to Texas. Some of these kind of hubs in MMA where they've got some of these communities, they need to go to places that really matter, that gives them the media visibility. But if the commission in New York, for example, doesn't play ball, what are they supposed to do? I don't know. So to me, love that they're going to bring shows here. I just hope that they're not all in Colorado. I think that's fair.

I don't think they will be. Here's the deal, though. Let's be honest. Like, PFL's potentially making a power move over the next year I think that's fair. I don't think they will be. Here's the deal, though. Let's be honest. Like PFL is potentially making a power move over the next year if they acquire Bellator, if they roll out a pay-per-view division, which they will with Ngannou, Jake Paul, maybe Nate Diaz. I mean, that's the biggest move we've seen since Strikeforce. You said that one is the alternative. I think it's true. They're in different lanes, B, right? They have a different model. But how do they counter that? Is it this move right here? Or do you think that one over the next six to nine months needs to become a major player in the free agent scene, getting recognizable names to American households to really make this one expansion to the states next year, not only land, but show that they are competing just the same with the other big powers. So there's so many things about the one issue I just don't know

about. Like we know they're hemorrhaging money, but like, what is the play here? What's the venture capital play here? I don't really know. I don't have a clear sense of that. Like, what are they just setting up to sell and to whom that's unclear. And also like what determines success for Amazon, Amazon, like dipping their toes, right? Like they got a little bit of one championship. They got a little bit of NFL. They're starting to sprinkle. They're starting to figure things out. What to them, because Amazon is going to have unlimited money or something pretty close to it, so what to them constitutes success? I don't know that answer either. That's really hard for me to tell. This is the thing that I think... Let me tell you one more advantage that I feel like one has over PFL that PFL refuses to recognize.

PFL has guys like Ray Cepho in it, who, of course, is as much of the fight game. I mean, this is a former fighter himself, a coach. I think Ray Cepho understands fighting perfectly. Shouts to Ray, big, big fan of Ray. But in general, you've got a lot of guys running PFL who are not fight guys, right? I mean, again, you can say whatever else you want about Dana White. Dana White is a fight guy, right? I mean, he understands the fight business very well. And there's just a lot of decisions that PFL makes that are not indicative of people who truly understand the

fight game so for example if they buy bellator but and then the roster uh but then like merge the rosters and now they're still sticking to their tournament format where it's just all tournaments all the time with like the exception of like a francis fight here or whatever to me that would be a massive mistake and i really don't think that would change their fortunes even with the Bellator acquisition at all. Can you convince people who aren't fight guys to understand that? I don't know if you can. I don't know if you can. We'll have to see.

So there's a lot of ways where it's like, don't get me wrong, PFL, Bellator teaming up, that's a formidable thing, but there's just a lot of practices that PFL keeps that one championship. Dude, Chachri's a fight guy. He is. He understands a lot of that business, a lot of what makes that side of the equation tick, and I don't think PFL has that same appreciation and nuance in that way.

Whatever else you want to say about these guys. Chachri understands retaining Bushido to give you that old school. I don't know if he understands that either. He understands building attractions, right? You've got like Stamp Fair Text. You've got Rod Tang. You've got guys like that. I hate to like downgrade that by saying, hey, Shotry, we kind of need more retired old UFC names that people know.

But when you are competing, sometimes you do need that. It's just how desperate do you want to be? I thought, again, that acquisition of DJ and Eddie Alvarez and Sage largely worked out for them, even if Eddie and Sage kind of fell apart quickly in terms of... No, I don't agree at all. I don't know. I think it did. I think it brought them brand awareness,

and I think DJ's run of, you know, Trilogy against Maraes winning that tournament... Well, here's the thing. The DJ side of the equation worked out marvelously. Marvelously. Like, that worked out even better than I thought it could happen right but even though Eddie didn't win early on it got you to watch it got him a little bit but their TNT deal got no boost from it they shattered Sage Northcutt's face he lost what four

five years of his career as a consequence now he did get that bounce back win in Colorado recently so the story's not fully told I understand but like to me it was like did it work well if you want to say that the DJ side was so successful that it worked and it got him a little bit of a bump initially fine but clearly the Eddie Alvarez experiment failed on the one side and the Sage one has largely failed although there is a little bit of sliver of hope for redemption all right, so if one announced big sexy Sean McCorkle against Brendan Schaub, two retired UFC names that we know and love, you'd be like, eh, maybe not the lane. Maybe not the direction we'd go.

That'd be an interesting matchup, though, right now, I'll tell you that much. Also, Luke, to close on this before we get into OK Bet, GSP does have a grappling opponent for December. The UFC Fight Pass Invitational, which will be the same weekend as the final pay-per-view card of the year. I hope Craig Jones shows up with some nose beers, Luke, but it's going to be GSP versus Demian Maia, two-time UFC title challenger, submission expert.

Yin, are you in, Luke? That's a tough match for GSP, if I can be totally honest with you. That's a very tough match for GSP. If I could be totally honest with you, that's a very tough match. Uh, Demian Maya in jujitsu in pure jujitsu is orders of magnitude better than George St. Pierre. Like not by a little bit by a lot, but you might say, well, he got, you know, beat up in a long MMA career. And that's true. He's 45 Demian Maya. That's true. I think GSP is like, what, like 41, 42, something like that. Someone could double check. But even at 45, bro, we saw – did we not see Demian Maia in that hotel?

Was that you? Was that with you at that point? I don't remember if I was with you or not, but I saw him in a hotel not too long ago. He still was in fantastic shape, and, of course, GSP is as well. So, you know, you got two older guys in good shape, long fight careers. They're not going to be the same. But, like, all of that out to the side, like who showed higher level jiu-jitsu ability?

And then I guess this will be Nogi. So this is more so in the Gi, but even still Nogi. It's Demi and Maya. Not debatable. Not debatable at all. Much, much better. So tough fight for GSP. I'll watch.

I'll watch. They got me. I'll watch. Definitely watch. Happy to see Demi and Maya compete again. Happy to see St. Pierre back. It's a lot safer. It's still pretty cool.

Two guys you like. I love it. Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying, tough match for GSP. I mean, look, I need to put this on to have this take. You know, I don't really enjoy grappling at all. It's kind of like watching Cinemax B movies where you get a boob every once in a while, but you're like, you know, I'm kind of looking for more at this point.

Well, that's because you're hopelessly ignorant about it. A little too much dialogue out there, but that's what it is. All right, Luke, we're going to transition to OK Bet, which will obviously be a big feature on this Saturday's UFC London Fight Night card that goes down, main card, by the way, 3 p.m. Eastern in the afternoon Saturday. In addition to this top-ranked ESPN, we'll have a boxing card Saturday night. Shawnee, Oklahoma, the return

of former lightweight king George Kambosis Jr. from down under, Luke, but he's going to invade Shawnee to take on Maxie Hughes. So that fight's okay, Luke, but the co-main's pretty good. It's 2020 silver medalist Keyshawn

Davis. He's fighting Francisco Patera, which is a step up for him. He's only got five fights in his career, Keyshawn, and he's been dazzling. That's an interesting step up to watch Saturday night. You'll be happy to know that

I visited Shawnee one time with my father, who, of course, is from Lawton, Oklahoma, the land that time forgot. And we had our tire slashed in Shawnee. Yes, you did. Great place. You're damn right you did, Luke. And don't ever come back, okay, first of all.

We go head-to-head every Friday. Five categories, five picks. We're not too good at it. It's called Okay, Bet. Yeah, dude, not a lot of winners on this program. Not a lot of winners. Last week, your boy BC won a, how about this, Luke, 3-3. I had the bonus pick from Jack Delamay and Alayna falling out.

I won the Myra Bueno Silva fight. Aileen Perez shook it, and I cashed out. Chelsea Chandler dog pick killed me. And you see some of those gimmicks did not go my way at all. I rebounded with the Azatir early stoppage with Prado. 3-3. Luke, you didn't do that much better. In fact, not better at all.

2-3. You see the home loss. McKinney, unfortunate for him, came up empty again. You always cheat with that, this women's fight will go the three-round difference. I always cheat. These are readily available choices that I rationally make. Yeah, but you're in the lead, Luke, so that's a little bit... Well, stop making dumbass choices.

You'd be in the lead. That's how this game works. I think there's unwritten rules in things like pick-up basketball, Luke. That's why I'm not afraid to push people to their limits to where they want to punch me. Who put the Indian flag by my name? Our fantastic CBS sports team, Luke, without question, all right? Hold on, I'm going to get my passport. Where is my passport? If you're not going to recognize that you're the real Indian team, Luke, without question, all right? Hold on, I'm going to get my passport.

Where is my passport? If you're not going to recognize that you're the real Indian champion, Luke, who will, okay? All right? Let me be Izzy in this case, Luke. Let's check where you're actually from, okay? I've got to hold up information that will block so you guys can't see it. You see the overall standings as Luke finds his green card.

It's 51-50-3 for Luke luke 46 and 58 while that's not good from your boy bc i'm only about five i don't know if there's a way to show this without showing all my information yeah don't do it don't do it okay you know we already know the argument i wasn't born in india i was born on sovereign american embassy territory yeah you were born in india luke that's the truth of what happened there, okay? I don't know if I can show you. You know what? Mikey, can I take a picture of it, and then you guys just cut out the part where it says I'm born?

I don't think people care, Luke. Yeah, I don't think they care, but I can do it. I'm going to try it. Here we go. I'm just going to take it. All right. Okay, Luke, you've got a five-pick lead on me. Are you going first or second?

I will go first. UFC London, we got heavyweights in the main event, Tom Aspinall, against a under-the-radar, red-hot Marcin Tybura, 37 years old. He's won seven of eight. Though, Aspinall rightfully coming in as a big favorite, according to Caesars at the moment, minus 450 for Aspinall, plus 350, the underdog Tybura. Who wins in the main event, Luke?

Well, I have Tom Aspinall. You say that Tybura is red hot. I don't think that's really a fair representation of the facts. I think he's doing well-ish. I don't think he's red hot. You're like, he beat a bunch of train wrecks and sometimes just barely. So, yeah, all right, I get you. I mean, his best win ever is against Blagoi Ivanov,

who's no longer on the roster. Blagoi, yeah. That guy's tough as shit, though, Luke. He's been stabbed. He is tough as shit. I mean, for folks who forget, he was on the Bellator roster when he got stabbed up and somehow still lived. I mean, my man was struggling.

He was S.T. Rugglin, as we used to say. But, yeah, Tom Aspinall should win this. If Tom Aspinall, I'll just say this, if Tom Aspinall doesn't win this, not for some stupid ref intervention or whatever, but actually just gets beat, that's a disaster for his career. I agree with that. It's hard. I can't pick the upset here.

I think if there's any upset pick where you can make money, speaking of betting, could you bet the over on this, Luke? We didn't. You and I did not go that way. We both take an Aspinal. We didn't pick this for our over-under. But do you think there's value in betting that Aspinal— Here, I can show you this.

I can show you this real quickly. This doesn't have any information that really compromises me. Look at place of birth. Can you see it? Yeah, it says India, Luke. There you go. There you go. There you go, boys and girls. So what point are you proving, Luke?

The flag made sense. What point are you proving? That I am not an Indian national. This is a U.S. passport, fuckface. How about that? Los Estados Unidos. One of us wore the uniform of this country, and one of us is a freeloading civilian piece of shit.

I wonder who that is. I wonder who that is. I don't mean to push political boundaries to make a joke luke but i think it's time i show up with a red hat outside your house build a wall around your house and and don't think i can't get you deported luke that's all i have you know you wear a red hat around these parts it means you're a big fan of the washington nationals which i am right magic baby uh we both got aspirin iin. Do you think it goes past the second round? Does he go to the third round for the first time in his career? Even that would

be, well, that's not a disaster, but that would be surprising. Tom should beat the fuck out of this guy. Can we just be honest? Tom should run over him. And he looks healthy. I like the quotes he's saying about going all in. Did you see him at the Wands today? No. 258. That's the biggest he's ever been.

258. All right. Hey, put your money where our mouth is, maybe. We're both picking Aspinall. Luke, who's your favorite this weekend? For my favorite, you know, there was a couple of good ones you could have gone with on this card. But for me, I had to go with a guy who has had ups and downs, but I think is finally starting to sort things out, as they say. And give me Nathaniel Wood.

Give me Nathaniel Wood. He's going to be fighting Andre Feely. They got him at a minus 205 at Caesars. Feely, obviously, at a plus 170. You can find betting action on him on that level. You know, Wood, again, I think started out as Bantamweight. He's moved up to featherweight. He's kind of had some fits and starts.

I thought he would have gotten off to a much stronger start. But again, I think in general, there's reasons to believe that the latest version of him has kind of, if not turned the ship around, ironed out a lot of the problems that he had. I do think he'll fit well at this weight class. Feely is good, but I think he's been in a lot of fights. I'm not going to say shopworn, but I don't know. I think it feels to me his best days are behind him but i you know the fight is close it is competitive i guess we'll see i like wood yeah feely's 33 i i think he's running out of time to finally make that run luke it's so up and down constantly i don't hate that bet my favorite i'm going to stay on this card i'm going to take ketlin vieta here at minus 150

in this bantamweight bout it does feel feel kind of wide open, again, for somebody to make a run at getting whoever's going to fight for this vacant title shot. Will it be Bueno Silva? Will it be Juliana? God, will it be Macy Barber? That's been an interesting back and forth between them two this week. But Vieta is minus 150 against Pani Kianzad at UFC London. Look, sheazon, I think is how I pronounce it, at UFC London. Luke, she's the better fighter. There's decent stakes here.

It's time to make a run, and we need to change over this division. I'm just not sure if the UFC even knows that the title is vacant or if they even have a plan. I doubt it. They probably don't. I doubt it. Yeah, yeah. All right.

There you go. All right, next. Hickson by armbar was my prediction. There you go. Okay, keep going. Hickson by armbar was my prediction. There you go. Okay. Hickson by armbar. Very good. So we're doing underdog next.

So this one is kind of interesting. My underdog picks are terrible, so everyone should be warned about that. Oh, dude. You picked the same pick as me again. What is wrong with you? It's like the seventh straight week. Oh, fuck me. All right.

I'll pick another one. I'll pick another one. I mean, do you not understand the rules of the segment? What's going on here? I read it at 5 pick another one. I'll pick another one. I mean, do you not understand the rules of the segment? What's going on here? I read it at 5 a.m. I was not sleeping well. I got up early. I apologize.

Okay, I can make an audible on the fly. Very easy. How about this one, BC? How about RSD guest Paul Craig? How about it? How about it? How about Paul Craig? Sitting at minus, excuse me.

You have Andre Muniz, according to our friends at Caesars, at minus 220. And I think that's fair. And now you've got Craig at plus 180. Listen, I don't really love the whole idea of him dropping a weight class, but he looked like not hardly different at all on the scales today. I was actually kind of blown away by it. So fuck it. Who cares?

Let's see if he wins. That's been your attitude all along, and I appreciate that, Luke. Who cares? All right, let's move the chains. But I hope Paul Craig gets it done. He's guy I like him a lot I'm gonna go favorite Luke with the one you wanted to pick and you could have trumped me as the uh as the guy with the better record but you didn't pull out your red hat I'm taking Mark Jocasey here at plus 170 I know he is coming off of a defeat but I like the recent reinvention and the the the put back to

the wrestling game and the focus there to try to round out his skills. I think he's still got some juice left in him, Luke, against Joel Alvarez, who is the favorite here. I'm going to go Jocasey here. Do you agree with me? You echoed that, Luke. I think, you know, Alvarez did get knocked out by Saruki in here, but he's going to have to answer that.

But I'm going to go with the veteran. Here's the thing about JocKC and Alvarez. So Alvarez has, and I can't believe I, when I saw it this morning, I was like, dude, what he has in the UFC. I don't know about the rest of his career, but just for his UFC run for Joel Alvarez from Spain, he has a 0% takedown defensive rate. Zero.

Saryukian took him down. I think Duffy took him down. Budwello took him down twice. Like every time, literally, this is true. Saryukian took him down. I think Duffy took him down. Budwello took him down twice. Literally, this is true. Every time someone has attempted a takedown on him in the UFC, they've succeeded. Now, the catch there, the catch is that on the feet he is dynamic and he forces sometimes guys to shoot on him. Not so much in the Saryukian case, but some of the other ones.

The other catch is that he beat three of the four of those guys. And, I think at least two of the four, but certainly he has won some of those bouts by virtue of the fact that he submitted him off of his back at times. He's got a great submission game. So he's got a little bit of that Carlos Condit vibe where, yeah, the takedown might come easy, but then the sub comes sometimes right after it. So you can't really rely too much on that as this all-encompassing stat. However, is it a reasonable bet for a guy like Gia Casey, who has become like a wrestling machine, when he's going up against a guy with, I'm going to say it one more time, a zero percent takedown defense?

I mean, people clown Mackenzie Dern for having single digits. Dude, what the fuck is worse than zero, right? So for that reason, is it a good bet for an underdog? If you have to pick an underdog, yeah, it's a good bet. Luke, I bet you this is the curse I've needed all along to swing my fortunes. You wanted Jacasey. You screwed up. Now you've got to go Paul Craig.

Watch him lose. Look, we're going to have a push automatically on the main event. But if I go 4-0 on the others and you go 0-4, I'll be one pick behind you. BC, one more time. I'm about as good as flipping a coin. You're decidedly worse. Well, that decidedly worse man is going to pull you into a jam band concert soon enough, Luke. Let's stay with this here.

On the over-under, you're going to cherry pick again, right? You're going to basket hang. You're going to force me to make you throw a punch at me on the basketball court. Explain to me what cherry pick means in this contest. I think 70% of women's fights go the distance, so you have a padded lead here, and you're going to lean into it, Luke. Hey, maybe we get a finish. Maybe we get a finish. That's right. I'm not going to make stupid-ass decisions when I don't have to.

You seem to think that's a sign of courage. I think it's a sign of CTE, but okay. I mean, look, in reality, good betting isn't necessarily an above-500 record. Good betting is scoring the big ones when you need to. That's true. That's true. I can agree with that. I can agree with that.

You tend to miss those as well, but yes. Over-under. Give me Ketlin Vieira versus Panny Keonzad going the distance, because it probably will, statistically speaking. Oh, God. The MK Nation is going to be cheering for a stoppage in that one, Luke. I know it. I got that behind me.

Probably, yeah. My over-under, I'm going to Shawnee, Oklahoma on that top-ranked main event. George Kambosis Jr. against Maxie Hughes. I'm going to say it will go the distance. Kambosis has been talking a lot about a knockout. A lot of people are liking him to blow through Maxie Hughes, who has five defeats, a southpaw from Great Britain, 33 years old. To be honest, he's not on the level of Kambosis.

I do think Kambosis bounces back big here. I think that's what this fight is all about, following two straight title defeats to Devin Haney. It's about reinventing himself. I think he does that, but I think he just pushes him here, and we go the distance in Oklahoma for BC to win that fight. I looked over the quotes I had this week from the press conference. Here's what Kambosis said about bouncing back from these heeny losses.

He says, the biggest thing that I've become from that is a greedy motherfucker now. I'm going to take advantage of every hole there is. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I know people want to do that with your mouth. Well, wow. You're talking about adult skin tags. I don't know what you're talking about right now, Luke, but it was well done. So I'm going to take the over. I'm going to be a little cheeky here

on that. Luke, I don't know. I mean, Cambosis fought his ass off against Teofimo, but Teofimo almost died in the ring. We weren't wrong to give him no chance. You know, he fought his best against Haney. He was undermatched. He'll win here. He'll look good. He'll become an opponent for somebody. But I hate to be a hater. I just don't see it in Kambosis, and I never did. We never did.

We were wrong in the sense of what we thought was going to happen in the first Lopez fight, or the only Lopez fight, I should say. But I'm with you. But either way, all you're saying is it will go the distance. So, in fact, Kambosis could lose. All it has to do is go to the judges, and it wouldn't matter. You would still be right with the bet. So I think it's a safe bet.

I mean, you know, you act like this is some brave bet to do this, that Kambosis and Hughes is going to go the distance. One of the easier calls on the calendar today. Oh, really? Really, Mr. We'll-go-the-distance-on-the-women's-fight layup? Luke, there's a lot at stake, okay? First of all, my ears and my morals at some dying children show that you want me to go to. And number two, my reputation.

And if I don't have that in the MMA space, Luke, what the hell do I have besides you? Let me ask you a serious question. So let's say that I do win, which, you know, to your point, I may not. But let's say for a second that I do. What would be, and I'm being i do what would be and i'm being serious what would be better here for me to take you to a concert of like loud metal or something that's much more calm uh guitar driven you know music that you could jam to but it was all in spanish oh that's a curveball i think i'd take the Espanol, Luke. I think I would.

Oh, shit. Okay. Give me some culture. Give me Daddy Janky. Who's that guy who's a boxing fan? Dude, people talk about the honeys at country concerts. Bro. I'm not going to a country concert. Give me J Balvin.

What kind of music does he sing? He's a boxing guy, Luke. J Balvin? Yeah, what does he sing? Like club music? He's a reggaetonero de Medellin, Colombia. Oh, dude, sing? He's a boxing guy, Luke. J Balvin? Yeah, what does he sing? Like club music? He's a reggaetonero de Medellin Corralia. Oh, dude, I get down with reggaeton, Luke. I've been to Jamaica. Come on. The concerts. The concerts. Are you shitting me?

Oh, the talent on display. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's all honey for the bears there. I know it, Luke. What do you got for KO sub here? Last but certainly not least in this one. Now, BC and I have the same fight, but we have very different results here. So give me Muniz versus Craig ending in sub. Now, I battled with this one too, BC, because you know they are going to mix it up on the ground. But, of course, that is zero guarantee that it ends up as a submission.

And one guy could just pound the other one out and call it a day. So I admit it's a speculative bet, but i got a kind of feeling that one might try and get the other one this particular way so let's see give me give me submission okay what i like about this curveball you've had to throw on yourself by picking craig and then now picking that this one will fight will end in a submission is you can dramatically double down and win or lose based on what happens craig wins by submission you get two two picks there he he loses any other way like the way i'm picking could lose via sub i would still lose the underdog pick but i would keep the sub trick true that's a good point uh i'm picking this fight to end by knockout they're both submission specialists

more or less but i do have questions about the punch resistance of paul craig until he can prove that in this new division he also takes big early. It's just the way he fights. Give him your knees to maybe stop him. It could go the other way, but I'm taking KO. We'll regroup next week and find out who's taking the other one to a concert with a documentary team that currently doesn't exist, Luke, but like, you know. Oh, I got some breaking news. Yeah.

From Dan Raphael. Just this Devin Haney topic regarding today's WBC deadline to Haney to decide between 135 Stevenson and 140 Progray it has been extended to next Thursday at Matchroom's request as Eddie Hearn is trying to get a deal done for Progray vs. Haney

but it will not happen today as it was supposed to if it's Progray vs. Haney and Haney wins, do we get Ryan Garcia versus Haney next year? Because Ryguy showed up to the Errol Spence workout yesterday in Vegas because he's trained by Errol's trainer now, Derek James, and he told media members he wants Roley next. Roley doesn't have a title.

Roley is like the Sean Strickland of boxing. You know what I mean Just saying shit Alright Luke we close with a rapid Dead wrong here Morningcombat at gmail.com is your chance to Call us out on the carpet And find out if it truly does match the drapes

Yeah this one's called dead wrong Oh yeah We've got angry male viewers and they are upset luke here's adam he says hey bc and luke at four at an hour 41 and 50 seconds of friday show bc referred to maurice green as the crochet king which is dead wrong because he's the crochet boss. BC should know a boss after karate chopping his way into his boss's office. A huge fan of both of you two. Or two. Luke, correct me here. Oh, he says big fan of both of you two as T-W-O.

But he said it could be T-O-O. Luke, you need to correct him grammarly. Here's what I'll say, Adam. Although I did say that, I wasn't saying that was his nickname. I was basically taking his nickname and having fun with it and expanding it. So yeah, he's the crochet king when I'm speaking, but yeah, he's the boss. He's Jon Jones's training partner and he fights in the PFL. Thank you very much. That's pedantic as shit, Adam, but I guess that's why we have this segment. We got one more for you. This is from Leo, but also Kevin, Victor, and Asad wrote in.

Hey, you old buttholes. It's Leo here. I can't make fantastic art like Average Joe, but I'm coming for that donk of the year 2024 nonetheless. Wow. This guy's like, I cannot wait to get excommunicated from your show. And it'll be my choice. I got a double dead wrong for this Friday show.

At 1938 of episode 464, BC referred to Glover Teixeira by saying how close he came to beating both Yeary and Jamal Hill. BC did that injectable gas station cheese. Oh, did that injectable gas station cheese get in your brain? Obviously it did.

Teixeira versus Hill ended with 50 to 44 scorecards, all respect to factory town MMA nonetheless. Let's start there, Luke. Yeah, I was wrong. I mean, I guess what I'm saying is that the light heavyweight division of late has given us wars. I've given us craziness, right? Urie versus Glover. I guess I lumped Glover and Jamal in that category just because it was batshit crazy and it felt like either guy can win any time, even if it was Glover that was absorbing a monstrosity of damage throughout that process. I'm not as wrong here, I guess, as I am in my Kelvin Gastelum, Robert Whitaker argument, but I still think it fit in line with what i was trying to say those were crazy fights

that i felt like glover could have pulled a big strike or a sub out of nowhere and because it was crazy it was a crazy fight so yeah i guess i take the l there but you got to understand my intention i don't often understand my intention and he says also during the trivia portion you both got the question bj penn lost twice to this fighter as a challenger for a ufc title luke stated that the correct answer was gsp you're dead wrong bj penn never lost not that's right bj had never lost to the same fighter twice for the ufc title it was frankie edgar he lost to frankie edgar twice for the title you dick ball but he said the first gsp bout was a non-title fight which is true that was the ufc that was the us versus canada card yes he says pedantic but us donks must keep you in line much love it's leo so yeah mikey admits that was on him we made an error there but hey luke i had fun with that

trivia segment just the same i'd like to see a return from it. And if you want to write into our show, morningcombat.gmail.com for Wednesday fan subs, Friday fan submissions. Luke, I wanted to close with a couple shout-outs. A reminder of what we announced off the top. Next Thursday, July 27th, 10 a.m. Eastern time, there's a Morning Combat Takeover on the cbs sports network you can check

your local cable listings luke thomas brian campbell and a two-hour live preview from cbs sports studios of all things errol spence jr terrence crawford of course that fight goes down a week from tomorrow las vegas and luke we I think we've teased this before, but here's the truth. You will be there next weekend in Las Vegas. I will be working, but I'll be working from home. My wife has work travel one week per year. You know what

it's like, Luke. She gives me the dates a year in advance and says, don't book anything on this. And inevitably, the biggest fight of the decade lands on it. But I'll be a great husband working from home. But Luke Thomas will be representing Showtime Sports with on-the-ground coverage of weigh-in, of prelim Saturday,

with an all-star team, including Kate Abdo and Ariel Helwani. Luke, this is... I didn't have these three on my boxing bingo card, but here we are. Congratulations. It's going to be a great time next week. I'm fired up to watch you. Yes. Nothing says boxing prelims like two guys from MMA calling the fights, but I will say just the same. I'm excited for the opportunity, dude. Who could be, I just couldn't be more excited for

this fight, honestly. And of course, folks who understand, oh, does that mean MK is going to have a post-fight show for Spence Crawford? Yes. What does that mean? Does that mean is MK going to have a post-fight show for UFC 291? Yes. You're going to get two post-fight shows that night. Strangely, I'll do the one for boxing. You can do the one for MMA.

They're like, oh, great. We get two things that we like, only we've got the wrong guy hosting each one but you know what Luke I've been the right guy in MMA for a long time people just haven't realized that all right but I say one thing may I give one shout out before the show ends today I know we're up against it Mikey don't worry and in fact please put the camera on me for just one second if you may give me a bit of a solo shot here so I wanted to tell the audience something I don't know if they'll care but I care so I wanted to let them know I've been working on an

Errol Spence scouting report it has has been turned in. We're going to get that to you, I think, in a matter of days. I'm really excited about it because I had to do a lot of work to get it done. I didn't have the best process for it, and it was supposed to be turned in a while ago when it had to get a delay. Let me just say thank you. Right now, he's sitting in the studio. Mikey, our producer from CBS, when I say bailed me out, I mean bailed me out. Folks, that project would not see the light of day if it were not for the intrepid, versatile, Johnny-on-the-spot help from our producer, Mikey. Mikey, that was huge what you did for the MK fans, huge what you did for me, huge what you did for our coverage of the sport and this particular fight.

I cannot thank you enough. Again, would not have happened, but for Mikey making it happen. Thank you, my guy. Could not be more appreciative. Yeah, we joke about Mikey's THC levels sometimes, but what a great human being. He's probably hitting the bong and he missed that

while I gave the thing, but at least the audience heard. I will say this, Mikey bleeds for this brand, just like a P1 would, and I love that from him. So thank you very much, CBS Sports. Also, great job today, Luke. I like our refreshed graphics. Jason and Janita

on the scenes. Thank you. On the ones and twos. Final reminder, along with Luke Thomas next Saturday night, a week from tomorrow, giving the MK Post show for Spence Crawford. You'll have me on UFC after Justin versus Dustin, too. And this Tuesday, my birthday, 8 a.m. Eastern, it starts. It's Stephen Fulton Jr.

It's Niowa Inouye. It's on ESPN+. It's for the Unified Junior featherweight championship. And the pound for pound number one, kind of potentially on the line here. The winner will have a big say moving forward. I'll be with you afterwards on Tuesday. Live, local, late-breaking to react. For our great team at CBS Sports, Showtime, all of our fantastic people behind the scenes,

and for my co-host Luke Thomas, it's been fantastic these 90 minutes. Thank you. Enjoy the fights this weekend. London tomorrow afternoon. And for my co-host, Luke Thomas, it's been fantastic these 90 minutes. Thank you. Enjoy the fights this weekend. London tomorrow afternoon and all that. And then some tall, pale, and handsome. It's your B-Boy BC checking out and reminding you, tip your waitresses. But remember one thing about them at the end of the day. They have never been loyal.

They don't even know how to be. We out.