MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Marvin Vettori vs. Paulo Costa | Fedor Emelianenko | Anthony Joshua | EP 218

Episode Date: October 20, 2021

On Episode 21 of MK, the guys look ahead to the weekend and break down some storylines heading into UFC Fight Night Marvin Vettori vs. Paulo Costa. Thats not the only big fight this weekend as Fedor Emelianenko will be fighting for the first time since 2019. There are some rumors floating around that Anthony Joshua is in the US testing out new trainers. Who should he go to? Next the guys debate Jim Miller's legacy. Is he a hall of famer? They close out the show by recapping Colby Covington's interview. (00:05:30) - Sergio Pettis vs. Kyoji Horiguchi (00:10:30) - Marvin Vettori vs. Paulo Costa (00:23:10) - Fedor Emelianenko (00:33:35) - Anthony Joshua Rumors (00:44:40) - Jim Miller (00:56:40) - Colby Covington (01:01:45) - Call me Crazy (00:17:40) - Fan Submissions Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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. It's a hump day. It's a Wednesday. It's an MK day. Hello, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. Welcome to Morning Combat episode, whatever it is.

I don't even know anymore. 200 and some change. I am one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the nation's capital here in Los Estados Unidos, but I also have royalty to my democracy, so to speak. He's the king of Connecticut, my friend and yours. He wears the clothes promoters give him and then goes and covers them. It's Brian Campbell.

Hello, Brian. Completely random, Luke, that I would pull the Bellator sweatshirt out of the closet today. We would have Bellator breaking news in just a moment on our show. But happy to be back here, Luke. You know, the hierarchy within your overall monarchy is your boy, B.C., uh yeah so take that luke i'm here how many times did the american alpha have to take fiber pills this past week the american alpha's body is slowly breaking down luke but uh that's not a surprise to anyone who has seen everything from the color of my factory town teeth to the rumors of my liver's demise. But Luke, I am one of the people, for the people, by the people,

ready to touch a lot of our people, you know, based on the local laws in their state. So let's do it, Luke, all right? All right. As always, like the video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe if you haven't done it. It's literally free and we give you nothing but great content all the way around so what are you waiting for when it comes to that bc i we should tell folks that the holiday merch flying off the shelves still a limited time you can get it but

correct me if i'm wrong that window was closing yeah i've been told by by the finest of all uh merch makers rj dunkelman that basically, if you don't buy your Halloween merch today from morningcombat.store, our fantastic 2.0 merch site, you're not going to get it in time for October 31st, so if you want to be walking the kiddies around, right, because they've got to get theirs, why can't you get yours

wearing at least an MK Halloween donk or Luke's Dios de Muerta, which is actually hasn't been doctored at all. That's what Luke looks like most days, so it's a perfect artist's rendition. You know, why not? You know what I'm saying?

We'll help you out. You know the trend, Luke, at least in my town here in suburban Connecticut, is to walk around with a cooler filled with drinks in a group as the kids go to the doors and the parents get get hammered i don't i don't take part in that i guess i don't have that sounds like a good idea but uh i'll probably just smoke reefer in front of them instead um well hey hey look if you want

to live your life like that i hear the drug rug could be about a week away from hitting stores so get ready okay okay i didn't say i wanted to do fentanyl and smell like baloney but there are some people who want to do that so we'll we'll update you as uh as it as it happens um let's see what else oh uh for today's fan subs and then friday's dead wrong there's one email address it's luke thomas what am i saying that's my personal one it is morning combat at gmail.com morning combat at gmail.com is the best place to get this. I know I'm giving out Luke Thomas news like it's my personal channel. It's not. It's morningcombat.

The best place for your dick pics is lukethomas at gmail.com as always. No, no. Luke Thomas news is the email address. But okay. Don't send dick pics either way. So there's that. We got merch. BC, if folks want to watch Showtime, not that hard, right? You go to showtime.com. You get a 30-day free trial.

You can watch good boxing. You can watch Bellator. You can watch billions. Lots of Bs that are available for you. Lots of Bs and billions, by the way. Wow, loving that shit right now. I'm a little late to that party, but don't be late. It's never too late, okay?

While this offer lasts, why don't you try it for 30 days? I mean, you could do a lot worse than top-quality entertainment and sports and the only place you can catch Bellator, MMA, and lower 48 so uh do that shit you don't like it pound the sand we'll move on thank you that's all right let's get to some breaking news here very quickly if we can just before we start our main top five topics so bc i'm not sure how much we want to say about this i don't know if you want to deliver it um but either way we have a major uh breaking news about a bellator title fight that's going to happen friday december 3rd at 10 p.m live on showtime this will be at the mohegan sun arena and bc on friday december 3rd at 10 p.m who is going to be defending what

title against who yeah the morning combat newsroom was abuzz this morning, gathering the information, checking our sources, checking it twice. I'll tell you what we found out was nice. This main event, December 3rd, when Sergio Pettis makes the first defense of his Bellator MMA 135-pound title against the former king of all things Bantamweight, Bellator, and almost worldwide, Kyoji Horiguchi, the Gooch, who will be making his return to Bellator

following a very profitable run in RIZIN in Japan. And Luke, when we look at Horiguchi, and we remember that between 2015 and 2019, he won 13 consecutive fights. Oh, and that one loss, which broke the streak against Kai Asakura, he avenged it by knockout to regain the title in that organization. He's back in Bellator. Not that long ago, he beat Darian Caldwell twice to wear this title.

Luke, this is a superstar matchup. This is one of the best fights Bellator could make. I love everything about this fight what's interesting is if you note here bc horiguchi is not ranked he's not ranked because he just left the another promotion in japan and came here i don't think that the rankings panel bc you're on the rankings panel i don't think you guys even really had time to put him in based on how things were going but let it be no mistake. Even if he didn't have a number here, he is entirely deserving of this. His body of achievement is incredible. His recent run has been good.

Obviously he's fought in the Bellator cage and won at a high level already. This is a no-nonsense matchup. And I got to say, I love what Sergio Pettis has become, but Koji Horiguchi is a world beater, man. This is a title that can absolutely be described to this guy. This is truly one of the best fights Bellator can make. This is on par with anything UFC could do. It's a fantastic fight. Yeah, sorry to cut you off. This division's loaded globally.

It's absolutely loaded in Bellator MMA, and to be able to take Sergio Pettis at 28, who has seemed to figure it out coming off that victory over Juan Archuleta, to gain the Bellator title, to put him in, Luke, you know, not just against the next best in line, but maybe the best of them all in Horiguchi, who again had that one fight under the Bellator banner in 2019, defeating Darian Caldwell for the Bellator Bantamweight title, then defeating Caldwell again in Japan. Luke, let's not forget that before the runs in Bellator and RIZIN, Horiguchi was 7-1 during his UFC days with the only loss being a last-second submission against Demetrius Johnson. So you're talking about at 32, maybe, maybe the best Bantamweight in the world.

Now he's going to have his chance to fight Pettis. Luke, I do want to ask you quickly before we get to the main main topics what this news says about Bellator's short-term future at 135 there had been some rumblings and rumors is now the time to launch the Bellator World Grand Prix uh could you even have Pitbull Patricio who gave up his lightweight title for his brother have a chance to fight it could we have him moving down we it looks like for now Luke the answer is no but I'd surely trade that entire tournament to make sure I get this matchup on December 3rd yeah no doubt about it I'd have to look at the bantamweight division I think if you had a couple of decent adjustments

you could make that work no doubt about it um but there's 135 is easily not yet but it's the division of Bellator's future it's already the top division in UFC I think Bellator it's the division of Bellator's future. It's already the top division in UFC. I think Bellator, it's a very strong division, but it hasn't quite overtaken the rest of the roster. But to your point, you can make a tournament either to get to that place or once you've already gotten to that place. Either way, it's hard to go wrong here. It really is hard to go wrong here. A lot of great cases you can make.

And Horiguchi versus Sergio Pettis. I'm telling you, folks folks that is such an a level fight you cannot miss that friday december 3rd so if you're asking how you get showtime to weave it all together true story you don't even have to pay for you can get 30 days free go to showtime.com if you like it keep it if not dude keep your money and go somewhere else but i'm telling you i'm telling you if you are into high-level MMA, this is not one to miss. Kyoji Horiguchi is a treat, and so is Sergio Pettis.

And if you're into other things and you hang around on the Showtime app long enough, there's probably a Red Shoe Diaries for you too, Luke. All right? So, you know, they please all comers, so to speak, Luke. All right. Well, with that in mind, before we get fired, let's move on to topic number one, if we can. B.C., I am blown away at, frankly, how little attention this is getting. I get it.

There's fights every weekend. People kind of turn the corner late. And by the time they do, the fights are good. And then maybe after the fact, everyone makes up for the lack of pre-fight attention. But, dude, this Saturday is the return of Paulo Costa. We haven't seen him since his terrible defeat to Israel Adesanya, where he barely landed a shot. He got finished off. He made every excuse in the book, including drinking wine and not sleeping and blah, blah, blah. Just a disaster of a performance. Well,

this is his rebound, BC, and he's taking on Marvin Vittori. There is so much here at stake. Let me start with this question, though question though first let's go back to Costa because Vittori is a different storyline here even though they're intersecting for Costa how redemptive forget title shot for just a second how redemptive could a win against Marvin Vittori be I mean considering Vittori's fresh off a title shot of his own it'd be it'd be huge and I think given the timing and the bad press that's correlated together, and look, I don't know if Costa thought he was filming a sequel to the movie Sideways with Paul Giamatti and that he was really out in Napa Valley, but that was one of the worst night before

a championship fight decisions we've seen in some time. And I think it just spirals on top of each other to be like, this is the wrong direction. Paulo Costa has been going inside and outside the cage. But yet the right opponent at the right time, Luke, both style-wise in order to make fireworks, he's not going to be outpointed per se by Vittoria in the traditional technical sense. And really, yes, high profile enough that should he want to come right back in and splash the pot and be a viable middleweight title contender

come Sunday morning again, you got to beat Marvin Vittori. And it's weird that both are coming off losses to the champion. Both kind of need a big refresh here. I think this is a UFC matchmaking at its best, Luke. I love the stakes. I love the styles. And, Paulo, you got some explaining to do. There's no other way to say it.

Yeah, this is a huge fight for Paulo Costa. I think on the one hand, he could come back and get a ho-hum win that would be somewhat redemptive but part of a larger process. He could come in there and blow the doors off of Marvin Vittori, which, by the way, dude, people don't do that. Adesanya didn't do that. I'm trying to think of who's gone in there and just really given it to Romero. Oh, sorry. I'm not Romero. Vittori, like nobody. He's been beaten, but no one's really gone in there and just stuck it to him. If Paul Acosta can do that, dude,

I mean, think about what you have to erase from the second fight. You have to erase the idea that when it came time to be even remotely cerebral, you were beaten before the fight and then you got double beaten on fight night. As I said at the time when I looked at the video, I was like, this guy got audited. I mean, that was a true auditing in that whole fight. He had nothing. It's a similar kind of test that what Arlovsky does

to these up-and-coming, often but not usually, I should say often but not always, chubbier heavyweights. He makes them think an IQ test, and a lot of them just can't pass it. It's the same kind of thing that Adesanya did to Costa. So there's part of that he's living with. He needs to come out here if he wants to get back what was lost and not really handle the weight cut well and do the media and everything else.

And I suppose a fight night is probably a better place to do that, BC, even in the main event than a pay-per-view because everything's a little bit calmer. It's a little bit more able to focus. It's actually kind of a treat that the UFC is doing that for him but if he can come out there and get a big win and even a stoppage I think that would undo a lot of damage on the other hand dude Vittori is not a joke Vittori and I know you know this I'm saying this for the audience's sake who kind of sometimes not the whole audience I should say this but there are people in the audience who will dismiss him because you know he is a little bit aggro,

he has a lot of ability, but doesn't have one particular standout skill set that best we can tell, although I should note here, he is very well rounded, but if you compound the problems, not only do you lose the place in the line, in which case, I lost to Adesanya, then I lost to Vittoria, would put him way back

in the title shot sweepstakes, but more to that, it would just tell us that like the damage from that fight may have been lasting, which could affect any future fights. There is a lot that could happen to the Costa stock, which already took a hit. It could take another one here, even without the bright lights of Fight Island fighting Adesanya for the title. Yeah. And you know, people forget Costa's already 30.

He still feels like that, that young block of cinder ready to come in there and fight to the death with Romero in one of the greatest fights in UFC history. But, Luke, he's only actually fought once per year for the past three years. So what that can do is it can over-inflate sometimes who you are based on the results. It can also, you know, compounding problems. This could take him, if he suffers the second straight loss really in the wrong direction in a hurry and i think luke you and i are probably uh in in tune here and in both both looking forward most to see mentally how costa responds because yes uh you

the best way to repair any any bad pr in this game is to come out and and spectacularly win an action fight right and you know he can do that and still have lingering issues we may not see. But, Luke, I want to see a game-planning Costa who goes out there and executes it as much as I obviously want to see action in this matchup just on their personalities alone. I mean, I can't wait to see the stare down this week and, you know, the media setups. I can't wait for a lot of that stuff. But, you know, I do want to see a maturation because, man, now that we know about the Adesanya fight,

in part we could just write that off because he's going in there against a wizard against Adesanya. But, look, he just – forget auditing. I mean, he just didn't even look like he wanted to be there or he belonged. That's a big – even though that's one loss, and we're talking as if a guy's, you know, lost a few and this could be, you know, no, like you, it's still one loss, but that loss had a lot of branches off on the trees, Luke, and the branches keep reaching and grabbing for more headlines.

Um, like I said, you really got a lot of explaining to do, and I want to see the mature fighter come out here just as much as I want to see the psychopath. I mean, the psychopath is fun to watch Luke I'll give him that all right but in terms of now flipping the the the story to Vittori so he has this loss to Adesanya he's got two losses to Adesanya and only one is champion but still he had another chance he had five rounds he couldn't do it even if he beats Costa here which by the way would be extremely impressive remember what Costa did to Romero just kind of took everything the guy had in peak feral Romero form so a win is valuable but BC does it does it put him back in the title shot

sweepstakes do people want to see a third like what does it do for him it doesn't do as much as it could do for Costa yes because of that early loss as well Adesanya it's like you know Vittoria already cashed in his his ticket of you know well I fought this guy and I fought him well and some thought I could have beat him and then okay you got the rematch look a win over Costa keeps him in the block there in contention for sure but he's not knocking on the door anytime soon I think the one thing Costa have is in his favor was everything we just said. That loss to Adesanya was such an aberration from the type of fighter that we've seen in the past

that you wonder, Luke, if he comes out and makes a big statement, I know there's still Cannoneer, there's still other big names jockeying against one another to try to crack that title shot, but Costa's still a young, marketable guy with a fun style and you know uh UFC loves

putting top Brazilians out there he could really make a big move with a win much more so than Vittori Luke but obviously you know you're not gonna you're not gonna turn down what a win would give you if you're Marvin if you're Marvin you're currently sitting at number five in the rankings if you're Paulo Costa you're sitting at number two which is kind of weird to think about given what that has happened recently and how their fights have gone. But okay, neither here nor there. For Vittori, it doesn't get you a title shot and probably makes you fight at least two more. Maybe just one more.

Hard to say exactly. But what it does do is, A, it moves you up the chain, which is not nothing. And B, if Whitaker ends up winning against Adesanya and they don't do an immediate trilogy fight there, which they could, but if Whitaker wins, I do think it opens the door to great possibility. As you indicated, a guy like Vittori, how old is Vittori? 28, 29 years old? If that, he's not that old. He's pretty young, this guy. I'm trying to find his, here we go. He was born in, yeah, he's 27 years old. So dude, you're 27, you're not even in your prime yet. You're full-on prime, right? We're closer to 30 at that point. You just got to be patient.

Stay at the high level. Stay taking big fights if you can. Stay working on your craft. And when Adesanya won't be champion forever, by the time that worm turns, you're going to be in good position to then move into a title contending spot and potentially be a champion of your own.

We keep thinking, because Vittori's been around around he's already got all these fights under his belt well he's had his chance and the division moves on but with his age it doesn't do that at least it won't do that if if he keeps winning but if he loses well then you know all bets are off he's got a lot to do for that he's got to hope the title changes hands as you indicated that I can't see him Luke fighting a guy ranked above him with a win here unfortunately with the way things are set up with Derek Brunson set to face Cannoneer but uh could you see him facing a a Sean Strickland could you see him facing a Jack Hermanson type guy yeah of course yes absolutely so it'll be out of the frying pan into the fire no matter what but um certainly put him in a better and dude what would it in terms of what it would say that Vittori could beat a guy like Costa because we always kind of had the division at least in

my mind I'm not sure how you felt last thing on this I kind of had my mind as Adesanya and Whitaker one and two that could switch but one and two and then after that I kind of had Paulo Costa as like a soft three and now I'm not so sure that's true now I think if Vittori ends up getting a win, which we'll see how it goes, you would have to really challenge that. Maybe Costa is no more than a top five guy, which is a great achievement, but probably not what he imagines for himself.

Luke, we probably don't have any other place in the show for this, but it's a great transition off of talking about Costa. I know you're not a big wine guy, but when you have to be, what is your go-to dialect or genre within the overall wine game so i used to be really big into wines really really really big into wines um but that's been a long time a long time 10 years or more that i haven't really cared that much

about them um what was my go-to so if i this okay so there's like sophisticated answer then there's like a horribly embarrassing answer. But I've got both. I'm not talking about if I farm for two ninety. No, no, no, no. I don't mean Boone's Farm. But what I would say is not always, but often Chardonnays have a higher alcohol content. So if I'm at a cocktail party and I just want to get blasted, I would go.

I would opt for the Chardonnays. Just a reminder for anybody at that cocktail party luke claims it takes him 45 beers to get lit which look again along with you claiming you could dunk in high school is one of the most absurd luke thomas factoids that that needs checking the 45 we could probably at this point pare down to pretty low but at my peak i'm sure a case would not have done it and i guess, I've dunked several times in high school or right after it as well.

But okay, neither here nor there. The better answer would be like, what was my go-to back in the day? Good Lord. A simple one that is always pretty good

if you're looking for something that's got a little bit of a higher price point but still delivers on quality. It's somewhat overrated, but Cake Bread. Cake Bread is a brand that produces all kinds

of different good wines. Yeah, I buy that chip for my wife all the time luke okay cake bread yeah cake bread's pretty good cake bread's got a good riesling which i like a little sweeter one but that's girly luke come on bro they're not i don't i don't want to hear anything from you the least the guy who spends the least amount of time uh with masculine hygiene so to speak is gonna lecture to me about what is and isn't good one i'll pass on that thank you um okay if you went with a close shave you could probably lose 10 years in terms of people's age perception have you ever thought about that yeah i have but i just don't i don't mean shave it off i mean go with a very thin beard luke i have to go thin beard because apparently my i don't mean shave it off. I mean go with a very thin beard, Luke. I have to go thin beard because apparently I don't have the same testicular manpower as you to produce this hair.

Or maybe it's the blessing of your Armenian upbringing. Us Lithuanians, we're very patchy, like mix. But I think, Luke, if you just get rid of this clump right here, you get it shaved down, people will be like, man, that guy looks 38. It's true. It's true. But I've got bigger fish to fry um then yeah like your balls with the manscape man man mower yeah lawnmower 4.0 bitch get that stuff use it on your face if you have to ask proprietary technology yeah all right we got to move this along because we got to be out by certain times let's go to topic number two bc fedor is back he is back in russia he is 45 years of age and he is taking on timothy johnson now there's a lot to

like about this fight depending on one's perspective which is fedor still has an argument as if not the greatest certainly one of the greatest heavyweights of all time on top of that he is back in russia this fight will take place in moscow which obviously has to be a great thing for something of a homecoming for him. But he's taking on, as we mentioned, Timothy Johnson. He picked Timothy Johnson, BC, because he had quite a winning streak going on, which obviously shows he is quite a good fighter. Fighting someone who is spearheading the division is always a great opportunity. He talked about passing on JDS because he said, well, JDS at the time was under UFC lock and key, but I think that wasn't true by the time they could have made the fight. Moreover, Timothy Johnson just had a loss.

Now, he lost to Valentine Moldavsky, who's very, very good, but it's not like he's got the most unimpeachable win streak. What do you make of Fedor saying that's why he picked Timothy Johnson? Look, it's weird to try to make anything of what Fedor says because he says so little and so slowly by such a long default you know translation that it's hard to ever get a gauge of what's going on behind that sweater but Luke I will tell you that um I don't love his answer about Junior Dos Santos now look he was let's not forget he was in the corner of uh Valentin Moldavsky for the Timothy Johnson

uh that you know not, interim title fight. So, okay, maybe you feel like he saw both good and bad because Johnson did fight well in that fight. He went five round rounds. He went for it in his chance at a title. Maybe he liked the spark there. Maybe he saw some openings that would be a fight on the feet. I don't know, Luke. I feel like it could have been, you know, look,

I'm wearing this Bellator sweatshirt, but none of us went, yay, when we found out that Fedor was going to fight Timothy Johnson, right? A lot of us were going, man, this is a fight Fedor can lose, and it's not overly marketable. Look, I love the event. I love the chance to see Fedor at home. I actually, Luke, I'm not against Bellator.

They've been in the commercials just calling him the greatest of all time, Fedor Emelianenko, without a qualifier. So that's very open-ended like you're talking about the damn goat or just heavyweight or what but I kind of like it because he's one of those rare guys Luke that deserves the royalty and reverence probably because of the way he's handled himself he's so soft-spoken he never goes away he keeps coming back and sort of reinventing himself in these small bubbles I I mean, he's a damn legend. There's no question about it.

So I like that. But if he fought JDS right now, Luke, it would have been a much bigger fight without question. And to try to be like, no, he's had too many losses in a row. I mean, Luke, you know, gun to your head, who could beat Fedor faster, Timothy Johnson or Junior Dos Santos? I think I know your answer. Probably JDS, right? Yeah, i think it's a tougher fight so i don't i don't love that answer is what i'm saying luke i see from the standpoint of take the tougher bigger fight don't you think johnson is a little bit stir

timothy johnson just flatly has not taken the punishment that jds has so in some sense he's a little bit more hittable true but in other senses he's way more durable no yeah so what i mean by that is he has a fedor would have a quicker chance of getting finished because let's just call junior dos santos more offensively dangerous but you're right jds why is he did he have that losing streak to exit his ufc run because you know the the durability got became in question over the years so i don't know, Luke, I think that's a fight that looks more dangerous on paper. JDS chinny enough where Fedor could catch him. Yeah, I just love that fight.

It ain't going to happen. I got to move on. We got to move on. He's going to fight Timothy Johnson. I will say this, Luke. It's the biggest fight of Johnson's career. You know he's going to come in swinging and going for it. I do not expect this to get gross and go any kind of late distance.

I think it's going to be fun. I think the prospect of seeing Fedor in Moscow, not ever really knowing if it's his last one. Luke, I hear different things come out of him the rare times he speaks. He's got one more, one more, one more. One more after this. Look, I mean, I don't have to tell you, Luke, if Fedor wins in his backyard, that's going to be a fun environment to watch.

So let's see if the great one himself can pull off one more yeah i i part of me also wonders bc like is there a russian thing about what kind of americans they like to beat up you know what i mean like does timothy johnson fit a certain quite literal description about hey this guy you know because he kind of always got that handlebar mustache almost you know it looks like a cop and it's like is there something stereotypically american to russians about him i wonder about that you know yeah he looks like the like most men in adult movies of the last 30 years to come out of this country luke uh god bless him but the point i'm trying to say is i wonder if something went into that for that reason, in terms of why he was picked, because otherwise... Yeah, Fedor was like, hey, that guy looks like T.T. Boy and Peter North a little.

Let's grab him, you know? No, look, I don't know. Being in the corner, I do think that if I'm going to guess, Fedor saw, yes, American, who's got a good record and just fought for a title and lost to my boy, Valentin. But I wonder if fedor again saw openings that he has his own limitations and i gotta believe luke he knows his own limitations right i mean the thing about fedor at this age still ridiculously fast hands for heavyweight i mean he still can surprise you and catch you and in every one of these fights he's he's been a

gunslinger of late you know i remember the mitrione fight in 2018 in the Garden, you know? So I wonder if he looks at Johnson as a bit slow and plodding and thinks, you know what, I can get in there and trade with him. I can throw with him. This guy can wrestle, but he's not going to go out of his way to drag me down, or at least we don't think, Luke. Do you think this is going to be wrestle-heavy from Tim Johnson? He might. He's actually a pretty good wrestler. He is good.

He might. Here's the thing about Fedor that I just don't quite understand. He's had a few moments in his career where you thought, oh, right, this will be his exit. So then he had the one where he fought Fabio Maldonado, and it was a terrible fight, which he should have lost. He was badly beaten. The ref just let him take a beating so he could hang on.

And then he got a majority decision, just an absolute travesty of a contest. Follows that up with a loss to Matt Mitrione, which was a weird one, but fine. He could hang on. And then he got a majority decision. Just an absolute travesty of a contest. Follows that up with a loss to Matt Mitrione, which was a weird one, but fine. Has two nice rebound performances against Frank and Chael. You thought, okay, maybe that will be it. Then he enters the Grand Prix and then loses. Then he fights Quentin Jackson in December of 2019 in Japan and wins that one. Obviously, Quentin Jackson coming in quite literally comically out of shape. Yeah, I mean, it was a joke. But the point I'm trying to make is each one of these intervals, one obviously quentin jackson coming in quite literally comically out of shape yeah he was i

mean it was it was a joke but the point i'm trying to make is each one of these intervals he could have bowed out and didn't now he's 45 i'm not going to ask ubc what he's fighting for but i guess it's just weird right because he's trying to find an exit that is pleasing to him which someone of his stature is entitled to do, any fighter really, but especially one this good. At the same time, I don't know about Russia, but stateside, most of the fans around nowadays weren't around for the 2004 meeting between Fedor and Krokop. They don't understand the relevance that he once provided.

It's almost like this relic that is, and I don't mean that unfavorably. I mean, he truly is sort of a special guy in that way, but he is older. he's generationally distant what do you think the temperature is of the average fan base on a fade or not so much johnson but a fade or fight well i'll give you that you know it is this because his prime was so generations removed and for the most part it wasn't in your face on american television until later yeah Yeah, is the appetite as big? I'm not sure, but I do know one person who has a huge appetite,

and that's Scott Kopker. And I do give Scott Kopker credit through both Strikeforce and now in Bellator with keeping a very strong relationship with Fedor and, you know, respecting his wishes but also opening the door and giving him the star treatment. So could it be a little bit more of a hardcore affair and event. Yeah, of course. There's a bit of nostalgic baked in.

Absolutely. Even though, again, he's fighting a very live body who I would greatly favor over him. But it's hard to know how washed he is, Luke, for everything you just said. It's like, OK, even that Mitrione loss. He was a gunslinger, man. He was knocked him down. He was in that. I thought he should have retired after Bigfoot Silva sat on his chest

in one of the saddest sort of exits that we had seen, Luke. But, you know, when he went to the World Grand Prix, he straight up revived his brand. Like Frank Mir was the perfect foil who came at him guns and blazing. He got him out of there. Chael Sonnen was the perfect big name but overmatched in size who Fedor got out of there. Fedor had a shot against Fedor. He did. Did he get

finished in the way that he probably should have given the talent disparity in AGS? But it's hard to know. Again, that Rampage Jackson, you throw it out the window, dude. There's nothing can be gleaned from that. So why is Fedor still doing it? Luke, he's got to be one of these guys that

ain't got nowhere else to go. This is what I do. This is all I i know and i do give him credit for transitioning and having his own team being a coach trainer manager whatever like he's you know he's he's making a career and a life out of this but to still have that that burst to want to do it one or two times more bellator is in many ways the perfect home for that uh are you did you make an officer and the gentleman i did luke that's how old and washed i am so so it's no wonder nothing nothing like uh lewis gossett jr and richard gear references in the middle of a fedor conversation yeah well i didn't bring up the gerbils at least luke you just did you just did i'll just say this. I would like to see Fedor fully transition into his coaching role.

I was there for his prime. I got a chance to see it. It was one of the most spectacular things ever. He was, for a time, not only unbeatable, but you couldn't even conceive of how someone would even do it. But at 45, I just feel like, yo, it's time. But okay, that's just me speaking out loud. Were you at the Donald Trump-promoted affliction fight against tim sylvia i don't know no i was not i watched it

live uh for bloody elbow.com at the time but no i was not there uh nor the second one either um but uh yeah big that was that was one of those nights where it was like okay tim sylvia might give fedor problems and then fedor fucking ran through him like a freight train you were and that was one of those moments and then when he arlovsky had him on the ropes at affliction and then he got cracked with that overhand right and you were just like yep that's fedor that he just can't lose he can't effing lose and then and then verdum got him so um amazing career he's had but it is a. All right, let's go over to boxing for just a second. But for the MMA fans who are watching, I think you might like this one. This is a topic I

saw a little bit about that BC and I were texting last night, and he really dug into it and convinced me to like it. Anthony Joshua, BC, set this up if I can. He's kind of on tour in the US right now. He's not doing speaking engagements, but he might be hunting for a new trainer. Now here's the setup. Obviously we know he just fought Oleksandr Usyk. He lost. And he made a bunch of changes in that fight. Not so much with his team.

But with the way he approached it. He was lighter. He was lean. And he still got thoroughly outboxed. Now it looks like he's going through the United States. Trying to find people out there he can bring into his camp. But the details of it are what make it kind of interesting. BC, what do you know about this, and why is it important news?

Yeah, it's important news because the guy, although at an interesting bit of a turning point, crossroads here, if you will, because he's lost now twice in four fights, he's, you know, 1B to Canelo's 1A of being the biggest global star in the sport I mean look you see the fights how many people can sell out a 90,000 stadium and have their initials lit up with fire as you're seeing right there in the

pictures well timed and just be a rock star he's still just 32 still in his physical prime but obviously his coming to the sport a little bit late relying so deeply upon athleticism and power and we got to give him credit his resume's so good he's had to learn on the job and add things but he's still not complete he's very vulnerable he's gone the distance of his

career with trainer rob mccracken who came under fire big time when uh joshua lost to andrew ruiz a couple years back josh Joshua chose to stay with him. But, Luke, it was obvious the manner in which he lost to Alexander Usyk. AJ just never stepping on the gas and going for it. Almost stubbornly, almost like Canelo against Floyd, stubbornly choosing to box. He did work his way back in there. You weren't going to beat Usyk on this night with pure boxing. So he's being not clandestine about it, Luke. AJ's being out in the open in terms of his travels.

The rumor is coming out of there is that Rob McCracken's out and that AJ's looking for a new chief. He visited Canelo Alvarez's camp in San Diego with Eddie Reynoso, who has added, of course, Andy Ruiz Jr. to that clientele. Could you imagine AJ sparring with Andy Ruiz? Could do worse in terms of preparing himself. He went north to the Bay Area and visited with Virgil Hunter, who of course, you know, best well known for his work with Andre Ward, but also Amir Khan, Andre Berto, others that he's

picked up through the years. And then, Luke, you saw a video show up yesterday that he was in Houston with Team Charlo over there with Ronnie Shields. And Jermall Charlo is, you know, Jermall's with Derek James, but that's very interesting. Him and Ronnie were hitting the mitts in the ring. Ronnie Shields was interviewed afterwards and basically said, look, he's looking for a trainer. I think our chemistry was good. This is going to be what's most interesting here, Luke, because Joshua, in some ways, as you look at the elite title picture in heavyweight boxing, because of his odd skill set, and I say odd, meaning his foundational fundamental elements aren't fully there and polished, right? He's got a little bit of a suspect gin.

He's a little bit too muscular and robotic. And, you know, yet against the typical fare you find in heavyweight boxing, he becomes the boxer against those guys, the more crude big men, and he surgically picks them apart and then eventually finishes them. But against this super elite of the rare guys, the Tyson Furies, the Alexander Usyks who have that next level actual pure boxing game, he's a tweener. He's not them.

He can't do that with them. So I'm interested in seeing most, Luke, when it comes to which trainer does he pick, which lane does he lean in? I mean, look, obviously at 32, you'd like to walk in and say, I want to be a complete product. So fix me, right?

You want to say that. But which lane does he go down? Leaning on the size and the strength to being a more dangerous finisher and puncher, or really trying to say, look, let's fix it now, whatever we can before it's too late, and let's put in those foundational things that you don't have. You back up with your hands down, you know what I mean? Your head doesn't move enough.

There's some little basic things that the punchers have been able to find in Joshua. I don't know. If I'm going to pick out of those three and I'm not sure who else he's meeting with. You know, you want offense, go to Freddie Roach, oh, by the way. But I wonder if Eddie Reynoso, Luke, who is so responsible in what he teaches defensively without sacrificing your ability to counter shot. I wonder if that's not the perfect potential marriage for him and knowing that I got Andy Ruiz with me in camp let's not worry about trilogy fight Andy let's worry about getting me better dude how I mean there's so many things that Canelo is good at right but one of the things he's

very good at is you had just indicated weaving in defense into the offense Canelo is not I won't say the king of this but he's very very very good at catch and then shoot right behind it or block and then turn into a punch. He's very, very good about putting the two together. And that's a small detail. But that's one thing I think, obviously, Anthony Joshua could massively benefit from. I mean, listen. Ronnie Shields, you can go to. Eddie Reynoso.

There's a bunch of guys he could go to. And I'm sure he would profit, basically, under all of them. I don't think any of them would be a wrong move, BC. But to me, it's less about tightening up some things. That's relevant. There's no denying that's very relevant. But to me, I look at this more a little bit like Tyson Fury after the first Wilder fight. It's not just that I need to fix some things. I need to reorient my strategic approach to this.

Because if I just bring in a polished version of what I did last time, well, Usyk's going to bring in a polished version of what he did last time, and you end up in the same position. You have to completely reorient how you strategically attack that fight. And he needs someone with a fresh set of eyes who can just, who's got a different orientation themselves. And to me, Eddie Reynoso, you kind of put me hip to him, BC, and now I can't unsee it. The guy is, he's talented. He's super talented.

He is so clever. The only issue I would have is, do you have enough time, even if you had Anthony Joshua starting today, to meaningfully make an adjustment? A guy like Tyson Fury is a master boxer where you could take a few things, reorient it, and more or less get what you want. I think the second and third fights that he had with Wilder is pretty strong evidence of that. You did see a retooling of Anthony Joshua after the second, or I should say in the second Ruiz fight, but that was a much more

pared down. There was no offensive potency to that whatsoever. How do you keep A.J.'s offensive potency while bringing in some of the other things that don't make him as defensively liable? That is the real needle that has to be thread here. Hard for me to understand how anyone could be a whole lot better than that than Eddie Reynoso. But either way, B.C., I got to say this.

I love this from Anthony Joshua. I thought if he just went back and did the same old thing, it wasn't going to be, what was the reason to care? Now you have a reason to care because Anthony Joshua cares. Dude, he's going on a tour of the U.S. to find new trainers for Crying Out Loud. That is a big step. He understands. I think he finally understands, like, I'm up against something.

I need to do something special to get over this hill. He's doing that. Whether or not it will succeed, I don't know. But you want me to be invested in an Usyk and Joshua rematch in terms of his competitive possibilities? Now I'm invested. I love this from Anthony Joshua. Yeah, it's very humble.

Well said in terms of all the right moves. I don't know if this means, you know, a full-time move to the U.S. and embedding himself in those camps. If he does that for Eddie Reynoso, if that's the choice, or, you know, obviously any of these guys, there's big names around. But, I mean, could you imagine AJ and Canelo, you know, driving home together every day talking about the game, the business, the everything?

I mean, those are, you know, again, 1A and 1B of the two stars of this sport. I think there's a lot AJ can actually learn from Canelo about fighting, about everything. And that would be an interesting marriage if he goes that direction. Obviously, he could grab an American trainer and bring him back to the UK with him. It's AJ's world, right? But this is, to your point, the humble right steps in getting back. And when you're a heavyweight, the career's long. When you're a viable, active heavyweight, the career can be long. And I think AJ is here for that journey. And so this is a necessary

change. And again, he's not Lennox Lewis. Lennox Lewis is top four or five heavyweight all time. But if AJ can show the spirit that Lennox showed where Lennox wasn't perfect, he got one punch twice. But Luke, he got up and he went back and avenged both of those one-punch knockout losses by knockout in title rematches. You know, AJ didn't knock out AJ, or Andy Ruiz, excuse me, in their rematch, but he got that win back. If he can do this against Usyk,

we're going to forget about a lot of these criticisms and stuff and instead reward the heart and the mission that he's on right now to turn this around i love the lennox comparison last thing i'd say to bc is let's say he can get past usic but not get past him like you squeaked one by but like what you're talking about doesn't have to be a one hit or quitter but he goes back and he has an authoritative win over alexander usic right where he goes and you're like wow man he really figured this out he really did all of his homework he crossed every every T. He dotted every I. It gives you new hope for Tyson Fury fights. There are always going to be a gravitational pull trying to make that,

but do you really have a lot of confidence at this stage that Anthony Joshua can win that? I personally do not, but if he can get a new trainer, recharge his offense, tighten up some of the issues he's had beat Usyk well dude now you're talking about maybe not forgetting the past completely but you're talking about a brand new future in certain ways that's also on the table here not just getting past Usyk but making people believe you really have a chance to beat all of your contemporaries if they're put in front of you that's a that's a that's a tall order but it's one he could possibly achieve for sure he could put the past away luke you know i wish he would

step back from uh let's see did they get the did they get the counter let's see how young our staff is did they get the counter as nope they didn't get so often told maniche it's not your fault cory that you were born in 1997 okay you seem obsessed with that and i'm not i'm not sure why so arrogantly it was so arrogantly delivered it was like oh corey you wouldn't understand because you were probably born in the late 90s and you didn't watch but it's not it's not a function of arrogance it's a function of math you literally weren't born then it like you had no say over this how was that arrogant it was the delivery mechanism and the person delivering it i tend to think you're reading into things but i haven't held it against you per se it's a

comedic bit but it does bring to life life with luke i literally was just like hey the math this is this is the story of my life i will literally say something like hey the math doesn't work out in a way that you could you could uh or anybody could uh make this work right it's just the bath's not there. Oh, you arrogant bitch. What are you bringing up math for? It's like I'm literally just pointing to the math. I'm not making a value judgment per se.

That's why you block them fuckers, right? It doesn't work. Story of my life, dude. What are you going to do? All right, topic number four. BC brought this up, and I love this topic because I really feel like it's important to have this conversation. So we just had Jim Miller, who had a great win over the weekend, right?

First time he gets a knockout in his whole UFC run. The guy's 38 years old. He's got a 33-16 record, won no contest. There apparently was debate. I didn't see this, but BC saw it, that people were debating whether or not he belongs in the UFC Hall of Fame. Now, BC, before I straight up ask you, do you believe he should go in there? Let me just read some facts for the audience to see what they think about it. I mentioned his age and I mentioned his record. He's got most fights in UFC history at 38, which is just ridiculous. Most sub attempts

in UFC history, 45. Tied for the second most wins in UFC history at 22. Tied for the third most finishes in UFC history at 14. Tied for the third most sub wins in UFC history at 10. Six most total fight night bonuses at 13. He's got wins over Ludwig, Thibaut, Oliveira, who's the current champion, Aljolazon twice, and Thiago Alves. He has losses to Frankie Edgar, Maynard, Benson Henderson, Nate Diaz, Donald Cerrone, Benil Dariush, Michael Chiesa,

Dustin Poirier, Anthony Pettis, Dan Hooker, and also Charles Oliveira as well. BC, does Jim Miller belong in the UFC or any Hall of Fame? Again, there's any time we bring up Hall of Fame, and I think they're worth debating the merits, the criteria, all that. Each Hall of Fame is so different. I've told you so many times how upset I am that, you know, the NBA doesn't that. Each Hall of Fame is so different. I've told you so many times how upset I am that, you know, the NBA doesn't have their own Hall of Fame.

They have the pro, they have the, you know, the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame, which, you know, inducts you for college or high school purposes or women's basketball coaching victories just as much as it does for NBA success. It's just not the perfect sort of, I don't know, maybe I just grew up believing it. The Baseball Hall of Fame, Luke, always had that hard, even before like the Veterans Committee would vote in guys that maybe didn't deserve it, but it's been 40 years.

They had that hard line, right? And Don Manley was on the other side of that hard line because he was great for a window. But then he kind of lingered on. He was, you know, a lesser version of himself, not Hall of Fame worthy. And we always said, OK, that guy was great in his prime. He was a Hall of Famer, but you know, he didn't have a full prime. So that's on him. He's got to be on the outside looking in.

And Luke, I like in any Hall of Fame when there is a Mendoza line, when there's that thing that says, sorry, you can't pass. In this discussion, the UFC Hall of Fame doesn't have that. It's like the WWE Hall of Fame. It just seems to just be there because, oh, we should do a Hall of Fame. And then that. It's like the WWE Hall of Fame. It just seems to just be there because, oh, we should do a Hall of Fame. And then the people that get in, I mean, there's, I mean, look again, you know, my rant against, you know, Diego Sanchez didn't get in the UFC Hall of Fame. His fight against Clay Guida got in, but now everybody's saying

that he's a Hall of Famer. So it's confusing to begin with, Luke. We know UFC holds grudges against certain people. They'll never get in the deserve. We know that, you know, the Bonners and the Griffins get in right away because of the love that the organization has for them. Will Jim Miller make the UFC Hall of Fame? He probably will, Luke, given the fact. And by the way, I don't hold him back from this and say he shouldn't because the guy's been such a grinder.

We talked about it the other day. And just to linger at this point and still be viable, it's a tip of the cap to him. The UFC loves that. I hope he gets the recognition he deserves. But if we had a real UFC Hall of Fame to the same standards of, like, the pro football or Major League Baseball or even boxing, boxing's Hall of Fame can be a shit show sometimes.

But for the most part, they get it right. No, Luke, he's not a Hall of Fame can be a shit show sometimes, but for the most part, they get it right. No, Luke, he's not a Hall of Famer. And I think in baseball, sometimes when we have these legacy statistics that people aim for, they're like, okay, I was a two-time all-star and a decent player, but bro, if I don't get hurt and I can still keep hitting until I'm 41, I might be able to get 3,000 hits and that gets me in the Hall of Fame or, you know, Don Sutton getting 500 wins, or I'm sorry, 300 wins when, you know, was he ever really a true dominant guy in the hall of fame or you know don sutton getting 500 wins or i'm sorry 300 wins when you know was he ever really a true dominant guy in the 70s and 80s like best pitcher in the game not really those guys to me are compilers luke i would put jim miller under the

compiler ranking and say if we had a legitimate fight hall of fame he wouldn't get in but it doesn't mean i wouldn't love him laud him and be clapping for him when he does get in the ufc hall of fame i i do you believe that it's worth me having this stance because i've said the same thing in boxing about sergio martinez who had such a great short peak run at top but then couldn't get anybody to fight him and it's like do we you know do we take those four or five fights when he was number two pound for pound and be like, I saw a Hall of Famer with my eyes? Or do we just basically say, I'm sorry, you fought like one and a half elite, super elite guys because nobody would box you. You can't get in because of that.

I'm with you. I don't think he belongs in the Hall of Fame. But it's a question of, to me, what kind of Hall of Fame you want. Right. So this is one of those debates that tends to reveal which people watch other sports and which ones don't, which is a common thing in MMA. MMA is an interesting sport where you get people who are sports fans, but you get a lot of people who are not sports fans, and this is the only sport that they like.

And so because they have strong feelings towards Jim Miller, in part because he has some real achievements, some very real achievements. I mean, Jim Miller's career is extraordinary in certain ways, no doubt about it. But if you were just looking at what other Hall of Fames require to get in, it's just a significantly higher bar than what UFC provides. I mean, understand what we're talking about here. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is not run by the NFL. It's a separate entity that you have to get into altogether. The UFC runs their own Hall of Fame. So if you want a UFC run Hall of Fame where the bar is lowered to get in, yes, I think in that case, Jim Miller does deserve to get in. If you want the UFC Hall of Fame to more resemble our contemporaries in

other sporting endeavors, the Pro Football Hall of Fame among others, then you have to raise the bar. To me, BC, if you're not putting him in there for a fight, you're putting him in there for his achievements. He's never had a title shot. Now, I understand some of that is arbitrary, but if he had beaten Nate Diaz at UFC on Fox 3, he might have gotten one. It was certainly possible there, but you can't argue he ever really deserved one. He never beat someone enough times at enough high of a level to ever really merit one. You can't show me the spot on his record where it was denied to him. That doesn't mean he didn't achieve. That doesn't mean he's not great. That doesn't mean what he's doing now is

ignorable. What he's doing now is phenomenal. But the guys who are supposed to go into the Hall of Fame, if what we are looking at is what other pro sports do, this is not even a debate. It's not even a debate it's not even a question he doesn't belong it's just that the UFC has a hall of fame where they have guys who have done extraordinary things like Saint Pierre people have been in extraordinary fights right that extra fight wing pioneers and whatnot and then it's got a little bit of a place for people who to your point the compilers the ones who just have real great longevity never super high achievers but achieved a different kind of things by virtue of the amount of time they spent in the sport and how long they were able to have a consistent level of success i think

that's worth celebrating i think that's worth acknowledging tip of the cap times a thousand i don't think that qualifies you for a stringent level of uh screens to clear in order to be into a hall of fame personally we have a poll on twitter right now you can go to at morning combat on twitter and give your say as to whether i know i think it's i think it's uh i think it's in the uh the youtube chat i'm sorry the youtube chat excuse me well we can push the racism and misogyny aside thankfully and uh police that and get a nice poll in there. Luke, if the fight game had the type of stringency I'm looking for, and let me just update you on boxing. Like, when Mike Tyson got in, by the way, in 2011,

there were some people who were like, man, you know, he had a half of a great career. I think overall with what Tyson accomplished, youngest heavyweight champion ever, I was able to say yes. When Arturo Gatti got in, you had a lot of people going, okay, now we're just doing Hall of Fame, not Hall of Greatness, right? He's just, guys, famous for fights. That was a little bit.

Luke, when Riddick Bowe got in, you know, was there a season where he was the world heavyweight champion and among the best and looked to be among the best in history? Yeah, but, bro, that season was short. That guy's career fell apart by age 27. The great wins he had were very pocketed together. I didn't think Riddick Bowe should have got in.

If we had this line and this sand, Jim Miller doesn't get in. I want to ask you a couple hard questions, Luke. Does Cowboy Cerrone belong in the Hall if BC took over the UFC Hall of Fame? No. He had a title shot. I think at least one of them if not two uh against dos anjos the first one anyway and you know he got sent packing pretty quickly

this is craig biggio right i mean i'm sorry i don't mean to disrespect anybody a guy who cowboys an all-star fan favorite not a super elite hall of fam All right, let me ask you a harder question. If Michael Bisping never beat Luke Rockhold, Hall of Famer in my criteria? No. Oh. Again, if what we're examining is what we do traditionally in other sports Hall of Fames that are run independently of the sports organization typically,

what kind of threshold for entry do you get? It's just significant., it wouldn't, here's the funny part about it. If we had one like that, people have tried MMA Hall of Fames and they've never worked, but if we actually had that, if we really tried that,

this wouldn't even be a question. There'd be no chance they'd get in. The only reason they'd get in is because I understand it. The fans love them and they respect that hustle over time. You have to, you have to, you cannot deny them that, but that respect that we confer upon them for their longevity and for many of the great moments that they have given to us and their

lives as martial artists and prize fighters. We, we recognize those achievements, but by themselves, those are not the key to the door into the entry of the Hall of Fame. It's not nearly enough. St. Pierre gets to go into the Hall of Fame. Anderson Silva gets to go into the Hall of Fame. And guys, close in that proximity. This is, to me, not there, and I don't think you can argue otherwise. All right, let me close, then we can move on.

But let me close by asking you this. Give me two or three fighters that under my hardcore stringent category, way of looking at it, would actually make my Hall of Fame in the UFC right now that are active and in the midst of their prime. Who do you think has already done enough to stamp that? Jon Jones. I mean, he's already in, but I mean, independent of the fight, right?

He's the greatest of all time. He's in, Luke. He's in on day one, okay? He's active, I guess.. He's in, Luke. He's in on day one, okay? He's active, I guess. I mean, look, Max Holloway. He's already in, Luke. He's already made my Hall of Fame. Yeah, he's probably in.

That's right. That's the level of achievement I'm talking about here. It's a different level. It's not a guy who was always sort of like a very good lightweight and, you know, top 10-ish at times. We're talking about guys who were champions or, you know top 10 ish at times uh we're talking about guys

who were champions or you know champions for long periods of time or challenged in different weight class i mean you got to do special shit to get into the hall of fame and i think everyone this is to me it's like it's funny it's like the fans always get after the the media and everyone else and the media is split on this too for Like, oh, everyone wants to be in entitlement society and everyone gets a trophy. Yo, this is the... Putting people in that don't deserve to be in is the very definition of giving everyone a trophy. Just because you like them and you want them to feel good. Dude, I want... It's hard because we don't...

Here's the problem, BC. We've got in or out. It's binary. Either you're in the Hall of Fame or you're not in the Hall of Fame. I know we've got to get moving. But the point I'm trying to make is we don't have some kind of celebration for the jim millers for the seronis for the demi and mayas i would put him somewhere in that category as well bc guys who did how about health benefits can we fix stephan bonner please i mean seriously okay what i'm trying to say is

some kind of accolade that recognizes that achievement but clearly differentiates it from the very elite tier that the sport can offer that's all right i'll be there when you want to get in thank you thank you yeah have fun all right topic number five colby covington bc colby told brett okamoto of espn about this oosman fight coming up quote it's been such a journey it's been tough it wasn't supposed to happen They did not want it to happen. His manager, they were refusing. They were trying to find every way in the book out of fighting this rematch. They didn't want this fight. And the only reason they have to take it is the UFC gave them no choice. They said, hey, you fight this fight or we strip you. It's one or the other. You've got to come out and prove you're the best in the world. There needs to be no controversy surrounding this fight. So it's been tough. BC, let me ask you a question this way.

Colby has knowingly just lied on the record a number of times, but not least of which was the Dustin Poirier sparring video, which had almost no truth to it whatsoever. Why on earth would we believe anything he says about any part of this process because we like gossip and filling time on podcasts to debate shit i guess uh fair enough i don't know something about it makes me kind of want to believe it right well i think it's an look do i know that ufc called up kamaru and said fight this man or we take your belt no i don't know that that happened you know was it more like kamaru and company wanted maybe a less dangerous,

more financially profitable, like a Nate Diaz or something, and then they had to be sort of talked into it? Maybe. Maybe that's how it works. Luke Guzman is understanding, you know, a certain level of stardom now with the multiple title defenses and opportunities involved in that. I just wonder, I sort of want to spin it back on you and ask if this is true. It's not unprecedented. We've seen Jermaine Durand and me say, sorry, I'm not going to fight Cyborg.

And they said, okay, we'll take your title. You're done. Is it in the promoters' right, especially a promotion like UFC with the control it has over the fighters where you 99% of the time, let's give them the praise they deserve. You get the fights you deserve. You get them, Luke. You get the frigging fights, okay?

I can count on four fingers the amount of UFC fights that should have happened that didn't. So is it in the promoter's right to say, yes, you will defend who we say, when we say, or I got a pile of sand out back. All right? Let's get pounding. Nothing about what he says automatically i'll say this automatically rings untrue but like anything he says i would be very careful about accepting it is it possible is it possible and when i say possible i don't just mean like could we theorize it but like have there been other incidents of this where a reigning weight class champion who

already defeated an opponent doesn't want to take the rematch for whatever reason they may think it was a tough fight they don't sell a lot whatever they don't have the interest and the promotion kind of forces them by threatening to strip them yes there is precedence for that in that sense what he's saying is entirely plausible however we have not heard from kamaru's side which is who knows why a is it even true that he didn't want to take it number one number. Number two, even if it is true, what was the reasoning behind that? Did he have an injury? Did he have some kind of family issue?

Was it simply petty? Maybe he just didn't want to do it because he didn't want to give that shine to Colby. All I'm saying is we don't really know. More to your question, I guess I've changed my view about this. I wish it wasn't the case that the promotion could be heavy-handed in this way where the fighters could have a little bit more say.

I really believe that. But it's not the world that we live in. It's not going to be the world that we live in until somebody does something about it. So while if it's true that the promotion threatened to strip in order to make this fight, I don't love that. If the fighters are unwilling to meaningfully do anything about that, then I guess I just don't care anymore for the most part. And by the way,

this is also a good fight that should happen. Colby is promoting this in the most ham-fisted, awful, unimaginably uninspired way you could ever promote a fight this good. But it is a good fight. It's a very good fight. It's an important fight for each one's

legacy it's important for the welterweight division it's a great contest and i'm glad that it's being made all i'm saying is when colby comes out colby says x and colby says lots of shit that we know for a fact isn't true i'd be very cautious about accepting it as gospel yeah yeah where were you on january 6 colby explain? Explain it to us, please. Yes. You were hanging out with Morning Combat fans. All right, great. That's great. Yeah, exactly. He was there with an MK Fight Club t-shirt.

What are you going to do? All right, BC. Anything else to say about that one? You want to just move on? No, we got to move along for good reason. You and I today, right? Are we allowed to say this? You and I will be hosting the Canelo Alvarez media workout.

Canelo is out in San Diego. Our colleague Ray Flores is out there with him. And you and I will be hosting, interviewing, and analyzing what we see there as Big Red takes his shirt off, hits the mitts, gives us a little insight into camp. So let's keep this show rolling, Luke. All right. Very good. With that in mind, BC, our top five is over. It is time for Call Me Crazy.

All right, Luke. In lieu of a wheel of death, because, you know, who has the time to prepare for that, only for the fans not to love it and you to no-sell it, I've developed this bastardized version of that called Call Me Crazy. Is it everyone else's fault that the wheel of death doesn't work often? Yeah, in the end, Luke. Call Me Crazy. All right, Luke. I've got eight takes, death doesn't work off yeah in the end luke call me crazy all right luke i've got eight takes hot ones cold ones in the middle in the middle you

tell me if i'm crazy or onto something here we go okay uh dominic cummings luke a british political strategist who was one of the masterminds behind brexit and the chief of advisor to prime minister boris johnson unsolicited what was that is this is Johnson. He got stabbed, right? What was that? Is this the guy that got stabbed or somebody different? I don't know about if he was punctured, but I do know that he gave unsolicited advice to Nate Diaz over Twitter this week telling him not to sign a new UFC deal and to wait until Dana White approaches him to set up a trilogy with Conor McGregor.

The quote was, Look how they screwed GSP, now waiting for his contract to expire luke call me crazy but every fighter in the ufc right now should be echoing not only this british bloke's take but openly cheering for the idea you gave me behind the scenes last week of maybe mcgregor diaz 3 not a boxy match, but an MMA fight happening outside the UFC as a way to strong arm the promotion into better pay structures and less draconian contracts. If you're a UFC fighter, you should be cheering for this. I think that's great advice, and I don't think what is being suggested

is crazy at all. Dude, what's the big leverage here? If Nate and Conor got free, big ifs, huge ifs. But if they did, because by the way, none of them are champion, and they were able to come to terms to stage a boxing event, ordinarily 10 years ago, that would have been unthinkable and kind of weird and stupid. But we're past all that now. We know there's a market for it. Probably as a fight, it would be entertaining for the most part, I guess, given the relative skill sets or whatever.

So it would do huge numbers. It would put unbelievable pressure on them. I mean, everyone wants to make this out to be like, oh, it's the Jake Paul thing. Well, it's mostly the Jake Paul thing. But Jake Paul has created a little pocket, and not many people can get into that pocket. But the ones who can can just do huge numbers with it. When I say created, I mean the celebrity thing. Obviously, you know, Conor and Nate have been celebrated prize fighters for some time.

So what I'm saying is when Dana goes and speaks out against that stuff to the best that he can or he tries to ignore it, what he's really trying to do is tamp down any enthusiasm that anyone in his roster might have, whether it's St. Pierre, whether it's Masvidal, or whether independently the two working together McGregor and Diaz I don't think any anything being suggested by that MP or anything else is crazy whatsoever uh would it be crazy if this third fight between them fell into the auspices of golden boy MMA would that be crazy that'd be crazy that'd be crazy yes that one I don't, number two, Luke, Holly Holmes coach Mike Winklejohn

caught up with Ariel on the MMA Hour to repeat something you ordered to me the other day that I was surprised, that they're claiming Misha Tate straight up turned down the UFC's effort to make a home Tate rematch next. Luke, call me crazy, but since this is the UFC and they don't specialize in selective matchmaking for the most part, seeing Tate put this rematch off in favor of trying to use her name to get a second crack at Amanda Nunes suggests her comeback might be more about the money than we initially thought. Luke, call me crazy. Wait, the comeback by Tate is more about the money?

Yeah, I mean, I get that you want to fight Nunes a second time, but don't you have to kind of pay the dues? And if Holly Holm is that next marketable tough fight in line to get to Nunes, don't you embrace this UFC? Don't you just grab that and embrace it? But if it was more about marketing, wouldn't you take the Holm fight because that's a bigger marketing opportunity? Not if you think you can lose that and you're

really here to come into a newness fight with some shine get the payday get that second chance skip right to the title shot you mean um knowing misha i don't know her well but i've worked with her many times um you know had many conversations with her i I don't believe that. I tend to think that, yeah, she wants to make some money. I think she does want to. I can see what I'll say. You're not crazy, but I don't agree in the sense that the events could be interpreted in the way that you're doing it. No, no issue.

Knowing Misha a little bit, I find that hard to believe. She's such a born competitor that yes of course making money is big yes of all those things play a role but i do also think that she wants competitively to maximize what she can and i think she's just i think she believes here's my guess she's not quite ready for that in her comeback that the comeback she had the comeback fight was a good first kind of test but she looked at it was like probably some things i need to work on a little bit um let me give me some time okay that's an interesting way to look at it if it is that way then i i would be crazy and i would apologize luke but that's why this segment's so edgy because we just throw shit at the wall. Luke, number three, according to Sunsport in the UK,

the October 30th boxing heavyweight bout pairing Dillian White and Otto Wallin is now off after White suffered a shoulder injury in training. Luke, call me crazy, but I'm not sure his shoulder is injured as much as it's itchy. You know, itchy for the greenbacks, the kind of itch that only comes when the WBC names you as the mandatory challenger for Tyson Fury's title. And maybe him not wanting to screw that up with a dangerous stay-busy fight.

Luke, can we change the medical report from injured to itchy shoulder? I don't have the doctor backing to weigh in on this, but the timing, it does make you go, hmm. No one notices the contrast of white on white. See what you did there. I don't know. The British boxing thing, I don't have, I'm not very

plugged in, as you can well imagine. Valine's a tough, I mean, you're not crazy. I don't thinkine's a tough i mean you're not crazy you're not i don't think you're crazy crazy but you're not like you're kind of crazy how about that you're kind of crazy how about that there was a few covid cancellations this year that people made hmm gestures at people said that about ryan garcia's hand injury by the way and then he put pictures out of him in the hospital getting surgery so who knows luke all right number four dana said it about uh oscar doing getting getting an oscar in his hospital bed when he got covid yes that's very true luke although i have long

called it one of my three favorite movies of all time there's one glaring issue with the plot in the movie willy wonka and the chocolate factory no i'm not talking about the psychotic and largely satanic boat ride that wonka tried to pass off on those kids as fun. Charlie Bucket and his dirtbag, lazy, sleep in his own feces for 25 years like it's nothing. Grandpa Joe should have been disqualified from getting the chocolate factory

and inheriting everything because just like the five other kid rejects, Charlie blatantly stole fizzy lifting drinks. He bumped into the ceiling, which now has to be washed and sterilized. So, Luke, he gets nothing. Good day, sir. But just because Charlie fessed up in the midst of being caught and gave back the everlasting gobstopper that suddenly all is forgiven?

Luke, call me crazy, but this is why OJ and Brian Laundrie shouldn't have run. Are you going back to the well of OJ jokes because the last one worked real well? No, I tied him in last minute, but this always bothers me, Luke. I mean, is it really that? I don't think that the system of justice employed in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is probably all that

meaningful a form of justice and the one that OJ got although also didn't get the job done perhaps a little bit more yeah I don't know what you're asking this is a fucking bizarre question well I should Wonka forgiven that kid he stole

the thing that he told him not to Luke. Oh, because you gave me back the gobstopper. Didn't try to sell me out. Here's my whole company. I'm like the Michael Jordan meme that just says, fuck them kids. That's me. All right. All right.

You do agree. Brian Laundrie should have faced the music up front, right? Luke, of course. Who wouldn't? All right. Then at least I'm not crazy on that. We'll see if this segment lasts another week. five luke former two division ufc champion henry suhudo you know who he told mma mania's shaquille majorie the frenchman you know my our friend right you know

he is not french he is persian i know well okay he was persian french all right i'm french canadian you can mix you can mix luke um What Cejudo said this week was, as one of seven children to a single immigrant working mother, he said he didn't sleep in his own bed until he was 17. Cejudo also said he has put his days as a, quote, player aside, and with his first child set to be born next month, Luke, him and his partner have decided to name their baby, regardless of what sex it is,

America Cejudo, to honor his humble upbringing. Luke, call me crazy, but I would probably be more willing to name my next child La Aquila Makalapuo Kalanipo Brown than I would America. That's just me

talking. Related, I actually can't have any more kids because of that hack butcher job I endured with the three needles, bro. You into this name, Luke? No. No, but it's not my kid, so. I mean, that'd be like you naming your kids india it reflects your backstory right cutter here are my two here are my two daughters india and cutter yes yes all right uh let's see if we can make it through the segment number six luke fedor gave an interview with the russian news agency tass this week in which he referred to UFC's fighter contracts as quote oppressive

draconian and enslaving the 45 year old legend also went on to say this about Dana White money means everything to him he has no respect toward fighters no respect for any human being only money and that's all there is nothing humane about Dana and I find that quite revolting money of course is important for living and for the family, but trading human emotions for money is unacceptable, Fedor closed with. Luke, call me crazy, but not only do I see no lies in anything the last emperor said, in fact, forget money. Fedor wasn't willing to trade human relations for anything throughout most of his career, Luke,

including that time you asked him what his favorite Russian novel was in that MMA Hour interview, and he canceled all subsequent. Which you're definitely not still bitter about. He canceled all subsequent interviews, including my in-person one right after that. Luke, it's harsh, but I think Fedor for once actually had some substance to what he said. I think he nailed it. Sort of. I is what would i disagree with anything he's saying no of course not but it's like dude i got bad news for everybody if you want to work in the fight game uh you're going to have to eventually at some point work with some bloodthirsty just absolute degenerate awful people and i guarantee

he's both made money for and uh taking money from people just like that i mean the guy was you know buried into m1 for a long time are we just imagining these were all high character individuals i mean get a grip this is so it's nonsense the dummy vadim finkelstein luke i don't think that guy was... Even Scott Coker was telling us awful things about him. You know, so it's like, yes, do I agree with his sense of things? More or less, but the idea that, oh, that's over there, and here's my career, and it's distinct from that.

Come on, dude. No, it's not. You waited in the exact same piss-filled kiddie pool that the rest of us did. Are you saying he shook hands with the Yakuza? Is that what you're saying, Luke? I don't know what he did or didn't do on a very specific level. I just know the fight game is full of malcontents, broken people, and weirdos.

And if you want to be in it, you're going to be next to them. It's just a matter of fact. I mean, that's how you got here. Yeah, I am one of them. Oh, wow, Luke, you're doing a good job shooting down all my crazy shit today. I mean, that's how you got here. Yeah. Yeah. I am one of them. Oh, wow. Luke, you're doing a good job shooting down all my crazy shit today. Two more, Luke. The trailer for the movie Scream 5, which reunites Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and

Courtney Cox from the 90s in a direct sequel to 2011's fourth installment, has made the rounds on social media. Luke, it'll come out in January. This is the first in the series not directed by Wes Craven, who passed away six years ago. Call me crazy, Luke, but for the amount of barely redeemable Jason, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers sequels that have flooded the horror genre throughout the years,

both Scream and its competing 90s franchise, I Know What You Did Last Summer, really don't get the credit they deserve for being fun, scary, and featuring a lot of prime hot young tna and you know decently structured plots around it it may be sort of like commercial horror or a soft core spin-off of the tradition that we came up with but they're just better movies overall luke i don't think people give scream and company the love i'm gonna see this shit maybe in the theater deal with it coming off my my my uh grunge pop take from the 90s

last time luke it's in line with that but i stand by it well i have bad news which is to say i'm not presenting this to you as some kind of cool factor far from it i don't know why this is true i guess it just ended up being this way i've never seen any of the scream films i have no basis of comparison here and i know that's probably on brand in certain ways it wasn't a decision like fuck scream i just never got around to it so i've never seen them what about i know what you did luke i've not seen that one either there's two of them you didn't see either one all right no i've seen a couple of i've seen on tv final destination the devon salvo stuff i've seen that um i've seen wild things you know that was some 90s tna right um yeah heavy on the t yeah so i've seen that

but i've not i'm not seen the other ones. All right. One more for you, Luke. Your boy, Brendan Schaub, set a national indoor record during Tuesday's episode of Blow the Belt for using the word narrative the most times during his 19-minute apology to Ariel Hawane. I think I counted 49 times, in fact, Luke, that he said narrative,

although that might actually be the amount of times that you've watched Max Alex 2. Let that joke never die. Luke, that he said narrative, although that might actually be the amount of times that you've watched Max Alex 2. Let that joke never die. Luke, call me crazy, but all things considered, I'm really happy that this weird soap opera is now finally over. I was doing my level best not to

pay attention to it. Most of the things I learned were from you constantly harassing me about it. But yes, I'm glad it is over and let everyone get... Dude, this shit's exhausting, man. Like just constantly just, I'm mad at you. You just... And just being about that all the fucking time.

I can't do all that anymore, dude. I don't have it in me, so... Well, Luke, there were wrong narratives in the world. They were corrected and nobody got hurt in the end. Well, that remains to be seen. But yeah, so far, so good. I'll put it that way. All right.

Hey, call me crazy, Luke. But that segment survived another week. We'll see what happens. All right, Luke. As always, you can send your takes, your shit, a lot of things to morning combat at Gmail dot com. And our trusty producer, Mikey Mormss will deal with that and hopefully have a good filter for the good stuff and the bad stuff. This week, it's time

for your fan submission. Whoop whoop! I'm actually looking forward to these more and more these days. I'm not totally sure why, but it feels like they're making a better effort. Bill, how about Luke? Luke, it's time to bring back in Bill and Jen from the RV Adventure Tour.

They got two pictures from Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana. And by the name, Bill wants to let us know his real name is actually Norman William. So that's why when they sent in pictures last time, it was under the name Norm. And we're like, do they have a voyeur in their camper? No, they don't, Luke. Thanks to BC for following our journey. Luke, this happy couple still wearing that 1.0. We should get RJ on the horn and find out the address

of where this RV is parked and send them everything we have on 2.0. Yeah, that's a good idea. Although they get a lot of pub, Bill and Jen, on this here podcast. Don't they? You're saying they've gotten enough. You're like, they've received enough attention. I don't need to give them enough. I'm saying at some point you haven't visited the capital of Los

Estados Unidos. You haven't visited the King of Connecticut. Doing a lot of visiting on the other side of the country. We're giving you a lot of pub here. I mean, what's up with the East Coast love? Nothing going on here. Wow, this is two weeks removed from Luke saying, you know, if they showed up in jersey city i'd uh i'd probably wave out the window at them you know i don't think i said any of those things although that's probably true

you're like i'll probably drop a dump in their rv just to just to let them just to mark my scent yeah all right hey bill and jen you thank you for touring this country for uh i hope the dogs are well luke we have wholesome fans that aren't looking just to get us either in bed or in a dark tub in an abandoned building with one of our organs missing. We actually have decent folk. They're decent folk. I'm just saying they're doing a lot of West Coast touring, not a lot of East Coast touring.

All right. Let's move on. This is from Cole. He says, just got my MK mug. Love it, guys. Thanks for everything. Let's see how this guy is from Cole. He says, just got my MK mug. Love it, guys. Thanks for everything. Let's see how this guy looks. Oh, boy.

How's his sink management? Is this how you dress when you're on the run from the January 6th committee? Luke, first of all, I love the Mr. Rogers sweater vest, and I love that he bought our mug. So shout out to you, Cole. But, Luke, his bathroom sink management, it could use work. Yeah, it's absolute trash. He looks like he's a single guy.

A woman hasn't been there since 1972. Blow it back up, will you? Okay, let's look at this for just a second. I think that glass container is where he makes the crack. He's got the polo cologne, just toothbrush and toothpaste all over the sink and then he's got what appear to be a stack of cds for no fucking reason in the i can't lie this does look like your hotel room luke all the time there's always like washcloths hanging over the sink and i'm like i don't want to touch it um yeah yeah he's definitely he's definitely done some cleaning after with his lower body

with that blue towel there so gross all right thank you cole hey juan is here hey luke hey luck and brian p1 juan from phoenix i've got some pictures of me repping mk garrett bellator 268 the first one is myself and my wife and the second one is me and the couch of the year. Coach of the year. Coach of the year. He wrote couch. Sorry. Coach of the year.

Captain America, Luke. He wrote couch? Yeah, he did. From now on, when I see Eric, I'm going to be like, dude, you're the couch of the year. That's really what you are. Those glasses for sure. Hey, can we go back to his lady friend there, his wife?

Is it his wife or his girlfriend? It's his wife. His girlfriend only takes the UFC cards. But Luke, look at, he's got, can we blow it up? He's got a little bit of ink. Luke, this guy looks legit. Yeah, he looks like a normal human who can live with a woman, which is, you know, that's a tall order

for, I think, our audience. But he has managed to clear it. Luke, I have nothing but positive things to say about his relationship, Bill, and his relationship with our show. So shout out to you, Juan. Good work. Thank you, Juan. David has a photo and a video.

He says, look, I used to teach British and American English over here in France, but since I started watching the show, I've had to broaden my horizons by adding BC, Connecticut Kings English and LT Doha Georgian dialect. Here's an example of a vocabulary list and the COVID infested pronunciation routine. My students were so desperate

to get on YouTube, most of them took their masks off. They don't have the slightest idea what MK is or why the fuck I'm making them repeat this shit. Cheers, David Cosby Weinstein. Luke, that's David, idea what mk is or why the fuck i'm making them repeat this shit cheers david cosby weinstein luke that's david our our cosbarian french teacher yeah i don't understand why you keep saying adaption either but whatever and neither here or there what is what is mine supposed to be reading something spatial alignment but i can't quite read it. Can you blow it up here, Maniche, one more time, please?

Connectoro? BC, Connecticut, King's English equals adaption. LT, Doha, Georgian English equals kinetic. Manetico? Spatial? I don't even know what the fuck he's... The joke was great until he got to me, and then he botched it, much like he does HR violations. Big fan of David A wearing the MK merch in the classroom.

He's also he says, P.S., as you can see, my quest to get down to 70 kilos before you reached 100 K was a total failure. Could you ask the merch guys to issue a new SBF size short but fat? We have audio for this video so guys repeat after me mk all day nearly every day oh boy oh boy these these french motherfuckers are like dude we pay this asshole for what he's like repeat after me no means yes yes yeah that guy david cosby westein, he's the best, Luke.

He is the best. Big fan. I didn't know he had an English accent. That makes him a little creepier, Luke. Didn't he say he was British? Yeah, he might have. I don't know. All right, Bob's here.

Hey, Luke, got my MK shirt on Friday. Hell yeah. Look at this hard charger right here. Look at my Russian three-wheel tank. I think our time in the core may have overlapped i was in from 92 to 96 on a side note i would love to see you and bc on hot ones with sean evans i can only imagine the answers bc would give while hopped up on the death sauce luke uh first of all thank you bob for sending this in and for wearing that do we even sell that shirt look i i i yes is the answer i think i'm not even really sure dude look at look

at this fucking uh rig he's got here can you just manage can you big big screen this what's going on here so he's got the 762 mm on the window shield which is the nato round that the m16a2 service rifle maybe the m4 fires as well it was m16a2 when i was there i guess they fire the mp4 now but that was the that was the type of round the 762 millimeter um and then he's got the grenades the full metal jacket i can't quite see what it says over the wheel joker i guess there's a reference from full metal jacket and then he's got the tommy gun on the the extra cedar with it looks like um the the the sort of can the ammo cans that they wear and carry on the side i can't quite tell but dude this rig is and he's got the old school camouflage if you'll notice bc he's got the behind the tommy gun he's got the camouflage that they

had when we and he and i were in the court we didn't overlap he was 92 96 i was 98 05 um but uh that that kind of camouflage they don't make anymore he's got it covering the sort of the top seat there of the of the of the what do you want to call it the sidecar is that what it's called the sidecar yeah my dad had a sidecar growing up i used to sit in it luke it was it was something my man is a hard charger bro he is not letting you there's no mistaking what this guy's about when he's driving down the road. I'm going to get venture that he has a, a large American flag in his front lawn and that we actually know where he was. January 6th,

Luke deal with that. See, he, but he, he looks to me like the kind of guy who definitely would put his feet up on Nancy Pelosi's desk. Yes, but he's not going to break the laws to do it.

He's not going to smear shit across the top of it right might he might drop a little in the in the side drawer you know just just he'll he'll he would take a dump in the fishbowl yeah but that's about it you know he's got a strong goatee there luke i mean you see that guy in walmart you turn around walk the other way you know what i mean this is a guy who definitely asks questions at like Home Depot that the people there cannot answer. You know what I'm talking about? Like, how do I remove bones from the body? And yeah, they're like, sir, this is not this.

This is in our. Sir, this is not a morgue. Can I eat this? I got that off of a cadaver. Yeah. All right, Luke. Fernando has six photos. He says, hey, guys, was so pumped with the selection of teas, I couldn't decide which one to buy. So I bought three. Had a long Monday at work, but it was all worth it when I saw these babies. Love the show. Haven't been keeping up with extra credit because like Brian, I'm an artiste who goes with the flow, but mainly is content with Luke's regular live chat. Anyways, highlight of my NK fandom was my comment,

Orchids of Tech Issues had a split second on the first doc. Revelry Revelry Fernando from Indianapolis. Luke, we got fans everywhere. Hey, this guy fills out a shmedium pretty well, right, Luke? Let's examine his sink there. Go back. These guys, they don't learn. All right all right throw it up here let's see what we got we got mouthwash there we got some oh this one's a little bit better he's got his ball trimmer there but i can tell within one second that this guy pays his taxes he's you know he's he's responsible

yeah this is the kind yeah this guy definitely brings women over. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. I bet he cooks for them. I could see Fernando cooking for them. For sure. He's got his laundry hamper in the back there. He's got his scissors.

He's got his chloroform there to put people to sleep when they come over so he can take their skin off. And then he's got some hair gel. Can you cycle through real quick? Anything else this guy's got for us here i mean he's got the shoe boxes out in the side but he's a shoe collector yeah this is all right this is all right yeah no he's all right this guy's all right all right i don't need to know he's not quite a hoarder he's more a collector yes yes he is yes he is looking good fernando appreciate your

fandom wow six three three shirts he bought luke that's fantastic all right yeah that's a lot that's a lot of money sending our way we appreciate it hey fellas love the show quick fan sub of luke holding up an intervention for brian's inane and frankly infantile hopes and dreams let's see this alright that's funny that's good shit PS Brian the Campbell clan stole my family's ancestral home and purged us out of our native Scotland but we

love you anyway all the best from Northern Virginia it's Josh D that's well done that is very very good is very, very good. Not true, but very good. All right, Scott says, Hey, Donks, in honor of Luke never letting Bapa BC interrupt him, Luke refuses to be interrupted by Dick Juk BC. Water weed dune here.

Scott from LA, Semper Fi. Never die. I feel like this is unfair and false and defamatory. Standard operating procedure for MK, Luke. Yeah, maybe. Maybe that's true. All right. MK Superfan slides in, says,

Luke working hard the day before the election. Big fan. Tyron. Tyron. Ty-er-o-on. A resume review of Trump? I don't even know what that would be. Yeah. on a resume review of trump i don't even know what that would be um yeah it would lead to his demise is where tyron's going here luke okay oh i see i see i see i get the joke we put canelo

under that microscope we should ask him about it today canelo how do you how do you feel about getting resume reviewed i don't think yeah you know he might care a lot but i'm guessing the answer is he won't he'll just hang up on us. He'll just be like, all right, I'm done. All right, we got to hang up on the show quickly. Mike H. from New Zealand. Which of you dunks is climbing the wall? Okay, that's a great joke.

That is really good. Wow, he's a New Zealander, too, Luke, and he made that joke. That's great. Even better. All right, finally, Ben says, personally, I'm more New Zealander, too, Luke, and he made that joke. That's great. Even better. All right, finally, Ben says, Personally, I'm more of an MK fan, but you can't deny what an iconic game Street Fighter II was, particularly for the music.

Luke was obviously going to be Guile with his military background, but BC got Zangief just because. Were you two a fan? They want to know your favorite character, Luke. Were you a fan of his? Well, this is funny because when I interviewed Rampage before the King Mo fight, the first one, was there two?

I guess there was, I don't even know. But the one he had where Mo the Wall called Bjorn Rebny a dick rider, that whole media cycle. In person, Rampage Jackson called me Zangief that whole week, which was kind of funny, I suppose. Rampage Jackson called me Zangief that whole week. Which was kind of funny, I suppose.

I was always more like I wasn't the big Street Fighter guy, but I guess if I was, I liked E. Honda. Kinda. What about you? I was a big Street Fighter guy and I was guile all the way and wanted that hair. Still do to a large degree. The blonde flat top that just kind of falls over.

You look like Lonzo. I look like Lonzo Ball here. Yeah, yeah. It's not working for you, Luke. But thank you for Ben sending that in. Morning Combat at gmail.com is the inbox to send. Luke, you and I have to pack up because shortly on the Showtime Sports YouTube page, we will be hosting Canelo Alvarez's live workout from San Diego ahead, of course, of his November 6th Showtime pay-per-view bout against Caleb Plant for all four world titles. hatred because you know our job is to preview this fight and by the way caleb plant last time i checked he's an active fighter who's never lost and has a chance at least luke the amount of like

you motherfucker you don't know a thing about boxing if you think caleb plant has a shot in hell about this they should get somebody up there who actually knows what they're talking about like it happened like 20 times it's like okay wow damn these people are pretty fired up for canelo luke by about the 75th dm i was like okay people like can we relax here all right well who is dming you just fan just just boxing hardcore telling you you don't know shit yeah because they saw like a 90 second clip pulled out of our show where i was like you know you know kayla plants got quick hands apparently that meant he's gonna knock canelo out lu, Luke. I don't know. Whatever.

Yeah, I know. The number one thing, the number one illusion that people like to hold is if they were in the media's job, they would be better at it. And they wouldn't be. They'd be significantly worse. So there you go. Hey, on that note, Luke, let's walk off. All right, let's get out of here. Just a reminder, you gave the email address morningcombat.store, by the way.

I like how fansubs.bc, as you walk off, has turned into like, let's promote our merch. We have two segments where we promote our merch, the beginning of the show and then fansubs. So very quickly, if you want some more, morningcombat.store. Halloween merch is only there for a limited time. If you're going to get it, get it now.

Showtime.com is the label that pays us, so go to showtime.com and get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you may go do whatever you wish with your life. We, of course, will have a Friday show to get you ready for all the weekend's fights. We're working on a backscratcher in the merch store, I am told.

Join us at the Showtime Sports YouTube channel at 1.30 East Coast time, so in less than an hour, but about an hour from now, NBC and I will be working our way through the Canelo Presser, or not Presser, I should say Workout, which will be a lot of fun. Okay. Like the show.

Give it a thumbs up. Subscribe. The whole nine yards. We'll talk to you guys in about an hour if you join us for the workout. If not, see you on Friday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.