MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Max Holloway Stops Korean Zombie | UFC Singapore Recap | Usyk-Dubois Debate | Ep 482

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

On episode 482 or Morning Kombat Luke and Brian recap UFC Singapore. Where does Max Holloway stand after his win? How well did the UFC handle The Korean Zombie's retirement? What are the guys thoughts on Erin Blanchfield's win over Taila Santos? What does Anthony Smith's win say about the state of the light heavyweight division The boys close out the main topics with a recap of Oleksandr Usyk's win over Daniel Dubois. Was it a low bow? As always we close out Monday with Dm's from Donks and HYSTS. (11:00) - Max Holloway (42:00) - Erin Blanchfield (55:30) - Anthony Smith (62:30) - Giga Chikadze (74:00) - Usyk vs. Dubois (94:00) - HYSTS Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And I'm hung over. I didn't even get drunk and I'm hung over. How did that happen? You know how it happened? I got into my 40s. Hey, everybody, on this 28th day of August 2023, it's time for Morning Combat. How are you doing? I am merely one half of your hosting duo. I joined you from the capital of the Stardust and Needles right here in Washington, D.C., joined by the man with a mouth full of water and or semen.

Who knows? There's really no way to tell. Wow, that's a very early start to the show here to step right into the shit. All right, yeah. It's Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian Campbell. How are you, bud? How you doing? Great.

It's Monday morning. I'm here to bang Tui. And, you know, hey, there was some weird fights over the weekend, but it was a fun fight weekend, I'd say, overall. So I'm here to talk about it, if you'll have me. Yes, I certainly will, of course. I think the fans, but it was a fun fight weekend, I'd say, overall. So I'm here to talk about it, if you'll have me. Yes, I certainly will, of course. I think the fans will demand it. And, of course, what you had referenced was quite right.

So we had UFC Singapore, which actually had some pretty big implications, if not some gigantic fights. And then we had the Usyk-Dubois fight, which had not so much big fight feels, but had some interesting controversy that was spawned i should say as a result of what happened in the fifth round we'll get to all of that plus a whole lot more so thumbs up if you're watching on youtube please hit subscribe it's free doesn't cost you a thing and thanks for watching just the same we greatly appreciate it let's get the folks the uh disclaimers showtime.com is the label that pays showtime.com 30-day free trial if you like it you

can keep it if not you can go bang yourself that's something you can do how about that as well merch is morningcombat.store there there he is egg shen about to go uh you know yeah he's gonna go fight david lopan whatever his name is um all right so there you go morningcombat.store to get all the merch do we have an update on when that stuff's going live, the Average Joe Art stuff? I heard the first week is September, maybe September 8th, but we'll see. It's coming, Luke.

We've been saying that for quite some time. Well, Luke, we've been saying a lot of things, okay? It's day by day, but we're doing fine. We're doing just fine. Thank you. Okay, good. So I know that it is going to happen. I just don't know what the release date is,

but be on the lookout for that. And hey. There's red tape in corporate life, Luke. As long as they remove that red tape, we'll be just fine, okay? That's true. And hey, who can forget? Who can forget? You got to vote for us.

World MMA Awards. Morning Combat. You can put your phone up on the screen right there. You can use the QR code, or if you're just listening on the podcast platforms, you can go to World MMA Awards, plural world MMA awards.com and vote for morning combat. Best MMA programming. Yes, we are shameless. Yes, we are pathetic, but BC we're also two time winners.

So maybe there's a correlation between being pathetic and getting your hand raised in the end. I don't know. Yeah. The early bird gets the worm, Luke, and we've been on this early telling you all about it. So, uh, look, it's up to you. I mean, you know, my life's going to go on either way, but you want to support the show. You want to help us get to the next level. Hey, this is a nice free way to do it. I think all you need is an email address and some self-respect and you can vote for MK now voting for Bronstetter. You're going to need some other emotions, but you know, maybe, maybe Bronstetter, this is the year he pulls the upset on Ariel.

I mean, it would be a Canada on Canada violence, but I'd be, you know, I'd be eating some popcorn watching it, Luke. BC, when are you going to upgrade your internet from the dial-up that you have right now on your gateway computer? I have top of the line for this area, Luke. You better believe that, okay? And this area luke you better believe that okay and this area being what the van down by the river what area are we speaking close we're very close but yeah yeah yeah we're just fine luke you know the thing is normally i like to talk in circles and make a lot of really weird jokes but um i'm you know i'm ready to do this if you are i mean you you unless you want to regale me with stories about which liquor uh got you quicker into that hellhole you're inside your head right now what was it luke

what was your poison yesterday i just had rum i only had rum that was it i didn't drink anything else and i didn't even get drunk can you believe that and i feel like you would have needed 54 beers or three margaritas to get drunk knowing you luke so that's it you know it's pretty pathetic these days that's why i don't drink any drink anymore dude at 44 drinking sucks yeah it's not fun anymore dude it's not fun at all they don't tell you i'm trying to like not jinx myself i drank out of a double ipa keg last night which is usually courting disaster and i drink more than i normally do and i'm operating heavy machinery right now and doing just fine so don't tell my, Luke, I think I pulled the fast one out of it. Yeah, all right, yeah.

All right, I'm glad to see it. With that in mind, let's get this party started if we can. Topic number one, you guys know where we're going to head with this one. We're going to start, of course, as we customarily do, with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Wait, Luke, there's probably a partner we should talk about before them, before partnering with you. Oh, yes, you're right.

There probably is. Why don't you do that? Why don't you get that started while i pull up my notes here that i forgot i'd like to tell you about our next partner because i'm not only the athletic greens hair club president i'm also a client i use it every day it's my daily foundational nutrition supplement that supports my whole body health and lord knows i could use that help luke thomas and i didn't do it today because i'm a little bit obviously you know on the party bus but normally what i like to do bc and this is quite true i actually like to have it in the morning before i get my lift in dude powers me the entire way gains the loyalist gains the absolute loyalist gains ag ag1 right

uh by the way all great athletes which b BC and I are not, but all great athletes have one thing in common. They take care of their bodies. You know that to be true. And a huge part of that starts with optimizing what they call BC whole body health. Yeah. Look, a lot of them also drink AG1 and that's why I'm a huge fan. So with every daily serving, I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm setting myself up for success. And you can too. Why? How about 75 high quality ingredients that give me, you, whoever uses this, the daily

nutrients and support, energy, focus, strength, clarity, all that stuff we need that is lacking. It's just in that green bag, Luke. Okay. You've been chasing them green bags your whole life coming up empty. Just grab the green bag. You know what I mean? That's right. It's a micro habit that delivers macro benefits and helps just about everybody take great care of their health every single day. We like simple. AG1 is simple in the best way possible. The best way. If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine then try ag1 and get for free a one-year supply of vitamin d and the five free travel packs that

i use all the damn time with your first purchase do it luke tell them where to do it tell them where go to drink ag1.com slash morning combat that That's drinkag1.com slash morning combat. You can see it on the screen if you're watching on YouTube. drinkag1.com slash morning combat to get all the things you need to take care of your health. There you have it. All right. Oh, I guess we're going to do a quick recap on OK Bet Picks.

Let's see if we have a graphic for that. I think I did poorly. I think you did better than me. Here's mine. got the max holloway win congratulations aaron blanchfield edged it out the parker porter bet absolutely just moronic yeah that was you putting your hand in a bear trap look what do you mean that was that was robert whittaker john jones level just stupidity uh smithspan not going the distance i felt like it should have not gone the distance but it did and the other fight the kazami armfield fight it did end uh prematurely or i should say before the bell uh the final the 15 minutes there was a tko win i believe or a ko win

so it didn't get the sub uh i'm coming here go. Three and two I was on Saturday. You were two and three, so I gained another game in the standings. As you see, Usyk and Chikadze did their thing. I got burnt on Tyler Santos, although she fought very well, especially in round one. We'll get to that in about seconds from now. And you see the rest of them right there, Luke. I'm about three, I believe, correct picks away right now? Three?

Three or two. You know what? I have very much slept on you as a worthy adversary, but I think I might need to start changing that a little bit. Also, I will say, I will say, you trying to follow my lead and game the system by picking the women's fight to go the distance and then that one not going the distance,

I have to say I enjoyed that. Did you hear that guttural scream from JJ Aldrich when she delivered that stoppage win? It was almost aimed at me, Luke i felt it in my in my feel hole it was a little a little bit awkward to be fair uh all right well with that it might mean the graphic i mean my hand was right here at the edge of the graphic mikey just you know you gotta mikey put the graphic up one more time i just want to i just want to you know be awful by May. He's like, oh, there we go. Here we go. Do it, BC. Do the other side of it.

Do the other side of it. Oh, Mikey's so bitter at us right now. Sorry, Mikey. We had to, bro. We had to. We had to. All right. With that in mind, now we are ready for topic number one, if I may. All right.

Let's start with the main event from ufc singapore max holloway stops the korean zombie in the third round so there's a lot of different pieces of this conversation we want to get to bc first let's actually talk about uh zombie what can we say about his career now that it has basically come to a close? Well, we can say a lot of great things, I think, about this ending. We can say this is one of the best. I mean, for a guy that got absolutely splattered, maybe Ioana Young-Jacek getting the same against Zhang Weili in the rematch

is the only rightful comparison here, where she walked away on her own terms right after the fight. And even though this fight had more a difference because he kind of announced it ahead of time, there was like some real like royalty and regalness to a man walking in there in round three with his hands down and bringing the ride or die brawl upon himself. And even though he got absolutely splattered

in just violent, spectacular fashion, how good was this exit? I mean, it's not quite Robbie Lawler and Amanda Nunes going out with a win, family all around them having their big moments there, but live by the sword, die by the sword. That's what TKZ has always been about. Never got over that hill, right? A two-time title challenger, but never accomplishes true goal. But even with a long, I believe it was a three-year break in between for military service, this guy consistently has just been such a crowd pleaser, such a great, I'd say, ambassador for Southeast Asian MMA, Luke, in particular, because I've interviewed him a bunch of times, and it's

always, for a guy that's blood and guts and basically almost a villainous movie character, it was always about honor to him. It was always about giving the fans what he believes they deserve and expect. And it was always about representing his country, the creed, the Bushido, all of that. And he did that here. I mean, the zombie entrance with the old Cranberry song, both before and after, it brought a tear to your eye. It moved you. It was incredible.

And the crowd in there inapore completely bought in on this but luke it's it's maybe really comparable to joanna in that sense where it's the worst disastrous ending you could have yet chef's kiss perfection because that's what that dude is was and will always be all about i think that's right you know if you if you wanted to script like a more perfect ending, obviously he wouldn't have been fighting Max Holloway, to be quite honest with you. He would have been fighting someone a lot less difficult to compete against, although if he still wanted to be in a title conversation,

which I thought was kind of strange he was saying he was still pursuing that. I mean, I get that every or most fighters still want to be that, but I haven't thought he's been close for a while. I mean, especially since he got just wrecked by Volkanovski, but okay. Putting that aside. I mean, I think this is what really stands out to me about the Korean zombie, very rare athletic courage, right? A guy who went out there and fought usually the very toughest of his generation, the very best that he could, taking risk in unusual ways, which is how he got the nickname. But it wasn't just from taking risk. It wasn't just from biting down on the mouthpiece.

Lots of guys do that. It was also the natural flair for the dramatic that he had and his willingness to try crazy things beyond just being willing to take a shot. I mean, the fact that he is, for example, the first UFC fighter to successfully pull off a twister in MMA, a rare submission, the wherewithal that he had to even go for that in the fight that he had, I think it was the rematch with Garcia. I mean, this is the sort of thing that it tells you about, right? This is a guy who just had not only a willingness to fight in the most difficult of ways but a certain kind of offensive

creativity and offensive willingness that paired with it that absolutely earned the adoration and love of fan bases all over the world and this is to me really part of the interesting story BC they had this fight in Singapore again if you were a boxer for example and wanted to have kind of a retirement fight maybe he would have fought Holloway. Maybe he wouldn't have, you know, that's too hard to say, but it probably would have been in South Korea, right? It probably would have been in Seoul or some other place where he could have had the vast majority of the hometown adoration. But here's what's so funny about Korean zombie, even though he was in Singapore, which is not like, I mean, it's not close, but it's not like on the other side of the world, let's say. The point about Korean Zombie is his fans not only travel, but his fans don't have to travel.

He has a worldwide, at least in the MMA space, he has a worldwide fan base. And dude, when they sang Zombie as he walked out of the cage, as they replayed the music, the Cranberries music, and all the fans in attendance there were singing for him it sort of tells you what he meant to the fan base it tells you how far his reach had gone and for a guy who you know the jose aldo fight was weird because it was injuries but he was never close in that volkanovski fight for a guy who never won a ufc title it 100 maybe not to him, but to the fans, never mattered. It never mattered what kind of fan you were, a fan from North America, a guy from North America, a woman from Singapore,

a dude from this part of the world, whoever. Any piece of part of the world, the things that he did right in the cage and the flair for the dramatic that he brought, it was a universal language of fight fans and you saw that on Saturday when he made his last exit from the cage that to me is what stands out to me about his career yeah yeah totally I mean look that's what fans want the most at the end of the day not just a willingness to take risks and and walk through punishment which he's all about but you know start to finish like I mentioned through punishment, which he's all about. But, you know, start to finish, like I mentioned, his attitude,

the way he represented the sport, he just kind of had it all where he did kind of become an Arturo Gatti of MMA. I mean, you remember that stretch right before his military exit in particular. I mean, he was becoming a headliner and a guarantee of that, yet still walks away from the sport for a long time and actually came back better than ever. Came back more calculated, more mature. And Luke, even though the second title shot he had against Volkanovski was largely ceremonial due to its last minute nature.

If he would have beaten Yair Rodriguez in 2018 in one of the craziest fights ever, final second reverse elbow from from yair on the 25th anniversary night in denver he probably would have fought max next for a title at that point anyway so to to be all of those things at once to be the crowd favorite to be the mythical figure to be the ambassador of the sport and be absolutely legit that two separate runs before and after an extremely long break from this sport, he was able to get to the title level. It's pretty damn impressive across the board to carry, you know, sort of multiple identities like that and at the same time be this attraction. I don't know how it could have gone better.

I mean, look, he wanted that finish, meaning either he was going to KO Holloway or Holloway was going to get him, but he didn't make it easy for Holloway to splatter him. He did. I mean, he was putting the chin out there, and he was like, let's bang. You know, I'll play the role of Lamas if you want, Holloway. Let's do it. Man, that was reckless, and you kind of knew that moment was coming, Luke. You could feel it.

Even though it's perfect, even though that's him, dude, he got splattered, and that was a little rough to see on the slow-mo. So this is something we all talked about before the last show that we did, maybe the use of more polls. Mikey, if you can, if you can, maybe put up a poll, because here's a question I'm going to ask BC. I wonder what the fans might say. BC, here's my question to you, and I like to ask the fans the same one.

If we get some good results, we'll see what happens. But BC, does Korean Zombie, and I'm not talking about for a individual fight, I'm talking about just him, does he deserve to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame? Well, any question about the UFC Hall of Fame is going to need me to add the asterisk of are we comparing to their standards, which are very low, or if we would be comparing it to more competitive standards

like the Pro football or baseball hall of fame um even in both luke i i could almost see him being rightfully so as a hall of famer so never won the title but that level of being a extreme fan favorite draw like arturo gatti was who was also in the boxing hall of fame in a somewhat disputed manner, although he was a former title holder in multiple divisions. But he did represent an area of the world where UFC has always wanted expansion, and he represented it well, and he was a character. He was all these things. Yeah, Luke, he might be. I mean, I do believe there's a home in Hall of Fames, not just for champions, right? Like a Dustin Poirier's resume is just ridiculous, even though he's only been an

interim title holder. I think Cowboy Cerrone would have and should have gotten in under any classification because he's one of those rare guys TKZ is more like Cowboy than than he is uh you know other people in that comparison so yeah I I think it would be I'd be more than happy with it Luke if that was the way it went down I've and under any kind of criteria I have to say I his case to me is a little bit more complicated because, again, you could put him in for one or two fights, whatever your favorite might be. But a guy who never won a title, who was this offensively potent,

like, for example, hitting the first twister in UFC history, then he followed that up with the seven second, which at the time was the fastest KO, if not in MMA historyister in UFC history. Then he followed that up with the seven second, which at the time was the fastest KO, if not in MMA history, certainly UFC history. I think that has either been tied or amended or whatever. But at that time, a record-breaking performance in back-to-back fights. And then the fight after that was actually

in Fairfax, Virginia against Dustin Poirier, where it was a fight of the year contender, and he finished him off as well you know you don't get guys who are that good who can do those kinds of like break the barriers of what is possible essentially or what we think is possible anyway in MMA to do it consistently and then never reach that title but we should also sort of add another component here he had several years of his prime taken from him due to mandatory korean military service um you know he was that he was able to come back and do really well is testament to how good he was but the problem to punch that's three

and a half years three and a half years he took off i mean and then right smack in the middle of what would have been his prime in all likelihood. So not only did he never get to be as good as he could have been, everything got delayed and pushed back. And we know this, dude, three and a half years in MMA is an eternity. I mean, the world turns so fast in just a year. Forget three and a half times that amount. So he really had some of that tinkering from him. Now, we have a poll.

Mikey says that the fans have voted. I'm sure this might change a little times that amount. So he really had some of that tinkering from him. Now we have a poll that Mikey says that the fans have voted. I'm sure this might change a little bit over time, but right now 68, 68% say he should go in. I do think his case is a bit of a bubble case because he didn't have a belt, but of all the guys who didn't get a belt, Korean zombie is either going to be at or top of the list when you say who didn't get a belt korean zombie is either going to be at or top of the list when you say who didn't get a belt but maybe still deserves a place by themselves inside the ufc hall of fame it's got to be him

yeah i mean his case is unique you wouldn't be out of bounds if you argued against it but he does have a few wins we need to remember and circle on and most of his big wins were by stoppage though his last one of course was a decision win over Dan Ige in 2021. But here's who he's finished in his MMA career. Frankie Edgar, Hainato Moikano, Dennis Bermudez, Dustin Poirier, Mark Hominick, and also subbed Leonard Garcia after losing their first fight in the WEC by split decision. So it's not a typical lot of the amount of wins that would, that would make somebody a slam dunk. But when you have finished any version of Frankie Edgar, Dustin Pory, I mean, this is, you know, this is pretty damn good. Look pretty damn good. Along with being, you know, such a, such a prominent

figure and character in a lot of ways, uh, you know, positive character in this sport. I never would have expected that exit to feel that good, Luke. I mean, it took the zombie song. It took the crowd buying in on that level. But that moment, they put him over as a hero. I mean, it was pretty impressive to see that moment on Saturday. Well, I'm glad you brought that up because we should talk about how the UFC handled his retirement. I got to say, dude, I thought they handled it well. I really did.

Now, in the case of Robbie Lawler and in this particular case of Chan Sung Jung, they had some indication that it could be coming. Robbie Lawler had basically declared it was going to be his last one, and Chan Sung Jung had kind of hinged it on the result, so he didn't necessarily say it was going to be a guarantee, but in the end, it ended up happening that way. So, you know, the UFC had a bit of a heads up that this could be coming, but nevertheless, nevertheless, they did it right. Robbie Lawler was a weight class champion, one of the most special fighters at MMA and UFC history. So they had a big presentation ready for him. But I thought the way they handled this one, BC was great for two reasons. One, I thought

playing his music again, because his walkouts are so tied to one particular song around this zombie identity. It's a really special union that he has. But more to that point, the broadcast didn't say a word. They just let it all play out. They let the fans do the carrying of him, so to speak. And for my money, I thought it was a home run. The UFC has gotten much better about this. I think you would agree, yes?

Oh, 100%. This has been one of the brighter spots of this calendar year for the UFC, their handling of exits, including Amanda and the family just throwing down cold ones, Luke, in the middle of that cage having a dance party. That doesn't normally happen in the past in the UFC, so to see them embrace that human side, which I think a lot of times we ask more of them that they don't

do. Tell the stories better, present that. They presented the human side in all of these three recent retirements in a very nice way. All right. Now, with that in mind, BC, let's talk a little bit about Max Holloway. Before I ask what's next, because that's obviously going to be a part of the conversation, let's just take a step back here and ask first, how did he look to you? Not as good as the Arnold Allen fight, but still very good. The key question, and you and I sort of teased it ahead of time, of will Korean Zombie have a moment? Will he be able to land single, huge strikes that can shake Max a little bit?

We ended up seeing that. And Luke, I think it comes down to this. Max is still great. I mean, you know, you take out the third Volkanovski fight, which really showcased how much better Volkanovski is than pretty much everybody in the world, not named Mahachev. But then you look at the fights around that, the Cater fight, the Arnold Allen performance.

It's still there for Max when he needs it. My fear, though, Luke, is the overall resistance. We can talk. We talk ad nauseum about the wars he's been in, yet he's still able to kind of reinvent himself constantly. And that's what great fighters do. But the time is ticking on the amount of clean shots you can take. And a couple that he took here, granted against a big puncher, which is TKZ's calling card, I get a little nervous.

I'm getting a little nervous that the expiration on the chin will happen sooner for Max than his actual degrading of his ability. His ability to me, especially offensively, especially the way he game plans and adjusts, is still super elite, Luke. But sometimes the chin betrays you before the skills do and we're not there yet i'm a little nervous look a little nervous about it a little nervous about moving forward i didn't have any of these reservations i'm a little surprised i mean it's not that i think it's crazy or anything like that but i mean he's 31 years of

age which is not the fair indication of how many miles that he has in his career. But he's never been dropped. He got hit with some hard shots, and they didn't even slow him down. I mean, we're talking about one of the all-time greats in a couple of different ways in this particular context in terms of durability. The durability of Max is legendary. It's insane. in terms of durability the durability of max is is legendary he dude he has over 3 000 i think minutes no sorry 3 000 significant strikes that he's landed more than that in his career like

number two is short by like 1500 right i mean they're not even close to this guy in terms of the amount of times he's just been trading with guys and obviously doing much more dealing than taking. But nevertheless, he's been in some knockdown drag outs, never been dropped. He got hit with the Korean zombie. Yes, did he look better in the Arnold Allen fight? Okay, I agree with that. But I also think that's partly due to the matchup because that was Arnold is much more careful, much more cerebral.

Korean zombie was literally just walking in trying to get a dogfight going. And so he is going to land some big punches that way. But I didn't think he looked worse meaningfully. I mean, again, I agree that the Arnold performance was better, but only because of the way in which the two guys fought him differently. You know, part of my take is rooted in the respect and love I have for Max in that, you know, he is still so young, despite the odometer being so high. And I still think he's, you know, title ready right now.

You know, it's going to be tough moving forward again with the whole Volkanovski situation. But he didn't dissuade me in that regard. I'm just saying, Luke, when it goes, it's going to probably go in a spectacular way. And although that's this guy's calling card, and although TKZ was never able to really capitalize on landing one big shot here or there, it didn't move Max a couple of times. It rocked him. In fact, even what made maybe the knockout so clean is before that, he kind of got whacked a little bit, but Max hung in there, stepped in and delivered the big blow. But I think there is something to that, even if I'm ahead of it, even if I'm a little more nervous than I should be.

I think he's one of those guys, Luke, where the chin's going to go before the elite ability does. I just don't want to see that happen is really what I'm trying to say here. Okay? But, you know, should he be in a big fight next? Is he still a legit title contender for this division? Absolutely. And he didn't do anything to sway that.

But you only get so many though luke you only get so much you only get so many but still i would put him on par i mean i don't know what the right boxing comparison is and i don't know if our audience will understand but it feels a little this is not quite right what's the closest comparison triple g in what sense to be, to have faced. So triple G I think is even sturdier, but I get, although he got banged up in a couple of those fights,

I guess the point I want to make is, Oh, in terms of that many dynamic punchers and never go down. Absolutely. To triple G never down as a pro, never down in 350 amateur fights either. And has gotten, I mean,

they've slow mode some of the shots in triple G's biggest fights, whether it be against Canelo or Danny Jacobs, you know, the, the combinations or the clean home run left hooks that he's taken and his chin and entire, you know, went that way and he just turned back and shook it off. Yeah. Max has a legendary chin on a triple G level. There's no question, but Max does show a little bit more vulnerability in terms of wearing some of that damage than triple g does different sport different circumstances that it has led me to that bit of worry but luke offensively carrying it out he did what he had to do in this fight he

did it efficiently for the most part it was just when he got rocked a couple times i was i was uh i was hoping we're all good here and we were in the end yeah in the end we were okay so it leads to the question of and by the way here's the problem like the end yeah in the end we were okay so it leads to the question of and by the way here's the problem like before i even answer the question it doesn't really matter who he fights next whether it's whether it's volkanovski a fourth time whether it's to poria which i'm going to ask about in a second it's not like this fight told you how either of those are going to go because neither of those guys are going to fight max very much the way in which Korean Zombie did. But let me ask the question just the same to you, BC.

What the hell does the UFC do with this guy? Max Holloway was at the post-fight press conference saying, I'm going to stay here and keep digging until I get a title fight. I want to have a title. I want to defend a few more times. What the hell do they do? I think he may have to do what he did right here again. Stay busy and a fight against the name.

Now, this one had special circumstances because of the romanticism of these two legends having never fought each other. And we're doing it in Singapore. And it turned out to be zombies last fight. And he announced that ahead of time. So it's sort of like this Mulligan. Stay busy. Show us something. Get it done.

Move forward. The thing is, he may need to do that again luke and it is dependent obviously upon volkanovski and whether we are going in the direction of a mahachev rematch in an eventual move up to 155 or if he's going to stay the course which it sounds the more i listen to volkanovski like he's not against that and pick apart to aporia pick apart who's next in climbing if we are in a season of of uncertainty that is not leading directly to Volkanovski giving up the title, then look, it may have to be another big name rematch. And I'm talking about Brian Ortega and Yair Rodriguez, who are ranked two and three at the moment. There's not a lot for Max to gain unless he just wants to stay busy, put on another big performance, remind everybody why he, he inevitably deserves another, you know, a fourth shot at Volkanovski. If that's the case,

those would be big fights. You could feature them prominently. Luke, would you advise him to tell me to shut the hell up and sit, sit there until the title's available? I mean, what do you do? You may have to get creative and look into another division or go BMF, but it seems like Max's biggest goal. And the reason why he's why he wants to keep going is not for the money or any of that, Luke. It is to win back this title.

He's the ultimate competitor. It's ultimately, at the end of the day, fueling his backbone, fueling his ability to walk through anything. This guy's never going to stop believing in himself, never going to stop reinventing himself and making a run at being the best he can be. He's still really damn good. I mean, look, what if I told you without knowing that Max is still the second best featherweight in the world?

So he knows if Volkanovski decides to get off the pot, that Max can put the shit crown back on and be the king again, Luke. Okay? He knows that. And I don't think he's done anything in the Allen or Cater fights to dissuade that from being true. If Volk had beaten Makachev, would we be having this conversation? No, because I think he'd be full-time at 55 if he did.

Yeah, I agree with that. I still think he should. Look, what is Volk going to gain from Topuria? I don't understand this. If I'm Volk, I'm looking at my age, I'm looking at the situation. I know there's big money against Makacheat, or some level of big money, and a big opportunity for sure to redeem himself and announce

himself in a new weight class again, but this is part of me, the Max fan in me, saying like, Volk, go so we can make new matchups and we can see if Max can, against this new general. I mean, Max against Toporia for the belt, Luke, you'd be fired up for that, wouldn't you? You'd love that.

Super fired up. Wait, Max at 155? No, Max at 45 against Teporia. Oh, against Teporia. Sorry, I misheard you. Yes, dude, that would be great. Dude, Max versus Ilya Teporia is one of the best fights you could make at featherweight.

I'm not saying it's the best, but it's right up there. As a city kickboxing superfan, are you ready to join meweight i'm not saying it's so are you ready as a as a city kickboxing super fan are you ready to join me in the chorus of saying volk we love you so much man but you're the rest of your history the history that you're making for your legacy is at 55 and you know this man so why don't you move now so we can do max versus seporia and we got a whole new set of fresh matchups or big money rematches after that. Imagine if Max wins back the belt. Then suddenly Yair and Ortega are huge rematches again.

So I'm saying there's business to be done. Arnold Allen would be another huge rematch. There's business to be done. Are you willing to sit in front of this mic and tell Volk it's time to go to 55? Stop dancing. I will in just one second. So I'll say this. We've got UFC 294, which would be Makachev, Oliveira too. I think that, I mean, it basically doesn't matter either way,

but I'll say this definitely. If Makachev wins, so he's got basically not quite back-to-back, but two quick wins, so to speak, over Oliveira, then I think you just have to do the rematch with Volk after that and just move him on up. Because to your point, if Max, we've seen him at 155. I just don't think he, he can win fights there, but I don't think he's best suited there.

Whereas I think Volkanovski with the time that he has remaining in his career could be well suited to go to 155 and get some wins and certainly another belt. Luke for whatever level of stardom that Volkanovski has not hit, in my opinion, moving up to lightweight and facing what's left of established names like Poirier, Gaethje, along with Chasing the Crown, would get him everything he needs or would want. Huge money, a chance at a second title,

and really big names that you haven't fought yet to completely solidify your journey, which is making a run at the upper room. Right now, Volkanovsky is making a run at trying to become one of the top five fighters of all time, Luke. I thought, and he's, he's got a chance here. So I need you to join me collectively in saying, Alexander, the great greatness is at 55.

Go there, please. Let's let this division. It's interesting the way you put it, because it's almost like Max is forcing him to go to 155, but not in the usual way where it's like, oh, well, here's another young, tough up and comer. It's not really worth it to him. Just go on up. In this particular case, it's a guy who there's really no public appetite for a fourth fight. There's like public appetite to see Max, I think, get his potential fully realized if such a thing can happen again. But what really is sort of motivating this is like they're at 145.

Yes, Volkanovski can say that I think is really your point. But all of the interesting fights that could be remaining plus what he wants to do in terms of his goals, if I understand you correctly, that's all at 155. Max can't really go to 155 so you could get a you could get a neat split in that way where the guy you're just too you're it's just he's too good for featherweight max is very good at featherweight but maybe not quite in that same dimension go to 155 and to your point get the big names there to only add to your big name i think it's i think you're right bc i think you're right well i just i i gotta ask like what does he gain by going and beating toporia i don't think he

gains anything it only you know what i mean like so chase chase where you can double down on your legacy and and that would open up a chance not to open the door for max but to open the door for two guys that are deserving right now max holloway and ilia toporia for the title so put them against each other for the vacant crown and let's find out who's next after that. Yeah, I'd love it. But that's the answer to the question from you of what does the UFC do with Max? Because if Volk is going to stay on the crown, which, by the way, is his right, then unless you don't like my ideas of rematching those two big names that are ranked at two and three, what else are you going to do, Luke?

What is it going to be? So Mikey's asking an interesting question, which is, what about doing with Volk what they did with Anderson Silva? So folks who may not understand this, when Anderson Silva fought Forrest Griffin, part of that was image rehabilitation. Like everyone knew he was really good. Everyone knew he was special.

But coming off of, I forget the exact timing of it, but after the Demi and Maya fight, his brand took a huge hit, a monster hit. And they thought, what are some interesting ways in which to rehabilitate this, given there weren't other interesting 185 contenders at the time. So they said, fuck it, let's just have him fight Forrest Griffin. Forrest Griffin was a big 205-er the whole nine yards.

And you guys all saw what happened. What about that, BC, where, oh, forget the Mokachev fight, forget the Oliveira fight, just have Volkanovski fight more like a to your point and you didn't exclude these names but like going right after the porries right after the gaechi's not worrying about the title just big name action fights where he can shine essentially no for volkanovski no that's a horrible idea i think mikey was presenting to you that they would do that with max by the way if you did with volkanovski all you're doing is keeping the belt hijacked at 45 if you're going to bring him up for one-offs.

He doesn't need image rehabilitation. Max could do big one. Max could go the BMF route. If Volk's going to stay put, that's probably the best chance to do big fights, but you've got to probably do it against lightweights that can still crack and be in fun, dangerous fights, but there is something there. The whole point is we all believe that you know max is good enough to be champion here so let's figure out bulk what you're doing um i don't know luke i i also i'm going to argue this i think that

toporia versus holloway is uh a better fight in the sense that it's more competitive. I think Volkanovski is a little bit too far ahead of Teporia right now. Obviously, Teporia is dangerous and rapidly improving, and he's a threat to anybody. But I think Max is going to be a little bit more willing to oblige him in dueling, whereas a guy like Volkanovski is not, and that would change the complexion of the bout. So you actually would get, I think, a little bit more of a blood and guts-ish affair with the Teporia Holloway contest, which for a title, if that ends up being what it is, BC,

kind of a nice way to do it. Plus new school, old school, that whole bit. Sure, sure. My question on the, or my reaction to the Anderson Silva thing is, you know, I don't think those, the division, you know, he was operating in a division that, that they needed him to do stuff like this. There wasn't a bunch of killers coming, you know, up in line until the Weidman Rockhold level group arrived and really established themselves. So it was more attraction building in that regard.

I don't think Volk will gain anything in there. I mean, it's time, it's time for a run at 55, but it's time for me to stop talking about this. What else? Yeah. By the way, the, I got some of the, I got some of the um the pr wrong here i did wrong myself in real time so the patrick cote fight happened which his knee blew out and it was weird and then the talus lighties fight happened which was not a disaster but it was boring it was not considered good it was considered to be just whatever and not fun and he was overmatched so. So then they gave him the Force Griffin fight after that. Actually, the Demian-Maya fight happened after the Griffin fight, and then you might be asking, well, what happened after Demian-Maya?

That's when Chael Sonnen swooped in and used all of the bad PR that was happening around him, which started, by the way, around the Light Tease fight that whole time. It was obviously a reprieve for Force Griffin. So it was not the Maya fight he was trying to fight off in terms of bad pr it was the lighties fight well the only reason i don't like mikey's idea of showcasing volk in that same way is if he's going to stay champion max tells nowhere to go yes i mean that's sort of the idea right because he he didn't give up his middleweight strap to do

that that would be the point yeah yeah yeah mikey that would be max's fault if he can't be vulcan is what it is you're right but uh i would like some some closure on this thank you i mikey's right in the sense that if max can't beat him whose fault is it it's it's his own and i i fully understand that but on some level it's like how do you manage a guy's career in the case of volkanovski, who is trying to pursue the highest level of excellence by keeping him in a division that he's already kind of conquered a few times over and beaten the very best guy in that division three times? You just kind of can't get there. Plus, Featherweight, I think, would not bloom,

but Featherweight might have a little bit more to offer in terms of give and take. He's such a powerful force that if he leaves the division, it opens up the parity a little bit. Anyway, an interesting set of circumstances, to be clear. All right, let's go to point number two, topic two. How about this one, BC? This was close.

This was real, real close. And I think it really comes down to a second round error. But Aaron Blanchfield, edges, and I do mean edges, Tyler Santos in a tough decision contest. Now, BC, what did the fight prove? Did it prove that Blanchfield was able to rise to the occasion with high pressure or that Santos was vastly underrated by a lot of folks including yours truly yeah I think it

proved both at the same time I think I got out of this everything I wanted in terms of the questions I asked uh did I think that Tyler was going to be a very tough striking out for for Blanchfield if she can tough stuff the takedowns, that's what happened in round one, and Tyler Santos, off of her own long layoff coming off of the title loss to Valentino, looked like a million bucks. Here's what I underestimated, though, about Erin Blanchfield, and I'm very happy to find this out. Not just the continued evolution of her cold-blooded toughness

because she took big shots, big counter shots from Tyler Santos that bloodied her nose in round one, and we had legit questions at the end of round one. But I underestimate a Blanchfield's gas tank. Luke, she is a force. So some of those breakthrough dominant wins, the Molly McCann fight, the Jessica Andrade fight, which I threw out there, hey, there's still possibility this is fool's gold.

These are one-sided performances, although she did get tagged a bit against Andrade, where she, you know, is in's gold. These are one-sided performances, although she got tagged a bit against Andrade, where she is in first gear. And what happens if it doesn't go her way? Round one did not go her way in a big way against Tyler Santos. And the way the moxie that Blanchfield showed to make adjustments and then gas Santos out, we got answers to all our questions. Tyler Santos is better than people give her credit for, but she did. Blanchfield did find her weakness in using round two to be just a scramble fest and constantly try to get her down in doing that. She succeeded in weaponizing her cardio, and I wasn't sure Blanchfield had that in her.

Luke Blanchfield's an absolute force, and I did see a little bit of a mix of people's responses in terms of issues. Did she prove to be against Santos as good as you thought she was coming in? And some people were disappointed because maybe they expected another piece of one-way traffic. I come out more on the Blanchfield train now after finally getting to see this level of high resistance and seeing the adjustments she made. Her striking's not perfect but she made really smart adjustments in the second and third round in order to you know stop the the trend that was happening around one which was her getting pieced up with hard shots the mixture the threat

of the wrestling there was a lot to really like about Blanchfield and I think she's only going to keep getting better at 24 this is a big win in my eyes for her Luke and I think she's only going to keep getting better at 24. This is a big win in my eyes for her Luke. And I, and I think she's, you know, I think she's ready. I think she's ready now. I mean, she's going to keep getting better. If she doesn't get the title shot next, there's still room to grow, but this is what I wanted to see. I wanted to see her get dirty and get in there and look at how she passed that test. Yeah. It was a close fight. Yeah. You can make a case for Santos, but because Blanchfield was, even though we're not scoring this from pride rules, because she had figured Santos out, made the adjustments and then was outlasting her and outworking her in the third round. I don't have to bring up that it was a close fight and you could have scored it the other way. I was fine with two to one Blanchfield. She completely turned

the tables on Santos, made that fight her own and had to go through some legit adversity to do so. Let me ask you a question then, because I have a slightly different view. I mean, I think I generally agree with the broad strokes, but not totally. Do you say broad strokes because they're women, Luke? No, certainly not. Okay.

The question is this for you. What would you consider to be a fair criticism of Erin Blanchfield's performance on Saturday? I believe her striking in general, from head movement defense to getting off her strikes, is still a big work in progress. I think she's finding out how to supplement it to be a threat. And she gave Tyler Santos a couple things to think about with some overhand rights. But it's not perfect.

I do believe it's going to get better. She's only 24, and she continues to climb the ladder at a high pace. So, Luke, that biggest weakness I'm talking about, actually, she used it as a strength, even though it's a little bit raw and limited. And so I don't know right now what the big weakness is. I'd like to see more head movement and defense, but she seems to have a huge chin on her. She definitely has the eye of the tiger. I mean, she is coming on to take over the world.

I mean, it's a, you know, we questioned after interviewing her because she was almost like nonchalant, almost naive about talking about, yeah, I'll go up there and fight Valentina. And now obviously Grasso's the champion. And we're like, man, maybe she doesn't realize it shouldn't be this easy. No, Luke, I'll go up there and fight Valentina. And now obviously Grasso's the champion. And we're like, man, maybe she doesn't realize it shouldn't be this easy. No, Luke, I was wrong. She's wired to be a champion.

So the only thing I could say is her striking, if you show me a picture of this fight and five fights from now, it's going to look completely different. She's going to get better very quick in that category. But I don't see many other glaring things jumping out. What about you? Yeah, I mean, I think, again, so I'll ask myself the same question better very quick in that category but um i don't see many other glaring things jumping out what about you yeah i mean i think again so let's tell them i'll ask the myself the same question i asked

you which was what is a fair a fair criticism of aaron blanchfield's performance i think one it showed that yes she went up against an opponent who was very tough it's not easy to take tyla santos down but i did think she was going to have more success than she did and there was a couple i mean she got close several times so I guess what I would say is understandable that taking down Santos was tough, but it also kind of shows there's a level of finishing refinement on some of these takedowns that can be achieved that needs to be. I think that's fair to say that's the first one, the one that was a little bit more concerning to me and when i re-watched the fight i didn't see it quite as badly the second time but still enough that i think it deserves

mention you see this a lot in mma and it drives me kind of nuts especially because in mma as opposed to boxing they stand a little bit further apart um and so you can do this a little bit more easily again relatively speaking this is a high level m MMA contest but faking and fainting before striking she did a little bit of that where like she would kind of fake low and then come over the top and some of that would land but then you had Santos counter striking the whole time and not just counter striking did you notice she was always finishing last and usually with a kick so she was always finishing last always going last always going last and all of it landed all the time but the point I wanted to make was she was doing what I like to call jousting,

sometimes, not every time. But she was doing it where you just kind of just go when the person moves into position or go when you feel the moment is right rather than getting them to more calculatedly transfer defense or bite on a particular look. For example, you think of the better strikers, some of them do a little bit of jousting, but in general, not.

Volkanovski does not do that. Izzy does not do that, right? These are guys that make you set up in a certain way and walk you into things when they can, or they just completely trick you the whole way. This was, to me, she's 24, and it's understandable that she fights this way, but to me, the criticism would be

she's so full of not just energy. She had great cardio, by the way. We should note that. That was on point. But she's got a real pressure-heavy style. 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. Not a thing wrong with it. But to beat the elite guys, you can see a pressure-heavy style without the requisite pre-strike or pre-engagement calculation. It only gets you so far. And this one, to me, came down to that second round when Santos went for that like lateral drop and then basically just pulled Blanchfield on top of her we should be honest BC if she doesn't do that yes I think if it had been a five round fight Blanchfield would have worn her down that that

to me I don't think is in dispute but it wasn't it was a three round contest and who's to say how the rest of the fight would have gone but I I mean, to be that razor thin between victory and defeat by the error of an opponent that you didn't force them to make, they made on their own, you know, some rethinking, I do believe needs to happen if you're in her corner, in her camp,

about getting some of that refinement over the hump. No doubt, no doubt. She's able, and this is exactly what she did in rounds two and three. She's able to lean on these, she did in rounds two and three she's able to lean on these what are seemingly large intangibles the weaponization of her cardio which i did not know she had i mean it absolutely absolutely wore down somebody who could have been the champion right looked like over five rounds she had done enough against valentina and after doing that

after getting pieced up so badly in round one, yet keeping the composure, she leaned on her composure, her toughness, her gas tank, all of that. And it kind of, in the end, made up for some of the mistakes. I agree you're right, which is here's what's interesting. I think it's this fight, which Blanchfield won, and the Rose versus Manon Farrow fight, which is going to be this coming Saturday, as sort of a final four. Like, who's coming out? Who's going to look the best to get that next title shot. Um, I almost don't want her to get it yet. If she gets to the title level, let's say Grasso defends it and beats Valentina on the rematch, which is the week after in September. Um, could she win before her game fully gets refined and rounded out could she become champion it's

possible she has the moxie like i said she have all the other things there but i i'd almost like to see her have to get one more because you know i did have questions luke based on the resume what were the fights that she dominated more about the opponent or more about you know her no she showed again she showed me against tyler santos that that she's got what she needs it's just not perfected yet so i i'd almost like you know uh her to take one more short of that but um what can you say negative about some of those you know foundational elements to her luke she should not she should not have what carpet she should not have weaponized cardio on that level.

But it might be enough to win a championship with that. It's that good comparatively in a great division, by the way, which is wild. So I got to shut up. Weaponized cardio is great. Listen, Cain Velasquez had great wrestling. Cain Velasquez actually had pretty decent striking. And Cain Velasquez is obviously a terrifying ground and pound. But the thing that brought it all to life was the dude was a heavyweight who couldn't,

you know, have cardio like a flyweight. I mean, you just did never seen anything like that. And we're not, we're not saying Blanchfield is, is on that level, but the point I agree with you,

like that, that cardio that she has, dude, that's going to be a force for any single person she goes up against, especially when she gets to main events, especially when these main events are obviously going to be a force for any single person she goes up against, especially when she gets to main events, especially when these main events are obviously going to be title fights. Like it's just going to be a serious problem for everybody else. And I also want to say something too.

You may have noticed this. The commentary team didn't pick up on it, at least not in real time. I don't know what angle they were looking at. Do you remember the pass that she got, I think in the second round that she got it? It was actually off of that. Maybe it was off the field takedown, but whatever it was, and she moved all the way out and you, Michael Bisping was like, Oh, she's looking for an armbar. It kind of looked that way. It wasn't, it's actually called a Sal Palo pass or a Tozi pass. It's the same one that

Drickus hit on Robert Whitaker. You know, that's a very hard pass to get. And not just that it's the kind, it's a smash pass, right? So it's the kind of pass that you get from literally forcing your opponent into such a contortion that they have to open their guard and let you pass in order to relieve the pressure. That's actually how it works. Dude, like she's out there roughhousing these people, you know? So this is what I mean. A little bit more refinement in some of the finishing details. She's already got the physical presence. She's already got the physical presence.

She's already got the cardio. She's already got a lot of other things. She's a killer. But I agree with you. I don't want a title fight to be next because the foundation, the cement on the foundation hasn't quite dried yet. It's almost there, but not enough for me to be like confidently saying, oh, she can beat anyone in this division on any night.

I'm not so sure that's true right at this second that was interesting that you use the term smash pass not only have i never heard that before but i thought it was some type of skit and bit leading to talk about o'malley's marriage but that was well done by you luke let me just tell you man let me just tell you i mean you know no one no one cares what the fuck i think but open relationships open relationships dude yeah i mean unless you're unless you're in a cult or you're like you know i don't know i don't know who has i don't know who makes polygamy a big a big deal these days

but in general uh it won't it won't work out well for you especially with the divorce lawyers okay um anything we want to say about tyla santos and where she goes from here still a viable it won't work out well for you, especially with the divorce lawyers. Okay. Anything you want to say about Tyler Santos and where she goes from here? Still a viable candidate, by the way. Yeah, I don't think it's over her. Her stock kind of went up a little bit, right? I agree. Even though she lost the fight

and would only have herself to blame for faltering, and as you said, potentially that mistake on the ground. But look, would you agree with me that after round one, it looked like she might be the next champion? Like she was big, counter-punching, stiff shots. Strong too, strong. Controlled distance very well. Did we find out though in this fight

that she still got some deficiencies? Yeah, Luke, she gassed out. That's why she lost the fight. We can say it's close, but she lost this fight because she gassed out on the ground. That's a true fact, Luke. And that's tough to swallow, but I think it can be, you can but I think you can fix that. I think you can still fix it at this point. Yes, I do believe that as well. So she definitely outperformed what I thought was

possible. But that second round lateral drop where you just throw someone on top of you, that was costly, to put it mild. Okay, BC, with that in mind, let's talk about another fight on this. Two more fights on this card I really want to get to one how about this one topic number three anthony smith he did get it done against ryan span but barely so it leads me to a point here where like i thought what was interesting for anthony smith was he got hit with that left hand that that really blew up his left eye and i thought the fight might have been there, but he hung on and he got it done. So showed incredible toughness. Then he was interviewed by a podcast co-host, Michael Bisping. And he was like, you know, for 35, this was pretty good, which I agree with. However, at 35, it's not really clear exactly what the next step would be.

And frankly, for Ryan Spann, I guess, you know, continuing to hang around and take more interesting fights is a thing. But I don't know, like all these 205 fights happen, and I never feel like it gives us a lot of clarity about 205. What did you learn from this contest? No, I think that's a great way to say it. I learned a lot because a lot ultimately went down in this weird rematch of a fight. So let's be honest about what the design was to see if Anthony Smith at his

age can still be a, you know, either a super elite gatekeeper or has one more run at the bell in him, which I'm sure is a big part of the motivation to get him back after big defeats like this. And in that regard, they gave him a guy. He had already finished, but a guy who, if Smith wasn't still that guy could have issues against overall smith showed me he still got it luke there was a rejuvenation especially early in this fight with the striking and the setups and the like you can see that he's not willing to go away quietly and i and i think

was able to resuscitate his name and hold serve which again was the the point of this the only issue i had luke is i don't think he won the fight i thought span won that two to one and i don't i don't think i i thought it was fairly clear by my eyes that span won at two to one and i was surprised to see that result at the end but it's one of those fights that whether he did win it or lose it i think he won the the narrative of what what we were trying to find out. At his age, not bad for his age, absolutely not bad because it's showing you, Luke, that he's still working at it, that he's still trying to find new ways to be better. And I think it would have been

different if he went out there and only took a ton of punishment. It's not like he didn't take punishment. I mean, his eye was gnarly and I was worried it would ultimately cost him the fight and a stoppage loss. Short of that, did he take big shots? Yeah, well, Anthony Smith does. He gets in there and fights. But for what he's trying to prove and show, I think he proved it, Luke. I think he did.

I'm okay. I'm okay with him moving forward. I thought this was a nice little comeback. But I know I'm giving mixed messages and telling you I didn't think he won. I didn't think he won, Luke. But I like the performance. Okay. So, all right.

So we agree. Smith won the first round and we definitely agree. Span won the second, very easy call. So it really just comes down to the third round in real time. I will tell you how I felt about it. I watched and I go, okay, definitely could go either way. You know, you just know like, that's just what it could be. But I thought that Smith had edged it for sure personally now that was personally speaking let me give you the fight metric odds

here if I may because I didn't know this until just now I was like what's the odd what did the number say dude the biggest striking differential and again these are quantitative totals how how much they differ qualitatively is a different consideration but quantitatively the biggest difference in numerically in terms of what Smith landed over span happened in round three rounds one Smith to span 24 to 10 that makes sense round two it were both 22 but again the qualitative difference there would clearly go in favor of Ryan span in round three, Smith 45 span 27. I mean, that's,

you know, I, I, I kind of felt like he did. He was a little bit busier and he landed a little bit better, but you know, you never know what the judge is. It could go either way in that sense.

I'm surprised you thought it was a clean round or clean ish round for span. Why was it a clean round? Yeah. I'd have to rewatch. Now, Luke, you're, you're forcing me to reawaken to that.

In the moment, I felt like it was two to one span, but I get what you're saying on that. And I'd actually like to rewatch that today, Luke, to figure that out. Then if we cancel that side of it and my concerns there, do you echo what I'm saying, that what Anthony Smith was trying to accomplish of this fight, did he expect to get his eye mangled in a near you know serious way no

but good lord the moxie the toughness the the rebound ability that he showed and the evolution of his game altogether would you echo what i'm saying like anthony smith showed us he's still there he's still here man i think he i i i you know i have great respect for anthony as a talent and as a tough guy he has you know more than earned my respect on both of those accounts. And I do agree. I do agree. You get a hard-earned win like this one, especially after getting your whole eye just mangled in the second

and coming out in the third, even if you thought span win, just to force Smith to kind of collect himself and go back out there and fight, I thought was very, very impressive. The only thing that I would say is, and I say this out of someone with great admiration for him, at 35, dude, he's getting hurt every time he's going in there, win or lose. That's the part to me that's a bit of a problem. And some of these wins, you know, the injuries are, you know, are happening related to the fight event. And some are just, you know, a combination of age or the wrong step or whatever.

But I don't know, man, like at 35, he's just taking more damage than I, if I'm being honest, more damage than I am comfortable watching most of the time. So I would say that you're right. You get a win like this. You keep it moving. Let's see what's next. It's an interesting conversation about Ryan Spann

because, dude, this was his shot. This was a great opportunity to beat a guy with a name who the UFC has kind of positioned as a broadcaster at times, certainly an on-screen analyst who does analysis work and does a podcast with Michael Bisping and everything else in between. And he had this guy really, really, really hurt in the second. If you're Ryan span, there are some questions to be asked about. How did you let this guy off the fucking hook? What would you say? Yeah, I'm with you on that.

I mean, did you think that fight was going to get stopped around too? I thought it was. I did. I did. I thought, I thought, Oh, that looks real bad. He hit him with a flying knee right or knocked him down with one i forget the exact sequence he did get him with a flying knee but it was the punch that just blew up the eye because of the the the sharp angle

yes but i'm saying what knocked him off his feet whatever that was when he fell off of his feet i was like oh because ryan span's gonna just unload here and that's gonna be that and then it just didn't and I was like dude this this was his chance to turn the corner from being kind of like a guy who fights some of the more profiled names in the division to just kind of staying where he is which is not the end of the world but not it's not an elevation it's not an escalation this was a great chance for him it just It just didn't work. I agree. All right.

With that in mind, let's go to the last fight of note from this card, which, of course, was the return of Giga Chikadze. He gets a decision win in his return. It was a weird fight over Alex Caceres, but BC, question to you is as follows. He got the win. He looked, I thought thought for the most part,

fine, right? Had a, had a really gung ho post fight speech. Did he look to you like a real title threatening contender at one 45 for a lot of this fight? Yes. It would have been great catapulted and with the exclamation point of a finish without question, but we did have to put more respect on Bruce Leroy's name would come in with seven wins in eight fights. And, you know, he was able to wield some of that heavy power from Giga and then find moments of countering, too. But, yeah, Luke, this was a reinvention. There was a lot of time off. And you have to believe the one-sided nature of that humbling five-round loss to Cater really caused, really forced Giga to go back to

the drawing board and kind of figure things out what's missing what am I doing wrong in that regard with the time off and in a tough fight here over 15 minutes um I'm happy I'm happy moving forward here Luke he's back he's back in a big way the post-fight speech which we'll see and have you seen this shit was kind of quirky but also kind of like his way of showing us that that he's still a force I don't leave this fight questioning that Luke, uh, I did have questions with the performance against cater. This was the right rebound at the right time. I felt.

Okay. What, uh, what about it with this particular performance? What would you say was the best thing that Giga Chikadze showed you? The land, clean strikes, land, clean, hard, heavy strikes, put be an intimidator. I mean, there were moments I thought he had hurt because Sarah's hurt where he he could would have where he was closer to it to a stoppage than ultimately happened but um you sound like you've got you've got some ill repair you want to share here not exactly not exactly i think when you're off this long and the premium is going to be just get the w you know just get the w i think it's just unfair for a guy to be expected to go out there and just

razzle dazzle you you know so i don't want to be clear that's not what i'm doing here at all i thought he got a hard-earned win no doubt about it but the disparity in strikes between them now chikadze had the superior number in round one in round three but not in round two but listen to the disparity in total strikes landed 17 to 15 in favor of Giga, 23 to 24 in favor of Alex, and then 25 to 23 in favor of Giga. The one thing that I would say surprised me was not that it wasn't Giga's best performance ever or something like that. I fully expected him to be a little bit rusty when it all worked out. I just thought he could have done a little bit more work. I thought the work rate was surprisingly a

little bit low um you know i i think it might match some of his more average no actually strikes nine per minute is about a little higher than four so he didn't take as much damage but he didn't quite he didn't step on the gas pedal of this one a little more than i thought he could have not recklessly that's not what i'm saying that's not what I'm saying but the fact that every round was kind of numerically close that they basically were doing these not the same quality but the same level of more or less activity that surprised me a little bit am I okay I mean you gotta know I think some of that falls into what Alex Caceres was doing here having one seven of eight coming in and just not going away quietly. It seems like anytime Giga did land a big combination or a big shot, there was a counter.

There was sort of something to give Giga pause from maybe doing exactly what you wanted him to do. I give him the pass for not getting the finish considering the level of the opponent across from him and the time off. But I could see what you're saying I mean maybe it's the next fight that fully decides exactly where he's going I just think all things considered I saw the the mean streak back in him I saw a lot of what I need to see but it it's just a tough opponent I mean look I'm waiting for you to finally put some respect on Bruce Leroy's name and not necessarily for his critical standing but more the show him the respect enough to pronounce his last name the correct way. I asked four different native Spanish speakers yesterday

because I had a bunch over how to pronounce it. It's Caceres. So you can take that one to somebody else, sucker. Okay, well, Luke, hold on a second. It ain't going to work here. Do you admit that in the past you had the same one-sided feeling that you were right on Ronda's last name until we played you the video of Ronda? No, I wasn't nearly as confident.

I wasn't nearly as confident. I wasn't nearly as confident. But we had an argument about Bruce Leroy in the past in which I said, well, if Anik says it this way and you were like, I don't care what Anik says. I want to hear a native speaker. Would it change your opinion about what Bruce Leroy says? Mikey, hit it. Hey, my name is Alex Casares from the UFC. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa! Look at that, Luke!

I mean... Yes, that's what he tells English-speaking audiences. Let's see what he tells Spanish-speaking audiences. You can tell your four native speakers that you talk to, unless any of them are related to you, where to shove it, Luke. And if they're related to you, I apologize. Great. Find me someone who speaks Spanish who pronoun pronounces it caseras doesn't but luke doesn't exist the point is it's like does it look like it's marty from nebraska all over again

people who have names from different languages they will tell english-speaking audiences how to pronounce it a certain way so that the same thing is it it Adrian Yanez or is it Adrian Yanez? Which one is it? Because he tells everybody it's Yanez on purpose so he doesn't have to deal with people fucking up his last name. That's why. It's Marty from Nebraska all over again. I don't think so, Luke.

I don't think in this case. If he's saying it. I'm sure, like on that video, I'm sure he tells other people, like other Americans, yeah, it's Caceres. I have no doubt, no doubt. I'm just saying, doesn't it come down to the horse's mouth? Doesn't it come down to the fighter? If he says it's this, it's this.

I'll tell you what. If he tells anyone else who speaks Spanish it's Caceres, I will completely say, let's serve up crow. I will eat it. Deal? We'll pause this dead wrong for the future, okay? Deal? We'll pause it that's a deal it's funny that you got that ready though that's funny that's a good bit i see you

yeah i see you i forgot the guy's name that dm me that he's like please play this for luke tomorrow and i'm like yeah again telling english-speaking audiences how to pronounce it doesn't prove jack shit but okay well yeah but you're you're aggressively cocksure about this if you guys if you guys i mean i don't understand the confidence that y'all have to look at a name that is common in this part of the world and then to look at it and be like, oh, no, no, the gringo way of pronouncing it, that's the correct way. I don't understand that.

I don't get that. And, like, we have other examples of Latino guys automatically changing their names to American audiences. And it doesn't at least, at least give you a little bit of pause about how people navigate these worlds between two languages. I don't, I don't make judgments based on where people are from. I let them tell me how to say their name. Okay. That's, that's the difference between you and me. I mean, really that's it, right? Yeah. I pronounce words the best I can, according to the language that they're in. that's true yeah you put the language above the

person though no i do the uh no i don't i put the language in its proper position that's what i do there unless they're not bb i know this whole bit Like, Luke is an elitist asshole. He likes to do stuff like this. I mean, it's a fair bit. But when you actually know people in the world who have had to change the way they pronounce their name to just fit into other places, it gives you a little bit of pause about declaring what you see

when you see other people like that trying to navigate those spaces. It can't be easy for him. Maybe he's just comfortable doing that. That could be the case. But what I'm trying to tell you is it's not a name that only he and his family have. It's a vast name across a vast expanse of the world. And every time I find a native speaker to look at it, whether they're from Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, they all pronounce it Casades. All of them. All of them. So I'm just trying to explain something to you. He might be

navigating the world in the best way possible, or he can tell me it's pronounced that way i will eat shit for it i am but i'm a little bit skeptical that him talking to english-speaking audiences is the most accurate reflection of what his name is that's all okay luke all right i mean i mean that's fair that's a fair comeback but i have to say i have to say that's a good bit you pulled i ain't even mad at the bit. The bit is funny. The bit is funny. Any final thoughts on him, by the way?

His record, his record is weird, right? It is. Like, Wesley Roy's record is sitting in just this bizarre place. He wins a couple. He loses. He wins a couple. He's like 35 and, like, better than ever, kind of, sort of, right? Kind of, but this was the fight he needed to win

against a name who had questions coming off a loss in a long layoff and again i thought he fought well which is what i believe stopped giga from from putting on the kind of performance we all would have wanted to say oh he's back with a bang put him in a title shot or put him up against the number two or three guy um i'll give ruth leroy credit for that but look he also needed this win to get out of that grouping of sort of you know a guy that'll juggle a win or a loss here and there here and there seven of eight has been great but you need name value on there this was that chance and you know i don't know luke i don't know how he gets out of this and makes another run uh maybe

you got to double down and go right back in another tough matchup and try to try to score a big win here he's coming off two wins uh and obviously this one was a loss but i'm saying before that the julian arosa win and then the daniel pineda win like those were two good ass wins and it wasn't like he got beat up in this one exactly i don't think he fell that far i mean i know your point i agree with it there was a graduation opportunity here that kind of fell short of but nevertheless it didn't do major damage i'll put it that way it didn't do major damage to his standing he's still pretty pretty good pretty useful as a as a real quality test for opponents i think all right with that in mind bc let's go to the one kind of boxing note we had over the weekend

an interesting one a weird one right what would say? Something a little bit unusual. So here's what happens. Here's the overall result. Oleksandr Usyk stops Daniel Dubois in the ninth round, basically with a jab, which was kind of interesting. He scored two knockdowns in the fight. The second one was the one obviously that closed the show. He got counted out and then stood up after the count or right as the count was ending. That was it. So Usyk scores a ninth-round stoppage. But there was a fifth-round weird shot. Now, I believe we have a little bit of footage to go over here. Before I spin it back to you, BC, if we can,

I want to take a look at this, if at all possible. I don't know if Mikey can punch it up or not. Yeah, here we go. This is the shot right there. That's the shot in question that's the one everyone has talked about it's that shot that is technically below or at however you want to describe it the belt line now i've done a little bit of research on this i got some opinions but bc you're the boxing guy so you go first question number one was it a low blow my response

is almost a tale of two cities here because I did not watch this fight live, but was, but knew about the results because I was running an errand in between a long day watching fights and got a lot of DMS from fans with that video saying, Hey BC, is this, is this on the like legit? So, or is this on the up and up or not? So if you only saw that footage, we just showed you. It's a borderline shot. And I'm here to say that most referees or a lot of referees would have allowed that.

And that would have been a knockdown. In fact, people were even bringing up footage from earlier in Usyk's career. I forgot the opponent where the same thing happened. There was a borderline shot. He went down, thought he was going to get time, but the referee ruled it a knockdown. And Usyk popped right back up and dealt with it. If you're only looking at that footage, it looks okay. It does.

But there are two elements that trump that footage. One, the letter of the law, and two, the referee's discretion. So here's what I mean. The letter of the law and the rules of a low punch are that the navel, the belly button, is the line, and if a punch touches even in partial below the belly button, it's officially a low blow that punch right on that logo because Usyk after getting up did kind of pull his trunks up a little. So you could see where his navel was. It was right at the top of that belt line. So technically yes, officially, technically that's

a low blow, but even what trumps the letter of the law during a fight is referee's discretion. Unfortunately for this fight, we got Luis Pobon, who does not have a good reputation in boxing. Mostly for the Vladimir Klitschko championship fight against Alexander Povetkin in Moscow, in which Pobon allowed Klitschko to lean all over Povetkin and constantly follow him and just, you know, just clench him and elbow him and lean on him in ways that just didn't give Povetkin even a chance to compete in that fight. Pobon's been largely hit or miss since then, although he did the Usyk-AJ rematch without a major issue. When you see Luis Pobon out there, and in fact, you can search your favorite boxing writers on Twitter and search their history. People are usually saying bad things than good

things. Pabon in the, when the referee's instructions, when they were on camera in the ring, did not mention the belt line at all, which means he talked to them in the locker room beforehand, which is standard for everyone. So it actually comes down to wherever Luis Pabon in the locker room told them was a legal punch or not. Basically he's setting his own line that they have to deal with. It's like an umpire having his own strike zone, right? But in the third round, two rounds before the body shot knockdown, Usyk got hit in the exact same spot with the exact same type of punch by Dubois. And right away, Pabon said, nope, that's a low blow

and went and put in Dubois' face and warned him. So what I'm basically saying is with the combination of the locker room talk and that instruction in round three and the fact that Pabon in round five, when the punch happened, right away said, nope, it's a low blow. It's a low blow, guys. It's legally a low blow based on the rules

and Pabon's discretion trumps that. And it was a low blow. That doesn't mean there's no problems with what happened right and the biggest problem was Pabon giving Usyk the full five minutes forcing him to take the full five minutes and then afterwards when Usyk's like no I'm ready let's fight encouraging him to take even more time which made no sense and began to scream an idea of impropriety that the favored champion Usyk was getting special treatment I also think Usyk sold the punch too much I'm not going to say it didn't hurt because legal or not right on the beltline we've all been kicked above the crotch before right or had some type of mishap there you can

get the same feeling of getting hit in the crotch I have no question that that hurt and he was reacting to that but once he knew which was instantly that it was going to be ruled in a legal punch, I think Usyk milked it too long. And then when he was given that extra time, it made it look bad. Did it look bad? Yes. But based on everything I just said, should it have been a knockout win for Daniel Dubois? No, look, the answer is no. It actually played out the way legally and all things considered it was supposed to. Yeah, so that's a great answer. That's a great answer.

I'm really glad you clarified it that way. Are there other bouts that Luis Pabon has had a similar impact making questionable decisions in the middle of a fight? Yeah, I laid out for you the Povukhin versus Klitschko heavyweight title fight in Moscow in which he tarnished his reputation and then since then like I said you can search on Twitter he's he's hit or miss in the big moments sorry sorry okay fair enough so uh if you can show it Mikey if you don't have it it's okay but if you have the replay show it one more time one more time guys pay attention not the thumb just the knuckles right on Dubois just the knuckles there if you look at just the knuckles and not the

thumb it actually i mean you can look one more time just look at the knuckles right you see it's significantly lower and the trajectory of the punch bc as you can see it's coming up this way so folks are kind of getting it where the bark with at the end of the strike zone like where the catcher is then moving it to a little bit versus more where it's making initial contact. But if you look at just that, and then you look at the space, to your point, anything below the navel in Nevada is the rule. I looked up the rule in California. It's anything below the hip line, although the rules themselves don't specify the hip line. And I've seen it measured different ways. But in this particular case, however, the rules were whatever

rule set was governing them you're right it is technically a low bow here's where my question comes into play it's not so much about the pabon side one i'm surprised that about that's airing on espn i granted it was in poland and everything else i understand but bouts of significance why isn't there more instant replay is one thing i would say yeah the crowd the crowd oh sorry the british commentary was talking about var i'm not i'm not still talking about var is the thing from soccer if you don't know bc we don't need that but there is a question of instant replay and sort of here's the other part to me that i well actually you know what answer that one first why why isn't there more instant replay for main events in boxing

it's based on the state and the commission and the ruling there. And it's usually a messy thing on top of that in terms of the execution of it for the most part. But in this case, it wasn't there. I mean, look like, whether it's, you just mentioned, you just illustrated how state by state the rules can be different. It can be the Naval or in California says it's the hip line or whatever. It comes down to what the referee says, not just in the locker locker room beforehand but most importantly in the moment and in the moment Pabon called it a low blow so it's a low blow no matter what I get what you're saying could we uh should we have had a replay

that could have changed this my only issue is that is it would have stopped the fight probably for even longer than the time Pabon gave Usyk and I think it would have been inconsequential in the end because it's close it's borderline technically legally it did stray below and if it strays and even touches below that's where it is if this was ruled a knockdown in the moment we would have to go with that Usyk would have had to suck it up hurt and get up and try to get there it really comes down to the referee but man okay so let me ask on this level then. And I also want to add this, based on what you're saying about Poland not being maybe a key spot for a huge fight this big. It was raining out and they had nothing in terms of, they had a top to the ring, but it was ill-equipped for rain. The ring was wet and Usyk slipped at one point and nearly went down.

And then also Anthony Yigit on the undercard basically dealt with negligent medical attention on site after his loss to Baranchuk. And so all in all, this looked a little bit like a clown show, Luke, in terms of the commission and organization of it. But again, on that decision, referees call. That's what Pabon did. That's it. That's that's also I don't know if you saw this. I didn't say anything on Friday's show, but like graphic they had for the weigh-in for this fight, it said the weight-in, not the weigh-in.

So it's like I wonder if there was a native speaker who was building all the stuff out, either here or there. Here's my question. How come I've seen certain referees not just allow it in real time, but even at the instructions when they're facing off, say certain shots on the belt line are okay why is there i maybe the answer is referee discretion but it seems like i can understand why certain fans are at a bare minimum confused they're like i see guys land this all the

time i think why is this one so different because what's said during the forced handshake in the referee's instructions in the ring is really just a summation of the 15 minute speech that the referee gives both fighters and their teams in the locker room beforehand about all the rules when they do it sometimes on tv just to reiterate it's more for our visual to see okay just because the trainers are standing right behind them as they close up and it's referees saying of a reminder this is the line it would have helped if we can go back and re-watch the tape and Pabon had done that he didn't he kind of pointed toward the waist but didn't really define it but he clearly does that locker room because it's part of the job you have to so the fighters knew and Luke you know and I bring up that third round shot

same exact shot Pabon instantly ruled it a a low blow It's referee's call on all this stuff. That's what it is. So, like, I don't know why people were, I don't know. Look, the question comes down to this. If Pabon had ruled it a legal shot in the moment, would Usyk have gotten up? That's the real question here that people have. But nobody knows the answer to that. It's impossible to know.

So what are we supposed to do here? It's Pabon's call and letter of the law it's true it was a low blow that's what it is it just he shouldn't have given Usyk 25 minutes to to to figure it out I mean that was bs that was but that's that's the highest level in boxing we got Lawrence Coles we've got Luis Pabon's we've got these guys Luke who freeze in the big moment never seem to catch a receipt for it and are shoved out first in line when we have a big fight once again. That's a larger issue than anything Usyk did. Okay. Is there now an argument to be made?

Because afterwards there were lots of people who had found footage from various fights. I think all of them really at cruiserweight. Maybe one from Joshua, but whatever. Where he took a shot to the midsection and some of them were quite legal and he went down or was like visibly affected by it. Can we now affirmatively conclude that if you're going to fight Usyk, it appears that his endurance and I should say durability to the body is questionable. Yes. And Tim Bradley, who I think is really starting to stand out.

I know he's got some shtick that people don't like, but Tim Bradley on the ESPN call at the start of round one said Dubois' only chance is by going to the body, and he gave all the reasons why you would want to do that. I think it plays into this. Part of what makes what Usyk is doing at heavyweight so beautiful, so incredible, so extreme art, is that he's so small for heavyweight. I know he's 6'3", but he's a cruiserweight physically.

Luke, he takes on a lot of damage to win these fights, like Pacquiao. Pacquiao, when he was running up all the way to Margarito in that 150-pound catchweight fight, he took a beating in that fight, even though he dominated Margarito because he's facing such bigger guys. I think at times Usyk has looked a little bit more human in some of these heavyweight fights, particularly the Derek Chisora fight, which was his first big test in the division because styles make fights and the guys that are able to use their physicality on him.

You know, he's got a really good chin and he's bitten down on some big shots, but it's physically taxing. He even said after that first AJ win that he was hurt. He didn't show it, but he was, you know, he was beat up in that fight. So I think that, you know, the box, look, the body thing is smart because he's a mover for the most part, Usyk, especially if he's ever going to be in trouble, you're going to really see him move. But look, I think what makes him great is he's welcoming so much risk and bigger men across from him, but dude, he operates right in front of you for being a guy who's known as a trickster, a classy boxer, a technical fiend.

He does stand right in front of you and he's there for you to take big swings at. Like he dares to be great and dares to take on danger in such an extreme way that being physical with him and slowing him down is the only way you're going to beat him. I will tell you what, though, was kind of interesting. So in the ninth, when it all finally stopped, he gets hit with a jab. But, you know, I'm not saying a jab like it just popped his head back. It was at an angle where it actually twisted it. So he actually got hit with a nice, hard jab.

OK, in fairness to Dubois. But he gets counted out and then stands as the basically the count is over and they called it. OK, well, let me ask you something, BCc because it's something i just don't fully understand boxing media fucking trashed him trashed him and not just that a lot of other boxers on twitter too and they're like dubois may have had whatever he had in the fifth but in the ninth when he got dropped he could have stood up and he just quit calling him a quit dude i saw boxing media calling him a quitter how come you don't like you see people trash mma fighters but you don't typically see like credentialed mma media calling someone a quitter calling someone a clown or trash

why does boxing media do that boxing's cutthroat in a lot of ways i mean mma is too but but it's really brutal and i think also look this is a fighter from the uk um in a big fight in europe and in the uk media in particular it the culture is much more cutthroat in that regard but you're right you don't see anyone hesitating in american media from saying that because it's true luke so here's the deal when dubois lost to joe joy Joyce in that battle of unbeatens, in the moment it looked like he quit and he got a lot of criticism for it. It looked like he could have continued despite the intense swelling on his eye. We would come to find out, like Vitaly Klitschko when he quit against Chris Bird

and we found out after that his shoulder was basically that far away from ripping from the bone and him his career being over we found out no you know Dubois face was like I was badly broken like anybody would have quit there and rightfully so we all said all right let's let's not talk about that like should we talk about that in general Luke no probably not but we do see sometimes I don't know if you remember Andy Ruiz against Tor Hamer I mean at the at the highest level sometimes some guys just sometimes just quit they just quit they're like no more no more there's no more a mere con against bud crawford yes so i think people gave dubois a pass and yet here he is back in a much bigger fight against the unified heavyweight champion

in a fight that he may have actually had a case in making an argument that he should have, that he could have, or, or did knock out who's sick based on that debate we just had. And then when the fight started to really not go his way with the first knockdown in the eighth round, and then eventually the ninth round stoppage, when they saw what seemed to be teasing elements of, of quit again, it's sort of like, oh, I told you. So I told you he was a quitter. We had to give him a pass last time, but right there. But Luke, even though that's extremely harsh, dude, it's true. He quit. Now I'm not going to say that he didn't get hit real. And

as you said, that jab was more than a jab. It was like a power cross. It was like, who's like squared up. And then when his right hand came with a cross and for a guy whose same eye was already broken in the past could that have hit him and hurt him in a way that it's sort of like oh i'm not going down that road for my own health i got no issue with that if that's the case and that turned out to be the case against joe joyce but he absolutely took the knee waited till 10 and then stood up there's no question about it could he have continued luke yes did he have legit reasons why he shouldn't have i mean that's his call and when you're talking about health especially your eye i'm not going to come out here and use it as a

negative and say oh dubois always been a quitter no he's a warrior and he went in there against arguably the best heavyweight in the world and one of the top five pound for pound in the world and had a moment had some moments was okay but luke i I think it was fatigue. And I think all of that got once Usyk really started to zoom in just so people know Usyk stood so close to Dubois swiveled with his head to, to, you know, miss shots and then just sticking him. And even though Usyk is not known as a big puncher at heavyweight, his punching is so accurate, so clean, so fast that he beat the fight out of him did Uik did and so that's why you see people piling on dubois in that in that regard i'm not gonna pile on luke but if he asked me if he quit

he quit it's the truth yeah i mean i think he did quit as well but again if he had something wrong with his eye and you know who knows what his reasons are for quitting ultimately but yeah i do think it was just jarring to see it was jarring to see normally mild mannered media members there's a lot of m's there but uh just trash him the guy i was like whoa this is this is new i hadn't seen something quite like this before but okay neither here nor there last thing i'll say on this and then we'll put a bow on this conversation does the result of this and the controversy in terms of maybe some of the weaknesses shown about Usyk does it make a fight with Fury after Nganou more likely or does it not really have an effect I think um it may end up not having an effect but if if if forced to choose

either way I think it'll help it I think it shows the path to victory. It shows some vulnerability. Fury will always be a favorite against Usyk. Most of us are going to end up picking Fury when, you know, if and when this actually happens, there, there is some element to the idea of Fury realizing that Usyk's the only guy that could beat him. Truly. Now look, could Wilder land a big punch? Right.

Could Joshua land one big punch? It's possible. But reality, Luke, who's actually beating this version of Tyson Fury at heavyweight? The only guy who has a legitimate chance is Usyk, even though he wouldn't be the betting favorite. I do wonder if Fury's just trying to wait him out. Usyk's not young. What's he?

Is he 36 or 37, Luke? Not young at all. I have his information here. He does take heavy physical damage, even in wins, even in some one-sided wins, because he's a daring fighter who stands so close right there in the pocket 36 i do wonder if fury's even though we don't panic about agent heavyweight if fury's just like look i'll cash out and ganu here i got my reality show here the thing is luke we not only want fury to act the part of being heavyweight champion and welcoming all comers to take on history we want it in our timetable and we want it.

We want him to be honest. He's not doing any of the, of the sore, right? Because every time he speaks, he goes in 10 different directions. But the reality is after this in Ghana fight, there would be no other excuse.

They got to do this fight. It could happen. Let's say spring of next year. And I think fury probably saw a little bit more to give him more confidence that if he comes in with a style meant to lean on fury which aj was never able to do never able to cross that line and be more physical to the point where it was like potentially helping him win now he did he did bother usik he did push him physically couldn't get over the hump could fury do that could he lean on him and go to the body with giant hooks

you're damn right he could luke so i wonder if in the long run, this is a net positive for Usyk to finally get the fight. Now, just to remind you, Usyk had to sign with that Saudi Arabian based boxing promotion. And a lot of people thought that was a prerequisite to get in line to fight Fury. ringside in Poland was Amir Abdallah from that, from that promotion in Saudi Arabia. Does that mean that, that does that have connections to fury? Does that mean that we're still likely to see fury and Usyk early next year? It makes sense, right? Also,

Luke, did you notice Jake Paul and Nikisa Bedarian were there? I did as well. And Jake had a couple of social videos out with Usyk. What do you think that was about? I don't know. I mean, part of me wonders like, you you know is he a genuine boxing fan

and you know he's obviously a multi-millionaire so he can just go to big boxing events when he wants could be but i tend to think it's probably not just that there's got to be some sort of business component but if you have a better read on it than i do by all means let me know no i i think it was just that there was some level of business component with somebody right whoever it could be saudi arabia could be anybody who knows they were there to do business with someone and also see the the usic and dubois fight but what the business is i don't know i guess we'll find out all right now bc that's it for our top five normally we would do dms here but i think what might make more sense is maybe to push those to wednesday and we just get to what i'm told is

an absolutely epic bag oh i don't know about epic it has a chance luke it has a chance to be great this this this batch of shit we got here so thank you for giving me clearance in the runway because right after we film this look i'm gonna get on a plane anyway um for la big business to come so i'm gonna hit you right now with what i did yesterday, Luke, which was scouring the globe. I actually did it on Saturday. I looked for the highs and the lows, the good, the bad, the ugly in combat sports and in between too. There's some elder abuse and there's some

really weird stuff going on. It's called Have You Seen This Shit? Let's do it. Alright, Luke. There's our new theme song on there, which I adore. By the way, I dig it. I love it. It's so much better. It's better than us making, you know, like those kind of noises. Let's go to UFC Singapore.

Luke, apparently Max Holloway is the heat. Did you see this pre-fight? What are we doing here, Max? Let's listen. Hey, guys, guys, this guy told me bring the heat tomorrow. jokes on him i am the heat let alone but that what joe rogan was there so that couldn't have been singapore uh oh really did was that that was that an old one show it again oh i got hey guys guys this guy told me bring the heat tomorrow. The joke's on him. I am the heat. Let him know.

Luke, the joke's on me. You're right. The joke's on me. That's an old clip. Great due diligence there, yes. It was a core ball dad joke, but I was into it for Max, though, so thank you very much. The Giga Show is back, Luke.

Let's listen in on Chikadze giving the nice full job on us. And I have a big announcement today to say. So it's been a long time. And I decided to... Giga Show is back, motherfuckers! I'm coming back for everybody! Schedule me with El Pussycat and Vandana in the December pay-per-view card.

16th December. I want to be there. I never the December pay-per-view card. 16 December. I want to be there. I never bought the pay-per-view card. This time, I want to be there. Luke, that was pretty good. I popped for that. That was pretty good. I popped for it, too, actually.

I would like to tell you that I didn't, but I did. It worked. He just took it from Connor, but hey, if it works, just keep doing it. There it is. Parker Porter, Connecticut's finest Luke, finished his tour of Taffa, and he finished it face down, Luke, which helped me on OK Bed. Here's a little look in here. I mean, just the worst bed ever.

I mean, I don't know. But, Luke, you have alluded that there are actually two other combat sports Taffa brothers. How awesome would it be if this guy can retire having fought John Jones in all four tapas? It would be, he would go into the Connecticut Hall of Fame or maybe the New Zealand Hall of Fame. I don't know.

Yeah, that was a tough ending for old Parker Porter. Let's go to heavyweight Waldo Costez Acosta. Luke, I made the really bad godfather joke of him sending Luka Osobreski to live with the fishes, but it turned out to be true. Face first, bro. Dude, not just that. Like, that could have been bad, the way he landed. First of all, this donk came right over the top.

Nice shot. And then look at him. That's like me on the dance floor right there. Dude. Oh, yo. Dude, landing on your head like that, that is insanely dangerous. Yeah, that's bad. That's not a good look at all.

Insanely dangerous. a big win for me after i've had arby's yeah post whippets in the back yeah there you go uh pfl playoff time luke this is a holdover from wednesday from new york city biagio ali walsh the grandson of the greatest scored a pretty gnarly ko they've been featuring him pretty high that's that's ali walsh in the red yeah i'm gonna guess the guy the white guy with dreadlocks is not a ali descendant luke his brother uh and boxing lost on over the weekend you see that in the top rank under dude i yeah do he closed or in some places as a minus 2000 favorite and then lost the decision. Yeah. I mean, he's been shaky in some wins.

He's gone through a ton of different trainers. He can punch a little bit, but yeah, that was a, uh, he's going to fight. He's going to fight Jake Paul, right? Like that's going to happen. Oh, that, oh dude. I didn't even consider that. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Okay. Uh, Luke future wife alert or no, let's go to the ball game. You tell me. Play that one more time. Play that one more time. Do you think it's staged, Luke? Is it my imagination or is she just eating sausage and then washing it down with Tito's vodka? Yeah, she's drinking. She's eating a Joey chestnut style, just raw dog in it. Look, just, just gross. Yeah. Wife material. No, not wife material, but, uh, Friday night material material yes uh luke uh remember that fame those famous

kickboxers that went tip on tip and it started the revolution and we put their poster up on the uh bomb shelter studio yes this is the one that you know you say we i don't know that it's a we thing more than it's just a passion project of yours like Like that frozen rope McGregor had for Mayweather at their way in. These two men were so jacked up at the idea of fighting each other that they got aroused. The same thing happened in this Queensbury promotions boxing bout over the weekend. Luke, look at that guy in the red. Holy crap. Look at the unit on that guy.

I cannot believe we have a podcast where we encourage readers to look at men's dicks dude i've been sent that video probably 350 times in the past like week for people excited the other guys in that that's what you but here's the thing okay i'm gonna do i promise i won't do this for everyone show it one more time we don't have to show the whole thing but just check this out it's you're saying to touch it it's really just the guy on the left yeah but they're touching tips luke this is happening i know but if you're the guy on the right you got to back up a couple steps right yeah you do yeah you do unless i mean you know you gotta you gotta lose the the battle to win the war here right you know you gotta find out if you're really about that life turned out he was though turned out he was uh time for your k.o's of the week let's watch this referee closely here i don't think i've seen this before

oh he got hit with the thunder yes he did they're gonna need a new or whatever yeah yikes oh wow all right that's why you know amateurs bro they'd be doing the spazzy stuff you gotta yeah regional mma too anything can happen that's crazy oh let's go to the hockey game here let's see we haven't seen a good hockey fight in a while on this show caps open up in uh 46 days oh jesus oh shit yeah that's a double that's a good hockey fight that was like fedor and matreon and matreon on ice luke that was great dude that was that was great they were killing each other russian mma i think this is like a weigh-in show of some kind they always fight on this show luke watch this oh yeah right okay real question real question how much more popular would ufc be if there was an espn show

equivalent to this and they were like regularly bringing on people that hate each other and they were fighting and brawling before the fights, like regularly? Oh, damn. She got – dude, she gets hit. Yes. I tell you what. You know what?

Instead of press conferences, they should just allow UFC fighters to do Palace at the Malice and just start beating the fuck out of fans. You know what I'm talking about? Because the fans get up there and be like, hey, my question is for Izzy. Izzy, I just wanted to know, why you paint your nails like a bitch, blah, blah, blah. And they'll do all that stuff, and then the crowd goes crazy. But the rule should be

if you ask a question like that, he gets to run into the stands like Ron Artest and just fuck your shit up, doesn't he? Are you talking about Captain Jack, Stack 5, our colleague, Luke? He went in there and gave that guy the business, okay? Hey, Metta World Peace't he was brought our test at the time and meta world peace would fuck your shit up too they'll be throwing water bottles that would meta world peace no and when we're working with steven jackson at the boxing fights we're very polite

because we'll let steven jackson kick your ass there's no question our final ko of the week nominee comes in this backyard fight. All right. Just what? Oh, my God. Dude, I like how he just posts up on his elbow. He's like, no, I'm just going to go to the beach. Dude, he just turned into a PEZ container.

That's insane. Look at the way that neck. You know, I don't think he one more time, Mikey. I don't think he had the sturdiest chin. I'm just going to. Oh, I don't think he had a chin or a neck. I got to tell you. I like how he just posts up right here he's like yeah i'm good yeah i'm dead i'm dead uh luke the great workout gloves debate it's

continuing it's an ongoing thing let's go to new member of espn's first take shannon sharp are you gonna tell him sharp too i like shannon sharp that's what kills me that man's gotta be like 50 years old and he is jacked as yeah he's's jacked as shit. He's mid fifties. Those are one fifteens. The range of motion isn't full, but it's pretty good. And this is incline on top of that. And he's in his fifties. You know, I can't say my man's not strong.

He's strong as shit. I'd like to tell him not also. Also, I will say this constantly wearing a belt is a little little much it's a little much you're not gonna say shit to him about gloves when he's this jack there's no i would i would i would i'd be like shannon you're too good for this lay down the gloves friend i wonder if situationally you will allow gloves at the gym like maybe not near the machines or weights but what about in the bathroom if something big is brewing let's go to the next one luke had to max out the toilet at the gym are you okay with the straps in this

case look yeah so this is not a glove this is a strap which is used to lift heavy weight that's pretty funny that the guy is in the uh the disabled person stall and using that to wrap so he could take his protein shit yeah there you go luke uh luke i don't know if you knew this during your vacation but apparently you went to home depot and got in a fight and every one of our audience so he could take his protein shit. Yeah, there you go, Luke. Luke, I don't know if you knew this during your vacation, but apparently you went to Home Depot and got in a fight, and every one of our audience sent it to me. Let's look at it. This is getting a bit...

Tell me this isn't you, Luke, please. Looks a lot like you, I'm telling you. Wait, is this after the Montgomery Brawl that the white folks are learning how to get around the chairs? Dude, that's you. That's spider-man meme come on i know i wish it wasn't i wish it wasn't but it is fucking all right people say people send that to me i just immediately block them you know uh time for some extreme i'm teasing i don't do that we love that on this show i call this two ice cream cups, one man.

All right. I got to tell you, man. I got to tell you, like, how do we feel about constant, if not so much molestation but constant use of fast food workers first for our tiktok videos do we feel like that's fair how do we yeah i think that's fair look yes that more than okay as a former mcdonald's uh drive that it's considered yeah all right uh luke i used to be that teenage kid who would put so much ketchup on his plate that i would dip the entire burger into it and it would be like dripping when I take a bite. I was a savage, but I wasn't this savage.

Okay. Don't want to do this for a long time. Double cheeseburger, all right, it's ketchup. It's beautiful. Just stick it in here like that. Go all the way to the bottom. Oh! Oh!

Like me trying to clean myself in columbia after my bout with diarrhea oh that guy's so gross right so gross yeah i don't even like here's the thing about it like you're laughing about that but where exactly is the humor he's just being he's just being stupid right you're like this is what those people do those dub t's look at the left that guy looks like every dad from my hometown by the way i'll say that our final extreme eating the burger looked quite nice he just ruined it but you know what are you gonna do yeah i mean but let's check out this guy trying to take down the whole car in his okay that's a little better that's a little better that's definitely joey joey chestnut the grossest person in america yeah sure he's himself with hot dog buns every every july 4th imagine having a french kiss that guy if you're if you're like dating him luke that's gotta be

just there's so much pork in there that's gross all right it's time to rate that tat luke this is where you do your best work you and cheeto vera big trouble big tattoo check this out luke that is a 10 out of 10 i wouldn't want it i wouldn't get it kurt russell got a bit of a weird nose but in general that is kim cattrall wow he got kim cattrall i got the whole nine on there huh yeah yeah yeah yeah they do that's very by the way a couple of the faces below like near the ankle are a little bit jacked up but in general in general this is an extremely good tattoo very very good dan hooker's had a big 2023 adding ink to his body here's the latest luke your thoughts it's a lot it's a lot to be quite candid with you i would agree

you know it's hard to go to the pta meeting with that you know what i mean that's right all right what do you think about vegan tats? Looks like when you go to Columbia, eat everything. Yeah. All right. All right. Yeah, exactly. Same rule applies. Time for your car bumper sticker of the week.

Or it's not quite a bumper sticker. Luke, what do you think of that? You know, if you're going to deface your own property, that's probably the best way to do it. That's probably it. Luke, you ever go to a high school football game and see those old-ass newspaper reporters that have been covering the same local area for 52 years, and they smoke cigarettes in bed before and after?

It's just the worst. Watch this guy's luck on the sideline here. You got to watch out when they run the, that sweep. Oh no. Oh no. That's worst case scenario in every possible way. Right. Oh dude.

Does this motherfucker not have suspenders or a belt? Oh, he, he dropped his dungarees for the world to see there luke i want to point out something listen one more time mikey if you can one more dude look at the size of my man's underwear you could you could you could use his underwear as a raft to get from cuba to florida you could absolutely do that. Leonardo DiCaprio's character could have survived with underwear like that, Luke, in Titanic for sure. Let's go to the Punch Machine. It's instant comedy at all times, right?

Maybe. Oh, we don't have that one. But what we do have in its place, Luke, is Oscar de la Hoya being weird. What do you think about this uh what is he saying uh uh glad to see os Oscar staying sober these days. You know what I mean? His social media has just been out of control.

Is it me, or is he picking more fights than ever these days? Ever. Yeah, he is. All right, time for your fails of the week. This is why old people shouldn't jump rope. For this reason right here, Luke. Oh, no. Oh oh what the fuck dude that did not go how i thought it was gonna go i thought i was getting ready for a face plant my man just teleported through the

goodbye uh look speaking of place face plants you ever try to jump a stream with a BMX? Oh, no. Well, look, he ended up where he belonged the whole time. Six feet under. Dude, look at this. By the way, that white guy could barely leap across this. I mean, just enough speed to get paralyzed. I want to point across. I mean, just enough speed to get. I want to point out this motherfucker had just enough speed to get paralyzed.

That's it. No more. Just enough. All right. Let's go over to the back nine here for our third fail of the week. But this is actually on purpose. Pretty funny, though. Yeah.

Great open field tackle right there. Look, that's great. Dude, if golf was more of that, I 100% would watch. Okay, okay. Hey, Luke, I know you stand by D.C. at all times. Have you ever been to U Street in Washington, D.C.? Oh, yeah. U Street is famous, yeah. Okay, well, let's go on and see the ladies on U Street, Luke.

Oh. ladies of the night on by the way so that area you see that warby parker there that's actually where i got these glasses that's a real true story nice the uh that area is actually pretty nice but it's right near this like sports bar where all of this craziness happens called nelly's and uh dude motherfuckers be acting they act wild out there they act wild out there you're too old for that shit now yeah i can't do it look you and i'll be back in studio this week in jersey and um i already petitioned am go this morning when i got up and my wife goes don't assault me don't assault me with your fart oh my god that's how bad it was wow she had dutch oven flashbacks right there

look you know it was it was it was ugly hey i got good and bad news about gary bucey luke the good news is he's still alive what he got sober that would be the bad news no the good news is he's still alive the bad news is luke buttered sausage first of all gary thank you for being on let's talk about the current real estate market and talk about buttered sausage. First of all, Gary, thank you for being on. Let's talk about the current real estate market and talk about buttered sausage. Talk about buttered sausage, where it comes from, what it does. Why is it doing what it's doing? Get it out of my face. Buttered sausage, buttered sausage. I take it real estate's not your jam. It's not my jam. I don't buy jam by honey. And I kiss it on the lips oh my god hold on is that what is that what is is that real i don't think so but it's brilliant just i mean no it is kind of real right like i i believe gary

bucey said that i but the interview feels uh set up it does feel like yeah let me see that one more time i gotta go let's see i gotta see crazy gary one more first of I got to go. Let's see. I got to see crazy Gary one more. First of all, Gary, thank you for being on. Let's talk about the current real estate market and talk about buttered sausage. Talk about buttered sausage, where it comes from, what it does. Why is it doing what it's doing?

Get it out of my face. Buttered sausage, buttered sausage. I take it. Real estate's not your jam. It's not my jam. I don't buy jam by honey and I kiss it on the lips. Oh my God. It's not my jam. I don't buy jam. I buy honey and I kiss it on the lips. Oh my God.

That's how BC ends every phone call. I don't buy jam. I buy honey and I kiss it on the lips. Bye. That was so good. Look, if I end up like the grandfather version of me, it will probably look and sound exactly like that. Inevitably.

Right. Let me explain something to you. Ending up that way would be infinitely better than how I'm probably going to end up. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Alright, I got one more for you, Luke. I don't know if you ever ordered a Coke in a drive-thru. I don't know if you

ever ordered a Coke in a drive-thru like this guy did. Let's listen. Pepsi? We only have Coke. I'll take a gram. Just the coffee's good. Just the coffee. See what I mean? Harassing these fast food employees for your dumbass TikToks.

That was brought to you by Coach Craig Jones. Thank you very much. That's all the shit that's fit to print. Luke, do you remember um to close here mk donkey mentory number two which still arguably the best one and it closed with a song a member of our donkaverse wrote um saying uh uh i can be your co-host baby by ricky martin yes or enrique iglesias jr one of the two yeah i think it's in's Enrique, yeah. And that guy's name is Damian O'Hara, I believe, Ohana. This guy started his own podcast and interviewed John S. Nash

about the antitrust and fighter relations. So another podcaster has been birthed, Luke, from the charred remains of MK Loins, and I'm very happy to see that. All right, very good. Looks like I don't know that guy. I don't care if he lives. That's more good publicity than I've ever gotten from you about my personal channel. I just want to point that out.

I've never. I've told people of where they can send their money, Luke, and the value that they can get. Yeah, you want them to shove it up their ass is what you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. By the way, how's the Cameo business? Is it still rocking in the free is it still yeah i got two i got two in the holster right now i gotta i gotta knock out it's still it's still moving product luke you know it's a nice i'm gonna make you do a cameo and i'm gonna i'm gonna i gotta figure

out exactly how i'm gonna do it but you're not gonna like it okay okay i'm into that what's the cheapest cameo what's the cheapest one you mean i mean you set your own prices you don't have like a i don't don't they have like oh it's 100 bucks for this person it's 50 well you have one price for a regular cameo then there's a really expensive price if you're doing a corporate version like for another company and then they can add they can order off the menu and add on special requests or they can dm you for a couple bucks uh i don't know look there's a lot of ways to scam your audience there but at least i try to do it consensually you know what's the most anyone's paid you for a cameo uh well they can tip you afterwards so i've been

tipped the full amount that they paid for the cameo because they were so happy luke i mean look you know like 2x read my reviews the proof is in the putting, as Floyd would say, Luke, okay? Yes, it certainly is. All right, let's remind people about the putting. We've been putting in that work. So why don't you vote for us, if you can, for the World MMA Awards. There is the graphic right there. You can put your phone up to the screen.

You can do all the voting. You can vote for Morning Combat Best MMA Programming for the 15th Annual World MMA Awards. And, of course, worldmmawards.com is going to be the place to do that. Of course, showtime.com is the label that pays. You can go there too for all the showtime stuff. Let's see. Morning combat at gmail.com for fan subs did wrong.

Now BC, we should do this. I'm kind of calling an audible here, but I do want your participation. If we can very quickly. Yeah. We have toyed with the idea of doing like a DMs from docs kind of segment where people send in either audio clips that they've recorded of themselves.

Yes. Or video clips. Would you like to kick the tires on that for Wednesday? I would. So here's what we need from you folks. We need you to utilize that email address where you send in your fan subs and dead wrongs, morningcombat.gmail.com. Mikey's on the other end, but we need some multimedia. Like Luke said, if you,

if you got a face for radio and you can only do audio, that's cool, but you want to get fun. You want to get cool. You want to get your question answered. You can send them in over video. You can roast us. You can do whatever you want. Go to morningcombat. gmail.com and uh luke this could be the beginning of taking that segment to the next level okay yes i would love to do this so bc gave you all the info just take a you can use your phone record it send an mp3 to us at morning combat or morningcombat at gmail.com do all of that or take a video we would you know

i'll be honest video preferred but not required not required and if you want to do that we would love we would love to do more of that kind of stuff with you guys i think it'd be a lot of fun it would also help like that trivia challenge i had uh while you were gone luke for shack to try to i was meant to just solicit how many 10 out of 10 responses we can get to find out who are the real P ones that will most likely try to harvest your organs in a pool inside a tub in an abandoned building. So now if we get video footage of them speaking, it'll help the authorities when the show inevitably,

uh, ends, ends by co-host death. So just tragic, tragic stabbing. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

I got to go to the bathroom and get on a plane. Luke, I'll be hosting the, um, Canelo Charlo pay-per-view undercard press conference tomorrow in L.A. We got your Dennis Ugas. We got Erickson Lubin.

We got Jesus Ramos Jr. We got so many big names, Mario Barrios, Elijah Garcia, on and on. So tomorrow afternoon, people can check that out on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel. All right, so BC's got to catch a bird. We're done for the day. We're going to have some fun on Wednesday. We're going to be in studio on Friday

and a whole lot of stuff between now and then. Thank you guys so much for watching for Showtime, for CBS. Thank you, Mikey. I know we busted your balls up front, but you did a great job today. Thank you, Mikey. Thank you to everyone else involved in the process. We'll see you guys on Wednesday, and until then, may all of your gains be loyal.