MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez | Bellator 271 | McGregor vs. Chandler | EP 227

Episode Date: November 10, 2021

On episode 227 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian discuss the biggest storylines heading into UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs. Rodriguez. What should we expect from Yair Rodriguez? Next up the guys discuss a big Bellator 271 card. What are Sinead Kavanagh's chances against Cris Cyborg? Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor exchanged some words on twitter... Is that the fight to make? The boys also discuss Triller's Triad Combat fight announcements and close out with some quick hitters. (12:50) - Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez (29:45) - Bellator 271 Storylines (46:00) - Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler? (56:45) - Triller's Triad Combat (66:30) - Quick Hitters Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Reveille, reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion.

That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Hi, everybody. It is Wednesday, 10 November. And if you're a United States Marine or you ever were one, you know that 10 November, 1775, is a special day in the history of the United States Marine Corps.

In fact, it is the birthday. Happy birthday, Marines. Happy birthday to our viewers out there, even if it's not your fucking birthday. Hello, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. And you see to my left, it is my buddy and yours, the King of, well, you know what? Glover's the King of Connecticut, so I would say the crown prince of Connecticut, at least for now. He is back home.

Hopefully he has slept. He has got some good rest. It's Brian Campbell. What up, BC? Luke, I am so freaking washed right now. I'm not going to lie. 11 days in Vegas. It'll take some time for me to get back.

So I'm not going to say we're going to mail in today's show, but I got some stamps ready for you but luke legitimately happy marines day to you um it's marines day so marines day is the day before veterans day right that's how the calendar works you mean the marine corps birthday there's no such thing as marines day got it got it uh hopefully we can tribute you later today but uh i'm here to tell the truth like i always do the purveyor of truth on this podcast so let me just reiterate for all you truth seekers out there han shot first epstein did not kill himself and colby took kamaru down um maybe some of those are true certainly not all of them well with that in mind just want to remind everyone if you're if you're watching on youtube thumbs up hit subscribe if you're listening on the audio

podcast side of things wherever you're listening give us a nice review especially if it's on apple you can go and leave us a five-star review to help us scam the algo i don't know what the story is with this sending gift certificates but they told us that we're going to do that for someone who made us laugh so keep doing that i guess, that seems like a broken promise right now. I'm not in charge of it, so. Yeah. We have a lot in store for you today. Hold on.

We have a lot in store for you today. We have to get to Max Holloway, by the way, fights this weekend. Very quiet that Max Holloway is fighting in 72 hours, and hardly anyone's talking about it. Plus, we have a great set of DAZN fights coming up this weekend, believe it or not, and a whole lot more. We're going to get to it in then some. What's up, BC? What do you want to say?

Showtime boxing this weekend, too. You're over here shouting out days in. Come on, Showtime boxing back this weekend. No doubt about it. Showtime boxing is back. David Benavidez, who, by the way, I would say is sort of a dark horse candidate, but a potential future candidate for a Canelo Alvarez fight. One never knows. He's certainly in that space. Cinco de Mayo, Canelo Benavidez sign me up Luke okay but um great to be back with

you Luke okay I love doing things with you and um did you have a nice couple days to you know with the family to re-engage connect again yeah so yesterday I uh I got up with my daughter and then she went off to do kid things during the course of her day and then when she did I went back to sleep at about 9 a.m. and then I slept till noon which was great I needed it so I would only imagine a guy like you who needed real sleep hopefully you got some did you and I also went to the gym yesterday. Not good, not good. It's going to take a while, Luke. I went for a massage yesterday. Oh, my God, Luke.

Oh, the juices releasing after that. I felt like a marionette. Oh, yeah. Now, when you do the massage, hold on. When you do the massage. No craft jokes, bro. No craft jokes. No, no, no, no, no.

So I've done a massage two times, and both times it really wasn't for me. So let's back up a step here when you do the massage how many how much of your clothes have you taken off like when they have the towel on top yo bro all of them i go from zero to ball bag in like six seconds okay okay so there's that all right all right do you have a man or a woman rub you down i prefer the latter oh Oh, one second. Thank you so much. My lovely wife bringing me a coffee. Thank you so much.

There you go. Shouts to the lovely wife who can't hear me. Okay. All right. Okay. Do you get music in the background that sounds like some sort of like Andy's flute pan kind of shit? Pan flute, whatever. Yes, there is a CD changer playing that very, it's not really jazz. It's sort of like world music mixed with jazz, just very relaxing.

You put your face down in the face holder and it smells very eucalyptic. And Luke, I go to a place like, you know that place where, what's her name? Adelaide Bird went during the first Triple G Canelo fight, Luke? To sleep? Yeah, I go to that place where it's just, you know, I don't even know where I am. Luke, oh my God, they get into the foot and the toes, Luke. Then they get into the upper ass area. I mean, it was great. It was great.

A lot of tension. Did you get any Andy Ruiz ass tattoo while you were out i got a lot of tension in my upper ass let me tell you that so uh the only problem with my my stomach kept gurgling and i was like you know i hope that isn't perceived as as you know gas right all right well let's move this along so as i mentioned if you want to try showtime i could do an hour on this i know i know but we gotta do we gotta move it along we if you want to try Showtime. I could do an hour on this. I know, I know. But we got to move it along. If you want to get Showtime, you certainly can. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial.

Again, there is some boxing coming up this weekend. Plus Bellator. We'll talk about both here on today's show as well as Fridays on top. MorningCombat.store is the place to go to get some merch. We have some bestsellers that are available. Gift cards certainly available as well for folks who might be worried about the supply chain i don't know how that will affect us and there you can see some of the bestsellers orchids of combat classic comfy tea and then the one with my dia de los muertos face on yeah reminder that you could buy gift cards for the holidays i think luke

mentioned that and also um i am being told the drug rugs part two will be back for the holiday season. So, you know, you got to you got to serve somebody. You got to celebrate something this December. Why don't you outfit your people in some good shit? OK, there you have it. So the drug rugs will be back. Be on the lookout. Gift certificates will be your friend in the time being.

And then, of course, we'll do fan subs today, which means morningcombat at gmail.com to get them in. And then morningcombat at gmail.com for Friday's Dead Wrong. You got recognized in Vegas at the line when you and I were washed in that airplane line. And some guy was like, thank you so much for your hard work. And he wasn't talking about the marines at all he was like thank you for your you know your service and all the videos you put out and your your arrogance and you know commitment to not shaving like thank you and i was just like man dude yeah you know that happens to me a lot bc i get recognized a lot i love the first time you and i went to vegas because like bc i want to prepare you i know you're not used to this you're going to get recognized a lot i

know you're not used to it you can you can sit there in front like you. I know you're not used to this. You're going to get recognized a lot. I know you're not used to it. You can sit there in front like you are. I know you're not. I know you're not. All right, we got to do this read. Are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. All right, let's do this. It's not a read. It's a conversation between men, Luke.

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big bulky ray you know i mean look there's a it's a it's a sensitive area luckily for all you guys still in the game and even those who think they are but they're not and i i see you out there um you won't hurt yourself you won't cut yourself it's easy you could do it in the shower they're waterproof you you should you should just step up and do this because nobody likes that that shit all unkept you know nobody all right and also the performance package 4.0 includes the weed whacker nose and ear hair trimmer that uses a 9 000 rpm motor power 360 degree rotary dual blade system to provide proprietary skin safe technology which helps prevent nicks snags tugs in the delicate spaces

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That's COMBAT with a K at manscaped.com. 20% off free shipping with the code COMBAT at manscaped.com. Be thankful this holiday season for the best gift. All from Manscaped.com be thankful this holiday season for the best gift all from manscaped your balls will thank you man you're i mean very i mean i know it's because of your medulla oblongata but you know no dude i mean this is just to start a show 13 minutes into its beginning is unforgivable all right let's get going topic number one here we go. We came off UFC 267, then it was UFC 268, now we are back to the Fight Night series, but the fight, at least the main event, carries, I would argue, a ton of significance. Max Holloway returns to the Octagon for the second time this year, I believe.

The first one being against Calvin Cater, now it will be against Yair Rodriguez now BC Rodriguez is coming off of I believe two years away due to accidents and this that and the other but he's back he's against Max when you think about the most important storyline centered around this fight what would it be uh to me Luke we're looking at a number one contender spot here for the next chance at uh the champion Alexander Volkanovski. And I know that can be a little bit complicated by the comments that Max Holloway gave to TMZ this week, which I can talk about in a second. But as we look right now, Volkanovski, he just did the deed against Brian Ortega and further cemented who he is. I have felt like Max Holloway already deserved a third fight. There'd been a little bit of debate right here, right there.

But instead of sending Max right in there, he has as tough as a matchup, I think, as you can find in this division. So what's crazy to me is that both of these guys, Luke, are still on the good side of 30 at age 29. And I feel like Yair Rodriguez is like, he's had the best run in UFC that nobody talks about. Is it the one loss to Frankie Edgar that we harp on, or is it the inactivity? I'm not really sure. But he's 8-1 overall since joining the UFC, 10-1 in his last 12 with that one no contest to Jeremy Stevens.

He's looked fantastic. He slowly stepped up in class. He's got that early win over Dan Hooker that we forget about. But obviously this would be the biggest win of his career and a breakthrough opportunity. So, Luke, for me, it's simple. Unless some of those other potential fights jump in and get in the way, we're looking at the winner of this fantastic main event being title ready.

Am I wrong? Tell me. I think you're right, although I did not hear Max's comments to TMZ. Can you tell me what those were? Yeah, so he said he started off by saying that he has a win over the current 155 champion Charlie Olives so basically saying look you know I've got options and then he also told TMZ um you don't hear Connor talk about me a lot you hear him talk about Nate but he goes call Hunter Campbell and the UFC brass right now and they'll tell you I'm on the short list for Conor's comeback fight, which is very interesting.

I don't specifically know what Max was referencing with the 155 situation unless he's saying that he could be a dark horse candidate to fight the winner of Oliveira versus Poirier, which doesn't make any sense given the fact that we just debated whether it should be Islam or Justin Gaethje getting that next but either way Max is going to get a massive fight before we go further in the featherweight title discussion Luke do you think it's possible that Conor would come back after two losses and a major injury against Max Holloway because Max is saying look let's do it in Raiders Stadium there in Vegas yeah I don't think he would that's a terrible fight for Conor at least on his comeback fight now maybe in a comeback fight he might look better we'll talk about some potential opportunities for that I'm not saying Max is wrong he's not on the short list I just think when it really comes time down to brass tacks they're not they're not going to pick Max Holloway he's just got too much

going for him that could be a problem for Conor. I will say this, though. You're right about it being an obvious number one contender. Here's the top five as it currently stands in the rankings for UFC featherweight. Excuse me. One is Max Holloway. Two is Ortega, just lost. Three is Jerry Rodriguez. That's who's in this fight.

Four is Chan Sung Jung. He's not really close right now. And then five is Calvin Cater, who has a fight coming up, but obviously he's coming off that loss to Max Holloway. So really this is the number one contender fight. But I was just thinking about this. I think Max is kind of telegraphing 155 for a couple of reasons. One would be the weight cut to 145 has gotten a lot harder for him, and in his 30s it will be very hard.

Maybe he can still make it, but it's certainly not a thing that should be taken for granted forever. And the other part I would say is, I don't know if this division is big enough for both Volkanovski and Holloway. Like, even if Holloway wins a third time, or I should say in their third meeting, where he beats Yair, he fights Volkanovski, he gets the belt, what's Volkanovski going to do? He can beat everyone else in that division pretty handily. It looks like we'll see what happens with Josh Emmett. We'll see what happens with Arnold Allen when they moved up the food chain, but it doesn't like, there's no obvious contender I can see in the rankings anywhere. Maybe when they get down to, you know, Ilya

Toporia, if he can do something, we'll see what happens there or, you know, whatever. But for the time being, I don't see any of these guys beating them and so Max might be thinking maybe I beat Iyer and I still go to 155 or maybe go to 145 fight Volkanovski win then leave the title and go because dude at some point these guys are just going to have to keep fighting each other unless the division really changes beneath them and it will but BC that's going to take some time it's an interesting point to say it that way I agree with you and and you do hype up Volkanovski often but it's deserving and I really hope if you are going to ever watch the second max fight a 50th time you get a chance to do that with Alex but in full sincerity uh Luke I want to ask you this I got two questions

actually the first one is this do you think Max Holloway could end up being in this position little altered from how we started this. A win gets a title shot and a third opportunity against Volkanovski, but a loss gets Conor McGregor. Maybe not at Allegiant Stadium, but would you be more into a losing Max Holloway drawing a back-to-back losing injury question plagued Conor McGregor who's preparing for a wheelchair boxing match if the loss was not just a loss but he looked bad like he got thoroughly thrashed by yair which i

just i have a hard time even imagining but stranger things have happened so i'll say yes potentially but it would require a significant drop off okay question number two Luke in the overall featherweight title picture why do we never talk about Yair Rodriguez so to answer the first part of that I think it's a couple things one is the year off or the so the two years off basically right like not not being very active the loss to Edgar was thorough. And even though he beat Stevens, uh, Stevens was beating his ass, I believe at the end of that fight, if memory serves. And it was only a three versus a five rounder. I think, I think that's right. Uh, dead wrong me. If not double check that if you can, but, um, I can pull up here, MMA decisions. I just want to be clear about that. Um, but so

the point being is he does. and by the way, he was losing the Chan Sung Jung fight right up until he wasn't. So it's like against a certain kind of opponent, he has looked quite good. But when he stepped up, there's been inconsistencies, I think is the best way to put it. Here is the one against, I don't have, yes, Stevens. So that was 30-27, yeah, he won 29-28. We don't have the round-by-round breakdown. No one thought that Stevens should have won it, but that if it was a five-round fight, you would have had a very different fight. So you add that up, loses to Edgar, barely beat Stevens, was getting his ass kicked, well, it was back and forth, but was losing to Chan Sung Jung.

And then a couple of factors worked out in his favor, and so he got up there. You add in the two years off. You add in he's had some promotional battles, right, with UFC as well about kind of placing he deserved and promotion. And remember, he got cut and then brought back. There's been a whole sort of series of things. So add that all up together.

It's just not the kind of momentum that people would expect meanwhile a lot of people think max didn't lose either of the volkanovski fights and then he goes and fights cater and puts on a historic beating on the guy like the levels of momentum and what they've proven at this level could not be more different i think that's what you're kind of seeing. I think that's very fair the way you break that down. And when you're even looking at a guy who I mentioned, what, 8-1 in the UFC, but it's like, who has he beaten? Do you think he's one of those guys where it looks a lot better than it actually is? Where no one's doubting he's talented and dangerous and fun to watch,

but you mentioned the Chan Sung Jung win, which might be his best considering the timing of it was somewhat miraculous or let's just say outright miraculous. And then, you know, I mentioned that great Dan Hooker win, but that was 2015 Dan Hooker. So you really look up and down and, and there's a little bit of Teddy Atlas against who,

against who, against who, against who, against who? Against who? Against who? Against who? It's a great question. I guess you gotta be a boxing guy to get that joke. What do you make of the idea that like, what happens if Max beats Volkanovski? Is Volkanovski just gonna fight one more contender

and then they're gonna do this a four? I mean, this is what I don't understand about this. This division is just going to be the Max and Alex show until one of them leaves or one of them declines. Well, forget about henry suhudo's interest in volkanovsky right i mean that's just total nonsense as far as i don't think it is luke i really don't why because as we've debated in the past i think his way of looking at his angle to be competitive in this fight given that Volkanovski is the smallest of the elite featherweights

he's not out of this fight, Luke, from a betting odds standpoint, from an actual fight standpoint it's up to the UFC to give him that to give him the chance to become the first three division champion and you know we've always argued whether he even deserved that second division opportunity but let's give Henry Cejudo credit. When he's been given

opportunities, he's stepped up large and come through. I mean, even with me not thinking he actually beat DJ in their rematch close fight, I thought the scoring went the wrong way, but this guy is as strategic and thoughtful and versatile, Luke. I mean, he's in that fight. I know you just, you got a CKB going right now. I can see it, Luke. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yes. I have a rational mind for these

and not the kind of Mark behavior for phony fights that either won't happen or shouldn't happen, and if they do, would be blowouts. I don't really think so. You've got a city kicking boner. Well, you say shouldn't happen, but let me ask you this. Let's say Volkanovski defeats uh Max for technically

the third time who who's next that you're like that guy deserves it next there isn't anybody I'm telling you Luke there's a greater than 46 percent chance that that fight happens if if Volkanovski beats Max well if Volkanovski beats Max. Well, if Volkanovski beats Max and then Max decides to leave the division, certainly it opens some things up, but some guys are getting back to action already on the side of the rankings. I don't think Arnold Allen has a fight yet, but if it's just the Volkanovski show,

then there's a series of fresh matchups you could do. You could eventually do, again, it would require some turnover, but you could do some Rodriguez. You could do Chan Sung Jung, Calvin Cater. You could do literally almost anyone else. Giga Chikazi is coming through the division as well. It sort of opens up in a very interesting and unique way. So I grant there's like no burning number one contender if Max is sort of not in the equation, but I just don't see this a who to one likely either because Dana didn't want So I grant there's like no burning number one contender if Max is sort of not in the equation. But I just don't see this a who-don't-won likely either because Dana didn't want it to be likely

or because it's a silly idea that would pan out poorly. Well, it's not silly, Luke. But I want to ask you about the man we don't talk about anymore in this division that I went on record. And what does that mean, right? People don't even believe in my MMA takes as being a thing. But I've gone on record and told you the best featherweight in the world is is from the damn shmesh factory okay and uh and it's a it's a fellow named zabit magomed sharapov luke oh yes he's sort of been

rumored to come back but we don't know what the story is with that i'm not going to say if he does come back that we should think of him in the same regard as we did and by the way there are people that don't think of him in that same regard as i did. And by the way, there are people that don't think of him in that same regard as I do, and I respect that. But I'm hoping for his sake and the sake of MMA fans, Luke, that he can get back into this equation because he seems like to me to be the missing link in the overall title picture. Perhaps that is true.

There are some missing pieces, but the division can't move on until there's some resolution between max and volkanovsky this saturday will push us a little bit further along also on that card we see some other interesting fights on there ben rothwell is back against marcos hogerio de lima felicia spencer is back taking on leah letson who i guess is our first fight since the ultimate fighter 28 finale uh let's see miguel Baeza is back against Chaos Williams. You have Andre Ali. Song Yedong, Julio Arce.

That could bang, Luke. Sick fight there as well. Tiago Moises is back after losing to Islam Makachev. Which of these fights? Mark Giacchese, and I go on and on. I mentioned Andre Ali as well. Which of these fights stands out to you the most? Which one are you paying attention to?

Song Yedong, still just 23. That loss he had was, he learned from it. It was close, right? Was that the questionable loss, Luke? What am I thinking of here from Song Yedong? Song Yedong, I'll pull up his record as you go along. He had the loss to Kyler Phillips. I was thinking about his win over Casey Kenney,

which was a split decision win and could have gone either way. I think this guy's still got a bright potential there, Mr. Faber's boy there, and I want to see if he could beat Arce and take that step forward. And look, that division's deep as shit, but this guy's shown us some good things. He's someone I'm going to watch for sure.

And look, Ben Wathwell, I'll watch him against anybody, Luke. I know it's getting late, right, for the 40-year-old. You talk about guys who started their career before 9-11, which is a rarity nowadays. There's one late, right, for the 40-year-old. You talk about guys who started their career before 9-11, which is a rarity nowadays. There's one of them there, the former U.S. MMA heavyweight champion, Luke. I don't know what that means.

No doubt about it. Also, Santiago Ponzinibbio handed Baeza his last loss, his only loss, back against Chaos Williams here. The one with some divisional ranking would be women's flyweight. Youweight you got Cynthia Calvillo or Calvillo sitting at five but dude check this out they got Andrea Lee sitting at 12. Man she has a huge opportunity here and neither is necessarily coming in all that hot if you look at the case of Andrea Lee she had three fights in a row that she had lost against Joanne Calderwood, Lauren Murphy both of those split decision in fairness.

And then Roxanne Modaferri, she lost via decisions. Wish to get blown out. She beats Antonina Shevchenko. That's a nice rebound. But Cynthia comes into this fight having lost. She beat Jessica Ai, then lost a decision fight to Caitlin Chukagian, then lost in the first round against Jessica Andrade. Now she's putting up five versus 12.

Dude, Andrea Lee could find herself deep inside the top 10 with a win here, and I don't think it's that crazy that she could get it. Yeah, KGB's been putting the look good, at least, in that comeback win after those losses you mentioned. But let's not overly inflate. At this point, a win over Antonina Shevchenko. You know my love for that family, Luke, but the stock's going in the wrong direction quick.

They've got, to your point, they've got Andrea Lee, our friends over at Caesar Sportsbook, they've got her at about plus 100. They've got Cynthia sitting at minus 120. That sound right to you? I think Calvillo's the better fighter, but she can be up or down

at times. I think she wins this one, and I don't know why you keep calling KGB Andrea. Andrea Zuckerman from 90210, Luke. It's Andrea KGB Lee. I mean, it can be Andrea, Andrea.

It could be BC. I'm just going to call her BC from now on. Also BC in this fight. Did you go to school with some Taras that wanted to be called Tara or like Megan? or BC from now on. Also BC in this fight. Did you go to school with some Terras that wanted to be called Tara or like Megan? You know, like, come on, just, you know, Sade, it's safe, bro, right? You know, come on.

Also, Courtney Casey taking on Liana Jojua. Courtney Casey sitting at nine and nine. How many fighters in UFC do you see having 500 records? That's unusual. Brandon Marcos? Yeah. She's 500 at this point? Really? Not typical, Luke. That's unusual. Brandon Marcos? Yeah. Is she 500 at this point? Really?

Not typical, Luke. It's not typical. I'm with you on that. I often text you about Joshua, and then you're always like, oh, that's Kadriov's girl, you know, or whatever. Kadriov? Kadirov?

Kadirov, yeah, whatever. I mean, do you think he demands the respect of me pronouncing his name correctly, Luke? I think if you didn't in front of him, you'd probably be tortured. So there's that. It's fair. Look, I'm wondering if I get a little bit more aggressive with the beard growth a la you, and I shave the mustache, even though I don't have a Smash Factory lineage,

being that I am half Lithuanian and you come from a factory town i wonder if i could accidentally fit in with that crew no you you wouldn't fit in for five seconds you'd be outed as an imposter right away you have zero currency in that world um all right let's talk about bellator 271 if we can this is also this weekend. Chris Cyborg is back in action taking on Sinead Cavanaugh. Now if you look at the odds on this one, I mean my goodness, they are very heavily in Cyborg's favor. Our friends at Caesar Sportsbook have her as a minus 2200. Sinead Cavanaugh sitting at plus 1100. You know what? I sort of get why Cyborg decided to go and apply her trade in Bellator. Like she's being made to look like a killer here.

She's probably getting paid great money. I think they're fine. I mean this sincerely. I think Bellator is probably finding the best opponents that they can. But BC, I got to tell you, like there's not much of intrigue factor here. She's just probably going to beat up another opponent. Or am I missing something? Maybe I'm being too harsh.

No, you're not. And by the way, this card is on Showtime Friday night, 10 p.m. Eastern, so you've got a loaded weekend of combat sports on the old free-for-30-day Showtime app. Look, Cyborg's 36, and I feel like every fight she's had in which it's against a regular contender, which has been most of them. We got excited for the Julia Budd fight. There's been other fights that, like, could this be one?

We've gone to that same narrative of, okay, if it's not the opponent that can give her trouble, could it be age? Will she come out flat one night, not land the big home run punch and get outworked? I don't know, Luke. I don't know if Sinead Kavanaugh is the one. There is that one guy, God bless him on Instagram, who drops DMs every week and tweets at me telling us how much we're overlooking Sinead Kavanaugh, the 35-year-old from Ireland, Luke, who may be on a two-fight win streak, but didn't she win?

She lost four of five before that, including losses to top contenders. So, I mean, could Sinead Kavanaugh have had a big, you know, turnaround here? To me, this feels like another move the chains, an attraction fight. The great Cyborg comes out and does her business. Maybe Cyborg's, you know, waiting with bated breath to see what Kayla Harrison's next move is, or can she get a big crossover boxing match or what have you. But the legend will be back once more, Luke. I'm a little bit more interested, to be fair, storyline-wise on this card with the advancement of Aaron Pico, who's got an interesting fight against an unbeaten fighter in Justin Gonzalez,

who's won his debut over Tywon Claxton there in Bellator, has a win on the Dana White Contender Series. We want Pico to make that leap, and he's getting closer, right? He's past reformed. He seems like he's getting closer now. So is he going to fight for a title? Can the local boy make good now? And also, Luke, under the radar on the prelims,

Valerie Lareda back after her first career loss. All right, so let's talk first about there's actually a lot going on in this card. I'm glad you brought it up. First, with Cyborg, if you look at Sinead O'Connor, she is on a two-fight win streak. Whoa, whoa, Sinead O'Connor. Whoa, why don't you just rip up a picture of the Pope on SNL? Oh, no, sorry, Sinead Cavanaugh.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I mean, nothing does compare to her, but come on. To you, yes, I know. Sorry about that. So for Sinead Cavanaugh, no, Cyborg is not fighting a 1980s and 90s pop star from Ireland. She does have the win over Olga Rubin and then Katerina Lerner, but these are hardly like A-level opposition.

In fact, to the extent that she has been matched up against them, I would call that Arlene Blenko and Leslie Smith are A-class opposition for Bellator, certainly. She lost both of those, one via majority decision and one via split so she didn't get super blown out but she wasn't really in it either in the case of Cyborg she and since Amanda Nunes has just coasted she's been beating the balls off of everyone Leslie Smith put up a decent fight for as long as that fight lasted but it did get stopped close to the end of the fifth Arlene Blanco was never really in it Julia Budd was never really in it it's just hard to know exactly that Sinead Kavanaugh is in any way in this and probably not the thing you brought up that to me is by far by far the most interesting fight on this card has got to be Aaron

Pico and I think that this matchmaking is excellent Aaron P, we all know the story, biggest prospect, then he almost was a bust with the two losses back-to-back against Henry Corrales and Adam Boric all the way back in 2019. And since then, has been slowly rebuilding his game, BC. He had a stoppage win in the second round against Daniel Carey. He had a stoppage

win via choke in the first round against Solo Hatley Jr. Then he beat a gentleman by the name of John DeJesus with an overhand right in the second round. And then he got a choke in the first round against Solo Hatley Jr. Then he beat a gentleman by the name of John DeJesus with an overhand right in the second round. And then he got a choke in the third round, Anaconda, via Aiden Lee. So he has not just won four in a row, BC. He's won all four via stoppage, including with both strikes and submissions. This is exactly the kind of thing that you want to see. He now stands at eight and three. But now is the time, BC. You've got 11 fights under your belt, plenty of experience, plenty of rebuilding experience. It's time for a level up. I know a lot of folks don't know the name of Justin Gonzalez, but your summation of what you saw there

is quite correct. Number one, he is undefeated. Number two, he fought in Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series back in June of 2019, and he won. Then he went to LFA and he won a, I believe it was a title fight in there because that was a fourth round stoppage that he got. Then he went to Bellator and fought Taiwan Claxton, another sort of prospect of note, and beat him. So now he finds himself up against Aaron Pico. But we know Pico, if he's careful about his range, he's got heavy ground and pound, obviously has phenomenal takedowns. I think his boxing has come along. What do you need to see from Aaron Pico?

Forget the wins and the loss. Let's assume he gets the win. What would give you confidence again in Aaron Pico from this performance about his future? What does he have to do and show you here? Well, he's going to need Justin Gonzalez to be competitive with him. And if it is, if this is as good of a fight as the matchmaking looks, I want to see a commitment to responsible defense. So what we've liked about Aaron Pico's comeback is his recommitment to wrestling,

to being a little bit safer, to leaning on your strength there, not being so in love with your power that you get wild. But there are still moments in which Pico, to set up these highlight reel type finishes, he's leaving himself in harm's way. And you want to see him graduate past that. Obviously, look, if you're going to be a slugger, you're going to have to get in harm's way. But I want to see a thorough type of victory where some of these fantastic knockouts cover up, you know, the fact that he'll have some hiccups during a fight. I want to see a – look, there's no reason, Luke, because he's mentally tough

and he's proved that he's mentally tough, right? If he wasn't, this would be a big-time fail story, right? Three losses in like his first five or six fights. I mean, you know, biggest prospect in MMA history, Beltor began paying him and, you know, helping develop him while he was still in high school. I mean, this is a rare situation. I think he's shown you that he has everything to,

I don't want to say completely live up to the expectations because he had as large an entrance into this sport of expectations as anyone's ever had. Meaning the only way he can live up to that is to go undefeated, win titles in multiple weight classes had as large an entrance into this sport of expectations as anyone's ever had meaning the only way you can live up to that is to go undefeated win titles in multiple weight classes and basically have like a Kayla Harrison type buzz right now which he doesn't have but what he does have is is is a is reformed a reformed you know status right now and he's dangerous as shit, I just want to see him slowly erase any lingering mistakes or holes in his game.

Because, Luke, when he does step up to the title level, I don't think it'll be next. But it's going to be soon. You do know who has the title in this division, right? One A.J. McKee, who's freaking fantastic. A fight between these two, I mean, it would be amazing. But you've got to get all of your shit in order if you're Aaron Pico before you're ready to fight that guy because that guy is super special.

That guy is off-the-menu special, Luke. You know what I'm saying? And also former training partners. They've trained together at the body shop. Absolutely. So this, you know, and obviously now Pico's in New Mexico and riding that giant horse, Luke, if you know what I'm talking about. So he's a new man.

He's happy. I think they kind of got his dad a little bit removed from the situation who was pushing him into things early. Remember his pro debut at MSG for kind of no reason, fought in a weight class above himself against an experienced guy there, an Ian Freeman or whatever that Freeman's guy's name was. Look, I could not be higher on Aaron Pico 2.0, but I do need to see him use these fights for what they offer him. And that's a chance to just really rein everything in.

I think that's a great answer. I would just add for me what I'm looking for I think is small but at the same time important which is I want to see him comfortable in the pocket. What I have noticed from his striking is he has learned a series of combinations. He's better about putting the striking battles on his terms but the minute that the fight turns outside of his immediate comfort level in the striking battles on his terms. But the minute that the fight turns outside of his immediate comfort level in the striking department, it's right off to the takedown. Now, again, that's smart in a lot of ways, right? It's not going for me well on the feet, or I saw something I didn't like, or whatever. Hey, let's go to my bread and butter. Obviously, he had the background of collegiate wrestling, or sorry, he had the background of freestyle wrestling, I should say,

not collegiate, prior to getting into MMA. And so you have a little bit of this to lean on. And we all know, again, he has phenomenal ground and pound. And I think, obviously, his submissions have come along great as well. But there's a certain amount of unease that he has. I think getting tagged the way he did, even in fights where he won, like against Leandro Eagle, but all the other ones, like the Corrales fight and so forth, there was just a little bit of getting rattled, and then what that does to his decision-making.

I always go and say it the same way. People are like, well, no one likes getting punched in the face, right? Well, that's true. No one likes getting punched in the face. But some people lose their bearing when they get punched in the face, and some people don't. We need to find a situation where he has a little bit more bearing. Now, the best news, of course, would be he can get out of the way of the punches but what i mean to say is put yourself in a position where you can maximize your striking potential and then

potentially as an opponent who might accommodate you in that way although maybe not but let's see if he does but if he gets hurt not hurt i don't want to get hurt per se but what i mean to say is if he gets tagged if he finds it some difficulty i don't mind if there's a reset but I just don't want to see panic I don't want to see a rush to the takedown I want to see I want to see a little bit more bearing in those situations and I think if he can show that the rest of his game the pieces there BC they're they're I mean I'm not saying they're all the way there but they're pretty close he does have good takedowns he can get good cardio obviously with the kind of athleticism in the camp that he has. I want to see some composure under fire.

That's what I'm looking for. Yeah, and I mean, look, when you are a teenager and you're world-class in multiple different martial arts disciplines, and like he told us, you're going in Freddie Roach's gym and you're sparring Miguel Cotto and you're kind of, you know, acting like you belong, you're going to get pretty damn cocky. But Luke, this is an important fight against Justin Gonzalez and his growth. But before we talk about making that leap to the title fight, I want to see him rematch Adam Boric. And he's told us that multiple times that that is the fight that he looks at as sort of, you know, the, the y'all must have forgot moment where he's going to re-remind everybody how great he can be.

He says it'll be different. He regrets who he was in that first fight. Boric has had, you know, a hiccup or two, but is still that dude. I think that's the fight that will let us know if he passes this test on Friday, if he's really ready for the title. And also, just consider, like, you know, I bag on Bellator when I think it's important, but I got to give him a little bit of credit here,

or at least recognize what value they might have if you're Aaron Pico. If he, you know, the UFC's not in the business of signing guys at 0-0 or 2-0 anymore, unless it's extremely rare cases. You know, the best you're going to get is that three and one and now four and one um alex perera but just to point out with the setback that pico had he was able to go to a promoter who can get him frankly like regional level fighters which is what i'm arguing explicitly he needed after those losses to really get the confidence back. But now it is time to begin to put those four wins. And the four camps that came with it.

And the four walkouts. And all those experiences together. Towards a more difficult challenge. Which I think Justin Gonzalez can very much win that fight. And for those reasons I love this matchup. But he was lucky he was able to reset under this promotional banner. It's a similar kind of situation where AJ McKee didn't need the reset, but he could get all of the pieces of the building block from literally his first fight in the organization

until up to his last. And before anyone dead wrongs me, it's Zach Freeman who got the pro debut win over Aaron Pico there. Luke? Go ahead. I had two more things I wanted to point out on this card. Well, I'm going to point out one of them back at you a second time. Okay. Why are we putting Valerie Lareda on the prelims? I mean, I know she's only 3-1 and coming off her first pro

defeat, a three-round decision loss to Hannah Guy, but she has gotten to a level of must-see TV. Do you think this will be fixed by Friday? I'm just looking at Wikipedia at the moment. Could be. She's taking on Taylor Turner who who has a sub 500 record. I think, you know, Valerie sitting at just four fights is not really ready for the upper end or even the middle end of that division, quite frankly, and needs plenty of time. So maybe they called her. I think she

took this fight even on short notice. I think she was just looking to get right um i don't have a good answer for you i don't know we'd have to speak to her or her management to get a better understanding of things i'll say this it's a perfectly winnable fight she should not lose this you know for whatever that's worth turner has soccer mom vibes she's a veteran of the bellator cage she defeated former boxing champion heather hardy and sent her into mma retirement by stoppage but then Luke she got handled in the first round against Alejandra Lara so this is a very winnable fight for Lareda maybe even by stoppage with something you know something spectacular but I don't think you're looking for the spectacular in this one right Luke you want to see a complete effort yeah I want to see soup to nuts the whole array of skills that she has to win this I mean

she's going to lean on her taekwondo and striking which is fine but let's see some good takedown defense let's see some good lateral movement let's see some of those taekwondo weapons not materialized later in fights but a little bit earlier this is what building block experiences are for one more note you're not saying less IG, more gym time. You're not going to that level. I would have said that had I felt that way, but I don't feel that way, so I didn't say it. Right?

That's kind of how it works. One more note. A simple no. One more note on the card to pay attention to. I don't know much about Roman Feraldo. He's also undefeated. But Cody Law. Cody Law is an undefeated featherweight out of att

who looks like he's the real deal holyfield he's just very early in his development so we don't know but that's another guy this is going to be his fifth fight he's not too far from running the corner and getting some name opponents as well keep an eye cody law very very good fighter and i i can already see the texts and messages coming in they spent longer on the Bellator card than they did the UFC, but Steve Mowry is an unbeaten heavyweight who's on this main card as well, Luke. He's about 6'8 or something, and he's looked pretty good up the ranks there out of Hard Knocks or whatever they call that, Sanford MMA these days. So that's a guy to watch for the future there in the heavyweight division for Bellator.

Yeah, it's not that there's not, like, the UFC has altogether probably better fights. Certainly all the way down the card, you could say that's true. I mean, no doubt about it. That's almost always going to be true with UFC. But the story of Aaron Pico, to me, is much more interesting than a lot of the stories absent the main event for UFC. So I can grant that the card for UFC is better. But I do think that that Aaron Pico story is one of the more interesting stories, frankly, in MMA. All right. Speaking of next fights, BC,

this one was kind of interesting and someone asked me about it and I didn't think much about it until I was forced to. And I was like, wow, that is a really good idea. Is Michael Chandler the right next opponent for Conor McGregor so Michael Chandler as we all know fought Justin Gaethje over the weekend and then went and took to Twitter I believe we have the tweets if we can see them I'm told we have the tweets uh let's see if they can pump them up let's see what gas can cook up for us let's see what on the ones and twos. Do you guys have the tweets? There we go. 2022. And then there was a response.

I'm down at some stage for sure. Great fight the other night, Mike. Congrats. Now, he didn't say no, BC, but he did say at some stage. Would you like to see Michael Chandler fight Conor McGregor upon his return? I mean, I'd like to see them fight every day of the week, Luke. Eight days a week, in fact, with the Fab Four there. But here's the deal with the UFC.

This is a very interesting decision on how you book Conor McGregor on this comeback. It's not just two straight stoppage defeats. Granted, to Dustin Poirier, but still, brand-wise, that's a big deal. But this injury, which leaves a lot of unknown. Luke, I think all signs, if Nate Diaz gets resigned, if he does fight in December, that it really feels like part of resigning Nate for the UFC would be to guarantee him the third Conor fight early next year, you know, spring next year. And that would seem like the right fight right now for Conor because it's certainly winnable, provided he's healthy. It's, at the same time, like, I don't know, there's a lot of reasons why that could and maybe even should be next.

But if you're going to gamble, if you're going to put Conor in there with a live body, and that's not to say that Nate isn't a live body. Look, he just, he nearly beat, you know, Edwards last time. I mean, he could still do some things. But a live body like Michael Chandler, he's also extremely vulnerable in terms of, you know, being in there to be stopped.

This could be an epic shootout. And Luke, while the potential for brand, you know, resuscitation against Nate Diaz with a win is certainly strong for Conor even given their age imagine if he went in there and knocked Michael Chandler out that might be the best risk reward proposition if you are only looking at this from the standpoint of how do we get Conor back into it, short of giving him a cowboy-like soft comeback fight, which, again, they rarely ever do. Luke, that'd be a hell of a fight. That would be one of those where it's like, I don't care.

Make it a non-title, pay-per-view main event. It's a guaranteed slugfest. Either guy could win at any time. Luke, I would love that shit. But that's pretty dangerous. Let me ask you. That's pretty dangerous. Let me ask you. That's pretty dangerous just the same, dude. Yes.

So let me ask you, if you're Conor McGregor, why would you take the Michael Chandler fight, right? Because you know it's going to be exciting. That's good. Fans will be up for it. Winnable, I think you might say. But there's some risks there, too. You could get knocked out in that fight.

He could take you down and wrestle you, especially if it's three rounds. So how would you advise if you were advising McGregor in terms of the costs and the benefits and which one to you, if you're, again, just speaking for McGregor's perspective, do the benefits outweigh the risks? If you're McGregor, um, you know, obviously it can come down to money but again I just really think it's time for UFC to cash that Nate Diaz lottery ticket and again I think that will be part of how they re-sign him hanging that carrot over there for Nate to prevent him from going to Bellator or Triller or wherever the hell he's going you know you know what I'm saying there um if you're

Connor though Luke he's always been and it's it's part of what makes him great but as his skills slip it could be part of what helps him slip quicker, is his confidence level is always through the roof when he looks at another man and says to himself, oh, I can beat him. And look, with Michael Chandler, even despite his strong wrestling ability, which could make it a long night for Conor, if you're Conor, you look at that and see the holes. You say, look, Conor doesn't get one-punched.

Yeah, he got stopped by Dustin. You say, look, I don't look, Conor doesn't get one punched. Yeah. He got stopped by Dustin cleanly, clearly no, you know, no controversy. Sometimes his losses tend to be more stamina induced, but nobody comes in there and cleans his clock. Habib came close in that second round when he dropped him. But if you're Conor, you believe that that's kind of the perfect style fight for you. A guy who's going to come guns blazing and with your counter style, you can pick that up and land the perfect blow. I also think of your Conor, you maybe think Chandler will do a little gentleman's agreement and not wrestle. That's coming from me, no one else, Luke. But I know Michael Chandler. He wants a chance to go out there and win the big one. I think he's going to come out with a puncher's chance to do that. So I think of your Conor, you'll take that for the right money.

But Luke, I'm telling you, it's got to be Nate. It's got to be. It just makes so much sense across the board for a guy coming off two defeats. And you're going to have to cash this in eventually. If you wait too much longer, it's not going to have much life left to it. I agree.

I think this is the moment to pull that card. I think for all the reasons you articulated, there are plenty of reasons to make a... Again, dude, Conor McGregor is not hard to matchmake for. I mean, across two divisions and even catchweights in between, there's a ton of ways you could go, and all of them would be good. The Michael Chandler fight might be one of the better permutations for sure, but I agree with you.

If I'm just thinking about the UFC, you can get a lot of what Chandler versus McGregor brings you with Chandler versus sorry with McGregor versus Diaz Diaz is not the same as Chandler no not even close but do you get the action quotient do you get the anticipation quotient and the pre-fight build you get all that, plus you get more star power, plus you already know Conor can beat him. He's literally already done it. And neither guy is exactly at his peak, so a win and a loss becomes forgivable,

and these guys are kind of at a point where that's already the case, although even Chandler, I think, is getting to a point where the record doesn't matter anymore. I don't think he's hunting exactly like best guy in the world. He's hunting the biggest game on the biggest night, which is why for him, the McGregor fight makes a ton of sense.

But I'm with you. You couldn't go wrong if you made Chandler versus McGregor. Impossible. But I don't know that the equation stacks up more favorably for all the parties than McGregor versus Diaz three. That one seems to me your biggest winner by far. Look, I got an interesting thing to ask you. I was going to ask you, if Conor McGregor comes back in his comeback fight,

let's say it's this May-ish of next year, and let's say he wins, regardless of who it is, right? Do you think he closes 2022 fighting for the lightweight title? And I think your answer would be, given his brand, all that, a win. Look, nobody gets resuscitated with a single win like Conor McGregor. Look at the cowboy fight, right? It would make sense, right? The winner of Oliveira and Poirier. But how about this, Luke?

Shale Sonnen came out in regards to the main event last weekend and says, look, Usman's great, but almost like slow the roll on chasing GSP. He goes, I think Usman's going to retire sooner than you guys realize. And you can package that with comments Usman's going to retire sooner than you guys realize and you can package that with comments Usman made after the fight about I don't know what my next move is my next move is to go home and be with my daughter because she's not going to care how much money I'm making she's going to say why were you not there and for anyone who's a dad that's a touching moment a reminder of you know going too all in on your job and being too focused and missing what's right in front of you. So, Luke, let's say that's true.

Let's say Usman, who is fresh off three straight, is it three straight rematches or two straight rematches, and really the possibility of a third rematch potentially against Leon Edwards, who knows? There isn't, outside of Hamzat Chemaev, who Dana White says will not be next, there's no automatic that's the guy, right? We're sort of like, could it be Chiesa? Could it be whoever? Could you see Conor McGregor to close 2022 fighting

for the welterweight title? I know we're going to groan at that. I know we've talked about this before, but I brought Chael Sonnen into this discussion because he got a light heavyweight title shot against Jon Jones that was completely undeserved a weight class above his best weight simply because he sells would they do that shit in 2022 could that be Kamaru's retirement fight Luke not yet no I don't think they give it to Usman no I think Usman does horrible horrible things

to McGregor and I think they know that is there any part of McGregor that talks himself into believing he can win that because the third title is at stake and Usman's a wrestler you know what I'm saying here on the McGregor side sure I think he might believe that I think he might try and lobby for it I can see that argument From your perspective As it relates to McGregor And even Kamara Kamara's like I want to fight Canelo

Canelo would do horrible things to him too But the money would be so good Who gives a shit kind of thing But from the UFC's perspective Just feeding him to Usman So I'll put it this way. If he comes back at 170 and just looks like fucking dynamite, right? Let's say they pull the trigger on that third DS fight and they make it at 170 because the first two, of course, were at 170.

And he goes in there and he's bouncing and he looks like the Conor from UFC 205, the guy who gave Eddie Alvarez da business, right? If he looks like that, certainly you know this as well as I do. Not quite anything, but almost anything is possible at that point. da business right if he looks like that certainly you're you know this as well as i do not quite anything but almost anything is possible at that point i would still bet against it but i will i will concede as impossible as that seems right now the fight game changes fast and if he comes out and looks like a million bucks in a 170 fight it is possible i just feel like bc i just feel like they know that kimura would do damaging things to him but they don't care they knew that john jones was going to beat the shit out of chael they made that one luke chael was never the star connor is no one is the

star that connor is big difference yeah but if you're the ufc and youth in your you might think look at that loss won't really count it It's in the welterweight division. It's against a potential GOAT in Kamaru. There's a lot of money to be made. Look, that shit would sell. No, no, no. I don't mean it that way. What I mean to say is, no, I don't mean it that way.

What I'm trying to tell you is, I think Kamaru literally hurts him enough to potentially alter his career. I'm not going to argue against that. I don't think you risk that. I think he beats the fuck out of him. So I don't think you risk that. I think he beats the fuck out of him, so I don't think you risk that at all. That's it. That would be the major concern,

because otherwise, you're printing money. In every other way, you're printing money, except when the reality hits, and then Kumaru thrashes him. Okay, last but not least... Let's transition to Triller, please, right? Yeah, perfect. Okay, BC, this was one you were really interested in,

but I did my due diligence. I did some research for today's show. So Triller is trying something called triad combat. Sounds like something from, you know, some Indonesian martial arts movie. But nevertheless, it's going to be in a triangular ring so it'll have the ring ropes um Metallica is going to be playing I don't quite have the date in front of me here BC but here's the card and you can help us out with some of these names because a lot of them are

boxers Frank Mir versus Kubrat Pulev Pulev of course fought Anthony Joshua not too long ago Matt Mitrione formerly of UFC and Bellator fame, fights Alexander Flores. Mike Perry, yes, the Mike Perry, takes on Sakio Bika. Derek Campos, formerly of Bellator, takes on Brian Vera. Albert Tuminov, who, by the way, is actually still a good fighter,

takes on Scott Simon. Steve Graham takes on Henry... It's actually Scott Sigmund. That's an error in the print. He was a journeyman boxer. Yep. Okay, and then Steve Graham takes on Henry Gigliotti. I don't know how to pronounce the Italian name.

Gigliotti, Luke. Gigliotti. Gigliotti takes place on the 27th of this month, I guess. So here's the deal, Lucas. Tell me what you think, DC. I am interested, but it really is to just sort of watch the last breath of triller as they try i can't i can't i can't tell if this is like a i don't want to say impressive pivot because there's nothing impressive about this it's a it's an ambitious pivot it's also a desperate one so

here's the deal if you've heard of the triad or try gone before it's because that other bare knuckle federation byb the one that data 5000 runs that uh paulie malinaggi mike goldberg al bernstein claudia trejo's all and now they got like an all-star hall of fame announce crew really it's just bare knuckle boxing in a triangular ring this is taking that with what bk fc is already doing and essentially but the only hook here is that they are going out of their way to market boxer versus MMA and they're they're actually selling this as the rule set will level the playing field between both sports because not only will there be a triangular

ring where you can't hide but it'll be modified gloves somewhere between the four ounces of MMA and the what you know eight or ten, depending on the weight class and boxing. Uh, and you'll allow holding like you already see in BKFC and dirty boxing. So Luke, it's really also, also, also spinning back fist. I saw the rule set. That is a lot as well. So it's not that different, especially the triangular thing, which good God BYB is already doing. Not like anyone's really following that too closely but it's nothing new

but it's like a desperation pivot but because of the names here not that i'm overjoyed to see metallica play the saint anger album you know and in some thriller card the pivot away from rap battles to metallica and bringing in a mixture of washed mma and boxing names and putting them against each other look it's going to be worth one time tuning in and watching it. It is what it is. I mean, I don't know how this rule set, which if we only go by BKFC, MMA practitioners have had much more success in this rule set than boxers, but it's because of the bare knuckle, I think, than anything, because bare knuckle fighting is different than regular traditional combat sports because of how easily you can break your hand.

You really have to be selective with your shots. You can't just load up all the time. We are going to have gloves here, so this will be different. I have no idea in the end. Wash Frank Mir against Akubra Pulev, who still has got some gas in the tank and just fought Anthony Joshua, as you mentioned. I don't know. It seems to me like that's going to be a bad night

for Frank Mir, but I'm actually kind of interested in seeing if these rule sets level the playing field at all. Mike Perry fighting? I'm there. And he's facing a very faded, very faded Saki Obika. Every other boxer on this card, Luke, is really washed as

shit. And some of them have had very little cups of coffee at the top, like a Brian Vera who fought Chavez Jr. and some other big names, but is really a journeyman. But, you know, there's enough names that we know on here that, Luke, is this ambitious at all or is this full-on desperation in your eyes? No, this is the saddest shit on earth. Listen, I have followed enough combat sports where if you see a

company struggling and then their pivot is to be like okay here's check it out we're gonna redo the fighting surface that's the last gasp before total bankruptcy or you know bowing out of this or whatever you want to call it i mean i just can overstate, this is Triller to the nth degree. A confused idea on a confused business rollout with a confused fan proposition in a confusing time. I mean, everything about what they do is, nothing is coherent, nothing is cogent. It just is kind of all by the seat of your pants. Now, when, if you, I tweeted it out, Sean Wheelock, who I do respect quite a bit,

they've hired him to be like their rules guy over there. Yeah, their unofficial scorer, too. Yeah, they have pitched what they're doing as the middle ground between boxing and MMA. And it's like, dude, who the fuck was looking for that? I don't know. Well, dude, BKFC's already doing that. So, you know, so is BYB.

So it's like there's nothing new here, you know? Right, except that the rules are slightly different and there's a little bit more you can do. And, you know, BKFC has like sort of the circular ring versus the now this one was going to be angular. But in any case, you know, you have a situation here where some of these guys are not done, right? Pulev is not done. Mike Perry's not done, right? Pulev is not done.

Mike Perry is not done. And Alba Tumanoff is not done. But almost everyone else on that card is on an epic losing streak or has been done as a top-level competitor for some time. And I just want to go back to this one more time. Folks, Triller, at its core, what is it? It is an app on your phone that is a TikTok competitor. Their number one video on YouTube, I looked it up,

was an ad they put out on their own YouTube channel in 2018. And everything else that they have on that Triller YouTube channel is a bizarre mixture of here's Snoop Dogg, here's a business proposition for certain kinds of apps in certain kinds of countries. Here's a sit down with a random celebrity. None of it makes sense. None of it is together.

None of it is part of a cohesive whole. It's just part of some weird... They have money, and they have people who don't know how this movie ends, thinking they can avoid how this movie ends. And the people who know how this movie ends are taking the money and not telling them how this movie is going to end, which I don't blame them for. So let me tell you how this movie ends are taking the money and not telling them how this

movie is going to end which i don't blame them for so let me tell you how this movie is going to end i don't know how many of these events are going to happen this will not save triller this will die out too so catch it while you can i guess looks like have you ever seen the end of million dollar baby that's how this movie ends it's clint eastwood pulling the plug spoiler alert never watching that shit again i love in the rundown that it says key question is this sad interesting or interestingly sad i'm gonna go with interestingly sad and the only reason why i'm holding out a little bit of hope is i do feel they have a better collection of names here than BKFC or BYB has ever had. Like Frank Mir versus Kubrat Pulev, mildly interesting.

So, Luke, here's the best case scenario. And by the way, BYB has the Trigon, which is like a cage. So this is a ring. It's a little bit different. Still basically the same. If this promotes, Luke, what other people have tried to promote in the past, but it never really worked, which is, okay, fighting's fun, but there's too much strategy and defense in fighting at times, and people get bored by it. And if you're a boxing fan, maybe you don't like or get the

ground game in MMA. So let's essentially create phone booth fighting. And if you could get names and put them in a phone booth fighting set that only promises violence remember bkb tried this about five years ago bare knuckle boxing they had that pit where like they had hand wraps but like the knuckle was exposed and like uh actually brian vera fought in that and and gabe rosado it didn't go anywhere it was mildly interesting luke if frank mirakubra pulev go in there and put on a a war if matt mitch rion gets you know sent to hell in 10 seconds if mike perry and sak in there and put on a war, if Matt Mitrione gets sent to hell in 10 seconds, if Mike Perry and Saki Obika put on a war, there is a place in this world for washed names to show up. That's why when I used to pitch, I don't pitch anymore because I've had enough of the

old guy fights, like the real old guy fights, like the 45 and over fights, right? I've had enough of them. Thank you, Triller. I've had've had enough but i used to pitch why don't we do senior boxing where the rounds are shorter the ring is smaller and it's basically like go in there and throw punches and somebody's gonna land a big one someone's gonna fall and then the fight's over is there any chance in your eyes luke that this crossover between mma and boxing putting them, could get interesting if these are absolute wars. No. No. Yeah, it'll only be sad.

You're right. It'll only be sad. Let's move on. That's it. That's it. Yeah, there's, I mean, listen, you might get some decent fights on the court. You might get some fun-ass, crazy back and forth. This is a bridge, in the words of Sarah Palin, to nowhere.

This is a bridge to nowhere. She can see the USSR from her kitchen, dude. All right? She can go back in time from her kitchen? Is that what she can do? She can see the hammer and the sickle, brother. All right, let's do some quick hitters and we'll wrap up here and we'll do some fan subs.

First things first, BC. Rose Namajunas spoke out and she said Carla Esparza, in the rematch, of course, is the only thing that makes sense. True or false? Do you agree with her? Yeah, rankings-wise, yeah. I mean, Ioana wants big money and an instant title shot, but as much as I would pop to see Rose JJ3,

there's no call for it right now. So, yeah, this is it. Esparza's what, five-fight win streak? I know there's been a couple split decisions in there, but stoppage went look who did she beat her most recent when she ground and pounded the shit out of them who is that person uh i'll pull it up now here i'm not sure off the top of my head i mean she looked violent reborn ready i know she's like 33 but she's a different she's made a nice pivot because as far as obviously fought the inaugural title yes who who was looking great entering that fight you know they obviously fought the inaugural title fight with Rose.

Yes, who was looking great entering that fight. They fought in the inaugural one in 2014. Look, I was there that night. Great card, that tough finale December 2014 inside the what was that, the joint at the Hard Rock? One of those places. It was

a different time. I'll give Carla a lot of credit for evolving her game to this point. I love the storyline. It's the fight that makes sense. Next topic. Okay. I agree with that one, by the way. I think that's the only one that makes sense.

David Benavidez is back against Kyron. I think how you pronounce it? Davis? Yeah. Give us the number one thing to understand about this fight. What's the hook? Well, it's unfortunate here. This is David Benavidez two-time former wbc super middleweight champion was the youngest champion in this division's history unfortunately he's lost his belt twice one to cocaine one to

missing weight but luke you and i talk about this guy all the time must see freaking tv out of arizona mexican-american fighter tall for the division, and just comes with it. Has some craft, but loves to brawl. He was supposed to be fighting Jose Uzcategui. It was going to be former champions, a nice potential action fight. Uzcategui tested positive, so Kyron Davis slides in. But here's the deal. Davis fought Anthony Durrell, the same guy who had a big knockout in the Canelo co-main.

His last fight as an unknown fought him to a draw in a fun fight. So it's pretty interesting here that this one's going to be fun to watch. The hook here is that this is a Benavidez home showcase in Phoenix to go on to bigger things. The question here, Luke, is what are those bigger things? Because I would love to see him against Caleb Plant. And if you're not following boxing close enough, David Benavidez and Caleb Plant have had many public times where they had to be separated with cameras around and they nearly went to war over beefs.

And then there's Canelo. Luke, Canelo's got a big decision about his May comeback. Will it be 175? Will it be a triple G trilogy on DAZN? Or will he double down on what he said, which is, look, I love working with PBC and Showtime, you know, first time in years, and this was great. Will he entertain the idea of, let's look at this marketable group of 168ers, David Benavidez, maybe Jamal Charlo moving up.

Could you imagine Cinco de Mayo weekend in Vegas, the Mexican fans going sick, for the biggest star in the sport, the Mexican icon Canelo against unbeaten Mexican American David Benavidez, who comes with that style. And you have said many a time, Luke, tell me if I'm wrong, might have of all the remaining players, but Turbie has got some exclusively separate unique skills from the group. Although he's 36 Benavidez who's in his young prime might be the guy with the motor, the balls from the group, although he's 36. Ben Avidas, who's in his young prime, might be the guy with the motor, the balls, the size, the activity to give Canelo trouble. He can be gritty when he needs to.

He's slick when he needs to be. He can march forward. He can fight backing up. He's good against the ropes. He's good and close. He's got excellent accuracy and hand speed. His whole problem, BC, as you indicated, he's just been, he's a a phenomenal talent in the ring and he's been something of a fuck up outside of it we covered his first weigh-in during the pandemic when he came in and he missed weight and we were

like no but you granted it was his first time they didn't have access to the sauna because this is when covid restrictions were at their most you know over the top and people were just trying to figure stuff out okay he didn't get a great hand that way but still man you gotta fucking make weight you gotta make weight you're losing titles on the scale it's just absurd but dude when he gets in there for folks who haven't seen him he doesn't look like a bodybuilder but when the hands start going dude these opponents really cannot do much about it he truly i mean this he's not ready for it yet i would like to see him win this one bc and i think he needs a big one in between now and any potential Canelo showdown.

But if he can get one or two big fights, I think he can showcase his skill. If he could stand the straight and narrow, he is absolutely somebody who could give Canelo problems at 168, and I'm not sure that I wouldn't pick him to win. He's that good. But he's got to get straightened out. And he's unbeaten, you know, and a former champion,

so that's extremely sellable on a Cinco de Mayo weekend to pack that house and by the way did you see the Canelo gate it was like something like 17 million or some shit I mean that's just yeah 17 million oh I'm not sure I'm not there was a lot of walk-up tickets at the end so obviously you're selling to a lot of the you know the casino whales and whatnot but um you know for smaller venue, that wasn't T-Mobile. Boy, they fucking pulled in a huge gate on that card. David Benavidez's older brother, Jose Benavidez Jr., he once fought Terrence Crawford for the welterweight title

and put on a decent showing before being stopped in the final round. Luke, he is no longer with top rank. Now he's with the PBC, so he'll be the co-main event in this double Benavidez homecoming on Saturday. Jose, he's a good fighter. He's had some leg injuries, which held him back. But Luke, Jose Benavidez is a hothead. I love watching him fight.

He fights with spite and anger. So this is worth watching on Saturday night. And his brother fights with all the skill in the world. Let's see him apply it on Saturday. OK, BC, we got two DAZN cards coming up this weekend but the one that's got me hot under the collar has got to be Gabe Rosado taking on Jaime Munguia Munguia a phenomenal puncher in that division Gabe Rosado ending up in this position by virtue of a KO of the year one hit or quitter candidate in a fight that I think you would agree wasn't supposed

to win not only wins it he ices the guy face first but your consolation prize is you got to go fight this hammer with a big punching power correct this is going to be a fun ass fight now if you don't know gabe rosado he's long been the the backdoor journeyman who has never gotten the promotional push typically loses close decisions in fights against big names where you're like, man, I feel like Gabe won that. Yet he's like the fighter's fighter. I think he's got like 10 or 12 losses, Luke, but he's always in every fight he's in. He's done some acting in the, what was he in the first Creed movie? He's in his late 30s.

He went in there against Beck the Bully, who's a big-time prospect, and he knocked him the hell out, which was as surprising as we've seen. But to be fair, Gabe Rosado fought Danny Jacobs in his last fight before that, and we all thought deserved the decision in a very close fight. So, this is going to be a good test for Jaime Munguia, who we

know is straight ahead all the time. Let's never forget about Munguia, by the way, Luke, in the overall middleweight, super middleweight discussion, even someday toward a Canelo fight, right? He's unbeaten. He fights. He's from Mexico.

He fights such an exciting style. This is going to be a good fight. And, you know, Gabe Rosado has been so close to winning the big one for so long. He goes out there and beats Hami Munguia. Like, that's the biggest win of his career by far. You're going to see action. It's going to be fun. Luke, what is the other DAZN card?

I kind of forgot off the top of my head. I'm not sure. I've looked it up on Bad Left Hook. I don't see, it's not one of the major ones. I think there's, yeah, I'm not sure. It's just the only one I'm paying attention to is that one. Yeah. All right.

We don't, we don't need to talk about it here. What else you got, Luke? Last but not least, Frankie Edgar has said he is undecided, I should say, undecided on retirement and apparently had recent hip surgery. Now, he also said that he thought that the referee he knew was going to shut him down quickly and that the whole stoppage was unjustified. It's like, dude, here's the thing about Frankie, man. He is one of the more resilient fighters you will ever see in combat sports. And I mean that, right? What he did, for example, if you've never seen the

Maynard fights, you know, Gray Maynard had him in deep, deep trouble several times, and he was able to work his way out of it in what can only be described. Like, where did the legend of Frankie Edgar came from? It was born out of the Maynard fights truly other ones as well but that was really where it began to hit high gear that mental toughness is now I won't say his worst enemy but it's causing problems because he has been so committed to the idea that he can overcome these challenges and has been for so long and by the way been right he's been right that he could overcome those challenges now he is getting to a point of his career where he is for the first time ever bc we went over this

on extra credit now he has the for the first time ever back-to-back stoppage losses that used to never happen to him now he's got two of them in a row all those things that made him great that's going to make him deciding to hang it up all that much harder. Yeah, I mean, let's not forget he won a world title, two divisions above his best weight, or his preferred body weight, and is one of the best all-time in that division's history. I mean, this guy's amazing. Luke, I don't want to see him take any more punishment.

I love this man. I know, remember when Zufa used to give those lifetime jobs to Griffin, Bonner, Hughes, and they don't do it anymore in this era. Although, actually, Forrest Griffin's got a good job at the Performance Institute. He's like the host in presenter. Yeah, he actually does work for them, yeah.

Please, give this man a job. Frankie Edgar is like everything a UFC fighter and champion you would want to be. And the fact that he's lingered at such an elite level over multiple divisions in the second half of his career, I mean, God, I love this guy. No more. Please, no more.

I love the fighter's heart, but Luke, that's when they become their own worst enemy. It doesn't matter if you can still beat, you know, guys at the end or outside the top 10. Like, what's the, or outside the top 10. What's the why? Why at this point, Luke? I don't know what he wants left.

It's really up to him. I mean, someone made this point to me. I'd love for you to weigh in on it. This is the argument that I made yesterday on Extra Credit, which was whenever I say, by the way, all I said was that Frankie should consider retirement. I didn't say like retirement has to be eminent, take away his license. I didn't say anything. I said it needs to be considered. And people point out, well, he can still win fights. He can still be good guys. Well, first of all, he can't beat the guys that he used to beat. Number one, number two, you know, the trend lines are bad. You're getting back to back stoppage losses. That's literally never

happened in his career up until this point. So there's all kinds of trend lines you can point to. But the other point is, dude, between, Frankie was very much ahead of his time, right? Because what he was doing was footwork, fainting, fakes, angles, flurries with his hands, getting in and then getting out. And that was, when he was doing that, not a lot of guys were doing that. Even now, some people are still not doing it all that much. So his game has enabled him to still win. He could still beat good fighters. I believe that probably somewhere close to the, you know, outside the top 15 or maybe right between 10 and 15, somewhere around there. Although he did beat Pedro Munoz not too long ago. You get the idea. He can still be good guys, but, but with the amount of damage he's taking and then the kinds of guys he can't

beat right you cannot beat championship caliber guys that much has been pretty clear there's a question about what is really left for him to keep doing that's for him to decide but i don't think the question's out of bounds well the problem is that he can still compete at a high level that becomes the problem but when he gets knocked out he gets knocked the hell out so Luke if he came back against Conor McGregor next year would that be worse than the cowboy comeback fight for Conor yeah yeah it would be yeah yeah I don't want to see that um Luke before we transition into fan submissions you did mention today is uh Marine Day so shout out it's not Marine Day it's the marine corps birthday you don't always have to be um rude about it you could i'm not being rude i was gonna say shout out to the what do you call them

the the what you what you say shout out to the devil dogs luke whatever those are and you know semper fi never die whenever you say things like whatever those are that's the very definition i'm not trying to disrespect you i'm trying to praise In fact, I wanted them to throw up the picture that you put on Instagram and Twitter that got great love. Thank you for your service the day before Veterans Day, Luke. I'm a big fan of you and your life and what you've done. There's the pic right there. And somebody, Luke.

Go ahead, go ahead. Somebody on MMA or no, M. Myers House on Instagram responded to that and was like, can we get a split screen with this of a shot of BC from 98? So look, before we go to that split screen, can we go back to that Luke solo photo? Yeah. Can you tell us all? Cause I want to, I want to properly praise you here. 1998, you graduated high school the year before you went to the Marines. Tell me about this version of Luke Thomas when that picture was taken.

So you actually, I don't know if you can, can you blow the picture up just a little bit, just a little bit. I want to show you something that you may not catch on the detail. So it's on the right side of the photo, but it's actually the bottom left side of my chin. Do you notice how it's a little bit swollen relative to the other one? It's not significant, but you can kind of see it there, right? Yes, yes.

So this was a very bad day. So that morning I got up and we were doing what's called manual arms. That's when they're like when you bring up to port arms the weapon and you're doing all kinds of like, you know, ceremonial handling of the weapon in formation and you're walking. And I had fucked up something. I forgot what it was and my drill instructor took my m16 a2 and then jammed it in my face really fucking hard and the and the

front sight post which is what you use to obviously um you know assess your target and center of mass it hit my chin right here and i didn't even know it and blood splattered everywhere which i also couldn't didn't know because this is going to sound kind of crazy, but you can't look down. So I didn't look down until finally I was in the chow line and I noticed that as I went down, all the people giving me food were looking at me like I was a fucking zombie. And I get to the end and my drone instructor is like,

Thomas, Thomas, come here, you filthy, whatever. And he pulls me aside and then starts wiping my face. I'm like, dude, what the fuck? And then I see him pull back the hand and it's just dyed red blood on his hand. So he finally took me to the sick bay and they put something on there to kind of like, almost like what you would give a boxer to like seal a cut. And then they made me ice it because like we got pictures today i don't want you to look like i've been abusing you i'm like even though you fucking abused me asshole

and so that's what that day was but um that was a hard day that was um that was not a great day but that was a time in my life where i was just trying to do new things and see where it took me and um i'm proud of it i'm proud of it do you still have that hat by the way it's not a hat it's a cover oh it's called a campaign i'm not being ignorant or rude you don't have to like you know i mean it's a hat okay all right they're not hats they're called covers there's a difference uh yes i still have it i still have it i'd like to put on my my marine hat luke and salute you okay that's not a marine hat that's some kind of it's some kind of army and you don't have you don't have the you don't have my father's it's my father's private

duty fireman hat okay 25 years on the on the uh hey could you put more dust on the brim i don't have enough dusty luke okay but i want i was hoping you had yours we could we could wear our caps or covers i'm sorry our covers yeah our covers yes oh luke in full non-disrespectful um notation here can you tell me about that version of luke in 1998 were you typical lost teen angst melancholy with a little bit of the infinite sadness who was i had i had already gotten into college in fact i was able to if i put up two photos if you look up both of them one one is that I graduated with, um, I think it was, um, they had me in Echo Company, uh, Echo Company, 2nd Battalion. I was able to move to 1st Battalion, Alpha Company, because I was able to skip team week, which is basically

just a week of servitude so that I could get back to college on time. So my Marine Corps bootcamp was 12 weeks, not 13, which it is for most people. But I was already headed to William & Mary, I was already in. I just wanted to do something difficult. I wanted to be challenged, I wanted to see what it meant to get pushed and to get outside of my comfort zone. No one in my family ever joined the military.

I didn't need to go into the military, I just decided to do it because I wanted to be better than what I was. And I got not everything I wanted, but I got most of what I wanted out of that Marine Corps experience. But that day in particular was a hard day. Were you in college and the Marines simultaneously? What were you in the Marine Corps? Yes. The Marine Corps does not have an ROTC program. You can do a system where you can break up training in the summers, but Navy and Army have one. Marine Corps doesn't. So you either are in the Marine Corps or you're not.

That's it. Okay. Okay. What did you, what rank did you reach? I mean, look, it's the Marines' birthday. I wanted to celebrate you on this Veterans Day week. Yeah. E5.

I was a Sergeant. Sergeant Thomas. That's how far I got. Big, big fan of you. But, you know, M. Myers House did say, can we get the split screen of 1998 BC up against Luke? So here we go, Luke.

You nasty civilian pig. Golly. Who was BC in 1998? He was 20 years old, attending community college, a janitor at stop and shop and uh writing for the local newspaper that i had a chin beard luke that curled under most of the time and uh

not not there was not a lot of uh procreate hair like not a lot of consummation going on during these these uh these years yeah yeah yeah i mean we took very different paths to get here i have to admit but you know what we both ended up as dodge neon so can't say shit can i well luke thank you for your service and all the other do any other marines you want to shout out of famous no mma boxing uh just just the unit that i serve with for the majority of my time uh hotel battery 314 fourth mardiv um great bunch of guys in fact one of them messaged me on Instagram this morning, Sergeant Graham, who I knew for a long time. And yeah, man, that was like a really,

that was, I wouldn't do it again, candidly, but I'm glad I did it when I did. And the Marine Corps was just an, it was an endless series of life lessons for better, for worse. What would you say is the number one positive thing you took from that experience that defines you today, Luke? The Marine Corps was the first time where, again,

everyone's going to have a different experience or get to this differently. I don't think any one situation is better than the others. But for me, I did not know what it meant to be a slave to your own mind like your mind will play tricks on you big time like i'm not one of these guys that like is the in the cult of david goggins who's like this sort of psycho guy who has enabled himself to do these incredible feats of um strength and and endurance and everything else

because he closes off the part of his mind that would prevent him from doing that. But there is something to be learned about that. Like there were times when I was like, I thought I was fucking done, done, finished. And then shit got even worse. And then another layer of worse on top of that. And you just like, dude, there was no way you were going to get through it unless you just got through it. You had to walk through fire. And once I realized that my mind was telling me limits that I thought for sure were real, they were not real at all. Once you break that barrier and you begin to realize you can shape your reality by taking on positive attitudes or a certain mentality towards difficulty or whatever, your ability to do things expands exponentially. But it wasn't until I was just sort of held underwater

and forced to come to the surface that I learned that. But that has paid significant dividends going forward. I often wonder how different, Luke, my 20s would have been if I had gone that same route as you and gotten my ass kicked a few times. You know what I'm saying? You would have been discharged. D gone that same route as you and gotten my ass kicked a few times you know what I'm saying you would have been discharged uh dishonorably yeah no to to get discharged dishonorably you gotta like murder people and shit you wouldn't have done that but have been like you'd have been like Jesus will you stop smoking pot fucking Lance Corporal Campbell will you please quit doing that you know I didn wear this shirt for today, but it made sense.

I just happen to have been wearing this loot for the past three days. This United States Donk Corps, is this blasphemous to wear this? Yeah, I didn't like that. I never liked anything about it, and I'm glad we're not doing it. Okay, it never made the website. I want to alter this a bit. Get the Donk stuff out of there. I do like the logo, though.

That's pretty sweet. And by the way, the Marine Corps colors, that red and that yellow and the i love it i the marine corps is great dude and you know so i got this big ass tattoo to commemorate it and everything but um but um that that that that hoodie was a fucking disaster so i'm glad real quick before we get close with fan subs uh as you know luke yesterday showtime did make it official that uh and a former nfl running back frank gore will box uh former nba all-star uh deron willStar Deron Williams on the Jake Paul undercard, which, by the way, will also feature Amanda Serrano moving back up to lightweight in a co-main event fight. But did you see Ariel Hawane just tweeted that Chael Sonnen is now saying he was in discussions to box Frank Gore in that spot,

but it didn't end up working out. Gore's team didn't go for it. Luke, would you have been a little Frank Gore in that spot but it didn't end up working out Gore's team didn't uh didn't go for it Luke that would you been a little more interested in that I mean I'm interested in look I'm actually into two big name athletes that we know getting in there in boxing I'm actually into that so I mean I would definitely be into seeing Chael do like fun weird things for sure but I gotta say don't you feel like in the interest of just making this work, you got to have two people who are coming at this. Not mostly similar. Yeah.

I mean, you got to have, that's why the Chad Ocho Cinco thing kind of work. Cause him and the other guy, he had the BKFC experience, but not really much more. They were this, this Duran win.

Frank Gore works better than the Chael Sonnen one, but to see Chael doing it, you know, that would have been cool. Maybe Chael will get that Triller money, you know, and fight in the damn triad. I don't know. Whatever. All right, Luke. Every Wednesday, we have people email us at morningcombat at gmail.com

to send in their fan subs. They do the same on Friday with Dead Wrong. But every Wednesday, you can send in your picks, your art, and we'll roast you probably for your bad cable management. This one's called Fan Submissions. By the way, what happened to the wheel? Are we going to do the wheel anytime soon? We've got mail.

There's a rumor going around, Luke, that we might be bringing back Celebrity Wheel of Death next week. Because next week is my final full week before uh i go on a little vacay all right okay all right a lot of people say you guys take too many vacations i didn't try to take this vacation usain bolt gave it to us all right luke i'm sorry okay all right let's start off here fernando c says what's up donks fernando Texas day one asshole really just taking a picture of his shirt I work from home so I don't miss any of your content attached

as a pic of the MK shirt I ordered I'm a simple man so I'll take a simple shirt also I screenshot the upcoming cannibal corpse tour poster and dates for early next year so you can take BC I'll be attending the San Antonio date love the show keep killing the game

mk all day nearly every day so bc has bitched out on dying fetus this month did i really bitch out luke i what have i told you in the past i said you know you said one more time you tried to hug me in the airport i'm like look you put doc cameras around i'll do a lot of things luke okay okay show so i hope that the showtime producers are watching because you know bc we know sometimes i do sometimes i don't but if they are watching today you heard that man cannibal corpse february baltimore let's do it let's do it i mean that's like why don't we just go visit the devil luke okay anyway i think that we need a better gatekeeping system i do put this on mikey more mile our producer fernando's just setting in sending in a picture of a t-shirt like we can't even talk about yeah you got to put on the t-shirt guy you

got to put it on i mean we can't even comment if he's been in the gym at all or anything about him you know come on come on all right matthew says uh quote from sure dog a 24 year old chuck mindenhall versus a one and all barry crawford surely if this was real, BC would have brought it up or joked about it by now. However, when looking for footage, I came across a post where it seems Crawford himself confirms the fight took place

and that he is currently a fan of Chuck's writing. Does either Luke or BC have more information or is there a reason Chuck doesn't bring it up? What the hell is he talking about, Luke? What the fuck is this fight

where they were 0-0 and 1-0? Can you blow this up? This is not real. So that's Chuck Mendenhall on the left? Yeah, this is some bullshit. This is a fan sub right here. I guess. We should double check this.

Yeah. I guess, yeah. This segment, Luke, is really just, you know, thanks, guys. Well, they're just sending us a, hey, here's a picture of my balance when I took 20 bucks out of the ATM. Okay, great. All right, we got Daniel from Pasadena. He says he's been watching since episode one.

He says some other stuff. So he wanted to share with us his recent project. I bought this 100-year-old house in the summer, and a previous owner covered the fireplace with bricks, so I used a jackhammer to break the brick open, fix it, paint it, install a fireplace door. Now I get to enjoy MK with a wood fire and a dram of scotch. Congrats on 100K.

And BC, I love you. No HMO. My IG is... Whoa. All right. I'm not going to read he did a he did a he did a great job that is pretty badass uh uh handiwork there dude is there what is better than day drinking doing nothing else and then just laying and watching football and in front of a fire like there i mean i just don't know what could be better than that. Yeah, he's at PuroAficionado on IG if anyone wants to get stoned with him

and talk stonework with him. But thank you very much, Daniel. Appreciate you watching us on. You're very well done. Good work right there. All right, Goran. Look, Goran's back. You know Goran Ivanovic?

He says, hi, LT and BC. You make my Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays because I'm from Australia, along with art content you guys spoil us with event after event. I decided to put together a rooftop BC biatch counter. The 90s counter has been left flailing from your team as of late, or as Luke likes to put it, it's not your fault that you were born in the late 90s. Also, I'd like to introduce you

to the real Triple C rooftop diaries with the chucks. I for one would be Art. Although the man in the hat may have trouble understanding what the Iceman and Charles would be saying. Finally, I get a kick out of the names you guys give

the fighters and or gyms. So therefore, I created an MK pound for pound list. Let me know if i left anyone out keep it up you big dossers all right luke what does he got here let's blow this up apple fuckface mcgee smash factory city cock boxing coach latore dustin pawiway gone in 60 seconds pio treyon Jan. Anthony Must See TV Smith. Nasrat Hack Rack Passed. Do I Wanna Joanna? Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. Well, yeah, actually. The Nasdaq 500 there at number nine. Good shit here from Goran. Luke, what did you think about his biatch counter? He only had two. Didn't you have like 79,000 of them the last time? It's possible.

He says, thank you from Wollongong, Australia, the hometown of the great Alexander Volkanovski. All right. CKB in the house. Tyler says, it was great to see BC looking like Orville Redenbacher again during the Canelo resume review. I was lucky enough to find the special edition BC Redenbacher poppycock with drug rug text

at my local grocery store. It took me way longer to make this than I would like to admit, but I have had a lot of free time since January 6th. That's pretty good. It's pretty good. I like that. I'd eat that shit believe me on that one all right uh no noel noel says hello boys greetings from new england i started taking

my daughter to a introductory muay thai class she has several years of judo under her belt and many more years of training karate at home wow with her dad but this is the first time formerly kickboxing she is absolutely loving the experience and being that she is also a ufc and mk fan we made it a ritual since her classes on wednesdays to come home and watch the wednesday edition of this show look they're watching this shit right now noel and his daughter i've been a fan of you guys since the mma beat and even remember luke stent and glory wow speaking of which let me also put in my vote for some Glory kickboxing coverage on the show.

The guys over there are super high level. They don't get credit. Beyond that, he loves us. It's Noel from Boston. Can you zoom in on this? Luke, that's pretty awesome. He's going to Team Sid Yong Tong there. That's Kenny Florian's old gym, right?

Yep, Sid Yong Tong near Boston. And what's he wearing? This is great. What shirt is that that he's wearing? He's wearing batter hari shirt oh that's badass yeah and she's wearing the mk shirt and she's got all smiles this is fucking wholesome bro this is the best that's wholesome as shit mk style shout out to you noel uh sorry your brother liam's an asshole but you know what i'm talking about right here all right the fighter kid slides in. He says, hi, guys. I heard Usman is jumping for joy that you decided to do the resume review on Canelo and not him.

I'm not sure if Luke is having fun with the curse now or if he's trying to end it ASAP. How come you decided to do Canelo? Why not wait for a more risky fight like B-Vol or Better B-V? I mean, these guys are just unbelievable. It's like, dude, we did fucking Adesanya when he was trying to become champ champ. You know what I mean these guys are just unbelievable it's like dude we did fucking Adesanya when he was trying to become champ champ you know what I mean like we weren't picking scrubs in the game or like you know we thought

by the way I had every confidence that I thought Adesanya was going to win that shit and he didn't you know this whole thing about like oh you guys picked Canelo because you wanted to break the curse well if the curse is real then Canelo can't break it now can he you fucking idiots so well the fighter kid said I hope

Luke is prepared for fans to add the stipulation that the curse only applies to MMA your local BBL it's just goalpost shifting is all it is all right all right the fighter kid also said hi Luke I'm stupid what is this a second meme gaffer is this nothing number eight nothing those are my favorite emails here we go here we go i there was a part of me luke that was like you know if caleb plant can do this our curse is going to be the most powerful force on earth i thought about i was like dude if plant wins and let's say something miraculous too like he wins like via stoppage which would be almost impossible for him to do i was like dude i'm i'm never i i could you could we could be uh we could do like curses or excuse me we do resume reviews

after that we could do 100 it wouldn't matter the amount of fucking dms and tweets and messages i would have gotten if canelo had lost would have been overwhelming, which goes to show that now that he win, you guys, pardon me for the teen who was watching, who trains with her dad at sit-yaw-tong, the rest of you can, you know, lick my balls. So how about that? You think we should put the MMA curse on the line with a Pwawee-way edition? Pwawee-way. We could, because there's no such thing as a curse. So I'd be happy to do whatever you wanted.

All right, Joshua says, good morning, gents. Huge fan. Wanted to share some photos of my little trip with my girlfriend that we took to Duggan Falls an hour outside of Portland. There we go. More of the content and everything you do for... We sell pink shirts. Are you serious? He says, P.S., whose tip do I have to touch to get y'all to make some MK rash guards?

I'll buy a short sleeve and a long sleeve. If the drug rugs can be a thing, surely y'all can rash guards happen to love Joshua. Zoom in on this shit. Do you need a rash guard to break into the Capitol building or just for jujitsu? Can we go back to that? Do we really sell that pink shirt or the purple one, whatever? Yeah. And by the way, he's got some nice, I can't quite read the tats because they're so they're so dark but yeah they look like they're

pretty good i you know he may have even been to a gym and he may have even been laid book shout out to josh yeah he had a female friend who i don't think he paid to be there so yeah unlike most of luke's friends from the marines this guy does it the traditional way yeah they just love hookers i just can't even you wouldn't believe it uh joshua we appreciate you wearing our shit and best of luck in your relationship it looks like well done okay over to cs he says just want to slide this in here we'll see if the curse believers have to pivot to mma only or not let's see what he's sliding. Okay, not bad.

I mean, we didn't quite get there, but, you know, I appreciate it. Not bad, not bad. Thank you, CS. Josh says, this is Josh from Perth, Western Australia. It's all in good faith. Keep those dick jokes up, BC. Ooh, he has the Poirier hot sauce. What is that? Blow it up. uh blow it up you blow it up

we go back oh no oh no is that is that a hot dog with shrimp on it oh that is so disgusting luke is that no wait is that like a po boy i think it's a shrimp dog well a po boy kind of is a shrimp dog sort of. It doesn't have the dog, but I think it's more like a po-boy. What does he have? A second photo with him in a shirt? Can we go to that? Bro, you knew he had a beard like a smash back. Oh, blow this shit up. All of our viewers do who are men.

Dude, what do you think of that beard? That's aggressive, right? First of all, the kitchen's a little bit small, but it's nice. Very nice kitchen. He's put together real well. Yeah, he's doing doing okay he's doing okay okay i'm not hating okay i see he's been working those those delts in the gym luke all right shout out to josh there from australia or wherever that guy is yeah okay let's go over to julian i wish the man a long life and happiness but nothing and i mean nothing cracks me up more than a luke thomas meltdown the last minute plus of luke's attempted live chat in front of that terrorist kidnapped

soon beheaded victim curtain was priceless what the hell is he talking about luke keep up i tried to do one from my hotel room and it was a complete fucking nightmare the mk stages of luke thomas depression the first one says bc says i'm the american alpha then i say you wanna and then you melt down as i say hey bro what's up with the weird shit tony gave you that time yeah this is this is well done luke this is well this is actually pretty well done yeah this is combining several different things into one but they did a pretty good job actually uh julian says uh fake name this is my burner lol with tears in my eyes you're job actually uh julian says uh fake name this is my burner lol with tears in my eyes you're day one fan julian all right all right uh walt is here luke i don't know if that means it's walt harris of the ufc but he says hey dudes here's some stuff

i worked on when i should have been working got a couple laughs in the reddit community oh oh shit but i forgot is that like is that the contra cover? Oh, that is... I want that poster in our new studio. That is badass, Luke. That is fucking sick. That is great. That is good stuff right there, Walt. Walt from... Waltimus from Jersey.

Very good. Let's see what else he's got here. Oh. Yeah, what are we doing here? Indeed, okay? Heard it both ways, Papa. Oh, man. You guys are just trying to get me.

Is this Double Dragon? Oh, that's pretty good, too, Luke. That is pretty good. Dude, all of these are pretty funny. Yeah. Is that Ariel in the background? That's kind of funny, too, actually. Oh, yeah.

We didn't make it. We didn't make it. Finally, Luke, we got a day one fan from England named Matt. He says, somebody already beat me to the squid game memes last week, but still wanted to submit my attempt. Luke, what position do you think Brian would finish if he were to take part in the games? Oh, Brian would have been the old guy who just died halfway through

or whatever it was. Look at you with that hair. Would you ever consider growing the locks out? You'd kind of be a handsome man again. No, no, no. No, no. I mean, what do you have now? Like a barracks cut?

I have weird hair. It just sticks out, you know? So I didn't comb it this morning, so it's not really looking. I mean, you know what you're going to do. Growing it out even more, it would just look even worse. I have to keep it kind of under control. I spend $100 on masseuses. You spend it on haircuts, Luke.

We all have our things, right? You spend $100 on that massage? Oh, for 75 glorious minutes, Luke. Are you going to judge me? I one time got a massage, and my wife got it for me. So she got me one on our wedding day, which was fine. I didn't love it, but it was ever. And then one time she got us a couple's one

where both people massaging us were dudes. Oh. Yeah. Well, he was, I'm pretty strict about like what you can massage and what you can't. But like he did this weird thing where he was trying to do. Wait, wait, what do you mean you're really strict

on what you can massage and what you can't? I only have like sore, like a sore back stuff. I i don't want everything else touched i don't need anything else like i just need my back loosened up it's all he's not gonna go to your your butthole bro i mean no but like no for example legs i don't want them touched arms i don't want it touched i just realize how much stress you carry in like your calves in your hips that you don't realize it releases all that stuff yeah see it doesn't at least not for me i haven't had that kind of experience uh but i'll just say this you haven't got to the point yet the point is this dude had this weird breathing technique where the whole time he would

like breathe rhythmically and super fucking loud exhales through his nose so he'd be he'd be like okay we'll go to this now. Yeah, Luke, I would not do that. I would not. And I was like, after that was over, my wife was like, hey, did you like that? And I'm like, I would have rather had been fucked to death by an eight-dicked walrus than ever do that again. Wow. Yeah, so you had a bad experience, Luke. I have not had those experiences.

Although there was a time Showtime sent me to – the time I showed up on Below the Belt with Brendan Schaub. That weekend it was Gervonta Davis in Cali. My back was like – you ever pull your back and it takes you like 15 minutes to get out of bed and climb and like stand up? It's like a mess. I went to the – my wife's like, go get a massage. And I'd never got one before.

And I accidentally signed up for the one where like there's handlebars on the ceiling and the lady hangs from those bars and steps and knees all over your back and um and it was like pitch black in the room that was a little intense i didn't know how that was gonna end look i'm gonna be honest with you okay that was a little intense the one i had yesterday was very proper and and uh perfect luke okay i wish you would open your body to more things, Luke. I one time paid 20 bucks for one of those massages in the mall, which was actually pretty good. Dude, this Chinese lady, she had to be like 70.

She beat the fuck out of me. She was like Shane Carwin ground and pound on Brock Lesnar in the first round. I mean, I was like a 10-8 in that bitch. She walloped me. But then when I mean, I was like a 10-8 in that bitch. She walloped me. But then when I left, I felt pretty good. I was like, shit, that old lady, she did a number on me. That was all right. Luke, I felt like I was watching round one of Gaethje Chandler

for like 12 hours yesterday. I mean, I was just, everything was loose. Luke, free your mind and the rest will follow. Be colorblind. Don't be so shallow you're the worst person in america do we have any more of these stupid ass fucking that's it oh whoa what's this we got one more from matthew all right i guess we do i guess we do yeah you you would this would be your situation from squid game what is happening here i don't

get it luke i don't get it they had had to get out this sort of sugar-crystallized substance using a nail without breaking the actual shape. Okay. They had under a time to do, and if they didn't get it, they got shot in the head. Is that number, does that mean something to me, Luke, that number? Yeah, you love dick and balls

more than any other person I know. I prefer north-south on my grappling days luke okay god i mean can we end this show already all right okay to all you devil dogs out there all right this is happy birthday don't put it don't put the hat don't put the cover on don't put the cover on sincere no i mean dude see this what i, I mean, dude, see, this is what I'm talking about. You have these moments with me. You're like, dude, everyone who gets bitter at my jokes is being sensitive. And then you do blasphemous shit like this that should get you court-martialed if you were under the UCMJ.

And then wonder why people don't respond to it more positively. We have this growing thing where I start to welcome the staff members into our brotherhood, and then I try to initiate them, and then they turn on me, Luke. Yeah, because you get so fresh with them that you don't realize that you're being inappropriate. That's why. You hold nothing sacred other than people's lives are fodder for you, and then when they don't like it being fodder for you, you're like, what happened?

What happened? That's what happened. Uh, all right. All right. Yes. Uh, let's see.

We have a Friday show. We have a Friday show. Going to do X's and O's. So be there for that. 11 a.m. In the East. Email us your dead wrongs. Go to morningcombatatgmail.com.

Let us know. Showtime has two combat sports events for you this weekend. What could there be to miss? Showtime.com. 30 day free trial. weekend what could there be to miss Showtime.com 30 day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not do whatever you want but you can watch the Showtime fights this weekend plus morningcombat.store we got the merch if it's not here yet

get a gift card it will be drug rugs coming the whole nine yards so just be patient but we already got some best sellers already available at morningcombat.store and that's it BC any final thoughts before we get out of here did you get your So just be patient. But we already got some bestsellers already available at morningcombat.store. And that's it, BC. Any final thoughts before we get out of here? Did you get your new Manscaped satchel in the mail?

I got my new package. I have not. I have not. Did you? Maybe they like me a little more than you. They might. They might. Okay.

With that out of the way, that's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. Thank you guys so much for watching. We'll see you on Friday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.