MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - McGregor-Poirier 3 | Volkanovski & Ortega New TUF Coaches | Pitbull vs McKee | Ep 139

Episode Date: April 5, 2021

Get your week started with some Morning Kombat. Luke and Brian talk McGregor vs. Poirier 3 as a deal gets closer and closer to being finalized. Plus, they recap this weekends Bellator 255 event and look ahead to a Pitbull vs. AJ McKee in the Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix Final. Also, Brian Ortega and Alexander Volkanovski were named as the coaches for next years season of The Ultimate Fighter. Is that the right decision? ---------------------------- '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: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Reveille, reveille, donks. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell.

This is Morning Combat. It is Monday, the 5th of April, 2021, and it is time, ladies and gents, diggity donks, cucks, and I don't know, what else? But it's time for Morning Combat. Hello, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. Let's bang the gentleman on the other side of the screen. He is vaccinated, not housebroken, but a wonderful man just the same. It's Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian. How are you? Hi, Luke. Thank you. Thank you for that rousing introduction right there. Yes, I have taken one half of the recommended amount of Pfizer inside my blood system at this moment, Luke. So I slept a lot.

I was a little cranky and nauseous, but we got through it, Luke. So COVID, don't be knocking on my door anymore. All right? BC, let me ask you a question. How come when we go on the road and we drink and we eat poorly we come back feeling exhausted and then when we go on the road and we don't drink at all and we get more sleep we also come back raggedy it makes no difference how we come back i don't understand that yeah i hear you what it makes no difference luke just keep coming all right just keep on coming on coming. So we're trying to do here.

I mean, you know, that is our mission statement, right? Brian Woody. What's Woody's last name? The guy who's bit you stole this from from around the horn. Yeah. Huh? Yes. It's a Woody page from Woody page.

It's Brian Woody page. Campbell. Yes. Uh, Brian, we got a lot to get to today. We did do a post fight show last week for the first fight for Bellator on Showtime, Bellator 255. You can go check that out. But we are going to get to some of that still today a little bit.

But, of course, we got a lot of UFC news to get to. We got some boxing retirements we have to get to. Your questions. Have you seen this shit? We have a lot to get to, BC. Look, you could argue that that Bellator post show friday was a rousing success and in fact uh the word on the street is people loving the more serious tone they got out of late night bc right there so i don't know luke you know uh maybe uh maybe i've been right about what you should be doing this whole time yes it's funny

maybe i should drop drop the whole bit where you know you try to bring fun and sunshine to people's days and just hit them with you know aggressively boring mma takes so let's see what we got you know that's right well if we are capable of nothing if not aggressively boring mma takes but hopefully the show will be a little bit better than that first things first thumbs up on the video hit the subscribe button and that notification bell if you like this sort of show there's a lot more of it coming every single week. So to get more of what you enjoy, hit that subscribe button. Yes? Okay, very good.

Let's see. If you want to follow us on social, you can see all the stuff there on the lower third. You want to give Showtime a try? Why not? Go to Showtime.com and get a 30-day free trial. If you're ready to take the plunge, you can go to show.com slash Bellator MMAma and for the first six months it's just five bucks basically each month i never understand the pricing

structures on anything 499 why can't it just be five just make it five 499 it feels better it feels cheaper it feels safer luke you know i guess i guess i must be a market researcher on this kind of thing yeah um in any case4.99, doesn't matter. Still a deal. I was going to say, Luke, you didn't recommend the people go check out our latest creation from the only night that we did drink. It was Room Service Diaries. I did not drink, yes.

There was Room Service Diaries. I did see you at dinner. You did raise a glass of something at dinner, Luke. That's right, yes. I had, I think, two, maybe three old fashashions but that was it i mean i didn't get drunk you lying old bitch okay i was there oh no no but that night but that night we recorded this oh i guess i had some yeah that's why i was so tired um but in any case i didn't get drunk one time and i still took all my nyquil and melatonin. What are we forgetting here, BC?

Anything else to remind folks? I can still view that inside look at the future of our unemployment. That really is where it was going. But a nice little rousing success, just the same. Luckily, Luke, you edited out all of your bad jokes and left me hanging with the Schindler's List thing. That's great. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you very much.

For folks who don't understand how BC works, this is a bit he does called lying. So we wanted to take it out, and we didn't. And then we showed it to him, and he actually demanded that we leave it in, and we showed it to other members of the crew. I don't know about demand. And they also thought it was a good idea to leave in.

So when BC comes on the show and says things like this, I want you all to know, and follow here he's lying okay yeah i mean you did edit out a few dark areas all all pointing toward you okay yes i did edit out a few dark areas for me but you know i'm also the one who filmed it and hauled the camera equipment so to the victor goes the spoils if you would like to edit it next time you certainly may what when that trap you said ends in deployment for me luke i hope hopefully you get blessed with a canadian thank you thank you okay all right let's get to it topic number one here on the show it was the only thing we did not get to last week um by virtue of the timing and everything.

So let's get to it now. The Ultimate Fighter is back. And it's not just that The Ultimate Fighter is back because you kind of knew that. But now we have coaches. We have Brian Ortega and we have Alexander Volkanovsky. So for topic number one, we know who the coaches are for the next season of the ultimate fighter there you can see oh you know what i jumped the ship that's why it took so long because i botched it we're still gonna start here bc because fuck it it's too late to back up now all right you can't blame this on

jay this is uh no i can't you know what it was i had the old rundown in front of me not the updated one so that's on me i'll take the l there you go dead wrong sorry cory i fucked that up here we go we're already committed though bc so let's get to it. In fact, we did not get to it last week. Your reaction to Volkanovski and Ortega, A, being the next coaches for the ultimate fighter, and then B, what this does to the fight, which is push it back anywhere between five to six, maybe more months. I feel like this was the wrong move for ufc i'm not and i'm not here to necessarily you know criticize because i don't hold tough

dear to my heart any as many as much these days as anybody else you know i mean we all have our favorite memories in the past but no one's like itching for this series to come back per se so to me this feels like a a safe mild choice. In fact, I don't necessarily understand the choice of coaches in this case unless your sole focus was to try to establish Brian Ortega as the next big star. I think it would be a no-brainer, Luke, if we're going down the road, and I know there's still negotiations and stuff that needs to happen, but if we are on our way to Francis Ngannou, Jon Jones, and you want that thing to frickin' bang,

the best possible promotional vehicle in this space weight of Francis Ngannou, John Jones, and you want that thing to freaking bang, the best possible promotional vehicle in this space would be the return of Tuff through the ESPN machine with those two heavyweights as coaches. That's just me talking, Luke. I'm not hired as a promoter or marketer of any form, really, beyond my own shitty humor. And maybe this sweatshirt, which could be on sale in the future. We're not really sure about that yet. So beyond that, Luke, I just don't get this move.

You know what I mean? It doesn't suck. I'd watch it. I'd give it a try. But this ain't sexy, Luke. You want Ngannou to Jones to go to 2 million pay-per-view buys? Do you care about that anymore, UFC? Or does that mean you have to pay John more if it does?

Because that's the right vehicle for this, Luke. I don't know what the right answer is other than I wish the Ultimate Fighter wasn't really here. I mean, the problem is complicated because in this pandemic, regional MMA is not doing what it's supposed to be doing. It's not producing the amount of talent that it otherwise could.

It's got back together a little bit and maybe that will improve substantially here in the summer and then the fall or in the winter for 2021 i certainly hope but as it stands in terms of what it has been it has not been a lot and so you pull back in this machine the ultimate fighter where you can pluck fighters maybe in even two different weight classes depending how you want to structure it and you can pull them off the regional scene you can have them on the show you can fight you can give contracts whatever you want to not. It sort of serves a function that they didn't necessarily need when they just had the contender series, and a normally functioning regional MMA apparatus.

But that's just not the situation that they have. So I understand why they brought it back. But it's just so inconvenient. Look, it doesn't really impact me in any other way, because I'm not going to watch the show. I'd watch the fights, probably, but I would not really watch the show if it's on ESPN plus but it's not hurting anybody it's not like there no one's forcing me to watch it it's fine you want to watch it watch it if you don't don't the part where it gets kind of interesting is where you

take the coaches and then you delay them and to your point it's like dude there are so many other ways for this thing to go sometimes which I know it's probably not easy they wanted a welterweight series of coaches for whatever reason that didn't work god only knows and they ended up with this one because of the covid delay so i appreciate how nimble the ufc can be with these things i understand why they're bringing tough back but it just feels like there are ways in which they could execute on some of their business strategies in conjunction with their goals, BC, without having it be this difficult. To your point, Francis and Jones, it's such an easier call here.

Well, this is going to delay a division's title picture. Unfortunately, that doesn't need to. I mean, I want to find out if Max Holloway really is still the best featherweight in the world. I saw him beat Volkanovski in their second fight, but it didn't go his way. He's only looked insanely great since then. Luke, I got to see this English-speaking Zabit prove to everyone that he is the future champion

in this division that I once read written on a tattoo on the back of Kevin Lee's head as a foreshadowing prophetic message, Luke. I'm telling you, those are my two guys for the future. But you get what I'm saying here. I don't want to see this picture tied up. And can you give me any other reason beyond the i don't want to see this picture tied up and can you give me any other reason beyond the i don't know if this negotiation period with john will will actually

happen uh excuse for that for the reason for heavyweights not to be here in this spot that they i mean it is what it always is they don't they don't want to yeah they don't want to change their business in a way to accommodate them um that's that's sort of where we just keep coming back to it's where it's the you know listen the the certain ways in which the industry is organized make a lot of consumer demand possible but because one of the downsides honestly of having that much consumer demand met is that when they don't meet it sometimes they can take weird positions on why they're not meeting it but because everything else is so great there's just no overall pushback it's not a decline in the product it's just a certain decline in potential

opportunities while the rest of the product thrives so you know we're sitting here bitching about it i mean i guess we're still going to get the fight maybe there'll be some good fights on the show it's just jesus we almost had this fight at ufc 260 they got covid that sucked uh in fact volkanovski said it was really bad and now we're not going to get to what december it's like oh god like what an impediment to the normal functioning and operation of a business it this feels like a haphazard decision in an area where ufc rarely ever misses you know if at all. So is this more centered upon Ortega's star future and potential? Do they look at him when they look at the group of, you know,

we're always like, who's going to be the next Conor? It's been this, you know, casual pay-per-view, you know, debate thing. Anytime a big star hits a mountaintop and then slides a little bit, you're like, who's the next pay-per-view star? And remember for a while we thought, oh, you know, it really could be Cody Garbrandt. Then he suffered some losses. And now we're like, well, it really could be Adesanya.

But, you know, he did just have a minor hiccup there at light heavyweight. So do you think they look at Ortega as a potential legitimate pay-per-view headliner? And that's why this decision was made? Because they don't do anything haphazardly, Luke. Yeah, I tend to think there might be something at play with also volkanovski where uh he's a very good champion i suspect he'll beat ortega again who knows i'm just saying like you don't dude you don't know that okay don't don't see i don't know that that's why i say i suspect i didn't say he will it's a big difference uh

that's my hunch anyway and i they're probably dealing with, they're at least dealing with a scenario, BC, where they have to recognize there is a possible future where this guy from Australia is going to be in this role as champion for a considerable amount of time. And so to what extent do you want to back him? Sometimes in The Ultimate Fighter, they use it to capture a huge audience

in a way where they don't need to build someone up, but if they put him in that role, it'll garner a lot of attention, like a Kimbo Slice. He don't need to build someone up but if they put him in that role it'll garner a lot of attention like a Kimbo Slice he didn't need to be in the Ultimate Fighter but they put him there and then there's situations where like somebody needs a boost that the Ultimate Fighter has to raise their stock

whatever possible that is I tend to think Volkanovski might fall into that not Ortega although this rivalry and selling this probably would be good down the line for him and for his future as well. So I think they're probably trying to do a little bit of that. They've never really had that Mexican-American fan base on lockdown. Maybe they see Ortega as that guy who went away, came back, he only improved.

He's got star power they haven't tapped into yet. He's got the model looks. He was real weird in that interview with me a couple weeks ago. maybe he's the dude now luke okay we'll find out when that fight so you don't think they're thinking about volkanovski like they're like uh he might be champion like with kamaru it's like you're looking at kamaru and you're like well you never know fight over fight you get knocked out any moment but you also would be foolish as a promoter to not look at this and say uh he might be here doing this for a while nah nah luke they saw max beat him the second time the ufc loves max and on top of that luke it's uh you got a lot of

balls uh refusing to do any form of predictions but a city cock boxing guy jumps in here you're like yeah i mean he's probably gonna beat ortega i mean that's a you got a lot of balls trying to slip that past it's not a prediction my own reddit my own Reddit page to decode you to the public. I don't know why this is hard for you. This is not a prediction. It's like an inclination is not me making a declaration. You understand that, right? I choose to understand what I understand, Luke, okay?

You call it ignorance, all right? I call it decipherance, okay? Decipherance, yes. It's a great name of a band, decipherance okay decipherance yes that is what it's a great name of a band decipherance all right let's go now back in time where we're supposed to do topic number one in the first position which i amazingly got that wrong but let's try it again one more time all right so reports are out that dustin poirier bc has in fact signed the paperwork to fight one conor mcgregor a third time on top of that while we

don't have any evidence that or I think any reports that McGregor has signed the deal what we do have is him saying that uh or reports rather that he has agreed in principle ESPN reporting that he has agreed in principle um to now take this challenge on July 10th is when they're targeting all right let's sort of circle back to this contest now if we can hearing this news do you have any different reaction what are you thinking about as we inch closer to that pretty monumental trilogy uh you know sort of inspired I saw you know uh Brett Okamoto VSPN a guy who we like just put out one of those columns that that asked a very interesting question you know uh and it got me it got spurred my thinking of what's really at stake for both guys it's something i didn't necessarily focus

on because the whole build toward this fight happening was more of a debate of whether you know poirier should already be the champion should mcgregor be back in the spot why are we doing this one as a non-title all that but in terms in terms of what it actually means, I mean, the angle Brett took was that, you know, in some ways, this is McGregor's last chance to save himself. And I, you know, on the, on the super elite path that he had been on for a long time. And, and Luke, I, I kind of want to sit in that for a second. I, to be honest, I wrote that same column in 2016 after Connor was upset by nate diaz sort of saying look he's got one way to fix this problem completely and that's run it back same weight class same guy and beat him and sort of double down on his future at that point you know was he going to break loose

and be this truly global superstar which he obviously became and you know he kind of did exactly that and but there were different stakes for conor then. Now we've seen him lose a few times. Now, you know, he's sort of getting this opportunity right now that, you know, no one's calling for this trilogy, right? Like, we're not going to hate on this fight. We love this fight in theory, like in reality, right? It's sort of like, you know, Luke, she's not Latina, but, you know, you still like pizza, bro, right? You know, you still like to eat at the end of the day, right? I mean, we love this fight, Luke. make no mistake about it this fight fucking bangs okay

but no one asked for it nobody really needs it so look do you really feel that connor's almost in that same thing that brett's trying to outline that if he loses here it is it's what celebrity cash in the rest of the way i mean is, is this the last chance at true elite superiority? The guy he was in 2016 that never came back? Is this the last chance to produce him, Luke? I mean, I haven't read the column, so I'm only reacting to your recitation. Yeah, I didn't really read it either.

Okay, I love you, Brett. I just skimmed it. Okay, I'm just taking themes. All right, Luke? No, no, no, but I was thinking about this because years ago I wrote a column for sure dog I think it was called like like the Kimbo slice bubble or something like that and I had argued it was either before the or well it was supposed to be the shamrock fight or it was like right after the Petrozzelli fight whichever

way it was that you know the interesting part about promoting Kimbo was that it was done on this illusion this is before I'd come around to was that it was done on this illusion. This is before I'd come around to him, that it was done on this illusion that this guy is a lot better than he is. Well, what happens when he loses? Folks will know the jig is up. And the reality was that was never really Kimbo's appeal. Yeah, there was a little bit, how good is he? Okay. And then once you realize he wasn't that good, it never became about, hey, how good is Kimbo Slice? It just became about, let's cheer for Kimbo Slice. We like Kimbo Slice. Kimbo Slice is a likable person for all these different demos. And so yes, I want to be clear about something. Winning more than losing was

pretty important and winning in big moments still carried significant value. It's not that if Conor McGregor lost, there wouldn't be significant drop-off in interest or blowback or some kind of larger reckoning, BC. But here's what you got to remember about some of these folks. Dude, Conor McGregor is now a celebrity to people and an adored figure, whether you like it or not, for reasons that just go far beyond fighting at this point.

It would potentially, yes, I think, take him off that super elite track i think i do think there's going to be said for that but um connor is going to remain a popular figure i won't say as long as he wants to but much longer than his losses will drag him down so you're saying it may not necessarily be as dark as post biteBite Mike Tyson's run, where it was just like, fiasco, carnival, come see the old name, dance around and maybe bite somebody. But what you're also saying is,

you know, you can't be a virgin over again. Like, that guy's not coming back anyway. And win or lose from now on, he's kind of the same guy. We've seen him lose already a few times. He's kind of who he is. Yeah, I guess.

There's some sadness in that, Luke. I don't mean to romanticize the McGregor era, but I like to believe that he can keep it alive with a win on Saturday and get back into a title picture that he doesn't necessarily deserve to be in. So, I mean, there is huge stakes in this regard. Maybe I just don't want to believe that it's really over, Luke.

Maybe that's what this is all about. It may not be. It may not be. We don't have a definitive answer to this, but I do feel like you got to just, the way to understand is you have to just have an appreciation for the seriousness, but some of the limits of a loss in MMA, especially for an A-list talent.

The loss does make matchmaking for him harder, BC, because if he's at the top of the division, you can just go any number of ways. And because he's popular, he'll have a lot of flexibility relative to somebody else, but it does narrow some of those choices a little bit. I mean, it would reduce potentially some of the upside of what he could do on pay-per-view. I mean, there are some consequences to it but the idea that like um and again i'm not saying brett argued this but i'm just saying the idea that if anyone believes a lost aporia here would just you know um pull the plug out of not

the plug but the the stopper at the end of the the bathtub and all the water drains it doesn't work like that yeah brett don't throw the baby out with the damn bath water you a-hole yeah brett if that's what you said in that column i didn't read it uh but no luke um do you think you know i don't know there's there's a little maybe there's a lot more interesting let me spit it back to you let me spit it back to you bc because you said something that called my interest you said it was sad you said it was sad about mcgregor that like it could very well be that that amazing thing he did was just a moment in time and it's over why is that sad isn't that just the way life works it is it's and it's also the the uh the you know the the vicious cycle the the the food uh

the food chain of mma no doubt about that um i don't say sad from the standpoint luke of being a mcgregor super fan or wanting and believing like a child crossing their fingers that he's going to come back and win a championship. That doesn't really matter to me. It's more for having been part of something that was a special, historic, insane era in this sports history and having been there at a very close level. You know, front row media backstage, hold microphones, that type of thing. Having really been, you know, writing opinion pieces this whole way and feeling like I've sort of lived this fun era. The idea that it could be potentially over from the energy and the fun that it brought because of one guy. And having enjoyed, you know, looking at an artist, right?

Having enjoyed the canvas that McGregor has largely painted with fun and interest, the idea that we could, and the idea not that that could be gone in some selfish way is sad, no. More for the whole idea, Luke, of what's the tail end going to look like? I mean, very few combat athletes die with dignity, so to speak, in terms of the end of their career. More often than not, we'll see a great one like Chuck Liddell need to be dragged out or we'll see you know i mean look one thing anderson silva has been able to avoid luke is is looking too sad right i mean he's had some injuries he's had a lot of losses in a row but he's never looked truly sad because he's always been able to raise his game to a certain level of competence that you're sort of like okay all right is the end is is the mcgregor end whether

that's next year or whether that's five, six, seven years from now, is that going to look really sad to you? Do you think he's one of those guys that they're going to have to drag out after multiple knockouts? I mean, it really depends how long he goes. I mean, even with Tyron Woodley, you're like, oh, he lost to someone who had never contended for a title with

Vicente Luque, but like, Luque's still really good. What I don't want to see is... I want to see McGregor lose to a guy he obviously would have dusted in his prime, you know what I mean? Like, you lose to Poirier, okay, Poirier's...

He's real good. Like, that's fine. You know, That's no big deal. Is he going to let it, again, and he might go there, I want to be clear before people get honest about it, he might go out there and viciously KO Poirier in the third fight. I'm just pointing. To what

extent is he going to manage decline? I don't know. Yeah, like if they stick him with Mickey Gall as a get well fight and he gets knocked out, we're in bad territory. Yes. Yes. yes if he gets that far maybe you do just open up the the the what's it called the drain stopper jesus christ the mike perry is dancing on his grave and ocean is just rocking out as the uh the secondary the second chief second support in the corner uh that's going to be a sad moment for mcgregor house Luke. But yeah, so we identified what's at stake for Conor. Are we not hitting at all what's at stake for Poirier

beyond the big subhead that we did hit when this fight was talked about, about the idea of him essentially turning down a chance at the title in order to cash in on the fame, history, and money at stake in this one, Luke? What's really, truly in Dustin's mind right now in your eyes? I think he just realizes that the you can't you can't you know it's good that they're ringing doorbells here at my house and letting the dogs bark and i love that i want to tell you that i really really really

like it when my family does that um i just tend to think if you're Dustin Poirier how do you look at a situation and go yeah we'll turn down this Conor McGregor fight again I don't think it's an either or I don't think they thought of it like oh um there's nothing to this situation with uh the belt I don't need the belt I think they wanted the belt and they wanted the belt in that first fight I think they wanted the belt in the second fight. I think they wanted the belt in the second fight. They just couldn't get to a position where that was on the line. And so they had to make a choice. Okay, you can go and fight for the belt against whoever it was, Chandler or whatever. Or you can fight McGregor again in a trilogy.

I think he just felt like when stories are written about guys, they're going to write about the guy who beat Conor McGregor twice in a trilogy, even if there was no title, versus beating Michael Chandler or Charles Oliveira to get the title. That's debatable, but I think that was probably what was going through his mind. Well, let me ask you this, and still decide if this was the right choice.

If Poirier never fought again after today, let's say he just retired, would history remember as his biggest win the interim title win over Max or the knockout of Conor McGregor in their second year? Conor. Conor. Then that means, Luke, that in a lot of ways,

this is almost like the biggest fight of Dustin's career twice in a row. So he made the right choice then, you know, in a lot of ways. Yeah. I mean, listen, can you understand it? Yeah. You can understand it. I can understand why someone would go a different direction too, but it's hardly mystifying that Poirier would find

a third fight with McGregor advantageous to his career. Would he face the winner of Chandler, Oliveira, Poirier? No question? I mean, if it's not them, who would it be? All right. You know what I mean? Is it Dustin? Sorry, is it Nate not them, who would it be? All right. You know what I mean? Like, is it Dustin? Or, I'm sorry, is it Nate?

Nate's fighting at 170. So, I mean, that's funny, you know? Would Poirier take that Diaz fight, that Alpha Connor win? That'd be kind of funny if he did, you know? I wonder about that. But I doubt it. I doubt it. Okay.

Let's go back a little bit, BC. Let's go to topic number three here. We talked a lot about the first Bellator show on Showtime. That's Bellator 255. The winner of the main event, Patricio Pitbull. So now Bellator has a very interesting situation that they're currently in. They have the best fighter in their history taking on this upstart, undefeated phenom who has had his entire career in that organization. BC, here's what I think a central challenge Bellator has.

Bellator has to convince the average UFC fan that they are also worth watching. Notice I said average UFC fan because UFC puts out 40 plus events a year, not counting contender series. They've got all their stuff online. You can go peruse it on Fight Pass or ESPN Plus or whatever. Like if you're a UFC fan, a lot of your MMA needs are met. This, as a fan, this experience, it wasn't even possible to be a UFC 100 in July of 2009. You couldn't even do this kind of a thing that you can do now. So Bellator has a real task about how do we position our offerings in a way to get those kinds of fans to pay attention. How do you sell AJ McKee versus Pitbull?

There's one way unabashedly as the the the matchup that will determine the best 145 pound fighter in the world and even if you demonstrably disagree with that or even if you're scott coker and you don't necessarily believe that i mean look it's not like the ufc is having a a down run at featherweight at the moment we just talked about that in fact it's overloaded it's not like the UFC is having a down run at featherweight at the moment. We just talked about that. In fact, it's overloaded. It's one of the best divisions in the sport. But I think you have that opportunity to make that kind of argument if just even from a marketing standpoint, it's not insanely far off at worst. I mean, look, Pitbull is legitimately one of the five best pound-for-pound fighters in the world right now. And McKee, with the potential he's shown from the quick, sensational victories to the fact that he's second generation, all this great stuff we say about him, he's already set so many records.

If he beats Pitbull here, I mean, that's a leap right there. That is a monster leap. So the fact that these two will probably meet again for the lightweight championship if you listen to their uh interviews closely i think you really sell just how talented these guys are and how much this is a pound for pound type level fight and the royalty around this fight the one million dollars the fact that the title's at stake uh all that's just dressing on it and you hope that uh not only do we get a classic but we see these guys fight each other many times i mean you know we've heard aj say

he'd follow people up to heavyweight if it meant you know doing that he just wants to beat this guy so uh i think there's a nice window here luke based upon some of the things you said where if you are a ufc fan and you never really give bellator a full swing and maybe you watch 255 and you were like i saw saw some I really loved. I saw some things I didn't love. But at the very least, they saw a star in Pitbull. A breakout, absolute, legit sensation. I would play up that whole thing about him being potentially

closing in on being the best in the world as a major ploy in hook hair. Not even a ploy. A major, you know, yeah, that's it. Is this a bit like a Stipe versus DC kind of fight? Here's what I mean by that. If Pitbull wins, you could do this beforehand, but certainly afterwards, if Pitbull wins,

you can say he's the best 145er on earth. Okay, you can, again, people can reasonably, people can disagree, but you can at least make the claim. And that if McKee beats that guy, oh, well, that was the best guy at 145 in the world. And so McKee, by beating him, becomes that. Is that the argument for McKee? Because as good as McKee is and as huge as a win over Pitbull might be, there's still that body of work that he doesn't have,

although Pitbull would be a nice, you know, scalp on the resume. Well, I mean, you could really get behind the idea that McKee has a chance to become everything for Bellator that Aaron Pico hasn't yet. Still could, maybe. Still going to be a really good fighter, I believe. But Aaron Pico never became that, we have the phenom. We have the next big thing in the sport right here. AJ McKee in some ways almost stumbled into that loop.

He's just put it together at the right time, peaking at this tournament that I think part of that marketing of the whole idea of this is a pound-for-pound fight and could the winner be the best featherweight in the world, how about sprinkling a little bit more hyperbole on there and saying if McKee beats Pitbull and he's the champion and he's unbeaten and he's got all of our records for consecutive wins and he just beat the face of our franchise like look again believe

it or not this guy's got like Tiger Woods type feeling in this sport this guy's a phenom he's a natural look at him I mean that's the way to to really uh frame this and caption this Luke and and as much as even that felt like a stretch to say i don't necessarily believe he's you know a tiger woods of the sport but good god if he beats freaking pitbull luke i mean this guy's moving he's moving he's coming okay like mk look he's he is like he is like mk only he's undefeated no but he's really coming and you and i are more like journeymen who have taken incredible l's over the course of our careers, but are having a late career resurgence. We're more like Jan Blachowicz than we would like to admit.

You know what I mean? Or you could say that, Luke, or really is our broadcasting prime, you know, 42 to 55 age-wise. I think we are, we're on a good pace right now. We're about to take over the world, Luke. I don't know if you've been watching our numbers closely, our you know mass critical appeal how amazing our fans are uh yeah we we ain't no jan blahowicz okay even though i respect that guy all right uh yeah i i think your i i think your argument is correct and there's other ways to frame where's the beat uh we are this this is the beat of of uh of mma talk yeah i'm not so sure we want to be that just yet let's wait and see how how uh fair and appropriate that analogy is but bc in all seriousness this is

the point i think you're trying to make which is look man yes i prefer it if promoters tell the truth but they don't really have an obligation to um and it's not really what they do what is the promotional downside to saying that the best the winner here is the best 145 like what what is the cost to doing that it'll okay you know promoters stock will you know oh people will find them untrustworthy yeah so what they tend to do that no matter what and it stirs debate you can go a little bit overboard by being like oh we're being watched by 75 trillion people just in china like one championship has done but i do think that trying to force arguments into the framing of a fight is actually a pretty important thing to do

yeah you're damn right and you can go too far you can waste too many bullets but even a bob arum who is no stranger of top rank boxing luke to lay it on thick i at least respect that he picks it he picks his bullets he chooses them wisely yeah he'll tell you man loma chanko i haven't seen a spirit like that since ali and at first you're like oh come on what are we doing here well loma chanko turned out pretty good bud crawford turned out pretty josecito turned out pretty good or you know not josecito teofimo excuse me. So you get what I'm saying.

I was like, Jose Cito Lopez. Jose Cito Lopez, yeah, good run. Yeah, yeah. No, you get what I'm saying there. But I don't think you're pissing people off for offending them. I think you're bringing eyeballs in. And, again, I think, you know, Pitbull was the right main eventer to open the Bellator on Showtime era,

and he delivered. And this fight is going to be the best advertisement you could think of, Luke, for the future health of this promotion. Obviously, Rumble Romero is his own special kind of wild card firecracker that we all need to see, but Pitbull McKee, that's as good as it gets, Luke. That's his, yeah, come on. Also, I think folks are forgetting,

I think PFL has grown a little bit in popularity in terms of a certain kind of fighter, like an Anthony Pettis, you know, late stage. He's still got a little bit of fighting left on. You know, let's see if you can make it work by just taking a short amount of fights to a million dollar check. The winner here gets that as well.

It's sort of like an easy way to borrow from some of the PFL's fighter appeal while still having a matchmaking kind of model a little bit um because you obviously can you can set the tournament so there you go I just had a vision you want you did yeah unrelated to this topic but remember how awkward it was at the UFC card a couple weeks ago in Vegas when they scanned the celebrity section of the crowd and it was like Paul Anka's old ass in the corner and like all these young people that you and i are too old to connect with remember that yeah and we're like what yeah but like honestly chet hanks you know sensei seagal wasn't available i mean you know yeah chet hanks is not

cooler than us i don't care what anybody says i hope when when you and i one day take this show on the road and do like a live show for something big luke remember imagine if it's like you know connor versus habib to fight week and mk's got you covered with a live show from las vegas you know and we had our own celebrity section of celebrities that have outed themselves to us as huge mk fans that that bullpen that's that's gonna start that's filling up luke with with some pretty awesome people i know we got got to make a seat for George Corbsgrinder and his kids in the back of it, but can we welcome Portugal the Man to the MK Super Fan Club? They could be rocking out with us there.

You're very happy about Portugal the Man reaching out to you. Oh, yeah. Come on. Come on. Come on. There's moments like that, Luke. I live my life for moments. Real quickly, before we leave the Bellator topic, Bellator announced UFC, sorry, Bellator 259, which will be May 21st, is going to be the rematch between Cyborg at 145 pounds, the first time it was 140,

but between Cyborg, the champion currently at featherweight in Bellator, and then Leslie Smith. Any thoughts on this one? Not overly positive thoughts luke i am of the understanding like i've been throughout most of chris cyborg's career that you got to wait out the good matchups because there just isn't the depth especially you know the weight division she has populated where you're going to consistently get fights that you're really interested in i was really interested in the julia bud fight you know it was her entering the promotion and trying to

win the title. But this one doesn't move me as much. Luke, let's just say what it is. It's still an event with five more fights. Yeah, the first one was not competitive. It lasted just a minute, not even a minute and a half. And I understand why they're doing it. You sign Leslie Smith.

You're going to have, first of all, the appropriate weight class at this point. Who you got in the stable to make it work. I think Smith won her Bellator debut. So I understand why they made it. But it's like, what would make me believe that what happened the first time more or less won't happen the second? I guess we don't know. But here's the unfortunate yet entertaining part of this, Luke. Like, the unfortunate part is I don't want to see Cyborg like visibly decline before my eyes.

But the entertaining part of it is, you know, except for the times when we find her somebody absolutely legitimate who can challenge her until that point where she's, you know, completely over the over the hill. One of these nights she's going to show up a little bit old and be in a war. And, you know, it'll be really fun when it gets there, even if it'll be, you know, sad in the life cycle and the food chain of seeing that happen. But I don't think it'll be this one, Luke, but that is coming. And, you know, Cyborg's such a warrior that she's going to punch her way out of those matchups, Luke. It's going to be fun theater. You know, I just don't think this is the one. Neither do I. Dude, this is her from the Arlene Blanco fight, I think.

Or maybe, yeah, I think it's the Arlene Blanco fight. No, this is Julia Budd. No, that's Budd. Yeah, that's Julia Budd because it says Gibson on the rear end. That's her coach and her husband, I think. You know, dude, she doesn't look too bad to me. Her only loss since her pro debut, so her only loss in 15 years, BC, is Amanda Nunes.

Like, if there's decline, I don't know where do you see it. I don't see it. Well, I don't see anyone, you know, even with a little bit more decline, being able to expose that decline yet. But what I'm saying, Luke, is that night, it does come, and it kind of comes unexpectedly, typically. It does. Like young college-age Luke luke you know very unexpectedly

right uh you know unannounced actually i think my decline has been widely expected no yeah and and and eagerly anticipated uh luke would you care about kat zingano versus uh chris i honestly think smith might be a better fight at this point. I agree with you, but would you care more? Because it's Kat. Come on. Yeah, it's a fresh matchup. It's a fresh matchup.

Yeah. Yeah, but I think unless Kat can really get back to what she used to be, which was a physical wrestling powerhouse, right? She was so dominant. Dude, those knees against Misha? Bro, the knees against Misha, those were some violent ass. Yeah. If you've never seen it, go watch the Misha

Tate and Kat Zingano fight. You want to talk about a dog fight between two absolute beasts. That was like that and then beating... Who did she beat? When she beat Amanda Nunes the first time. She grounded and pounded Nunes, right? Yeah.

Dude, she was a monster. I don't know where she's at today. So just keep that in mind. All right, this one I'm excited to get to, BC. Semper Fi to this guy. Topic number four as we move along here. Jermell Herring had a really, I'll let BC explain the details, but he had a moment coming out of his last fight where folks thought he was a bit mentally weak, a bit of a quitter, a bit of a guy who just kind of gave in when he didn't need to.

He still won the contest, but there was a lot of questions about his character. and not only wins BC, retires Carl Frampton, drops him multiple times to the point where Frampton's corner had to chuck in the towel in just the sixth round. In fact, when they interviewed Frampton BC, Frampton was like, you should be talking to the champ. You shouldn't even be talking to me right now because I came in ready. I was ready to go. I had a great camp and he just beat the bricks off of me.

It's as simple as that. Let's talk about Carl in a second but first things first how big of a redemptive moment was this given the questioning for Jamel Herring monster I mean like forget the questioning just first of all somebody of Jamel Herring's ilk to win a title when we didn't really know if he was that guy and then have that moment you talked about last fight and then to knock out Carl Frampton under any circumstances, this is sort of the mountaintop moment of his career. But you add in what happened.

Look, that's the true measure of a real man. We were all over him last fight against Okendo in the midst of the quarantine. It looked like he was trying to quit or playing with the disqualification rules and just not fighting hard and being very affected by some of the fouls that happened. And, you know, one, obviously we're not in there. We're not going through that. But two, we knew coming in with this guy's history of how tough he was, you know, mentally and that.

But did I believe he could summon this performance? No. I didn't believe, I couldn't understand why the betting odds were so close, even though Frampton had said ahead of time that he would retire if he lost. But it seemed more like him just putting extra pressure on himself to get another big win,

get a title back, and try to get back into some big fights. You've got to give Herring, I mean, so much credit here, Luke, because, you know, skill for skill, he's not better than Carl Frampton. I thought this would be a long night at the office and he just bit down and believed in his power and those knockdowns

were brutal. That left uppercut, Luke, I mean, he put it on Carl Frampton and obviously we can talk about Frampton in a second but this is a man's win right here. This was going out there and taking it, right? And shout out to Jamel Herring. This is going to go down as one of the best wins of this calendar

year, Luke. He's not going to win fight of the year. It's not the fight of the year under any circumstance, but this was a hell of a victory for somebody who needed this type of moment. It's too easy to get a belt these days, Luke, over beating a guy for the vacant belt or interim title, and they raise you up as the full champion. Nobody has to beat anybody anymore to become a champion is really what I'm saying. He just knocked out Karl Frampton. That's the moment right there, and well done, Jamel Herring.

Yeah, I don't have much to add to that, except you could tell what he... This fight was not merely about winning it was about reflecting the kind of character with which he competes which was not really all that evident in the last fight or at least you know maybe the last fight was not the best demonstration of it he knew for himself forget even just anybody else watching for himself he had to come out here and show real fighting spirit and by the way credit to carl frampton who i think was a little bit frustrated at the end of uh herring's reach and just decided you know what i'm gonna let's

bang let's bang tight to evasa and greg hardy let's bang and try to really open up but that only that only i think you would agree bc when he did that that actually just facilitated his demise because it allowed for a guy like Herring to fight fire with fire at that point and he was just doing better that night so um it didn't work out for him but I give credit to Carl Frampton for the way he fought I give unbelievable Semper Fi credit to Jamel Herring for coming out here and putting the stamp on things let's talk about Frampton for a second he wanted to be the first Irish fighter to get three world titles uh he only got two which is still pretty great, obviously.

And he now calls it a career. He said he wanted to go back to his family, which, believe me, dude, I understand now more than I ever have in my life. What can we say about the career of Carl Frampton? Just such a freaking classy individual. I love me. I love me some Carl Frampton.

And he has the accomplishments to go down as a legend. And he's had a great career. I really actually double down respect on him being a man of his word and saying, you know, I said I'd retire if I lost this. He just knocked me out. I'm walking away. And the reason why I believe it is because for some reason, Luke, guys in the UK, when they walk away for good, they tend to stick with that.

And he tends to know that this was the time that, you know, this was the end of the days for him to give the very best. And if you can't give your very best, why be out there? So what has this guy given us a very classy career? You're seeing the highlights there. His two fight series with Leo Santa Cruz, in which they split them, both fight of the year contenders. This is, you know, this was high theater. This was two of the best all action fights, which retained high level pound for pound skill. I I mean these were instant classics when they broke out in 2018 and 19 I believe

he also had that big showdown with Scott Quigg which had been building for years in the UK and in Ireland as this big crossover moment, well he went out there and he won the fight not the best fight ever, but he went out there and he won that so he's had some big wins in his run Luke, he's bounced back from defeats maybe in the Josh Warrington fight we really should have believed what we saw in terms of a

a once great fighter slowing down but he's got nothing to hang you know his head negatively on luke he was the belfast boy still is you know him and van morrison those are the true stars of that city luke if you the know that really know um and forget uh northern iris to iris declaration there this guy's one of the best uh from that that great island luke that we've seen so uh well done on a great career i don't think we'll see you to get him again uh would have loved to have seen the trilogy with leo but i guess we're gonna have to enjoy the uh the first two on rewatch luke one day you and i crack a cold one maybe put on the cameras rewatch those bad boys again well said uh to your from your lips to god's ears okay let's go to uh the next mma topic so one has an interesting moment now they've aired

some stuff before on tnt whether it was recorded or some other kind of event but they're gonna have their north american live television debut it appears on Wednesday. It'll be one on TNT. It's going to have the return, BC, of Demetrius Johnson. It's going to have the return of Eddie Alvarez. Demetrius will be fighting for the flyweight title against the current champion. And I think Alvarez fights Yuri Lapikas, I believe is his name. There's some other fights on the card. We talked earlier about some of the challenges

that Bellator faces in this new era as they want to capture the fans' attention. BC, what are you really expecting from one? They have an interesting consumer pitch, which is that our rules are different. We have a different way of scoring. We have all different kinds of permutations we can play with because we're not controlled by the government but at the same time is that enough to get the

average MMA fans attention even with two former UFC figures that some fans might know well I feel like the timing on this is tough Luke because this is supposed to be one's big moment I give him a lot of credit after initially having that deal with TNT and Bleacher Report and the the full company there that they're finally doing what they wanted to do, which is, you know, be in prime time on U.S. soil on the major network there, TNT. And I know they want to make it. Where is this card airing from, Luke? Singapore.

Singapore. Okay, so this isn't their U.S. debut, which for them, you know, hopefully will still be a big show and a big opportunity to splash. I just think they had a little bit of momentum when they first signed these names, and then COVID hit, and I think this is kind of coming under the radar right now. Even though there's good name power on it, I don't see a ton of people talking about it. They do have a chance, though, to win some hearts. I don't know what the buzz will be like to see this,

but they've got the right network to sort of make a launch here in the States, and again, they've got matchups that we kind of need to see. This is a tough fight for Demetrius Johnson straight up. I mean this will be a very good fight as he's going fresh off the tournament win to face the real champion at that weight class and I obviously want to see Eddie Alvarez under anyone under any circumstance but

I don't feel like the buzz could be there for them here Luke what it could be but maybe if this show kills and you know as much as we've joked at times about some of the marketing ploys and aggressiveness of the one pr staff and filling our inboxes and text messages and answering machines oh no they don't do that with me and whatsapp and knocking on my front door and uh you know putting the hands on my children.

You know, really just harassment to the professional degree. Outside of that, Luke, I mean, their product is fun. You see a lot of, have you seen this shit come out of there? So, you know, maybe it will be the results of this card that will bang the drum a little bit for them. But, you know, look, MMA is hot right now. It's not a bad time to do this, Luke. I just feel like timing-wise, in terms of getting average fans to care,

I don't know. I don't know how many average MMA fans even know that this is going to be on, is what I'm saying. Yeah, I don't know either. I'd be curious to see what the ratings will be. They put together, again, I think for a company that is based in Southeast Asia and largely appeals to the various Asian communities. That's where most of their market is.

Coming to North America makes sense because it's a big market. It's an advanced market for MMA tastes. People know what MMA is here. They like it a lot, at least relative to other places. But again, it's like, what are you going to show us

that either is going to grab attention or make folks care or whatever? It's like, oh, it's more MMA with a slightly different rule set given the way that they're presenting to the product. I don't know how commanding a pitch that is, to be quite honest with you. In fact, I don't think it's very commanding at all. It's a fine card. I don't hate it. I'll put the DVR on, no problem. But I'm just, you know, 10 p.m. on a Wednesday night,

started the card for, you know, for this. It was like, that's not really a very effective way to enter a market, I don't think. Although TNT is a very highly rated channel, obviously. I mean, you, well, think, Luke, let's not completely, I mean, look, if this was a Saturday night up against anything from college basketball to boxing and other mixed martial arts, I may have more of an issue. I think that Wednesday night seems kind of smart, right? That's when you could get people to stumble into TNT looking for, I don't know, reruns of great 90s movies like The Firm or the fugitive you know we they they know drama luke

maybe that maybe they'll stumble into it hey look who stumbled into this luke hey check it out guy is this that stray you picked up in the alley hey buddy now he's not feeling the show today it's not he's not hey all right sorry sorry luke sorry to interrupt that yo reggie fuck his ass up yeah uh okay well it'll be curious to see by the way did you know that one is promoting the uh you know that apprentice they did that nubs apprentice yeah yeah they're i mean you know it's just the saddest shit ever they're calling it the most watched english language reality series premiere in 2021 in asia with the lights off or yes yes smoking in the room while eating hot pockets yes among that demo it's number one i want everyone to know that reggie jackson's a huge fan of chotri loves what he's doing at least somebody is.

Okay, BC, last but not least, there have been... Are you trying to call Reggie homeless? Is that where you're going with that joke, Luke? Listen, I picked my cat up off the street. Who cares? Okay. All right. I love homeless cats. Yeah.

Oh, BC, why do you court trouble unnecessarily? Luke, I'm naughty by nature nature not because i hate you i understand i understand all right let's go to uh last topic here before we get to your questions let's talk fight announcements there's just a bunch of quick hitters bc i'm gonna go down the list and i want you to tell me what you think of them okay yeah you ready bring it Charles Rosa versus Justin Jane's UFC event on June 26 it hasn't moved me yet you featherweight matchup two guys who are scrappy Jane's came in with a big bang had a couple of uh setbacks since then I believe but uh Rosa yo James it's it's hard it's your boy Hardy go out there and bang and then then you and I can bang.

We can bang. We can bang. We can bang. Hany Barcelos versus Timur Valeev. Same event. Bantamweights. Not moving me yet, Luke. You got anything better than that?

Juan Espino versus Alexander Romanov, UFC Vegas 24. Heavyweights. Fully flaccid. I'm telling you, there's a lot of good fighters coming out of Spain. Juan Espino is one of them. How about this? Last fight on his contract for Demi and Maya when he faces Bilal Muhammad, UFC 263. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's interesting.

I don't hate it. That's an interesting one. This is really going to test some of Bilal Muhammad's positional, I think, discipline. And I hope Meyer retires because he said when he retires, he's going to put out a full MMA instructional on all his ideas about how to incorporate jiu-jitsu into MMA, which he won't share until he retires.

So I'm actually hoping that he does that soon. Here we go, BC. Is this the equivalent of a magician doing a TV special after to show all his secrets and then getting blackballed from the industry? Yes. Maybe not the blackball part, but yeah, everything else. You're not supposed to share the zhuzhuts with the gringos, right? I think that's when you're eating and you become Egg Shen

that we're not supposed to teach the guai lo, even though Lo Pan may have. I don't know. Hold on. Can you iso cam for a second? I've got to close this door. Richie's a slob. Yeah, real quickly.

I'll do Rick Glenn versus Joaquin Silva added to UFC on June 19th. Rick Glenn, former World Series of Fighting champ, I believe, or certainly one who would contest for a title, has had an up-and-down UFC run. Joaquin Silva, I don't know much about. I can't remember. No, these fights suck, Luke. They're going to get better.

Chan Sung Jung versus Dan Ige headlining UFC's event on June 19th. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, that is just all. Where can I freebase that fight, please? Yes, that's going to be fucking awesome is what that's going to be.

Another big one, Gilbert Burns. We should talk about this one for a second. Gilbert Burns taking on Stephen Thompson. That's a tough fight for Gilbert. That's a great fight. That's great matchmaking. I mean, it's sort of like, okay, Wonderboy, you're talking a big game lately.

Let's beat this killer who's coming off a loss in a title fight. You know, like this is going to be style-wise. You're going to have to favor Burns in that, Luke. I mean, can Wonderboy pull that out? Can he do Wonderboy things? I think he can. I mean, let's see if it's in the small cage. Let's see if it's in the big cage.

I'll just say this, dude. If Steven Thompson wins, I don't know how he doesn't get a title shot at this point and then more to the point could you imagine after the second fight with woodley that you know was it three four years later maybe even five or something four years later that we'd be back here with steven thompson number one contender or potential number one i mean it's crazy yeah that's not easy to do especially with with a style. I mean, he's built on counter-striking, which, I mean, timing could offset some of the loss of speed, but for him to keep it up in this division at this age

without being a slugger, that's impressive, Luke. I gotta tell you, the guys who can keep their bodies reasonably fresh, which is extremely hard to do. Remember, I don't think Wonderboy got put out, put out until that pettis fight he got tko'd against matt brown but i don't think he got put out put out he just

stopped defending himself basically so they had to intervene on his behalf um but in general and he got rocked against woodley but he hasn't taken a ton of abuse and here he is like to get a to get a rematch is one thing to get another title shot BC, years apart from the last title shot you got in the UFC, that is very rare and very hard to do. It is an exceedingly small group that has ever done that. And he might be on the cusp of that. That's a big one. Got a couple more of these, BC.

Let's see here. This is another big one. You may laugh at this, but this is the guy i talked about when i called you co-host on the rogan show michelle preserich returns to take on unbeaten shavkat rakmanov this dude rakmanov is a motherfucker and michelle preserich is you know very tough hard-nosed kind of wrestling tree stump guy. Should be interesting. Yeah, that sounds great, Luke. You don't know either of those fighters, do you? Lastly, Jessica Penne is going to welcome newcomer Lupita Godinez

at UFC Vegas 24. I've heard better. Okay. With that, let's get to your questions. Here we go, Eagle. It's when you get to ask us what you think. It's time for DMs from dogs. Eagle.

Eagle. As you guys know, every Sunday we put out an Instagram post where we solicit your questions. You fill them up, the producers pick them, and then they send them to us. You can follow us, of course instagram at morning combat okay bc this is from high on tubs where would patricio and aj rank with max brian and volkanovski rank the top five there okay i'm glad that man sent it because i get a lot of these type of dms i just received a dm who sent that in that was me that was you all

right i get a lot of these dms lately where you know people we love this guy's from sneaky at sneaky underscore mts he's like you know are we going to pretend like we wouldn't be in favor of people beating volkanovski in the mythical matchup i mean i hear a lot of people saying that luke of late um let's really break this down. I mean, this ain't you and me trying to circle the rim and tickle the underbelly of our ViacomCBS brethren. I love the shit out of Pitbull. Could you believe in him to beat Volkanovski straight up, Luke?

No. I think Volkanovski's your best. I think Pitbull's probably in this it's a toss-up between patricio and max for me next i don't know which way i go with that one i think max is the best featherweight in the world right now okay so you go max one pitbull two volk three uh you know i gotta put volk above pitbull i think until i see i don't know i think pitbull's a better fight no i think pitbull's better luke pitbull's power carries up a weight class and he can go to 135 that's a special dude and he's a

savage who would not hang out with us at all like we talked about like i said dude he would hang out with us for five minutes because he's polite and then he would realize we're two cucks who have no business talking to him, and he'd leave. That's what he would do. I'll say this. I would definitely rank AJ at the back of that pack, in part because he's had nothing but impressive wins. But, you know, Brian Ortega on the ground,

you're not going to get the one percenter on him it's not going to go that way um certainly max's takedown defense is tremendous and behind his jab he's going to beat most people he's very experienced in ways that aj is not so to me it's like volkanovski to me is number one i would i gotta have patricio and max one a or two a two b and then i go ortega three and then aj four i lookga 3 and then AJ 4. I look at it as who would I, in my heart, who would I favor him against? I could favor him against Volkanovski. I could believe that he could beat him. I don't think he'd beat Ortega.

I don't think he'd beat still super prime Max. Wow, you think Volkanovski sucks, huh? No, I just think he's really good at what he's really good at. And he's a smart- what he's really good at. And he's, you know, he's a, he's a, you know, he's a smart ass clinical technician, right?

I really respect that. But I believe if you can match his, his technical output, like Max did in the rematch and you have either size or speed or power as your advantage, you can look better than him over five rounds and get a deserved decision. What is technical output? It's a new term I just created.

It's evolving very smart offense and defense, Luke. I have my own compu box for that. So, Luke, what I'm saying is I think Ortega's a bad matchup for him, Max. Maybe even Zabit, okay? Because I know a lot of people out there still sore at me for believing that to be it's going to be the best at this weight class in a year but uh you know try me all right uh from jay rocked from jay rock t or rocked 11 or one one or whatever the fuck you say this name on the wheel of death when when Luke had to propose changes to Bellator,

why not add a 165-pound division? It would be the first major organization to do so and has a lot of big names that they could grab on free agency. That is an interesting idea, BC, but my only concern would be if you did it in UFC, you have a lot of people at 155 and 170. Bellator doesn't have as many people like people want bellator to be ufc it's it can't be the way the industry is organized doesn't work that way you can have elites in bellator and you do but i don't know if you have enough to split them in the way that ufc does yeah i don't think you have the depth right now to to pull something like that off i think that's

a smart move would you be down for Bellator almost going in the opposite direction and having as little weight classes as possible, Luke? Like what would they get rid of? Like, you know, this is obviously much more of a conversation in boxing where the 17 weight divisions now are just, you know, just ridiculous. People are like, can't we go back to the original eight that boxing had for the first 60 years or whatever? Is there a number you think in MMA that is sort of that sweet spot?

Are we past that sweet spot? I tend to think 10-pound increments. So if we're going to start on the men's side at 125, let's see, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 205, and then heavyweight. Yeah, 9 or 10 is probably going to be about right for men. All right. Yeah, they don't have the depth in this case to do it. So I was saying do less divisions to make the titles feel more important

and have more depth at each division because of that. But that could also be a turnoff to fighters. But also, Bellator doesn't even have a flyweight division. make the titles feel more important and have more depth at each division because of that but that could also be a turnoff to fighters but also bellator doesn't even have a flyweight division true you know i mean have you ever noticed that coker has never been like you know what bellator really needs we got to get 125 or people want to make this argument like how could you get rid of the flyweights i know how because consumers don't care about them if you care about them that's fine consumers don't for the most part they don't um so you know to me it's never been a coincidence that like oh just coker doesn't want him coker doesn't want him for a good reason and he's had all the opportunity in the world

to snatch up some if he wanted and he didn't and i think that speaks volumes it's fair it's fair luke from ilia 745 how would current Francis current Francis and prime Fedor go gotta tell you I think Fedor takes an L there really? yeah I'll tell you why Fedor what his big advantage was when he was in his prime

let's say 2004-ish he had incredible speed and explosivity there is no doubt in my mind he would land on Francis first and there's no doubt in my mind he would land on Francis first, and there's no doubt in my mind he would land on Francis more. But he also had wide punches, and he also took risks. And Francis has the dim mock on lock. I mean, whenever he wants it, bink, and there you go. It's, you know, on-call death touch is pretty great power to have. You're asking me francis

durable lasted 25 minutes with steve the first time even though he got his ass kicked but they couldn't put him away i think he would i think fedor would land on him bc but i think eventually that would wear off and francis is gonna he's going to land sooner or later and that's gonna be all she wrote yeah the no you're making very uh very sober comments here that would mean that francis would have to be the betting favorite and i think overall you're making very uh very sober comments here that would mean that francis would have to be the betting favorite and i think overall you're right in some of what fedor was was antiquated to a different era i just what i retain in the romanticized idea of wanting to pick fedor is the fact that uh he has those intangible things on lockdown that he would need to be

successful chin and wrestling in this matchup. So with that, I mean, look, seriously, as we know of Ngannou right now, Stipe's the only guy who could take punishment and have success and keep coming. I mean, even Curtis Blades in that first fight, his face fell apart when he tried it with the success on the ground.

Like, no one's been able to survive that except for Stipe. We look at him as like superhero, superhuman, and then in the rematch, one's been able to survive that except for cp we look at him as like superhero superhuman and then in the rematch he still got sent to hell i mean that's the way you know so uh i think fedor because you know i've watched him get scorpioned and then get right up and win the fight luke i've realized that this man is not of normal uh normal uh you know body response to pain that uh his cyborg level of absurdity could maybe keep a minute longer in my head but uh even my head would get sent to hell by frank

and ghanu right now luke this is a uh this is just a nasty creation of like like the like i'm you know i'm sure francis has given a lot of good to the world in his many years, and his story is very inspirational, but this was a tool that God created that is very, very violent, and it does bad things, Luke. From Rare Dubai Collector, what would it take for you two to completely switch facial hairstyles? Luke shaves his beard completely, although BC has facial hair of a 13 year old but he's got some

and Brian grows his hair like Luke's Luke I don't think we're actually that far off I mean you have a thicker beard but we both like him high and tight and also both get similar hairstyles Luke yeah we're more alike than we like to admit unfortunately

you just refuse to dye them locks, Luke. You know what? You are many, and you contain multitudes, Brian Campbell. Did you know that? No. What would it take for you to have a big-ass beard like me? Not much, right? No, I can't grow it.

That's why I don't flirt with it. It gets, yeah. Look, I mean, I was one of those people who didn't have to shave, like actually shave with shaving cream until I was like 19 or 20, because they just, there's just not a lot going on, Luke. Okay. You know what I used to do? Um, so I had a date my senior year in high school, Luke, and I was working at McDonald's at the time and they had a no facial hair below the lip top lip rule. But you know, I was really going somewhere with my goatee and i had

this big date coming up so i considered calling in sick but ultimately i just took two band-aids and covered it luke and worked a shift at the register do you know how like low class that decision was in hindsight yeah hey hey hey jack off working behind the register can you chin bleed into my filet-o-fish i mean it's you know looking back it's not much of a heroic story luke okay do you know we also had a mcdowell i didn't mean to turn this into room service diaries but we had managers that were so angry about the shaving rule and you know a lot of guys would come in with the five o'clock shadow that they'd yell at you to go to the med kit and we had a community razor and it was a used shaving razor without any shaving

cream and they expected you to just go in the back and shave off your beard with it and many many employees did luke that's uh that's some uh yeah that's uh they didn't do that at chick-fil-a we didn't we didn't have that all right because they they would say they wanted to send you home but the reality was we needed the bodies luke okay so that's why the community razor became a necessity when did when i mean good thing we didn't have the community condom you know yeah look i'm you know what you just sometimes sometimes you gotta share things bc sometimes you gotta share things yep yep sharing is caring.

All right, last but not least, from Goose Nova. Someone says, BC, is this art? Have you seen the, I've seen this. Have you seen the Banksy documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop? I have specifically told you about this. If yes, give me your thoughts. If no, check it out at once.

Have you seen Exit Through the Gift Shop? What is that? Is that the one with Kim Jones? It is a documentary where they talk to somebody who purports to be Banksy. You banksy the elusive street artist what now i got maniche telling me it's a must watch no i don't know who banksy is and i've never heard of this documentary i'm still you've never heard of banksy the i'm still trying to buy the one on prime that you told me of kim jong-un's brother in the game show luke okay that's my next half brother uh and

he gets murdered yes well spoiler alert i mean come on banksy is a famous street artist believed to be british but you know his identity or her identity whoever ends up being is uh very much unknown and it is they are someone that's done really important work some political work they went to some of the places in um the west bank uh or gaza i'm not sure which one of the two but where israelis and palestinians are separated by a wall and then they drew all kinds of stuff on the wall uh he drew he she or he drew all kinds of like very political messaging on the wall but they've done other stuff they do um they do like this pop art he caught he caught he or she caused a bit of a pop art craze. We had a lot of imitators. This is somebody who purports to be Banksy

talking through some of what they've done. And yeah, it's a great documentary. It's really, really, really good. I'll have to check it out. Do you know where it's streaming? And am I the Banksy of this show in some degree? Are you the guy who tries to make jokes so painfully obvious they hit you over the head

i don't know if you're that guy but dude anybody people always ask me where is it streaming i don't know the answer to that but you can almost always go to youtube.com slash movies and find anything so check that out i'll look it up as we go through you gotta pay for it luke say again pay for then you gotta pay for it on youtube. Say again? Then you got to pay for it on YouTube. That's a last resort. I'm looking to see if the 18 streaming services my family makes me pay for. Luke, wow, I sounded old and white right there. I'm trying to see if it's on one of those for free, Luke. All right, here's where it's at.

Here's where it's at. It's at Vudu. Oh, God, they're going to make me fucking show my ads on this site. God, Jesus. All right, hang on it's on voodoo prime apple tv but you gotta rent or buy it there anyway so there you go i'll get back to you on it all right here's how they here's how they uh pitch it to you the infamous shadowy british graffiti street artist banksy has left his mark on cities throughout the world. He's come into contact with Terry Guetta, a Los Angeles-based

Frenchman who videotapes various underground art escapades and later is transformed into an art phenomenon dubbed Mr. Brainwash. His fans narrate an overlapping documentary. Oh, the documentary explores where the line is between what is real and what might be fake, blurs as modern art

and celebrity are put under the microscope it sounds a lot like what should have been the tagline for our second doc luke because we blurred that same line all right yeah except no uh there you go that's it that's all we have time for your shit all right all right thanks luke thanks you're losing steam right at the key point of the show? I hope not, Luke. Okay? Listen, my energy, as you saw mathematically, it stays steady. It's yours that goes up and down, my guy.

All right. Here we go. We scour the globe for the good and bad, the highs and lows. I'm excited about this today. The ugly shit, all that in between. It's called Have You Seen This Shit? Oh, God. My rear end.

All right, Luke, you're excited about it. Let's go to Dubai. ESPN Boxing. We talked about Jamel Herring's upset knockout of Carl. Not upset. I'm sorry. Knockout of Carl Frampton. Luke, I just want to show you this uppercut here.

I mean, that it will. God. Whoa. Sneaky, sneaky. Whoa. I mean, that's just some good ish from Semper Fi right there. Carl's got a chin on him, too. Yeah, Frampton was game.

I'll give him credit, bro. Let's see it one more time. Look at that. Oh! But, Luke, that wasn't the best knock down or knock out of the show. Check out the opening fight on the undercard. I couldn't find the guy's names, but watch this. Dude, that was Donk Fest 2021.

I mean, look at these punches. Are these the worst punches you've ever seen in your life? They look like the spinning top from Karate Kid Part 2, Luke. Actually, the guy who won's combo wasn't was okay yeah the guy who won's combo was okay the guy who got knocked out that was just that was just darwinian that looked like the first or no the second danny garcia eric morales fight where he just knocked he knocked him out so hard he did a pirouette luke i mean that's just some shit right there look at that yes man i should have found out that guy's name well done all right to the land of wind and ghosts keep the boxing express going to zone this weekend look you know who's back unified 122 pound champion murajan akhmadaliyev they call him mj

remember tell me the guy with the man bun gets wrecked here, please. Yeah, she does. That is Rice K. Iwasa. Well, here's the deal, Luke. MJ Akhmad Aliyev, he beat Danny Roman to win the two belts in an absolute war before the quarantine in early 2020. Just a fight of the year candidate. He's been off this entire stretch. We know that division is heating up, including a lot of guys under the PBC banner

that fight on Showtime. Cool boy, Steph. Stephen Fulton Jr. is one of them, Luke. But good to see Akhmadaliyev back. A lot of people believe he is the class of this division. And boy, did he put it on. What kind of hair is that, Luke?

I mean, listen, if the ref just let it go because he's like, you got a man bun, bro, I'm going to let you get beat on a little bit, I'd honestly understand the referee. All right, well done here. Let's go back to Bellator 255, Friday night from Mohegan Sun, and we are all going nuts about our boy Rat Garbage, Luke. What's his first name?

Last name's Nalo? Mandel. Alright, I got a lot to say. First of all, he sent Ricky Sejas to hell. Dude, if you've not seen this, it's on YouTube. You can go and look. BC, I don't think he missed a punch, and every punch he landed had authority behind it.

It was sharp, accurate, and powerful. And I mean, he beat the piss out of this guy, but the scariest part is watch the walk-off. And, I mean, he beat the piss out of this guy. But the scariest part is watch the walk-off. Luke, I say this with as much niceties as I can. That's sociopath-level behavior. I mean, he just walked off like, all right, what time's Wapner on? You know what I mean?

This guy's a stone-cold killer, and he's a creeper too, Luke. I love me some rat garbage, right? Yeah. Rat garbage is like legitimately an incredibly interesting person. He has a unusual name and unusual look. But when it's time, look at this, look at this fool. This guy was, you'd think this guy was bagging your groceries or something. I mean, he's, you know, in the park having coffee or something.

Like you'd find him at a yoga studio before you'd find him at an MMA gym, and he will fuck you up. His neighbors are like, we never saw it coming, the mass murders. He was such a nice guy. He did yoga in the backyard every day. Yes, namaste. It looks like he stretches in the morning just by twisting a rabbit's head completely off its body.

I love this. That's how you open a pickle jar. He just goes... If I secure an interview, will you appear in this interview, Luke? Yes, 100%. In all seriousness, he's Faraz the Hobby Train, so he's out of TriStar.

He might be the real deal. Bellator's prelim cards are more like boxing prelim cards, where they're just filling it up sometimes or guys will have one fight deals or they'll actually be fighting for another promoter that's regional and then they'll just have them on the card to sell tickets. That's less so for this last one because they're in the bubble, but historically speaking, that's been the case.

But this looks to me like a guy on the prelims that they were giving. He's fought on Bellator before that they're giving a real tryout too because he looks good he's a good fighter i mean that was an ass kicking uh you mentioned regional mma luke you know anything can happen there so let's do a nice little roundup how about we start with cffl it was on ufc fight pass we got a KO of the year contender here. Hold that, son. Wow. Wow. Yeah, dude, this is nice. Steps across, bang.

Oh, that was... Spinny shit done right. Wow. All right, let's go over to Brave MMA. Luke, this is Nalras Abzak. What the hell kind of choke is this, Luke? High elbow guillotine. Good God, this is nasty. And then he lets it...

Yeah. Now it's... Yeah, still high elbow. Well, now it's just a elbow guillotine good god then he lets it yeah now it's yeah no still high well now it's just a regular guillotine before it was high elbow dude he but cheated he john jones on machida him right there he just left the dead body hanging luke yeah yeah that was he tried to turn out of it and then he stops the turn and then he comes back around belly down and then it just becomes a regular guillotine yeah it's high elbow reason why is so that the person can't fight it. You actually put the elbow on top of the shoulder. I mean, that's kind of a late stoppage there.

Luke, he could have killed the guy, right? I mean, if he held it for a few more minutes or something, no. Oh, yeah. That's not great. That's not great. It's not great. Well, sometimes they get revenge on the refs, Luke. Check out this dude after the tap-out loss on the regional scene.

Sorry, not a tap-out. After the stoppage, this guy's not done fighting, Luke. Oh, God. Oh, God. Dude, that's like kind of in there a little bit. He's tapping, Luke. Yes. A little revenge against the authority, right?

Oh, man. Yeah, you know what? He actually did it pretty well too yeah oh that's not regional mma luke that's one championship a lot of weird shit will happen in that ring there wow he gets a stretch on the leg but he doesn't like he's doing like a knee bar but like with a heel hook grip it's weird yeah indeed all right let's go over to uh fame mma luke did you see this cringy way in what is going on here aren't these like you're kind of you know okay but watch her for you right i don't understand her luke she's scary like her tattoos no i like her tattoos they're nice okay but watch the behavior it's very um

they have the same face i don't understand it they have the same face i kind of like it though do they all get surgery at the same place actually i think i like it a lot. I think they get surgery at the same spot, bro. Yeah, that's some serious ink there, too, Luke. But all right, I'm done with this. It's now scaring me. I've come the full gamut of her faces.

It's not normal. Let's check in with older broads. let's find out what abuela is up to oh she went to the mall today luke in dc to uh try to get you a birthday gift um this one my dude this is what my you know dude old people and kids are the same yes this is what my kid does she just walks without looking and then falls down you know oh like dude her walking is like the perfect example of inertia because once she's in motion bro she just goes check out this dude in the red shirt behind the ball just kind of watching yeah he's like oh you all right you dead

lady oh you ain't dead all right well luke later in the day it got worse for abuela she was trying to catch the bus after she dried off and uh this didn't this didn't end right dude no one no one loves elder abuse more than you i've never seen someone i just provide the can't keep his pants on when old people are getting wrecked oh well luke let's go out to the motorbike scene. Check out this dickhead on the back of the scooter, Luke. Oh, no, he's not going to drive off, is he? Oh, Jesus. Well, you know what? Now he can listen to satellite radio.

Oh, they were on their way to church, too. That's a bad look, Luke. That's not good. All right. Luke, have you ever heard of this Russian combat league called Thermopylae Team Combat in Russia? Have you ever seen this shit, Luke? I've seen combat MMA, yes. I like how either they just said, you know what, COVID can just take us all, or this is from a few years ago. Well, here's the premise, Luke.

It's four-on-four team combat. They call it TTC, and you fight elimination style until you defeat the other team and it's um inspired by the battle of thermopylae which took place in 480 bc for all you historians which the thermopoly the film the 300 spartans is based on luke thermopoly thermopylae I prefer that pronunciation, but would you watch this? I know we've seen Team MMA before out of Europe. They're crazy out there. They're crazy, Luke. I mean, you know, what I watch is

not really a high bar. So, yes, but that doesn't tell you that I think it's good. That's a small ring, bro. That's a narrow piece of business there. It's a shoebox. It's a shoebox for Shaq. Yeah, it is. Hey, Scorpion King tryouts are continuing for the upcoming sequel. small ring bro that's a narrow piece it's a shoebox it's a it's a shoebox for shack yeah it is all right hey at scorpion king tryouts are continuing for the upcoming sequel we got a we

got one inside this uh this pole vault event here at your local track meet almost there almost there oh god that was me asking john jones a question yeah Here we go. Hey, Jon. Blah, blah, blah. Oh. All right. Let's head out to the beach, Luke. When you play beach football, you got to dive for it, right? You got to try to impress the ladies. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah.

That's spinal. Yes. He broke his back. Wow. Okay. He thought he was AJ Green, green who was gonna leap into the end zone all athletic and shit i'm like bc they are they are they white i can't oh yeah they're white well let's keep on going on this this trend luke i think they refer to this as

natural selection in the white community. What the fuck? Watch me. Yo, ready? I got a magic trick, BC. Ready? Watch this honky disappear. I mean, is that into the sewers? Is he in the sewers now, Luke?

That's not going to end well. I can make cold honkies disappear. That's what I can do. All right. Let's go down under. You know I love me some Aussies. And check out this insane kickboxing KO, Luke. Oh. No, I won't be getting you, the manager, for you to speak to today.

Pow, dude. He ate every inch of that punch. That dude bounced off the ropes, ricocheted forward, and slammed everything he had into that. It took his soul away. And he got his head off the center line. And he got his head off the center line. Well done.

All right, we got to get something positive. Let's check out the slam dunks of the week, Luke. Check out this Raptors fan on ice skates. I need you to judge this on a 1-50 score. Here we go. I do love Canadians. Oh, high degree of difficulty here, Luke. Okay, this is very cool so far.

Kind of threw it in, though, right? Yeah, yeah. very cool so far. Kind of threw it in though, right? Yeah, yeah. He almost stuck it. I mean, here's the thing. I'll give him a 10 out of 10 for the spirit of the challenge, but I got to give it an 8 out of 10 because as hard as it is, you do have to stick it if you sign up for the challenge. It's very reminiscent of Dwight Howard when he put on the Superman cape

and he caught that lob and he basically just threw it in. Cause he jumped from like, you know, 18 feet away, something ridiculous. All right, let's move on to the, that's the best made dunk of the week.

Let's check out the best miss dunk in this. It looks like a church dunk contest. Maybe. Oh God. Are they white? Yeah. Yeah, they are.

Yeah, they are. Oh God. Future bills. bills mafia member right there luke wow hold on hold on let's see this one more time dude hold on his head bounces off the rim table and floor watch is that the cte trifecta? That is great. Wow. Woo. Okay.

Luke, you know, with all the vaccines going around, concert season could be back upon us. We could be out there drinking, playing with the ball. It's going to be great, right? That was unplanned. Yeah. Wow. You just got to walk away if you did that if you were the one who did it you just gotta you know you gotta you gotta get out of there look you can't great

great shot there ike turner yeah good job all right luke the next one is all about doing it for the gram if i'm gonna risk my life i want you standing there to film it for me, Luke, okay? Oh, God. Are they white? Oh, yeah. Oh, God. That's very, very off-brand whiteness here. Yeah, it's the price you pay for good photography. It's like in the movie Salvador. Wait, hold on.

Who is this person in the bikini, and are they topless? They might be. That might have... Yeah, wow, okay. Because I can't quite tell from the Zoom call I'm looking at here. That's not... Wow. That's a tough... It's a rough fall there at the end, too, Luke. That's great. Dude, she just aims for her friend.

She knocks her friend into a pit of cobras, and then she just falls off this thing. That's what drinking Four Loko before noon will do for you. Four Loko, this is three White Claw. Are you kidding? All right, Luke. It's the inspirational moment of the week. Luke, don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't do it.

Look at this guy. No arms. Still determined to be a lumberjack. So I went to school with a kid who had no arms in both elementary school. And then we went to college together. Yeah. He played on the soccer team. He's pretty good. Big Def Leppard fan.

All right. I mean, that's a little much but okay very inspirational stuff look just like this video it's awesome all right yeah well one guy losing it later in life with one arm is not quite the same as being born with without two arms but okay all right you know I can regret saying something it happens a lot in the show I can say though that this gentleman is uh all man i love this man right here this is great all right that boxing phone looks like wow okay all right luke uh uh well let's head over to the barber shop this uh thank you to hoagie farts for presenting this to us but that is uh that's something i don't think this is real that is um i don't know i don't understand what's up with this person's posture or their chest or those gross nipples would you say that they got shafted by

the barber there luke or what i mean you know i mean uh more like tea bagged yeah that's i don't like that i don't like that all right hey luke um you know they say some guys have all the luck brett okamoto's you know very handsome guy some guys have all the luck. Brett Okamoto's, you know, a very handsome guy. Some guys get all the best gigs. Did you see what Brett tweeted out yesterday on where he was this weekend? Out at the shooting range with Team Shevchenko doing a piece on the sisters. Look at this handsome guy right there. I mean, some guys get all the good stuff.

And after they were done firing off rounds like it was luke and his wife's first date they went inside and had dinner just one man and two chicks did you see this bc have you ever been to a firing range no no no oh no oh we're going motherfucker you you want okay you want to do a documentary yeah luke takes bc on a date yeah to the firing range we're going to a shooting range you and i oh boy you got the right music for it all right and then then they went to the restaurant meet you got the next one hold on you ever fired a gun uh no i've never fired i don't like firearms luke okay i'm not a real gun guy what does that mean i don't like firearms uh i don't feel i have a need for them in my life okay okay but i don but I don't own any firearms, but, I mean,

are you scared of firearms? Yeah, yeah, I'd say I don't want to own a firearm, yeah. You know there's no needles in them, right? Are you lobbying for or against gun control, secretly, in this country? I am for gun control, but this i am for uh i am for gun control but i am also not one of these folks who like oh i'm gonna make views about guns and know nothing about them i've had a life with guns and because i've had a life with guns i really think

that they should be more highly regulated that being said i also enjoy firing them at the shooting range in a safe environment and I'm taking your ass to go shoot if the documentary if Jake less than Jake the documentarian is there and we maybe we can draft the uh Shevchenko's I know it'd be stealing a bit of you know copywriting plagiarizing Brett's work but uh if this is this man's life work I mean did you see the picture of them in the restaurant Luke just all dolled up I mean you know brett's doing well yeah dude instead of food truck diaries we can do shooting gallery diaries all right all right uh well i got one more clip for you not necessarily related to brett but you know depending what you think about it luke

it's like here's my impression of luke watching red tube yeah brett was like hold on sisters i've got to go in the back for a second yeah all right that's awful that's just awful great work really great from a great journalist okay luke that's just a great a lot it's a lot of ranch on your shitty pizza there yeah yeah it is uh so luke yeah, yeah, you can't make me own a gun. I don't need a forearm. I don't own a gun. And you can own guns here much more easily than you used to be able to due to some changes in the law.

Look, if I didn't believe in my ability to sink that in against you, then maybe I'd consider packing some heat. BC, what kind of things would you say you've done in your life that are manly uh uh as just a couple years ago i got two cars in the garage for the first time luke that was like one of those moments in life where you were like i made it i made it luke okay i did a winter without scraping that shit is that manly or is that is that uh that's regular shit that's pretty regular that's that's regular shit but that's the upper end of regular shit. I chop wood in the spring, Luke.

I go out every day. You have an axe? I have an axe. I've got a, what's the other thing that's like an axe, but it, you know, what's the word? You know what I'm talking about? Handle? Blade? I don't know.

Maul. I got an axe. I got a maul. I got that spike that you put in to break that shit up that's okay man okay okay okay okay but do you have a chainsaw i do i have a very good chainsaw too okay all right that's something dude that's that's pretty good i bought the industrial strength weed whacker last year and um nearly got divorced because of it i i i accidentally killed a lot of things my wife loved in the yard, including plants, flowers.

Luke, you ever use the kind that a lawn service business would get? Not the regular at-home weed whacker. I bought the big one, Luke, okay? That thing's out of freaking control. I lose control of it. It's like holding a weapon in your arms, Luke. It just starts taking things out. They're asking, are you a rider

mower guy or a push mower guy i inherited a rider a year and a half ago uh so yeah i'm a i'm a ride or die bc i gotta tell you when i was your boys are gonna be 13 when i was 13 dude i was definitely mowing the yard why are you mowing the yard my dad wouldn't let me near the mower because he assumed i would break it i don't know that that's the worst assumption given the facts but at the same time do you want to uh when i was 13 your boy was yeah i was i was cropping tobacco at 13 much less mowing yards you were cropping tobacco yeah that's what the kids did in the south in the summer to make some cash mm-hmm wow all right i didn't know that luke you surprised me every day hey luke how excited are

you say weird shit and when it comes time for us to tally up manly shit i've done i got a substantial lead on you man i've i've sired two children luke okay that's true that's true you have three needles without without you know with a vietnam veteran in his 70s who only works did the vaccine hurt did it hurt at all no that didn't hurt at all i'd give that you got the shoulder right yeah i think it's because i am a former covid um sufferer luke remember i had like the covid 18 and a half at that early i had like the early version of it um it triggered me 48 hours of uh basically sleep after getting that needle so uh you know all right just to wrap up on this because i want to be clear about this would you be interested maybe when you come to dc would you be interested in going like

legitimately interested in going to a safe well-run very professional shooting range with me i would be interested now what access to firearms do I have? Like, do they have... Great. So with the shooting range, they usually have regulations. Obviously, whatever state you're in, you have to comply with the state regulations and that kind of a thing.

And I think I've never brought my own guns in because I don't own any. So I don't know to what extent you have to demonstrate ownership of firearms that you bring in, but you can bring in certain firearms or you can rent what the range has. And what I've found is that, you know, listen, you want to go just fire a Glock 17, which is a very basic handgun.

You can do that. Not much recoil, pretty accurate, easy, steady, trigger squeeze to the rear. But if you want to get, like, you know, exotic, like some Mossbergs or something fun, some German special forces weapons, you can get those too. They're fun to fire because they're silly. You would never use them. You can't even buy some of them here. Do they have the Desert Eagle hand pistol?

The Desert Eagle is not for you. That's not a beginner's weapon. Yo, Arnold handled that with ease in Commando, bro. Yes, he did. That may or may not have been real. I don't know. But Desert Eagle, we can work up to Desert Eagle. I would not start you with Desert Eagle.

I would start you 22, 9mm. What about Call of Duty and Fortnite with my kids? There's that gun. It's a one-shooter from the 1800s, and you've got to pipe clean it between shots. You know that gun. It's a one-shooter from like the 1800s, and you got to pipe clean it between shots. You know that one? It's like a well-rodded one. You know which one we're going to fire?

It's politically charged, but it's a very good weapon. Certainly, even sporting, well, I wouldn't hunt with it, but just a fun weapon to shoot, again, in a safe environment. Again, it's politically charged, but the AR-15 is actually a very, I understand why it's a popular consumer choice even among law-abiding citizens it's easy to handle it's not too hard to clean all right i have a few questions yeah it's got a very minimal recoil it's pretty accurate it you know is this um is this one of the are you taking me to an indoor place where there's like a

a bust of somebody and i'm shooting like targets on it and then it comes back to me and i got the thing are we outside like the shevchenko's which one are you no the outside ones are for like very very like the picture you showed me they were on top of the humvee firing the 50 cal with the butterfly trigger that's cool but i mean i've done that a million times and by the way when you have to carry all of the replaceable uh barrels for the 50 cal which way you know they're just pure steel your romantic romantic ideas about the weapons go away pretty quickly because they're fucking heavy and you have to hump that shit everywhere it sucks so and i was always the guy with the mortars who had to carry like the base plate and shit like

that so um so i'm not into that we'd go go indoor. We'd go indoor. Indoor ranges, they're smaller. What they do is when you... Can you eat while you shoot? Because I got to imagine having like... Eating beef while you shoot things is probably a man sandwich, Luke. I have not been to a range that allows that. Usually food consumption would not be a thing you want to do. But what you do is you rent like a booth and you pick whatever weapon you want.

And you go and you get your target. and uh you pick whatever weapon you want and uh you go and you get your target and target can be like concentric circles i have been to some places that were like you know had bin laden you could take bin laden off the wall you know whatever uh and then whatever silhouette you want you attach it can you play pie punch co-host there do they have that option yeah you run it you run it back and then you can fire whatever how much you have to buy the amount of rounds that you want to shoot you know as well which can get expensive but uh and then you just bring it forward you can see how you shot and stuff like that very basic very fun there's a range safety officer there the whole time it's

cool all right i'd be willing to try under the auspices of the the donkeymentary bc and dc which look we you know it's very it's rare right that that uh that sequels can outdo you know the first one in terms of you know commercial success but how about critical right it's you know we're talking about godfather 2 and empire strikes back right um well we've already done that with the mk don 2.0. Uh, I would have to believe BC and DC would be a, uh, an advanced sellout. Luke, it'd be the,

the, the amount of anticipation for this would be through the roof. Luke, it might even get you excited about this project. It might. If you come to DC and you come to the firing range, I'll be all in. I'll be all.

And we're going to lift in my front yard all the shit you hate, we're going to do. We're going to do. And then maybe we'll cap it off with a tattoo in Richmond. How about that? Do you want to have a two-man insurrection anywhere? No, those don't turn out too well for people, I've noticed. They go badly.

They go real badly. I'll skip that. Okay, have you seen anything for odds and ends? I don't Okay, BC, anything for odds and ends? I don't think we had anything tremendous for odds and ends. No, no. How about Alessio DiCarrico versus Roman Delezzi, the Georgian guy? Dick Rico, yeah. Added to the UFC event on June 5th.

Yeah, I'm in on that. I'm a big Dick Rico fan, so yeah. He got mad at the media last time. He did. He got very upset. It was a good win, though, for him. him okay bc we have to wrap things up here um yeah what do you want to say about last week anything you want to anybody you want to thank anything you want to say you know i think i said what needed to be said during our streams but i did want to thank you know all of our great fans for

consuming that much content it was a big week for what we do here on mk and showtime and the launch of bellator of course and uh you know i had a lot of for what we do here on MK and Showtime and the launch of Bellator, of course. And, you know, I had a lot of fun, Luke, blowing that shit out. And obviously, we also recorded a preview show from the nice restaurant there that people can check on YouTube right now under the Showtime Sports Channel, The Road to Bellator Light Heavyweight Grand Prix, which is sort of an extension of the work that we did ahead of the launch of these cards. But I had so much fun last week, the proximity, Luke, the passion, the chemistry, you know, doing these zooms. It's just, you know, it's, it feels like a long distance relationship right now, Luke. It feels like a, like a, like a chore, like a hassle, Luke. Okay. So, you know, if I'm extra cringy or non-performative in the next few shows you know

i know i have a vacation coming up so that will give me a chance to recharge but uh luke you may have to move north because if you this show has potential to take over the world i don't want to move north but i have to tell you after doing all those shows last week it's like the first time you get back in studio you're like oh well of course that'll be great because you haven't been in the studio and the second time you get back we get back for like the mcgregor one you're like okay but maybe it's just the mcgregor thing now we got back for you know the debut of bellator and showtime and it's like dude every time we get back in that studio it's just a complete this is this is mk but that that's mk the thing in the studio is mk this is the best we could i mean we're lucky to have this to be clear but is it the equivalent luke of when

you're a kid and your mom and dad take you on vacation to the lake house and you overhear them going you know what we long for this place all year we work hard we just can't wait to get to this place why don't we just move here right why don't we just live on the water every single day? I'll quit my job, whatever it takes. You want me to sell hot dogs on the street to make ends meet? What if we woke up to this paradise every single day and felt this way, right? One day, Luke, you're going to have to look into my eyes and come to terms with that decision, you know?

Are you going to risk it all and move to the lake house with me, Luke? I might. I might. Because that was great. I want to thank all the fans and the viewers who took all that stuff in and people in the podcast as well. I don't want to forget them who listen on the podcast. I thought last week we got a lot done and some more stuff is coming.

So I'm pretty excited about how everything turned out, and I was glad to get together. All right, if you want to try Showtime, you can. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can pound sand. And if you want to take that plunge, you can go to show.com slash Bellator MMA. $4.99 a month for just the next six months. You can follow us on social media everywhere.

It's going to be called Morning Combat. Same name in every place you go, but as you can see, me and BC, slightly different names between Twitter and Instagram there. You want to email the show Wednesday. We will do fan submissions. Friday, dead wrong, I think. We'll see how that goes, but certainly for

fan submissions, morningcombat at gmail.com for Wednesday's show. BC, anything else? Just shout out our unsung heroes. A guy named The Drunken Swan Guy sending me, have you seen this shit clips every single day? There's a legion of guys who do stuff like that. A lot of people going to making this show great,

from behind-the-scenes staff to our hardcore of hardcore viewers. We love you all, so thank you. I can't stress it enough. You're going to be wearing our merch, our new merch soon, and you're a part of this journey as we get there, as we take over the world, as we shut up all the pretenders, Luke, okay?

All right? As we just shut them the hell up, and soon, one day, the beggars will be choosers. We will be the voice of record in this space, Luke, okay? I believe that. I believe that i believe that we're on our way um all right so thanks to mulca thanks to cbs sports thanks to everyone out there

who watched and then uh yeah we're back on wednesday thumbs up on the video hit subscribe appreciate everyone's participation today and until next time may all of your gains be loyal