MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - McGregor-Poirier Drama | Nunes vs. Anderson Postponed | Bellator 252 | Ep. 81

Episode Date: November 11, 2020

Episode 81 of MK is here. Luke and Brian are here to discuss Paul Felder, stepping in late notice to take on Rafael Dos Anjos (8:40). Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier seems to be all set but where and when will it take place (28:42)? Amanda Nunes had to withdraw from her UFC 256 bout due to an injury (32:39). The guys Preview Bellator 252 and discuss Patricio Freire's legacy (37:10). The boys also run through some crazy headlines in Boxing (50:13). Plus the end the show with Social Justice Wednesday (1:02:35) and Fan Submissions (1:08:10). --------------------------------- '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

You hear that? Ugh, paid. And done. That's the sound of bills being paid on time. But with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, paying your bills could sound like this. Yes! Earn rewards for paying your bill in full and on time each month.

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. of the screen his name is co-host boy the the the fans love that little bit that you did that we then turned into some social media assets bc so congratulations brian campbell everybody on the other side of the screen you can thank you luke thank you luke before we we potentially trade hostilities which is very possible on this show although it is wednesday it's a fun day no j wednesdays njw in the house indeed it's also veterans day luke J Wednesdays, NJW in the house indeed. It's also Veterans Day, Luke. So I did want to, in full sincerity, tell you that, A, there is no such thing as an ex-Marine, a former Marine, whatever you want to call it. And, Luke, thank you for serving this great country of ours.

Thank you. Do me a favor. I want to grab something. Put BC on the screen if you can, Gaff or Corey, who's ever doing this. I want to grab something here real quickly, but I've got to dig it up. So there we go. While I'm here, I did want to show you my sweet peach. Wow.

Sweet piece of $3.99 merch I picked up and I wore today because like Volkan Ozdemir, when he knocks out fools in a Fort Lauderdale bar, I've got no time for any of Luke Thomas's shenanigans today. So thank you very much. No time for shenanigans any of your typical bullshit luke all right what do you got here luke you got it you got a scrap yeah so i haven't i found this i dug this out so this is your boy about nine weeks into marine corps boot camp i don't know if you can see yes look at that guy believing you. This is a point in your life when all conspiracies felt true to you, Luke.

Not quite true. And then here is, I was with two platoons. So I was with Echo Company 2074 in Parris Island. And then I skipped Team Week and I went to Alpha Company. And then I was with 1066. But this was the group I spent the most amount of time with. And there is your boy, L. Thomas. You can see here very quickly.

I'll show you on the screen if you can read. I'm not sure. I'll move. I can't quite tell if it's focusing or not. Maybe not. I'm too far. Looks like a game of guess who, Luke? It's not really focusing.

Let me say this. The guy next to me, my bunkmate, because it's all alphabetical, there's me, L. Thomas. My bunkmate was B. Thomas, and he was a much better recruit than I was. But one time he got in trouble, and he mislabeled his clothes, and all it said was Thomas. And I remember this drill instructor right here, Staff Sergeant Beal, and then here was our senior drill instructor, Staff Sergeant Jackson,

who was clearly on steroids and had lightning and barbed wire covering all his veins as tattoos. Anyway, they one time were like, Thomas, get your fucking ass over here. We're going to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we both were like, you know, this recruit does not understand which one you mean. And he was the one that was in the wrong. And they go, you know what, Thomas LF, you can get your stupid ass over here too. That's what you get for having the same last name. That's exactly what they told me.

So that was a fun day. That was a fun day. Luke, for as good as this moment was, and it is, this is a genuine moment. Thank you, Luke.

I'm not effing around. Thank you for your service. Um, you know, there's a good chance nobody heard this since we start out every show with an audio tech issue. So, uh, Hey, right all right woo ha i got you all a check oh look at bc pew pew pew pew coming out fucking blasting speaking of bullets luke you wrongly had said that i don't support our full team here. You're wrong, Luke.

Check this little piece of merch out right here, Luke. All right. Below the belt with Brendan Schaub. One of. Yeah. You might be surprised this is on my wall. It is. A team player.

Part of our team. Is that a bumper sticker or what is that? A license plate? It's a tag for a Brendan Schaub t-shirt that I have in my merch collection. And so I wanted to display it because, you know, Luke, we support Outcry with Pat Tillman. We support a lot of different projects here for Showtime. Brendan Schaub's one of them, okay? I love that man.

Yeah, and you know what? We also support the CBS products, Bellator 252, which is tomorrow. You and I were kind of supposed to host the weigh-ins, but then we ended up not doing that. But still, we will talk about that today. A lot to get to, BC. So yes, happy Veterans Day to all the veterans out there. Memorial Day, I mean, it's always a good day to celebrate those who sacrificed their life, but that's typically designated for Memorial Day.

If they're still around, hey, you know, thank a veteran or do what it is you need to do to to honor the day correctly um and shouts to all my fellow vets out there especially the ones who spent time in iraq and afghanistan and any place or ufc vets luke that we can shout out here brian stan tim kennedy right anybody else i'm forgetting uh yeah kyle stewart uh is another one i follow him on instagram he is a super gung-ho Marine. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch that had spent time as airmen or something else. But some had more of a forward identity with the military. Some didn't.

But all of them matter. I'm sure some spent time with seamen, too. You know what? Fuck the Navy. You're not going to hear me defend them. I mean, the Marine Corps is part of it, but, you know, as the stupid T-shirts say, the men's department.

Anyway, all right. We have a lot to get to today. Bellator 252. We got a bunch of different pieces of news. Like the video. Hit that subscribe button. If you can see me and hear me, blink twice. That's always important.

If you want to try Showtime, you certainly can. You can go to Showtime.com and get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, go fuck yourself. And we have merch. Store.show.com Forget about pounding that sand. Just kill yourself. Thank you. Store.show.com

You can get some great gear that neither of us are sporting today, but we usually do. We vouch for it, assuming you can get it. And yeah, like and subscribe, like and subscribe. Send this to a friend. We always appreciate that when you do. All right, BC. Pleasantries aside, let's get to where the show starts, which is we're actually going to switch things up a little bit today. And we're going to do our deep dive first because it's actually the most important story, or at least maybe the biggest one out there. So first things first, we had a main event set for Saturday in the UFC between

Islam Makachev and Rafael dos Anjos. Makachev is out. I don't know if he got the run or something else, but he's out. Rafael dos Anjos, on short notice, was looking for an opponent. Wasn't sure what was going to happen. On five days notice, UFC commentator slash sometimes lightweight, I guess, or however you want to call it, Paul Felder steps in and decides to take the fight. It will be, Brian Campbell, five rounds, not three. Bobbles. Bobbles, Luke. I know, bro, at 155 pounds.

There's a lot of different pieces to unpack here. Your reaction to the news generally. Yeah, my reaction is thank you, Paul Felder, because Luke, in a weird way, tell me if I'm wrong. He raised the rent on this fight. It wasn't that I didn't like that main event. There's some certain there's referendum issues here. We got to see if RDA coming off three out of four defeats and now moving back down to not you know not only the division that he won the title at it lightweight but the one that he couldn't

make weight anymore four years ago that's a story in itself certainly i wanted to see the rise of islam makachev could he defeat somebody on this level would have been a nice win if he could now we get a fight that just tells me luke i don't know about you it tells me they're gonna bang we're gonna see some action this will be fun paul felder i you, I don't know about you, it tells me they're going to bang. We're going to see some action. This will be fun. Paul Felder, you know, I don't always give him, like, I love him, I respect him. I always feel like I'm saying, man, this guy's great, but is he uber elite?

Man, he is right there if he's not. He pushed Dan Hooker to the absolute limit. His fights, more often than not, Luke, are very fun to watch. And this is going to be very interesting because it's not that he was out of it in terms of contention but after that loss to Dan Hooker he did sort of take stock of his age his situation with the burgeoning second career as a broadcaster and the whole idea of can he still

do it at this level he didn't have a fight scheduled he wasn't in a camp excuse me for burping my way through this but he did luke um keep himself in tip-top shape i don't know if he's training for a uh a 209 stockton triathlon or not but he's got the abs he's ripped up and he's got the bollocks luke to say you know what company i'll save the day for you i'm sure they're gonna pay him well for it Luke, do you think this could be sort of an accidental potential opportunity if he can get a win here to parachute back into a big fight in a loaded division? There's just no doubt about it. I mean, this is what it is, right?

It's go big or go home, right? Accept a bunch of risk, knowing that your chances are certainly, I'm not going to say not great, but an uphill climb. I think that's pretty fair. And if you win, you just get all the rewards in the world. And if you lose, you can say, well, listen, I took it on short notice. What could you really expect? Still, it would be two losses in a row, even though I kind of thought he won the hooker fight, but you know, it is what it is. Although I thought he lost the Barboza fight. The point being is it'd be two losses in a row. Certainly two out of your last three fights wouldn't go your way

however forgivable it may be but back to the point the point you had raised which is let's say he wins it is absolutely massive I mean we already know you know Dana White's judgment can be questioned or second-guessed but it is what it is he is the guy who has a lot of say and he really respects as we all do but in particular really respects Rafael Dos Anjos and the ability that he has. And he sort of uses the guy he has said publicly. This is sort of my measuring stick for you can beat this guy. You can do something really quite special.

Now, again, beating that guy at all is hard to do, especially on five days notice at 155 pounds in five rounds. It's just crazy that he's able to do that, to your point. I mean, he must be the king of Peloton or some shit. I don't know what he's doing in his free time. But apparently it was just getting ready, staying in phenomenal shape, and he didn't second guess this one at all. To me, if you take a fight on five days notice at 155 pounds for five rounds in a main event against a guy this battle tested,

who is this good, a former champion in the weight class, and a guy who has wins over contenders, a division up. Holy shit, man. That honestly might be the best win of his career. I mean, look at him. These are his victories, BC, in the UFC. Jason Sago, Danny Castillo, Darren Krukschek, Josh Berkman, Alessandro Ricci, Stevie Ray. The Charles Oliveira one's very good, certainly at age as well. James Vick and Edson Barboza. Shouts to all those folks. Honestly, BC, this might be his crowning achievement if he can find a way to get it done. Yeah, look, and maybe there is one, you know,

one run left in him to sort of make it. Look, he's got nice wins. There's not a giant standout one in there against Barbosa. While RDA at this point is on, seems like he's on the other side of the hill. You know, for all things considered, like you said, it could end up being his best win if he could get it. I mean, even Conor didn't come back at lightweight, right?

Coming off of that long layoff was like, give me the soft welterweight to fall back on. So a lot of respect here. And I think most importantly, Luke, on his decision-making to do this, obviously you have to be in the shape to accept it. But you know in the UFC, right, the quickest way to Dana's heart is not through his stomach. It's kind of through his sack, Luke.

It's kind of showing him that that that i'm company man i'm crazy i'm gonna you know do it for the love i'm gonna save the day and come in you do that you get rewarded it's how this thing works luke okay so uh you know excited cowboy serrani made a career out of that right it's uh it's what you do and uh this is going to be really interesting to see i like the fight a lot i. I mean, look, who has more questions to answer? That's the key. I mean, I feel like there's a giant referendum on where RDA is and where he's going.

I mean, RDA, we're all praising Paul Felder. You've got to respect RDA, too, because here's the other part about it. Yes, it's five rounds. Yes, it's five days' notice. And, yes, it's 155. Okay, so, you know, that doesn't make the job easy for Paul Felder. Paul Felder's not a walk in the park to fight either. And if you're Rafael dos Anjos, hey man, you're back down at 155.

You're trying to get right. You were taking on Islam Makachev, who was certainly a formidable challenge, and we'll see exactly how good he can be. But you have to pivot to a different opponent on short notice too. You want to thank Paul Felder. We're thanking Paul Felder. You've got to do the exact same thing for Rafael dos Anjos, who was out there praising Paul Felder for, you know,

making sure that the show goes on. This, like, next man up attitude that these guys have. And, yes, they want to get paid. I mean, obviously there's something to it. But they are both taking on substantial forms of risk here in the event that goes wrong. Yes, MMA is forgiving for losses even that happen as a planned fight and especially on short notice. But it doesn't mean they don't count. They do.

I got to say, I take my hat off to both of these competitors. And I want to make sure we say it. Rafael dos Anjos is all-man as well, and while he has his hands full, I respect his willingness to take on the risk because it's not going to work out for one of these two, and they both know it, and the way in which it can be so unpredictable is just things that a lot of combat athletes just wouldn't do. Yeah, Luke. No, agreed. Full respect to both,

and certainly on Friday's show, we can look a little bit deeper into this matchup after they get on the scales and see who may end up. One quick WC. I'll throw it right back to you. This is what I found interesting to the point we're making. Oddsmakers. They've got Paul Felder as a very slight underdog, about plus 160 to RDA's minus 190.

So a little bit more than slight, but not a heavy underdog, not by any stretch of the imagination. No, and it's a hard fight to handicap, not knowing if RDA can make this weight and look the same. I mean, go back and watch Eddie Alvarez fight. You know, was that Eddie's moment, or was that RDA just realizing he couldn't make 155 anymore? Now it feels like he's going back under some guise of last, you know,

desperation, one last chance i will be talking to the great javier dos anjos later today look right after this show in fact so look for that later today but look i want to get into the deep dive element because you found this very interesting you threw it out there on twitter and stuff the whole idea of saving the day we seem to see it a lot more on in mma than we do in boxing when a main event falls apart you're much more likely to get a very suitable replacement you know it's rare that you get an upgrade it happens sometimes but but you get a very suitable replacement that seems obvious to me given the different business models and the too many cooks in the kitchen and boxing the lack of organization

we're in u in UFC same promoter same league all under one house why does this stick out to you Luke the reason why it stuck out is because in this age of corona fighters aren't fighting as often which at first they were lamenting for different reasons between boxing and MMA you know for example you had Bud Crawford initially saying at the beginning of the pandemic, hey, man, I'm not fighting without an audience. Now, here he is fighting on Saturday, basically without an audience.

But it took some time for him to warm up to it. And obviously, those guys at Bud Crawford's level, you know, when you're that kind of an A-side, you know, premier, top pound-for-pound talent, you have some command over the gate, and that's a way you can generate revenue. So, you know, you had pointed out quite smarmily, if that's a word, smarmy, I'm not sure what the word would be, that there are different business models. But it's true, right? I mean, the way in which the business models are constructed,

they're not entirely different, but they're meaningfully different. And those meaningful differences, they drive different forms of incentive. The thing that I was thinking about is I'm all the time talking about the Ali Act, a union or a trade association or some kind of mechanism to level the playing field to a degree between labor in the world of MMA and the promoter. And whatever mechanism it ends up being, we can all debate which one we'd like more. But my question, just thinking out loud, was if you get one of those things, and I guess it would depend on which one you get given what the answer would be but let's say a union if you got a union would this practice go away with the days of Paul Felder stepping in on five days notice not taking the three-round fight a five-round fight against dude RDA is I mean you know he's as tough as they come whether he's in the back end of a career or not would it go away I don't know the answer to, I mean, he's as tough as they come, whether he's in the back end of a career or not.

Would it go away? I don't know the answer to that. I mean, one of the keys, BC, and you know this as well as I do, one of the keys to the UFC's success is they have found a way to align their own interests with the consumer's. The consumer really benefits because what they want out of the product is what the UFC management wants out of the product. And that's a relationship that works really well. I don't know which one it is, BC. I would love to know. Is this now something that is so ingrained as a practice that it's part of the culture MMA? Or if you change the incentives in the business model, not to the exact same thing boxing is,

but a little bit closer, would this practice go away uh you wouldn't see it as much because look there i feel like there's not a middle class in the ufc i feel like there's the haves and the have-nots the haves are the the champions the ex-champions the championship level consistent main event type fighters who get the type of pay that that you know you you can you can put some money away and walk away from the sport in a good piece. And it's everyone else fighting and scratching and crawling to get to that. And that opens up doors to be opportunistic. And maybe, look, it's not one size fits all.

For all we know, Paul Felder could have gotten offered a lot more money than normal and just taken it one time. It also could just be, look, maybe I do have one run left in me let me figure this out situations differ but certainly in mma you're going to see that i think more often guys taking that opportunity they know you can win over management management's got full control here they're the matchmakers they're the owner the promoter all that uh you you can win them over by doing sort of company-wide take chances like this i think it's a little bit more ingrained in the culture to do that. The sport's got a shorter history run.

It's certainly got a small history of not equal pay, and there's sort of that fight. You certainly see it a lot less often in boxing, Luke, first and foremost just because you've got different promoters and networks. I mean, it's not that we don't see it. Andrew Ruiz coming in the last minute to upset Anthony Joshua is probably the last great monster example. He was actually a PBC fighter on another network and promotion,

but that was a specific big fight where they wanted Anthony Joshua to come to the States, Madison square garden, make this arrival and announcement and they wanted a replacement that at least would ring true to people as having some level of a chance. And I know that sounds contrasting because we played up this Cinderella thing with Andy Ruiz pulling the upset. Look, it wasn't likely, but it wasn't like Andy Ruiz was a bomb. He wasn't Rocky Balboa going in there against Apollo Creed. He was somebody who maybe just didn't max it out until that moment.

We also saw, of course, Vitaly Klitschko famously come in last minute when Johnson fell out against Lennox Lewis in 2003, and they had that sort of last-minute war on HBO. That's a classic. You don't see it that often, though. So, Luke, I think it's still built into that structure of the have-nots seeing an opportunity to maybe become a have. I mean, you know, if you're a have, Luke, why would you? Unless it's a title fight, unless you're a badass,

unless you're Justin Gaethje coming in to fight Ferguson to skip the line, to get that interim strap, to get to the top of the queue in the deepest division in the sports history. Why else would you Luke? It's just the one, the thing that stands out is, and maybe it was bluster and who knows if it would have really gone down, but you know, when Conor McGregor was looking to fill in, I think against Frankie Edgar for some fight or against Frankie Edgar I can't remember the exact circumstances at this point my memory is a little bit fading but Conor McGregor was willing to step in on short notice against a

sort of credentialed opponent even at an inhospitable weight class and you know there's a guy who has no real need to do it I mean I, I think you're right. You'd still see it, particularly for those who are trying to get to the UFC. Hey, guy fell out with Rona. Can you take a fight in the UFC on three days and you've been fighting in, you know, Cage, Fury, not paying you shit championships or whatever. Yes, I think you'll see it there. Or if someone's on a card, same weight class, opponent falls out, will you change opponents, especially if you need to and you want to make good with a promotion.

It could come with a pay bump. That's the other part, too. It could change the mechanics, where if something falls out and you want to take the headlining slot, UFC, through some kind of union obligation, would have to double your pay or something. I'm making something up. Some kind of ordered mechanism by which to bump your pay.

All of those could be in play, and so that can kind of do it. But I just can't quite figure out where the incentives in terms of making it happen because you're trying to please somebody in an unequal relationship begins and where the culture of it's been such a practice for so long, not just in UFC, in other MMA organizations,

you might just see more of it and more of it and more of it because, or at least continuing it, I should say, because it's just a thing MMA fighters do. I don't know. I think there's a bit of a culture there. You know, I want to look back at sort of some of the more monumental moments in the UFC that we've seen that. And there's been times, Justin Gaethje took advantage, yet Jorge Masvidal tried the same thing, of course, this year and lost to Usman. Maybe the best example in terms of success is Michael Bisping coming off the movie set, Luke, of Triple X with Vin Diesel and walking in there and upsetting Luke Rockhold when Weidman fell out. But was there one that was...

Nate Diaz and Conor, too. Nate Diaz was certainly... Look, yeah, that was a big situation. And don't forget, Uriah Faber claims he was right in that discussion until the final second, Luke, when they went with Nate Diaz. But do you think there's a more surprising one, and I'll give you mine, than Anderson Silva at UFC 200? God, he took the fight on like two hours notice, Luke,

and fought Daniel Cormier in the damn co-main event. I mean, well, it wasn't the co-main event, but you get my point. I mean, I don't think I've been more surprised than that right there even though that quickly turned into a almost a carnival type fight with no rules and no meaning really it was just sort of an attraction one time let's see it yeah it was like the ufc was like who could we possibly put on this card to retain some of the value now that dc versus is off. And they got Anderson Silva versus DC. And you think to yourself, my God, if that's who they can call out of the bullpen and put on a card,

I mean, it just speaks to their incredible culture of doing this, but also the reservoir of talent who was willing to do this kind of thing. Now, the fight ended up being weird. There's no doubt about it. But yeah, that was an interesting moment as well. And so it goes back to these questions like what are successful examples what are bad examples of it to me the Nate Diaz and Connor in the first fight so or you brought it up you could say even the Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua fight I

mean that's the reason why these guys don't do that right it's because the a side ends up getting toppled out of nowhere and now you have to go and reconfigure the whole division for a second. And they had to go and do the Andrew Ruiz fight with Clash on the Dunes in Saudi Arabia. They had to do the second Diaz fight. And there's controversy about that. And in the end, the promotions made it work for their own respective reasons, but it causes a lot of problems, or at least I should say,

it changes a lot of plans when things don't go according to plan. You don't exactly have that in this case, BC, with RDA and Paul. It could change the trajectory of their careers, but it doesn't really affect the entire division or title implications or that kind of a thing. So for that reason, it's a lot less risky. But it's amazing that the UFC is by itself, we don't talk about it this way, we keep talking about the fighters. The UFC accepts some measure of risk, but the thing that they love more than anything in the world is keeping the machine going. If you take a fight on short notice and you don't make weight, they have been very clear, BC, you're not doing them any favors. We want you to fill in on short

notice, yes, but we want you to do it in an orderly way so we don't have to do catchweight bullshit. Again, it will happen on occasion if it's really short notice and they're really making a sacrifice. But in general, it's not something they appreciate. So to me, it's also a question of what is their corporate ethos, and theirs is grind the gears, baby. Let's keep this thing moving. Well, a shout-out to Max Holloway for trying at 223

to try to save the day the same way, obviously, it was Eli Akinta in the end, and he showed himself well in that moment. Didn't get the victory, though. Luke, you ever have, like, a vacation coming up or a high school reunion, and you're like, dude, I gotta get in shape for this. When I show up on the beach, I gotta have a flat stomach. I gotta get rid of these moobs, right?

And then, you know, halfway there, you worked out for a couple days, and you're just like, screw it, dude. I'm getting a, you know, you told me, you texted me the other night. You're like, my fat ass is getting ice cream from Uber Eats. I was like, get on with your fat self, Luke. At what point in the training camp for Clash at the Dunes did Andy Ruiz, like, do you think it was his, do you think he said to himself at the start of that camp? You know what? I'm just going to eat.

I'm just going to become a fat shit and lose the bet like you think it was that or do you think there was an oh shit moment halfway through where he's like got you know he's juggling pizza and wings he's just like you know what bro f it i think i guarantee there was a month left and he was like yeah i'm in trouble probably in trouble but he also probably thought you know if i did it once i can do it again kind of a thing right yeah so i think that's probably what went down with it he was just like but i guarantee you there was a moment about a month out he was like yeah i fucked this one up a little bit and in fact he did so there you go all right all right oh topic number two.

McGregor at Poirier drama. So yesterday, MMA Fighting's Damon Martin, he may have had someone else who helped him along, but Damon Martin said that it's on. Poirier and McGregor have agreed. The whole nine yards. There is still McGregor pushing for an earlier date, but if it had to go down the 23rd of January, that'd be fine. But no other outlet reported it so I'm not here to say that it's not a done deal but then I think Dana at was it today's Wednesday

so last night's contender series post fight presser was saying McGregor still hasn't signed yet yeah I think MMA fighting jumped the gun Ariel then came out and and had talked to the Conor team and they hadn't signed yet. And like you said, they were hoping for December. And then Dana told Okamoto that if it happens, it has to be in Fight Island until the world changes. So there's still a lot up in the air here, Luke. Well, what do you make of this?

Are we actually going to get it? I mean, what is your read and temperature on whether or not it actually happens? Yeah, yeah, we're going to get it. I've seen too much tweeting from Conor McGregor, too much of a refocus to do what we're so pleasantly surprised he's willing to do, get out of the mode of just celebrity fighter, right? We're not talking at the moment about boxing Pacquiao

or fighting Nate for the third time. We're talking about getting back in line in these lightweight stakes and trying to win back that title. I think it's going to happen. I think it could be really, well, look, it's going to be massive no matter what. But, Luke, if we can get people in a building, we can open up Allegiant Stadium or something. I mean, look, there is, if the loss, if the Fauci shit changes a little bit,

Luke, there is some potential here. I love and understand Conor saying, I want it now. Let's do it in December. You may have just lost a title fight main event there let me fill in and take that from you uh no matter how it ends up playing out i think before the end of of january we're going to see this fight and it's going to be fantastic and it's going to be huge look this fight's going to be huge brother huge i know i don't know what the right answer is on this one because you had that great news with the vaccine which means if people take it you know if there's some kind of a way to

assess who has taken it or something similar or whatever you could put a lot more than just 5 000 fans in allegiance stadium however you know we had 1400 people die yesterday from coronavirus 200 000 in the country test positive. While our ability to treat this is better than it has been, certainly relative to March, it's significantly better. We're just infecting a lot more people all over the place. In fact, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to have a Thanksgiving with my family because my dad is high risk and so is my sister-in-law. And so I don't know if it's all going to go down. So I know this is a bit of a sort of a side note relative to where you put it,

Fight Island or Apex or whatever. I think if there would be a way to get it done with fans, you could. But, dude, Dana just doesn't seem – it's like either you can have all the fans or none of the fans. I don't know that I understand that. At a bare minimum, wouldn't you explore like Australia or New Zealand where you could have this people would have to quarantine a little bit but you could have it and then you could have packed arenas for a McGregor fight in 2020 or potentially 2021 first quarter that seems like

a thing you would actually want to pursue if you could do it they don't seem that interested in it dude I don't get it yeah that that's an interesting point Maybe Dana's plugged in on certain deep right-wing networks, you know, from the underground mountain bunkers in Colorado, where I believe the government choices of this country actually made, Luke, in opposition of the European banks. Maybe they're getting projections that might allow the potential of something like this in the Vegas football stadium filled up. So that's why Dana's saying, I'm not going to commit to a venue yet.

It would be fight Island if it has to be, but let's see how the war we're waiting on the world to change Luke. Okay. All right. You know, what's weird about that though, is he was the guy who was like, I,

well, after the election and this Corona thing goes away, I'm like, Dana, I'm not sure if you're paying attention here, bud, but not going away back getting worse again. So that's fun.

All right. I don't have a whole lot to say on this topic, but it's worth mentioning, BC. Amanda Nunes and Megan Anderson were supposed to fight at the main event of UFC 256. In fact, it relates to our last point, because Conor apparently is pushing to get into that slot inside of 2020, given that now the greatest women's fighter of all time is no longer competing. She was forced to withdraw due to some kind of issue, a medical issue. We don't really know exactly what it is. I don't know what to say.

It's like, on the one hand, this probably benefits Megan because she needs as much time as possible, I think, to get ready for a challenge this formidable. On the other hand, I respect Megan Anderson. I think she's a very smart person a very talented person but you know you're fighting amanda nunez i can't count her out but it's hard to count her too much in and even with a delay bc i don't know that it meaningfully changes the way which i look at this fight no it probably doesn't i'm a little bit surprised

at this one thing look i'm not trying to you know carve a path of upset victory here Anderson. You know, I think we know who she is for the most part, right? She's a good fighter, right? Got a lot of tats. Beautiful lady. Very good fighter. I think people are just crapping on her chances though. And I get it in light of Amanda's dominance. Absolutely. I just think Luke, she's a different style of opponent that Amanda's faced recently, right? She's bigger and longer, natural more for this weight class in a lot of ways. If Amanda's potentially, and I don't know if this is an injury, I don't know what's going on in Amanda's life. I know her and Nina just had the first child and congratulations and all that. Hopefully all's going well.

But if there's any element of distraction or injury or any of what we talked about earlier in the air luke the idea that maybe amanda is not long for this long term maybe you know maybe she's she's reached the mountaintop everything's going great and you know this might be the best time to fight her okay that's all i'm gonna say i think i just give megan anderson more of a chance i think she's got got a, she's a, I don't know, Luke. I'm seeing something, okay? I'm seeing something that says this probably all could potentially play into her hands. If she's got a shot, Luke, this might be the best case scenario for her. Yeah, this is the best case scenario.

Again, we went back. I always talk about it. Matt Serra was supposed to fight GSP initially. The fight got delayed, and Serra was clear. Those extra eight weeks of sparring, of hitting pads, of really working on the game plan, that was when things really turned the corner for him, and you saw the fruits of that labor.

So, yes, I would agree. This is definitely, if you're Megan Anderson, it's probably frustrating, but it's only a month delay, and it gives you more time to, by the way, if you're Megan Anderson, work on your weight, because for her, getting to one 45 is not easy. Um, so there's a lot of ways in which to look at this and say, you know, this might narrow the gap a little bit, but the question is, does it meaningfully narrow the gap? And that's the part that I think is a little bit hard to parse. Also, I, I, if I'm Conor McGregor, I understand wanting to get in in December. And I don't think, by the way, that Dustin Poirier is opposed to that.

But, again, Dana's got his ideas. Well, is this a Dana's ideas thing, Luke? Or does this go back to that time that Conor wanted to come back and fight Frankie Edgar on two hours notice? You do have to promote a Conor McGregor fight. I mean, you want to, especially if you're not potentially going to get an an audience here not only would you want to push connor out a month if you can for the hope that maybe you could put 10 000 into a football stadium wouldn't you want time excuse me to promote that put the videos out really get extra time to bang the drum

if you're espn which is your pay-per-view partner look december's already a pretty crazy month with football and all that they already told you know wilder and fury three to to you know push off and that's why we got an issue if that fight's gonna happen uh or not at all so uh i don't know that december is the best time luke for this agreed and you've also got a lot of um collegiate sports you've got nfl in full You've got a lot of things. Yeah, I said football. Luke, when I said football, I meant both collegiate sports and NFL. That's football. Fair enough. So your Saturdays

and your Sundays. And if it's paper, sorry, if it's the postseason for the NFL, it's also on Saturdays as well. You just have a lot of things going on at that point. So I understand it. There's another theory that they already had their budget in for what they had expected for the year in terms of content and revenue and expenditures

and it was set and blah blah blah fine whatever uh i'm just saying it wouldn't hurt to get connor twice in 2020 if it was all available but i guess a different issue for a different time uh okay bc we sort of were there for the 252 weigh-ins for Bellator, which is tomorrow. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky good card. Here's how good it is. Three-card main card is loaded, Luke. Loaded. Well, even your prelim card has some interesting fights on it.

Here's why I say that. Aaron Pico is headlining the prelim portion of the card. He's not even on the main card. Now it's a three-fight main card. If it was four, as it traditionally is, he'd be on it. But I'm just pointing out, this is a sensational card. He's not even on the main card. Now it's a three fight main card. If it was four, as it traditionally is, he'd be on it. But I'm just pointing out, this is a sensational card. Before we even talk about the main card BC on the prelims, you have a Connery or Honoree Gracie son of hoist. So he's on there. Then you have Gabriel Varga, one of the best kickboxers in the history of Canada. Certainly he's a competing Carrie Taylor Melendez, the wife of Gilbert

Melendez is on the card. Devin Powell, UFC veteran is on there. And then of course, Aaron Pico headlining, but the main part of it, two fights on the right side of the bracket for the Bellator featherweight Grand Prix. So that will advance. And then you have an interesting fight. Let's start here. Yaroslav Amosov taking on Logan Storlie Logan Storlie four-time all-american at the University of Minnesota uh undefeated in Bellator welterweight Amosov has is undefeated and had a great run where he even beat Ed Ruth and they've still kind of put him on the prelim cards I saw people being like why are you doing that well here he gets a great step up, BC.

What do you make of Amosov versus Storlie? This is a great fight. This is a hard course fight of two potentially rising guys in Amosov at this moment. Did I butcher that? Yaroslav Amosov. That's correct. Amosov, I think that's right. You know, he's maybe got the bigger wins at this point.

But get woke to Logan Storley if you're not. He's a ground and pound machine, Luke. Same high school in Webster, South Dakota as Brock Lesnar. Same university, University of Minnesota, four-time All-American. Luke, he's a six-time high school wrestling state champion. So what that means is as a seventh and eighth grader, he won state titles against high school age kids. The guy can freaking wrassle luke

okay he's got you know he's got a legit sort of foundation there unbeaten in belter unbeaten overall and i think yama slob yaroslav i'm a slob luke i'm a slob okay i'm an absolute slob go order ice cream yeah uh i think uh i think the the uh the ukrainian fella, Luke, he's damn good. And if you don't know, you better ask somebody. He trains at ATT. His sparring partners of late, Austin Vanderford, Jorge Masvidal, and Dustin Poirier. Not bad. Not bad to get you ready.

And oh, by the way, Storlie, a Sanford MMA guy. So these are two guys that could have very bright futures. I love it, Luke. I love it. It's like showbox style, right? I love it when you match them up together, unbeaten versus unbeaten. It gives you those old school John Jones, Ryan Bader feels, right? You're like, oh my god,

let's do this thing. I'm not going to compare their levels and abilities to where Bader and Jones was, but you get where I'm going with this. This could be a nice little fight that goes to the ground a lot, and we see two men bang, Luke. We might see two men bang, although not in the way you are

weirdly describing, but yes. I stepped into a puddle. I accidentally ended up there, Luke. You're crawling around and outside, and you just put your hand right in a pile of crap. Yeah, sorry, Luke. Sorry. I don't know where you're putting your hands these days bc but here's what i can tell you i agree with your general tenor which is bellator as again the scott coker philosophy is not a secret it is signed from the top down build from the ground up well here's your

build from the ground up they got logan storley early in his mma career and emma slott had been pretty experienced but they were the first ones to sort of grab him for a major North American based promotion although obviously you know Bellator does a lot of worldwide work as well but you get the idea and they gave these guys fights and gave them fights and they built and they built and they were quietly doing the things that they were doing and they have turned into absolutely sensational talents Amosov can do it all. He can wrestle. He can scramble. He can strike. He's got good cardio. He's seen so many different looks from opposition. Now, Storlie hasn't quite faced the same level of competition that Amosov has,

but he's a much better wrestler and a much better scrambler, probably about the same level or better as an athlete. And so you have these interesting contrasts between this wrestling-based blue-chip prospect and this international guy who came out of nowhere but has totally proven that he's the genuine article. And you're right, man. Undefeated versus undefeated. If they get a little bit more senior in their career, somebody says, don't make this fight because each one's going to have to fight the champion,

so don't put them against each other because then you just kill off a contender. But you're getting them at just the right moment before that spot where now you do have to have undefeated versus undefeated sensational fight for the belter honestly bc in terms of guys again homegrown you know how much you want to call it but you know belts are given their first let's say major recognition with a major promotion. For guys of that description, this is one of the better fights that Bellator can make in their entire roster. You're damn right.

And at 7 p.m. Eastern time, the main card Thursday night, CBS Sports Network. Please check out the prelims, including Aaron Pico, as you said. I think a 445 start. I'd have to check that, but that's on CBSSports.com. And then, Luke, this card tops off with two matchups in the final eight here of the Featherweight World Grand Prix.

We love the main event, but get the people fired up for this rematch. Daniel Weichel against Emmanuel Sanchez. The German Weichel winning a split decision, Luke, but that was four years ago, bro. Emmanuel Sanchez believes he is reborn. He's a guy out of Duke Rufus' gym. He is on a two-fight winning streak. He did lose to Patricio Freire, so understand that.

Which one is this, actually? I'm not even sure. I don't remember. Yeah, he did lose to Patricio Freire at 145 pounds, but it was a decision, and hey, that's the best fighter Bellator's ever had. Before that, he had beaten Strauss, Galvan, Sam Sicilia, Karakhanian, rematched against him, and then beat Tyjuan Claxton. In the last two of those, he won,

one was decision, but the Tyjuan Claxton he won via triangle choke in the second round. Emmanuel Sanchez can do everything, except he's not a super hardcore finisher, or at least he's not been one historically. The idea is now that he has matured in his talent, he's always had an incredible gas tank, great defense, relentless pursuit of the fight. Now can he put those together to start putting guys away by adding that little extra twist in punishment, that little extra twist in positional advancement on the ground? It's fine to be good at everything. Can you be lethal at

something? And that's sort of the task that he has been trying to work towards the goal he's been putting in front of himself. We'll see because Daniel Vyshel is a badass dude. He's a guy, you know, who I think a lot of UFC fans may not know because he's been in Bellator for a long time. I've covered Vyshel's fights in person. Dude, ask any coach to watch him drill, takedowns, hit pads, put on a gi, whatever. All of them will tell you everything he does is smooth. Everything. The guy has super well-rounded skills. So you've got well-rounded guy versus well-rounded guy, and both are trying to reach that next stage of their career. Both want to get an opportunity to fight the winner of Carvalho and Pitbull who's by the way the championship belt moves through the tournament

so they're going to get a title the winner of this gets a title shot right that's that's the reality depending on who it's against and uh they're trying to just ascend and they have to do it against guys who are almost not say mirror images but present many of the same challenges that they present to opponents you gotta love it yeah it raises the stakes it almost makes this a semi-final bout not a quarterfinal one given that the winner fights for the title they did fight four years ago as i mentioned sanchez thought he won he lost look he's been saying one and done we saw him at the weigh-in this morning he's saying one round and done i'm gonna knock this guy out and for vitual he's never lost at this weight class and he was saying in that first fight that essentially uh he fought at sanchez's pace he wants to basically fight this one on his terms he's not a guy that you think of as a knockout threat but he's going to be looking

for the early finish as well i love when two hungry guys have history they come in there there's a lot of steak this is probably the least sexiest of these high-level tournament matchups on paper, but there's a lot to love in this one. It's going to be a good one, Luke. And then lastly, but not leastly, the main event. Patricio Freyde, pit bull, the best fighter in the history of Bellator, your current champ champ at 145 and 155. He puts his belt on the line against the upstart in Pedro Carvalho. BC, you talked about it on the weigh-in show that we did. A guy who was impressed with Conor McGregor, so Carvalho from Portugal. He speaks Portuguese, but he's from Portugal, not Brazil. He moves to Ireland

to train with SBG and in Bellator, 4-0, undefeated since he has started with them and looking better and better each time. Yeah, and he's six and oh, since moving to Ireland and starting with SBG and he had to take two years off of his career to get settled, get a full-time job, get into the gym and end up getting fights. And Luke, he's a reborn fighter. He's very aggressive on the microphone really has that.

I mean, you hear him on the mic, Luke, you can almost hear a little poor man's McGregor, James Gallagher sort of swagger in there. And he's been talking a lot of junk trying to get in Pitbull's head. You do have to be careful with that, Luke. You know, Chandler tried that and Pitbull sent him to hell.

And here's the interesting part. We already know Pitbull is the face of this franchise, the best fighter in history. Look, he beat Michael Chandler when they finally fought. He might be, Luke. Him and Chandler are tied for first with 18 wins in the bellator cage career a win here for pitbull would give him that edge in that statistic and luke i was looking back at pitbull's last uh five years 13 and two the loss to benson henderson was because of an injury the other loss was to daniel strauss for the title which he avenged he's coming in here full tilt, full speed ahead.

Luke, does he not get the pound for pound recognition he deserves? Because if you've heard a Pitbull interview, he's cocky. He says, F the pound for pound. I'm the best fighter in the world right now. I mean, even if you look at ESPN's pound for pound rankings, which does take into account all organizations, they got Demetrius Johnson from one there. I've never seen Pitbull in that top 10.

Is it at the level now where we're overlooking him? Well, that's a bit of a joke if he's not your top 10. I mean, he's clearly extraordinarily talented. Everyone is overlooking him. Anytime almost anyone comes from Bellator, they're overlooked, unless there's like a super hype job around them, like an MVP or something, and then they tend to get overrated Patricio Pitbull if he was in the UFC I mean I can't tell you how exciting that would be for their already phenomenal 145 pound division um you know would I favor him to beat

Volkanovski I don't know but the fact that I would be dying to see it tells you excuse me how competitive it actually would be now Carvalho has his work cut out for him. As good as he has looked in Bellator, he's a massive underdog in terms of the odds. And there's nothing that Patricio will see with Carvalho that he's never seen before. But, you know, you can't make a whole lot of mistakes against a guy this hungry, this young, this improved.

This fight was supposed to take place in March, again, going back to the Megan Anderson and Amanda Nunes point BC and it got delayed until now so he had all that extra time to prepare so you know you want to like not completely dismiss Carvalho's chances but you don't want to undersell a guy who is a no accident two-way world champion best fighter in the history of Bellator I suspect he will move on to the next stage of the tournament. And that is where I think some of the really difficult challenges for him are going to be. Yeah, he certainly should. I do like Carvalho's guts.

He's been talking a lot of junk. You know, sometimes, look, you can catch the champ on it. If you can get him on an off night, maybe that's his angle. But he believes, Luke, I don't know if you agree with this. He believes that Pitbull has become a safe fighter. Now, that would have to be the Chandler fight notwithstanding where he knocked him out in one but around that we've seen Pitbull go the distance a ton Luke he believes there's an opening there to outwork him so we'll see what happens

Luke you you poke the damn Pitbull long enough you're gonna get the horns Luke you're gonna get the dong I don't know what what is wrong what is what is in this weird knocko energy drink today, Luke? I don't know. I don't know. It's weird seeing an MMA fighter with no tattoos. Isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is, Luke. It is.

Do you have any tattoos, BC? No, I have a fear of needles. Why would I get stuck, Luke? I'm stressed out over a COVID test I got to take next week. All right? Come on. All right. I had three needles to the damn bag.

Ever tell you that story, Luke? Don't ever get that surgery. No, you've never told that story before. Wow, what a new and interesting opportunity to learn. It scarred me emotionally. I could tell. Real quickly on this one, BC, we don't have a whole lot left for our major stories.

Luke Campbell was supposed to fight Ryan Garcia. December 5th. Yeah, December 5th, except he got the Rona, BC. What can you tell us? Yeah, Luke Campbell, by the way, best name in the sport, combining our two names together, Luke, there, Mike, the former Olympic gold medalist. Luke Campbell's right there, short of super elite, right?

He had a good showing against Lomachenko, but the whole point of this fight is to find out who Ryan Garcia really is. If you're an MMA guy and you're not woke to who Ryan Garcia is, lightning fast speed and explosion, but a guy who's looked at by his potential opponents as a pretty boy. He's got something like three or four million followers on Instagram. He's impregnating girls all over the state of California and getting in baby mama drama. He's young, brash, exciting, and Ryan Garcia now trains with Canelo and is managed by his team,

and he's gotten a lot better since then. So this was going to be that, is Ryan Garcia for real? Like, you can blow away guys on Canelo undercards who you're supposed to. What about when you're in there with an Olympic hero or a real guy in Luke Campbell? Unfortunately, Luke, it'll have to wait. They're hoping,die hearn says to schedule it as as soon as two weeks to a month after that which would be

nice because december 5th is already a pretty loaded day when you consider we have a ufc card we've got uh the danny garcia errol spence pay-per-view so maybe it'll end up being a plus luke that we push this off a little bit more but we need to see this you're always going to hear me talking about those five guys who have next in the sport Ryan Garcia supposed to be one of them Luke the other four want to fight him because they look at him as the soft easy potential payday but Luke you've seen Ryan Garcia when you have lightning in terms of your speed speed becomes power right his power is his speed I'm just not ready to count him out against anybody i want to find out how real he is luke by the way i have asked to see his dms i'm sure they're sloppy as

balls luke all right if you're shirtless on instagram singing all day it's probably not sloppy as balls they might be sloppy as something else uh yeah they're probably a show i mean have you ever in your life had one day as good as any random day that his dms are you know what i mean no no no no no no you can pick a random i want to know what prime thomas is because we've all had that one moment pre-marriage in our life i mean maybe you've had a couple peaks but most of us have that one moment, the final build to when you met the wife, right? That final climb where you hit mountaintop prime single Campbell or Thomas. You know, for me, it was like, it was like summer of 2005. Prime Campbell was ripped up and caught.

Oh my God. He was ready for action and satisfaction. Luke, when was prime Luke Thomas I'm gonna say somewhere around 2008 2009 something like that I had power lifting then Luke well I had surgery on my shoulder and I was out for a long time and I had to I had to literally like you know go to physical therapy twice a week for a whole year to get it back to where I was. And I used that as an opportunity. I had just broken up with a girl at the time. And I used that as an opportunity to rebuild physically, to get my mind right, to get my

finances in order. And when everything was healed, your boy was cooking out here in the nation's capital. Put it that way. Luke, the problem for, I don't know where life was in 08 when you were prime. I was prime right before the app pandemic. When all you had to do, Luke, was swipe and bang, swipe and bang. We were too early, Luke. Yeah, dude, I missed.

I never did the, you know, match.com or Bumble or you. What's the major one? Grind Her? Grind Her? No, that's your app. It's a fine app, but it's not mine. Oh, J-Date. J-Date.

J-Date. J-Date. I had a friend use J-Date. He was a good buddy of mine. Jason Aaron? No, no, no. Another one. No, Matt, no. Another one. No, Matt, what's the major app?

It's not Grindr. It's Jesus. eHarmony? No, it's the app you asswipe. That's a company that predated the app. Christian Mingle? Luke? Where are we going with this? What is the app called? What's the famous app called? I don't even know.

Famous dating app. Google. Huh? Famous app. Yes, please. I got RDA in like two minutes. Tinder, is that it? Can we get through the show?

Tinder. Tinder, I think, is what it is. Tinder. I missed all of that. I've never, ever even been on the site. Nothing. Or the app. All of that.

Let's hook up over that shit. I missed that window completely, basically. So I did it the old-fashioned way. We got some quick hitters in the news cycle to get to. Okay, speaking of penis, can we get into this one? Yes, very quickly. Speaking of hog, which Brian loved. Brian told me if I died, he was going to take over MMA Dissected

and call it Dicksected. And all it would do is just judge and guess the size of men's hogs which is you need serious fucking help all right anyway mike tyson i said that you can't prove maybe i'm lying maybe i'm not well the listeners decide mike tyson basically admitted for a drug test during his career bc that he used the old wizinator and child's urine his own children i believe to get past the drug test your reaction so i didn't know that this was known that in one of his autobiographies he had told the story but he just told it on uh his his get high podcast i don't know the name of it but

uh luke it was pretty hilarious if you read the quotes that he was not only using the fake yeah hot boxing thank you gaff hot boxing with mike tyson he actually had jeff novitski on there that he was not only using the fake... Yeah, hotboxing. Thank you, Gaff. Hotboxing with Mike Tyson. He actually had Jeff Nowitzki on there, and he was talking about, Luke, they were talking about that when you have the fake dong, make sure it's the right color, because Nowitzki was saying some NFL guys who were dark-skinned had light-skinned dong, fake dongs,

but he'd fill it with baby's urine, and for a while he was filling it with his wife's urine until she said, hey, honey, be careful, or they'll they'll pop you for being pregnant look this is just wild stuff i gotta ask you because they didn't get into it what was he masking do you think it was just like coke and ecstasy or do you think it was the damn um the damn roids luke here's what i'll tell you whenever you think you know i would never say what it is because i don't have any evidence for those claims but what i can can say is anybody you think, oh, like there's no way they could use,

or you're like, oh, maybe they use, but whatever. It's always worse than whatever you imagine it to be. So whatever you're imagining it to be, it's a thousand times worse. I'll put it that way. All right. More quick hitters, Lucas, not on our list, but real quick. Mike Coppinger of The Athletic is reporting that these Canelo Caleb Plant talks for canelo's first one off with a you know wherever he wants to go might be off because plant needs more time to get ready caleb plant jumped on a live instagram last night shirtless

from his hot tub and was like you know don't believe the hype i'm ready tonight so we'll see where that goes i don't know who canelo is going to fight, but he seems determined to fight in December. Luke, the other boxing BS of the week is the WBC has created a Bridger weight division between cruiserweight and heavyweight with a limit of 224. Luke, this is why we can't have nice things. Now, just let me get one nice thing out of the way. They named it after that kid Bridger who saved his sister from the, what, the dog attack or the raccoon attack? I forgot the story. Nice story.

Nice kid. Nice kid. Nice story. Hey, WBC, WBA, stop killing this sport already. We don't need a freaking, nobody wants to be the Bridger weight champion. There's not one person. I get that there's some heavyweights who are small and that Joe Lewis andwis and rocky marciano used to weigh 219 pounds and freaking tyson fury and joshua and those guys weigh 275 that's the deal okay that's the damn

deal why don't you up the cruiserweight limit if you have to we don't want your bridgerweight bullshit get it out of here stop that any network writer fighter that ever supports this or puts it on you're dead to me dude why can't can't, if you're going to name it, remember when they had that naming contest for that yacht and the people called it Bodie McBoatface, you know, that was the, that was the one that won. We should have a contest. And like the only names you could pick would be like pornographic names, like the Rocco Soffredi belt or the Lex, the impaler belt, or, you know,

something like that. Right. Where you just totally, it's like the, the, the, the $5 foot long belt, but, or, you know, whatever, some kind of reference that makes me like, yeah, I want to put on this belt. You know what this belt means? It means my DMS or a show. That's what it means. You got to name it after a sweet little kid that saved his sister.

I mean, it's a nice story, but I don't want to wear that belt. I want to wear the belt that says, know you know uh ladies make sure you're doing uh yoga before we go on a date or something watch it watch the ladies make a toilet yes you want that belt i got you i got you luke um hey luke are you into this idea that excuse me pfl champion kayla harrison knowing that the pfl season doesn't start up again until next April on ESPN, is going to fight this month on Invicta FC 43 in the co-main event. Luke, how do we respond to this? This is my thing.

It's like, do I think that this is fine? Yes. Stay busy. Get a fight. I understand why the PFL did what they did. They're trying to preserve their best business interests, and they want to wait until there was a better situation or something they thought would be a better situation

before they brought their season back. Okay, fine. Maybe they miscalculated a little bit, but I understand what they were trying to do. And so, you want to keep some of your other talent busy? Let them fight in other places. She's not the only one they've let do this, but they're also, I think, either they're being sued or they've been threatened to be sued

by a series of other fighters, Lance Palmer included, who's one of their multiple-time champions, saying like, hey, I need to get out there and make a living as well, and you're preventing me from doing it. So what I don't understand, BC, is I've got no problem with this, but why aren't you doing that for everyone who wants to make a living that's the part i don't get yeah um you know kill me here luke i'm not really in anymore to pfl or one championship i'm just i just don't care am i is that wrong well i would say this pfl i could take or leave uh it doesn't do anything for me or doesn't do anything against me one is a weird situation because it's run by a guy who makes what appears to be,

and this is my opinion, a series of either false or totally exaggerated claims about everything they do, including but not limited to viewership. But the thing I'll give one credit for is not the weight cutting, which again, they've never proven that they've actually solved the problem whatsoever, is their different rule set. They'll have kickboxing in a ring with MMA gloves. They allow certain strikes to a downed opponent. They judge a fight as a whole versus the 10-9 must system.

And I think some of those things genuinely make their product different and a little bit better in certain ways. So I'll give them a bit of a, as much as I think that, you know, they have this bizarre leadership and the claims around them you should not trust at all, but the product itself at least is different enough to be noteworthy.

All right, would you buy a used car from Chachere? No, no, no. There's nothing, there's never going to be money exchanging hands. No. There's nothing. There's never going to be money exchanging hands. Let me tell you something. I reached out to Chaudry's people for an interview for a long time. And the dude who was the PR guy that no longer works for them, they gave me an excuse about him traveling every week

because I wanted to ask him about his anti-doping program and his weight-cutting program and his weight cutting program. And they gave me the runaround for months about trying to do an interview. Meanwhile, I would see him and I was like, well, maybe, maybe my show's not big enough. Maybe he only wants to go on big enough shows. And then he would appear during that time on these like rinky dink podcasts. You'd never heard of that has significantly smaller audiences, which I'm not mad at those podcasts for, Hey man, do the interviews you can get, but you know, why didn't he do them?

You'd have to ask him. Uh, but to me, it was pretty clear from what I could tell, again, my opinion, he was looking to not get asked tough questions. So that tells you a lot about where they're at. Yeah. Pound some of that Singaporean sand. All right, let's, we gotta, I gotta get out of here. So let's roll through. It's SJW time. Hit the graphics.

Let's do it. Social justice Wednesdays. This is where we bring in the honorable Luke Bader Ginsburg to weigh in on the injustice going on back and forth between fighters. Darren Till versus Mike Perry is back on luke here we go perry quote quote tweets espn mma so darren till pussied out shake my head everybody seems to have a sore coochie been shoving them raw dog beers directly up your ass should i keep reading this look um yeah i'm gonna stop reading it oh it gets very dirty there so as we know how do what sport have we devoted our lives to this is who was supposed to fight luke

till was supposed to fight um hermanson maybe yeah that's right it was a good fight but he pulled out with an injury to it uh he says this this is Darren Till. Now, no, the truth is I actually pulled out cause I'm making so much effing money off raw dog. So I thought I'd sit this end of the year out and count the cash. Good luck against them though. Mike Perry comes back later quote in Europe. Apparently they praise you for pulling out of fights and being inactive. And then we have a closer here from Perry for good measure.

When I park my girl's car, I push it out in neutral because I don't back out of nothing. Wow, just like Senior Luke at William & Mary. That guy is, yeah. Luke, do we have a winner here, or do all of us win for being witness to this? No, everyone loses here.

You, me, everybody. There are times, BC, where I'm i'm like wow what could i do to make my dad proud and then i look at this segment i'm like nothing the answer is nothing and i now totally understand his disdain for me all right our number two matchup is teofimo lopez versus the world luke it's a great time to be the undisputed 23-year-old unbeaten lightweight champion. He's sending everyone to hell. In a recent interview, Lopez basically told Deontay Wilder, stop making excuses. Stop being a bitch.

And then Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, came out and said, wow, this ain't it. In my opinion, cats are too comfortable. We got more from Ellerbe saying, now everybody tough now. He not in no promo with that man, and he's not fighting him. Okay to disagree. Teofimo comes out with KO1 here, Luke. Stop being a bitch too. He forgot a letter.

He forgot a letter, but yes. Yes. Okay. So then, Luke, last Saturday, De devin haney a potential future rival here for teofimo came out you know he had that somewhat boring win over uh yuriyorkis gamboa oh notice the uh notice the photoshop on the uh the belt there bc yes teofimo tweets out a picture of haney saying the email champion performance because haney's got a bastardized version of the franchise WBC title that that supposedly Lopez won from Lomachenko you know it's boxing it's bullshit and then Luke we had

Teofimo this week on morning combat and he came at Haney one more time and everybody else here we go 135 I mean you have the likes of these guys and I'm the king of it all so i think honestly it's just what can they bring to the table no uh i think definitely who's last on my list brian uh is devon haney devon haney poor performance from him if i fight devon haney correct and for the wbc belt whatever whatever his email championship belt and i fight for that belt i beat him right i clearly beat him and everything. In fact, probably knock his ass out. What have these cats really have brought to the table, though? We talk about Santa Cruz with Tank Davis, but it's not really much to the table to bring

that to be mentioned as pound for pound on the list. They try to put him on the pound for pound list. Hell no. You have a lot more to do. My dude, you got to fight bigger, better opposition. They cannot overprice themselves. Think, you're not Money Mayweather. You will never be Money Mayweather unless you fight oppositions and let your ego go. Same implies for Devin Haney. Same implies for Ryan Garcia. These guys are trying to be Money Mayweather. You're not Money May yet. You have to be pretty boy. You have to work your way up. But I am going to be money mayweather you're not money may yet you have to be pretty boy you have to work your way up but i am going to be the a-side see and that's where that's the problem though if florida's saying that tank will have to be the a-side to fight me he's fucking crazy he's crazy he's fucking crazy it's not gonna happen tank doesn't bring nothing to the table

more than just an opponent that i could beat the shit out of. Sorry for my language. And that's about it. Luke, he basically says if you're a young fighter, you want to fight him, you need to take a pay cut, and you ain't going to be the B-side. Does this mean we never see him and Gervonta? I think the chances are pretty good of him and Gervonta because I think Teofimo's the best 135er, and Gervonta's the biggest attraction.

But the Haney fight is the one I'd actually rather see more because they seem to naturally hate each other a bit more but I don't think we're going to get that because there's no real incentive to make at least not anytime soon I just got to say I love Teofimo I don't agree with everything he's saying there business-wise about I have to be the a-side look that's why we don't end up getting the fights if both guys feel like they have to be the A-side. Look, that's why we don't end up getting the fights if both guys feel like they have to be the A-side. At some point, both have to come together. But I do like a cocksure 23-year-old Luke who's just going to drop bombs on anybody.

I'm here for that. All right, Luke, we close each week on Wednesday, pulling it from the Have You Seen This Shit. It's fan submission time. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There you go. You can reach us. One to combat at gmail.com. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There you go. You can reach us. MorningCombat at gmail.com.

All right, Luke. Let's start off from Dom Spiller on Instagram. He says, the good thing about getting out of work at the same time Morning Combat starts is I can crack a cold one while watching him. Would you drink that loose juice hazy IPA that Dom's got right there? Yeah, I like the art. You know, I'd give it a shot. By the way, why is he drinking at 11 a.m.?

Where does he work? I don't know what country he's in, Luke. Or maybe he works the graveyard shift. Maybe he embalms dead bodies and dresses them up for the funerals. Luke, it's possible. You never know. We have weird fans. But shout out to that fella.

Hey, Luke, let's shout out to Larry Hoppan. He's at LHoppanhan 88 on instagram he went broke trying to pay for his honeymoon luke but he had enough cash to buy that green mk shirt luke he looks pretty handsome in it look at this fucking heterosexual right here out there just cock of the walking everywhere he goes god bless you sir you're a fantastic american thank you he must be if he has an MK shirt. Hey, he got married. That means he's getting laid, Luke.

Shout out to Larry Hophan right there. Let's go over from CRKN, who's at the Krakoon. Here's some MK art, Luke, from Captain Phillips of when room service diaries get real, Luke. That's great. Luke, I am the captain of this ship now. Thank you very much. Man, I got to tell you, you don't look very much like a man from Mogadishu,

but, you know, appearances can be deceiving. Thank you. Hey, a frequenter in these parts is Scott Rizzo at Scott underscore M underscore Rizzo on Instagram. Luke, he has Mike Tyson reimagined with the eye tattoo. How hard would it be to convince him to get a face tattoo of that? Not that hard, I think. Probably not that hard.

Yeah, I'm down with this picture all the way. Let's go over to from Goody MMA, which is at Film Junkie PhD. Luke, I love this shit. He says whether he likes it or not, Luke Thomas has been forever imprinted on our family via this family blanket, which consists, Luke, of what? All your T-shirts? What's going on here?

No, look at the baby's right foot and then look to the one to the side of it where it says Woo. The guy who does my artwork did a mashup of me saying woo with rick flair's hair oh that's great and so they actually have that t-shirt there and so he made a a rug for his daughter out of out of his out of his t-shirts that's fantastic luke very sweet cool hope his daughter drops a dude drops a deuce right on top of that. All right, Luke, let's go from at 8BitImaginations on Instagram. He made a nice comic book cover celebrating the many misadventures of morning combat with Dino and Soup.

Luke, you like that? That is amazing. Yeah, they used to call me Dino for a time. The white hair, it's killing me. And you look like one of those things out of a ryzen promotion or something but it works at the bottom it says mk all day nearly every day indeed hey let's go with this guy at dickles d-i-k-u-l-z luke he's coming for web screams crown check out this ultimate fighter tip-to-tip poster luke you like this the tip off that's scary yeah that's

legitimately frightening yeah that i i would put that up on the wall seriously i gotta start printing out all these web screams and and dickles uh dickles is back with another one inspired mk poster that is so good look i'm the dude in this one right shut the f up j you're out of your element yeah i'm john goodman but you know what i can't hate that is amazing wow so good all right uh we've got one more from dickles that our staff, Luke, have not shown you or I, and they're saying this one is fan frigging-tastic. Here we go. I didn't have the opportunity to really... I was

just so engrossed in the MMA world. I'd missed a lot of time, and I remember I was catching up with my co-host for the show I do on Showtime Morning Combat, and my co-host... My co-host for the show I do on Showtime, Morning Combat, and my co-host, my co-host, my co-host, my co-host. All around me are familiar faces, worn out places,

worn out faces, bright and early for their daily races Going nowhere, going nowhere Their tears are filling up their glasses No expression, no expression Now, Luke, I didn't hear that, but I still got the gist of it. No expression. Hurt my head. Now, Luke, I didn't hear that, but I still got the gist of it. Oh, fuck.

Yeah, your nickname is no longer Soup. It's co-host. That is. Yes, it is. Did you see he got that weird moment? So I do have a sort of tick when I'm chewing or drinking, Luke. Sometimes I've got a wandering eye that'll go up. And when I took the first sweet taste of that,

uh, of that, uh, what were we drinking there? That you look like the, uh, the dude from big trouble in little China who has all the potions, like the old Chinese guy.

And in that moment, the disgusting filth of that taste just made my eye go, Whoa. So he did capture that beautifully. Luke shout out to Dickles. Send me, if Mikey is watching, our other producer from CBS, send me all these assets

because I got to repost some of these. That is an amazing piece, an amazing piece. All right, Luke, can you take us out of here solo? I got to log off and jack off and get RDA on the horn, all right? Yes, let's do that. All right, so give the video a thumbs up. Hit that subscribe button to give us a fan submission or anything for Dead Wrong,

which we will do on Friday, morningcombat at gmail.com. That is the email for this and everything else. You can see all of the social down there below. They flashed it for a second, but, you know, morningcombat on Instagram, on Twitter, on YouTube. YouTube.com slash morningcombat, by the way. I have a vanity URL now. Subscribe and like. You want to try Showtime? You certainly can. Go to Showtime.com right now for a 30-day

free trial. And yeah, go to store.show.com for any of our good stuff. For co-host, my name is Luke Thomas. Thanks to everyone at Showtime and Malka. Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.