MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - McGregor Update, Tank Davis, UFC Louisville ft. Guest Teofimo Lopez | Full Ep | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Today is the start of a HUGE week of MORNING KOMBAT as the guys kick it off with the first of 3 shows! On today's episode, Luke and Brian start by discussing the latest with McGregor vs. Chandler. A week ago today, the UFC 303 presser in Dublin was cancelled. The fight is still being promoted as on, but there has been no official word from either fighter or fans about what happened and why. What does the UFC or the fighters themselves owe the public? Plus, Gervonta Davis returns this weekend. What's realistically on the line between he and Frank Martin on Saturday's PBC PPV? Plus, the UFC show debuted. In one part of the show, UFC execs pressure Aljamain Sterling to take the fight before he was ready against Sean O'Malley. Why on earth would UFC release this footage thinking it makes them look good? The guys also recap UFC Louisville. Was the stoppage in the Nassourdine Imavov fight premature? Does Imavov have any kind of mandate from this win? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada. 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.

Reveley, Reveille, dogs Look at us now, tip to tip This is our life, this is our passion That's the spirit we bring to this show I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell This is Morning Combat It's the 10th of June and we're're old hi everybody luke thomas here brian campbell it's time for

morning combat how are you bc i'm fired the hell up luke in fact i was rambling through the wet grass falling i thought you were gonna you're gonna i thought you were gonna come with me desperately when they're pumped out your guts i'm'm doing great, Luke. It's Monday. We're back where we belong. Metal Lark, Manhattan. Yep. Dial M for murder because that's where it's at. Luke, do you know people still come up to me in public?

They're like, congratulations on all your success. Mortal Kombat's great. It happens all the time in real life, even in professional events. Yeah. I still get that a lot, too. By the way, could it be colder in here? They're not nearly. It's cold. I haven't gotten frostbite yet on my fingers. Did you grow up regaling the, it's colder than a witch's titty? Yeah.

I've done that before. Yeah. You've lived that life. I learned that one in the Marine Corps. Yeah. All right. Wow. Before or after running train, you know what I mean?

Hey, it was a formative learning experience to serve in the nation's military. I have to tell you why I'm so excited, though. Because you saw someone doing heroin in the desperately sad state of Connecticut? Speaking of M's, right? Meadowlark, Manhattan. How about Meriden, Connecticut today? On Amtrak, at the stop, on the train platform, I watched a man shoot up. He was going into the deep end of the pool.

I've never done heroin. How good must it be to just throw your life away? It must be pretty good. I have to assume that it's the best high it is. But it's a dangerous one, Luke, okay? You know what I'm saying? But that's not why I'm excited. I don't know if that man will live or die.

But my point on this is this show, not only do we bring it every Monday morning because we understand the location of our viewers' feel holes. We know how to access them. We know how to invade them. We're going to hit them with a great show. Recap the weekend. Look ahead to the pay-per-view coming this weekend. Update you on our plans for morning combat this week on the ground in Las Vegas.

But we have two spectacular guests lined up today right now on this program. How about UFC Hall of Famer and PFL analyst Randy Couture? How about that? We need the hip-hop horn, Long Island Luke. Whenever we say profound things. All right. Hit me with the horns, Monty. Is that how it goes, Luke?

Who's the other guest? How about WBO 140-pound champion, Millennial King at 140? How about Teofimo Lopez Jr.? So it should be a spectacular program today. And also, I've been lighting the burner on you all morning, just trying to get you fired up. You're things to me yeah but hey that is a nice real madrid jacket even if i asked you if it was from your william and mary fraternity it is but it's not from my fraternity it's from it's from the fraternity of winners do you have a yankees jersey

that you're gonna wear underneath no i don't like it i don't like the yankees you do own a yankees fred durst fitted no my dad actually took it. From you? Yeah. The pink Yankees, or was it red? My dad didn't, it wasn't really a very difficult calculation for him. He also has the head the size of a watermelon, and he needed one that fit, so he just took it. So I no longer have that, actually.

All right. Also, I got that in Cartagena, and the only reason I got it was because it was the only hat they had in store that fit my cabeza grande. You know what I'm saying? I do know what you're saying. Would your father have preached? You know, we can call back to a great Madonna track with, you know, she's been losing sleep.

You know, she has made up her mind about keeping that baby, but your dad would have preached. He would have preached big time. I don't know what the fuck that means. All right. I'm doing my own podcast in my head right now. So let's do one more reminder. You just indicated it. We're here live today in New York City.

We'll have a great show for you. Again, we have the two guests lined up around the noon hour, Eastern Standard Time. And then also we fly out to Las Vegas on Wednesday because Thursday we're going to have a extravaganza show live from Media Row. A balls bonanza of interviews, previews, analysis. It's going to be fantastic. And a bunch of guests, including, I'm told, David Benavidez, Tank Davis, the whole nine yards.

We're going to get everybody. Then Friday we'll have another show as well. And then, of course, Saturday are the fights. There's UFC fights as well. But the big show is going to be the return of the biggest star in boxing, Gervonta Davis. So that'll be a big week in MK. And then we're back here again on Monday.

So a lot going on on the MK universe. Danny Aiello was in the Papa don't preach video back when actors used to look at that as a, you know, career advancement for them. Yeah. Tawny Katane too. She had a big,

big time running. Tawny Katane or not. Tony Katane. I said Tawny, but that's fine. Okay. You know, it's like every,

yeah, whatever, but Hey, we're going to have a great show enough for this babble. Let's get into it. Let's bang. All right. This is a reminder though. You can get the merch. If you want a, yeah, whatever. But hey, we're going to have a great show enough for this babble. Let's get into it. Let's bang. All right. This is a reminder though.

You can get the merch. If you want a merch, morningcombat.store, you can use the code live 10. Cause we just leave that shit up there. I don't know why we don't just reduce our prices rather than just leaving the fucking code. Have you spoken to RJ Gungle Gang? No, everyone's like, oh, you guys are going to get the merch profits. Cause we've never gotten merch profits because we never even thought about putting that in

our contracts when we first started back in 2019. I was always under the belief and I, and I and I like this, that it was going to production. All that money went into production. Yeah. Well, now we're supposed to collect it, but we still don't because there's a lot of issues that we, a red tape we're dealing with. But you can still buy merch. It's available.

You can go check that out as well. We're on social. We are. We're on social. And by the way, if you're wondering, like, hey. You do YouTube? Yeah, yeah. If you're wondering, like, hey, look behind my shoulder here look over bc's shoulder there's

like blue graphics there i like them today i kind of like it it's mixing it up but it was an accident it's because bc came in and started marking his territory and urinated on everything and it just fried all the circuits yeah yeah that's what i did before you came in true or false is bc house broken false false is your answer not house wow so uh yeah i think that's all we got to a uh fantastic uh oh there it is a couple you know you can follow so like the video subscribe all that shit we're in the middle of of the takeover right speaking of tail female we're in the middle of turning this uh mk thing into the biggest thing that ever happened so come with us on this journey thank you all right did you shower this morning i

did not i did late last night in preparation. Cool. Gino. All right, let's get it. Topper number one. Are you ready? I'm fired up. Here we go.

How about the curious case of Conor McGregor? So a year ago, a week ago today, in about an hour, there was supposed to have been a UFC 303 press conference with McGregor and opponent Michael Chandler in Dublin, Ireland. At the last minute, it is canceled and there is rampant speculation. We should call it that speculation over the course of the week. Some of them believing to be maybe, by the way, when we might owe some apology because we kind of assumed it might be related to McGregor's, let's say, extracurricular activities. But we don't really have any evidence for that. We might have to dial some of that back. There's also some belief that it was related to an injury,

and there was some reporting by Ariel Helwani that it was maybe not related to some of the things that we had aforementioned. But here we are, a week later, no mention from UFC, no mention from Conor McGregor, no mention from Michael Chandler. No mention from Ariel. When's the Statue of Limitations on that go out? And at the UFC Louisville broadcast to BC, no mention from conor mcgregor no mention from michael chandler no mention from ariel once the

statue of limitations are uh on that go and at the ufc louisville broadcast bc they were still advertising ufc 303 so my question to you is the fight is still being promoted as being on but there's been no official word from anyone what does the ufc or the fighter themselves what do they owe the public i think think the UFC owns us transparency. I've been saying that on Twitter since this went down, that like, you know, what Ariel said that he was clinging to and defending him, not sharing the actual news because it was off the record.

And I understand that. But what he said was, look, stuff like this happens all the time and people, you know, don't even find out about it. It's true. I mean, if you saw that UFC Roku series, which we'll break down in a little bit, there's a lot of behind the scenes moments there that you either forgot about or didn't know when someone was nursing a serious injury.

It happens all the time. But when it's linked to a major press conference, not any old press conference, the return to real promotion, hot fire, boots on the ground, real promotion from the UFC, and we knew it would be a magnetic event of Conor reconnecting with his

home fan base and all that to just cancel it and then go radio silent and have a week later. And we have no update. The only update we seem to have is that the fight is on. And that's obviously the best news because that's what we all want at the end of the day. But to have everything on hold, knowing all the people that paid for non-refundable deposits on things like

airfare and hotel and all how that goes, knowing that this is the biggest fight of the summer and the biggest event. I'm not mad at UFC, but look, I have to do the disappointed dad thing and say, I am disappointed. Like we are at a point where the UFC is borderline that old, you know,

the old idea of a big four sport. They really have come a long way. Say what we will about that Roku series. What does it show? Whether it's full propaganda or not. It shows how big the machine has become and the dominance that they have and the way it's so well oiled.

So if you want to be taken seriously on this level where you have an ESPN deal and you are a front page sport, you got to kind of treat your important things the same way in a serious way. There should have been a press conference, a press release, an update.

Yet Dana's coming on updating. Oh, we got a new, we got a main event for UFC fight night, Denver. That's cool. I love Rose, even though it's Nama Eunice,

not Nama Junice, Dana. I love Rose, but like everybody's waiting pins and needles for this monster announcement, which affects so many things in this fight. That's been 18 months in the making. Just tell the truth. If it was an injury, say there was an injury. That's been 18 months in the making. Just tell the truth.

If it was an injury, say there was an injury. I don't even need all the details. Just be transparent. You're too far. The machine is too big. You've accomplished too much to then try to act like that mom and pop shop in the corner that lives in plays by their own rules. I think at the very least we were owed and still are owed an update on why was that canceled?

What was related to that? Even if you put the PR spin on it, which of course anyone would just tell the truth, going radio silent in 2024, when the sport is, is propped up and it is what it is in the way that we look at it. It's very Bush league. And I'm sick of a lot of these sort of lingering Bush league activities surrounding this sport and this promotion. You can't say MMA without the UFC.

That's a credit to where UFC is at and the control they have and the dominance they have, but step it up and play like the big leagues here. I mean, this is what the UFC wants. They want the, the media beaten down so much and so far removed that they're not even doing their job or they don't have access to it.

Yeah, but no, this is business. It's business for your fans that paid the money. It's business for people that want to bet on the fight. It's all related and connected. It's business, they say. Yeah, but no, this is business. It's business for your fans that paid the money. It's business for people that want to bet on the fight. It's all related and connected. It's business to us if we have ideas of big coverage ideas that our employers are going to potentially pay for.

It's all lingering, and it's all hanging on Connor, too. So give us the update. This is a real thing that happened. Something happened. Whether it was most likely an injury, but whether it was an injury. I don't think it was an injury. Or a personal thing, or some people thought at one point, could there be like a scare, a bomb threat or a mafia threat

i have no idea right whatever something happened at least come out and address that something did happen and don't just act like you canceled something that you put that much money down on for this is gonna be a big event it makes it makes it makes us all feel like idiots because we're being treated like idiots and in a weird weird way, it makes them look like idiots. Be a big league operation. Step up and just tell the news like that's that's what it is. Yeah, I don't think it's an injury. And I don't think there's really good evidence that it's an injury. Now, that's not to say he doesn't necessarily have something that could also be used as a smoke screen or maybe as some kind of minor but legitimate concern related to who knows what.

But BC, here's why that doesn't make any sense, if I may. The injury one. If you listen to Pete C. Carroll and Errol Helwani, they said that the Sunday before the press conference that they had gotten wind that it might be canceled. Okay. Chandler was told Sunday morning. So Sunday morning, we at least know something.

That means something could have happened Saturday or whatever. So that Sunday happens into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. We're now eight days removed. There is not an orthopedic or other injury that exists on earth when you have access to proper medical care, immediate medical care, in-house doctors, immediate MRIs, immediate CAT scans. There is absolutely nothing that exists that takes that long to diagnose and then estimate a recovery time, period. It doesn't happen. So I'm not saying to you that he doesn't have one, but this idea, I mentioned 48 hours afterwards, like it doesn't make it do when you get injured in the NBA, they make it once you get the MRI or the CAT scan or whatever it is,

they make an immediate assessment. You have X, it'll take this long to get back. We're now eight days removed. I saw people being like, Oh, what about the inflammation? What about the inflammation? They can see right through that depending on what scan that they're using. Like we're talking about not, it's not you and me going to the doctor's office. We have to wait, schedule an MRI and we have to wait to get the results. I'll never forget the guy who I had my labrum was torn in 2009.

The guy who did my surgery was the surgeon for the then Washington Redskins. I got the MRI results. I sent him to his office. He called me back in an hour. He goes, you need surgery. It was that quick. They know. Anyone who's had chlamydia knows you don't have to wait two weeks to find out, right?

I'm guessing. It burns quickly. But the point I'm trying to make is, again, do I know his medical condition? No. But the idea that it's been some kind of inscrutable injury that they can't figure out doesn't make any sense at all. The only thing I could justify. My hypothesis? May I give it to you?

Yeah, go ahead. Tell me what you think. It's just a hypothesis. Ariel has not talked to me. I think. It's just a hypothesis. I don't have, Ariel has not talked to me. I've not spoken to Audiotar. I've not, certainly UFC has not told me anything.

I don't know anything. To me, what this smacks of, without any explanation from the UFC, because that's the big part, if he really was injured and they really had to go find something else, there would have been some kind of,

let's, the UFC would have wanted to get out in front of it. I think, and it's a hypothesis, there is reason to believe, for me, or at least, how about I put it this way, what best explains what we know. My hypothesis is, Conor probably saw that this was going to be a huge gate,

he's got two fights left on his deal. He is a guy who pulled out of a fight with Nate Diaz because he didn't want to come over here and do. Pulled out of a press conference, let's be fair. No, no, no, no. Nate Diaz. That fight got delayed. One of the original fights with Nate Diaz got delayed because he didn't want to come to Connecticut and do the ESPN hot wash and talk to a bunch of different people. They had to push that fight back because the whole thing got upended. Are you referencing

him not wanting to come from Iceland to Las Vegas for the UFC 200 press conference, which led to him getting pushed to UFC 202? Yes. Yeah. That wasn't the, that was the, uh, yes, that was him refusing to do media. So they took it. They, they penalized him and then he retired. My point being is my point being is here was a guy who didn't want to do certain things, felt like he was being asked to do too much, didn't like that it was part of his contract, and sat out. I have a feeling that when you look at a $20 million gate, he's got two fights left on his deal.

I would say, could it be explained? Could it be explained, BC, that he wants to sit out at this moment, not to stifle 303, but to put UFC over a barrel, I'm going to get a cut of this gate. We're going to redo my contract now. I don't, I don't think I have. So that's wrong.

If that's wrong, give me an explanation for why the UFC has said nothing. Okay. Um, I don't think it's that cause that's, that's, um, that's pretty serious.

Well, they canceled the thing that they have giantantly promoted and haven't said a word in eight days. And I only tried to cut you off because you said Conor pulled out of the fight. It was really just a press conference he pulled out of. That's why I cut you off. Right, but they pushed it. It ended up essentially canceling his place on that card.

I only felt there was a justification for not releasing anything to the public and handling it the way they did. And maybe it's possible it's still connected to that. If it was something where like the worst case scenario in organized crime, if there was a scare or a threat and Connor's family could be in danger. And it was like, we got to just keep the,

like the public message down on this until we figure out the legal side. It doesn't appear to be that. So I think like, it has to be an injury. I don't think it's a drug test thing. I don't think it's anything else. What injury would it be that they would do? Well, Connor posts a picture of like all thumbs up while he's sitting in the orthopedic surgeon's office.

And you buy that as legitimate? I don't know. But I buy that as his way of communicating to us that it was something physical, but it's the scare, whatever scare. Or what he wants the public to know. Okay. But I do not believe he's trying to hold them over the barrel. And the main thing is what's his history of doing business? He does great business. Dana says it all the time, right? Like he's trying to hold them over the barrel. And the main thing is, what's his history of doing business? He does great business.

Dana says it all the time, right? Like, he's smart. He's aggressive. He has butted heads with them behind the scenes any number of different times. And he has done aggressive things like show the DMs. But when he shows the DMs, it makes him look bad when you remember that he was trying to package that Cowboy Cerrone comeback win with a series of fights against inferior competition, including Diego Sanchez, where it just didn't make any sense. But for the most part, Luke,

this would be a very aggressive, like ultimate warrior when he was WWF champion in 1991 type of thing to hold Vince over the barrels. He's not trying to do that to Dana. Cause I think that that's a move that like, that's like a, that's a, you don't come back from that move.

If you fail. Yeah. If you're Conor McGregor, you do. Yeah. So I don't think so. I just think it's look this is what it is i think it's an serious potential injury that that scared the idea that

that he was not going to be medically cleared then he fought through it because i think he is a fighter and that's what he's all about he pushed through he got cleared he's going to do it anyway and fight her because that's what connor's all about i didn't think he would do it any other way my problem if that's true then is this is ridiculous the way the UFC has handled this. It's just like there's no justification for it. It shows the lack of, I understand like Dana's issues with the media to a certain degree.

I understand the idea that you bring in influencers and push everybody away. They're not going to question the bottom line. Your message will stay your message. I get all that. But like, are we done? Are all sports done with the media? No, the media still has a role here. Like there's a communication that's expected, right?

You know what I mean? Does it, is it going to take journalists picketing and standing outside their doors to try to get an answer? He doesn't owe us, but he owes the public. He owes the general public, which includes us in a role we have in that, in, in, in passing messages along to the public in a sense. I don't know. You could cry and be like, oh, BC, you're just crying as an elitist journalist who's getting phased out.

But doesn't this mess with the flow of truth and the exchange of news? It just seems really sketchy or Bush League to handle it this way. I don't. It shows how little they actually care or think about the fans and the media and they're in the connection between all that. I think that if they had something advantageous to tell the world, they would, I don't,

the UFC doesn't, the UFC is very self congratulatory and they would want no Sita. Do you think it's an injury or something else? Okay. What would you think it's an injury or something else? Okay. What would you think that it is? Nah, nah, nah. So, so under your, I thought my initial, my initially, I was suspect that it was the drug stuff, but I think we have to walk that back.

I really don't think it's that case. I mean, I get what Ariel was saying where it's not that, and he does know the truth. And so, but could you believe that they found him in the gutter and and they and they tried that is a plausible explanation okay i guess the better question is do you believe that ever that the whole system would lie to protect that yes kind of question is that kind of a question what looks like did you watch the roku series like yes of course they would i mean i don't think any of the sports leagues would. I don't think the UFC is in any way special in that regard. But I guess my only point is, it's just, to me,

if this much time has elapsed without the UFC commenting on it, and McGregor as well, Chandler too, to me it feels like some kind of internal dispute that is either semi-unresolved or the parties have agreed, we'll keep it this way as long as we have to. So you say that you're believing that there's a chance McGregor threatened to lean into an injury as an excuse not to fight because he wasn't being paid enough. You're really going to go.

I don't, I just, I don't see that. No fighter has ever gotten a piece of the UFC gate. This is the biggest gate in UFC history. It's the first time that they're going to do 20 million in addition to all the pay-per-view and everything else. They took half of what he made when he fought Mayweather. Again, do I know these things? I don't know these things.

I'm trying to figure out what could have happened that explains why we've had continued silence over these matters when injuries are the things that you never hear of quite like this. I think that it was legitimately on the verge of falling apart. I think all that's true. They pulled off the social videos. You suddenly couldn't buy it on ESPN Plus. Yes, they're back, by the way. They're back. All of that, I think, was true. Now they're coming with a $10 coupon. If you buy the fight now, you get $10 off. They're aggressively trying to show the market that, no,

it's back on. It never left. But, Luke, I don't know how it could be anything but arrogance at this point in the way that it's been handled unless there's i mean maybe there's some element to this that they didn't want to obviously but i just i'm sad that this is where we're at that they that they could do this and they're kind of just getting away with it and it's like well media is now just infotainment all the time every time i guess that's the result so and if you ask like hey what's the truth here shut the fuck up you're right this is infotainment hour don't you know the truth yeah you'll say you'll be sitting on the outside doing an independent show like us apparently that's where we're at right now right they'll drum you out they'll drum you out um but yeah i mean it

if it's not though if it's the stuff you're talking about then it's talking about legalities that we're getting into then it's talking about it's not just ethical stuff i don't know anyone's breaking any contracts. I don't, I don't, I don't know what their contracts again. I'm not putting forward some kind of secretive information. All I'm saying to you is the idea that he got injured and they can't figure it out or come to some kind of understanding about what his timeline for recovery would be after eight days makes zero fucking sense. Unless it was like Alex Smith catastrophicith catastrophic remember he he snapped his

shin bone as well but he had a spiral fracture and that was extremely complicated but you that's catastrophic you can't even compete with them that under that circumstance anyway the idea that i can't believe it's you that are going this this is my side of the table normally this is my side to be like conspiracy theory potential this potential that i i don't listen when i put when i put forward the hypothesis you have to understand what that word means that means i'm just guessing what i am saying to you is let's figure out and explain let's reverse engineer what would have to happen for eight days of silence after canceling a monster press conference the fear that the narrative will affect sick at sales so if they don't come clean about any injury they can just

act like, look, we never reported an injury. All we told you was that the press conference was off. So now they would have told him to just do the fucking presser anyway. Why would you stop doing the presser? Cause he was physically unable due to some scare or injury concern. He was physically unable in a way that didn't show everybody that he was

weak. I don't know if it was a black eye. I don't know if it was a, he couldn't walk or something that he was on a, but then he releases all his training footage and we don't know when it was recorded. There's a huge question there. In that training footage, he looks awesome. But that's actually the only way I can explain it,

outside of arrogance, outside of saying, look, we just don't want to comment on it. It obviously has to do with ticket sales. It has to do with that, right? We know the money involved in this. We know the fight's back on, so let's just sit back and hope that talk just goes away. Yeah.

And business as usual. We can only guess. i just feel like as a full again he might have some kind of injury yeah but as a full explanation some parts of it just don't add up to me and did you see that uh john s nash reported that in the uh in the layout of how much money people get in the post antitrust lawsuit that mcgregor will actually get 12 million yeah six well he'll don't he might get more he's gonna get six from just the lee settlement and then a bunch more estimates it could be it could double up to 12 million when you consider a hundred something of that million of the 335 is going to the lawyers so now you're breaking up 200 something and mcgregor who's like the one percent of one percent is going to get 12 million yeah he should shouldn't the guys with

no health insurance get it? No, no, no. He's the guy. Dude, Conor McGregor, I've said this before, people laugh because he's so rich. He is arguably the most underpaid fighter in UFC history. I get what you're saying. Relative to what he earned versus what...

Dude, they took half of his money just from the Mayweather fight. Yeah. Just that alone proves he's the most underpaid, in addition to everything else. And again, Jon Jones, we could also add to that. How much do you think they're taking from Jorge and Nate? Well, Nate's done, so nothing. So just from Jorge, for his involvement?

Probably 50%, right? If past is prologue. Yeah. All right. But if you're Jorge, last thing on this, if you're Jorge, the other side of it is they didn't even used to let people do that. So at a bare minimum, this is 50% more

than you would have gotten. But for, you know, Jorge must've taken out his anger on that, uh, dreadlocked security guard. You were fucking there. I texted BC. I'm like, dude, what happened? He goes, I got the fuck out of there. Yeah.

I was like, I wasn't there when the shit went down. I was actually behind. I was like, you know what? I can see where this is going and it's going this direction. So let me just get the hell out of there. All right, let's go to topic number two on this Monday. As we look ahead to the weekend that that's coming. And that's of course, what's going down in Las Vegas.

We mentioned it, the PBC on prime pay-per-view and a big time double header of sorts. When you consider the star top star power atop the marquee as WBA lightweight champion and all around superstar Gervonta tank. Davis returns at a very tough title defense against Frank Martin in the main event. And of course, in that co-main event, one of the biggest stars breakout stars in the sport.

And one of the pound for pound best, in my opinion, David Benavidez will move up to one 75. He can't get Canelo in the ring for all four titles at super middleweight, but he will get former champion, Alexander Vodzik for an interim light heavyweight belt. Talk about a hell of an introduction to the new weight class. So Luke, we're going to be there.

We're going to be on the ground, all that great content to come with live shows on Thursday and Friday. So pumped for that. I'm excited to be in the arena Saturday night, cover the fight for CBS sports. When we look to this main event though, what is realistically on the line here? Yes.

The WBA lightweight title that's now been upgraded after Devin Haney gave up his four titles between Gervonta Davis and Frank Martin in the PBC on Amazon Prime pay-per-view main event. This is an interesting one for me. I mean, part of what we're anticipating here is Gervonta Davis hasn't fought since April of 2023 when he fought Ryan Garcia in Las Vegas. This is his first fight since. And since that time, it's not just been time off BC it's been time in jail it's been time away from family time away from his kids time away from the sports so it's the first fight in 14 months first of all what does the biggest star in boxing look like after 14 months away with a house arrest and a stint in jail during that time that That's just a big question more generally.

In addition, for Frank Martin, a guy who got into boxing a little bit later. By the way, I didn't realize he wrestled in high school. Did you know that? That would explain the physical toughness and the scrawny style. And apparently was very, very good at it too. I want to talk to him about that this week if we get a chance to speak to him, which we should. Interesting conversation there. I wonder, he is ranked somewhere, depending where you look at it, top five, top seven in most

rankings. What does it look like for Gervonta to solve this kind of problem? But of course, the biggest question you're going to be asking is what happens here based on the results to the sport? And it feels uncertain to me. Ryan Garcia, who was arrested over the weekend, he wants to

go to 147 to begin with, so he's gone. Devin Haney just took a fucking beating. I would imagine he would want to take a Gervonta Davis fight if he got the opportunity, but that would be risky giving how difficult everything he's been through is. He wants, he said for the PBC special,

he wants to be the best at 135 pounds. So maybe it means all roads lead to Shakur Stevenson. And he fights in July. Have you noticed that tanks who used to just avoid that topic, is now constantly saying, I'll knock that guy out. You know what was so interesting? Did you see the gloves off special that PBC did? Not yet. I'm excited about watching that.

They asked him, what were you feeling just before the fight with Ryan Garcia? And he goes, I was incredibly nervous. And they showed him getting his hands wrapped. And the guy, in boxing, for MMA fans who don't know, when you get your hands wrapped and it appears the guy's wrapping it, someone from the opposing corner is allowed to watch to make sure it's on the up and up. Ryan Garcia sent his brother, who was like an influencer boxer, I believe.

And the whole time, I didn't realize this, the whole time he's getting his hands wrapped, Garcia's brother is like, you're going to feel it from the jump. You're going to feel it right away. Sean Garcia, yeah, he talks shit. He's a real fighter so okay so either way so you gervonta admitted being like insanely nervous for the fight then once you dropped him and everything got into play he was fine i love that he showed that side for somebody that tough he looks like i'm not going to say humbled by everything although maybe that's part of it. It looks to me like he realized, okay,

everything I've been doing up to this point leads to really bad places that I simply don't want to go to anymore. Now I want to do something different. I want to do something different. And it has brought out a certain kind of humanity in him that I'm not sure that we've seen. That's fair. So for me, like what's on the line here, maybe obviously besides the belt, maybe a Stevenson bout.

If a Frank Martin be the biggest one of his career, it would shake and shatter the pay-per-view, excuse me, the pound for pound rankings. But also for me, I am very curious to see how much Gervonta can raise his game. Show us what he's really capable of. Can he really settle into this new 30 year old, more mature version of himself now that life has kind of kicked his ass a little bit. So I think the,

and I think that's right on. And I like looking at it from that narrative. And similarly, what I'm looking at mostly for tank in this one is it's a really tough fight and we could spend all this time. And I'm sure we will this week, talking up the truth, how good Frank Martin is and how tough of a fight this is,

but whether this was Frank Martin or Hector Luis Garcia or anybody that was across from him, to me, with Tank being gone, he hasn't just been gone physically with the time in prison and getting himself together. And hopefully, like we're saying, that leads to a more mature lifestyle outside the ring. But look, there's a chip on his shoulder

in just about every category. We've seen him more active in his sort of post and ghost style on Twitter. We have seen him be, in my opinion, upset that while he's been gone, what has happened in the public eye surrounding this division and these young stars? The Ryan Garcia-Haney fight

and the whole narrative, while Tank was gone, even though Tank beat him, Ryan became arguably a bigger star through some crazy activity and obviously the big upset win and all the drugs and everything that's come with that after that. And now he's unfortunately tore up a hotel and has a felony charge right

there. And I believe his mom has cancer. So there's a lot going on in Ryan Garcia's life, but he sort of stole the star narrative where if you're somebody like tank, you're saying, look, I'm better than all of these guys, you know, and I've showed that and I want to continue to show that. So Luke, he's fighting. I mean, have you seen he pulled he pulled Kermel Moten, Lloyd Mayweather's young prospect, off of the card and has been jawing with him on Twitter. Tank's been jawing with everybody. The way that he, first of all, the shape that he's coming in.

I want to talk to him about that. He is just as locked up and tight and lean than we've ever seen. But he's come back with a nasty edge with something to prove. I think it's to take back that star mantle to remind everybody how big he is. And I also think this is a pivotal fight and performance. Saudi Arabia is changing boxing right now, and there's a lot of money everywhere. Tank's been the only guy that's sort of been at odds with Turkey Al-Ashiq in a public sense. Remember, they kind of did that trash talk back and forth.

And Turkey still says, look, I'd like to sit down and talk with Tank and change his opinion. But Tank was like, pay me $200 million or I won't fight with you. Luke, can Tank Davis come out here against a very tough opponent and put on the kind of performance where he may not need Saudi Arabia intervention to make the biggest fights possible? Can we still make Tank and Shakur without Saudi Arabia? In theory, we should be able to. I want to see from a business sense, if Tank comes in and handles business, and I think he's going to be motivated to handle business in as big explosive and nasty a way as we've seen in a while what can he do with that in this boxing landscape right now because if he's in on saudi is saudi inevitable for everybody i hate that every conversation ends up going back to saudi but in a match making sense it it matters

it's you got to have those conversations um i think that he you know he doesn't like being out of the spotlight he's glad to be back in a big fight headlining here, but he wants even bigger fights. And I think deep inside Hanks made a lot of money. He's had ups and downs outside the cage, but I do believe there is that competitor in him that looks at this landscape and says, I want my chance against everybody. I want to show you that I truly am the best of this era. If he saw, if he wins this fight, just talking about Shakur and the post fight interview, then I will know that to be true because that guy is actually in his weight class.

And that is the only guy really that people believe now that Haney lost could really give tank trouble in and around these weight classes. Aside from Haney BC, right? Let's just assume he's out for whatever reason. What would be the biggest fight for tank? Now this fight's at 35, but what would be the biggest fight for tank? Not including H at 35 but what would be the biggest fight for tank not including haney at 140 you could argue lopez well i think there's still a potential

lomachenko fight at 135 if if it's wanted you could argue that there's a ceiling on how big that can be but it would be equally big and critically it would matter i think teo fema lopez who we will have on the show today might be that name but i think teo's you know at 140 and probably like r Ryan looking like he's more likely to go to 47 sooner than later. I think we got to figure out with Tank who fights more in like a walk around weight than he does, you know, extreme

weight cutting. Is he going to go to 40 again? We saw him move up to 40 for the Mario Barrios pay-per-view and he looked great. But is that going to be part of his plans or is he going to set up shop for a while at 35 knowing that there's still big names, there's still Shakur, there's still Lomachenko I don't know I don't know yet this was so interesting about this fight that the Tank Davis business kind of stopped after April right and again he had to go to jail he had to do house arrest he was gone for a while

and meanwhile all of these other names now Shakur had a moment I don't know if he made the most of his opportunity in the absence of Tank Davis to really assert his name. Certainly Ryan Garcia did for better or for worse. And Devin Haney has become quite visible as well. All these, all of these other actors are kind of playing in that space. This fight is interesting to me because people are really dismissing Frank Martin, which I really can't stand. He doesn't like sell himself in a big way. He's not a big trash talk guy in the microphone. He does look the part, and I think his fights speak for themselves. He's an excellent athlete, it appears, and he is a hard worker. He did come to the sport late.

I do think Gervonta is more talented naturally and has had more time to develop his craft. I mean, do you see Gervonta drawn with Spence over the fact that Spence promotes... Spence promotes him. They're all part of the Derek James stable. That's what I'm saying. Tank wants smoke with everyone right now.

But this is what I mean. Tank is back now 30 years of age. I think that this fight, assuming it goes his way, now if it doesn't, it's a completely different story. But if it does go his way, he is going to set out, I think, a path for the next two years. What are the weight classes? What am I looking for? What matters to me?

What does Tank want to do? This is Tank getting back to business. This is not so much Tank setting a vision for the future. Does that make sense? It does. It does. And it's also a tough test to see exactly where he's at. I do want to see what weight class is for him moving forward.

But Luke, in that co-main event, it's just really interesting. Do we all want Benavidez Canelo? We all want that. I'd give anything for that round. Damn near give a kidney. But it seems like Canelo is just no mas on this topic, Luke. And I think I have to come to a point too publicly where we've already called out Canelo for not wanting it.

But you're right. I've got to come to a point where I've got to start doing the public penalizing for that. I mean, what he's doing is it's no bueno. It's not good. It's not cool. Canelo, it's not cool, dude. All right. It's not cool at all. Anyway. So if Benavidez Luke realizes that Canelo won't answer his call, it seems like Turkey Al-Ashik, and the Saudi Arabia money really want Benavidez to campaign here at one 75 and be a player so that he can, this is directly from Turkey, be a player in fighting the winner of this inevitable we've all versus

better before title fight. So if that's the case and it is, and that's big money, that's big critical accreditation for Benavidez. I mean, what's the, what's the biggest thing you can do besides Canelo? Yeah.

Move up to one 75 where these two legends are playing and they're going to fight off for a Super Bowl sort of undisputed clash. Vodzik, the former champion, does seem to be the perfect test at the right time. It's only for an interim belt, but this is sort of the perfect, okay, what do you look like at 75? Because this guy is older. He's going to look fucking awesome. At 37, Vodzik.

But he's technical, Luke. He's going to look fucking awesome. At 37, Vodzik. But he's technical, Luke. He's got that amateur experience. He's from that same Usyk-Lomachenko amateur era of the Ukrainian team. I like what this test brings. But there's a lamenting side of my heart that's like, hey, David, don't go up to 175 physically where you can't come back again. Like, until I see Benavidez literally knocking on Canelo's door, pissing on his lawn, doing the Tarver Roy Jones bit. Like,

what is it going to take for you to take me serious? But it seems like he's beyond that, that he's that sort of said, okay, I'm not going to chase you. Can I, I'm making my own. How do you weigh in on that?

Cause you like that from the young competitor and better videos to say, I don't need you. I'm going to be bigger. I maybe he'll never get there. Cause Canelo got pretty big, but in his mind, it's like, no, I'm going to be bigger and badder than you whether I go through you or not. What would you advise David Benavidez?

Because Turkey did change the equation. I really believe he is doing everything. If you're David Benavidez, to your point, the Canelo fight is so attractive and so important. Of course, devoting resources in terms of your media opportunities and just asking for it generally and finding ways to get it done clearly makes a ton of sense but in the event that you can't get it you cannot let it define your career especially now that he is like every fight looking much better I mean just the difference from and they're very different opponents but just how

devastating he was from the plant to the Demetrius Andrade fights, it was a big, big difference for me in how quickly he was able to move downhill on Andrade once the fight began to turn a little bit. And so for me, charting a course at 175, an easier weight class to make physically for himself, not saying the competition is necessarily all that easy, you're taking on a former known name that boxing insiders realize is somewhat damaged goods,

but still a credible win. Should you be able to get one? He's writing a three fight win streak. Bosnick is. And so I think he's just trying to figure out where can I get, if the Canelo fight isn't going to happen, where can I go? That's going to give me the most amount of legacy opportunity.

And then with that commercial appeal, but bevel and betterave are way more difficult fights than Canelo Alvarez at this point, especially at 175. Well, if you're David Benavidez, you probably believe you can beat all those fucking guys. You should.

You should. And how do you not love, how do you not love this guy who's got an all-action style, walk you down, and the two guys that are in front of him, potentially at 175,

and Bivol and Betterbeave, by the way, they've got unfinished business they'll get to a little bit later in the year. October 21st? I believe that's right. So the point I'm trying to make is, with a good, strong performance against Vosdick, of course, he got crushed by Betterbeave himself,

which ended up causing a retirement of sorts. Three and a half years. Yeah, a long time. I'm just saying, he's saying, I've got next with a performance like what I think he wants to get on Saturday. And that is insanely, either one, either one, either if it's Benavidez, Bival, or Betterbeef, three Bs, motherfucker.

It's going to be great. This has got to get you fired up for what Turkey's planning right there. I mean, Turkey's basically saying, we don't need Canelo either. Dude, no one blows Saudi Arabia. It's like you and Osama bin Laden just like. Okay, that's aggressive. He's boxing Santa Claus. And until he breaks my heart, Luke, I've got to.

I mean, he's giving us what we want. He's basically saying, hey, Canelo. Because it seems like Canelo's turning down the offer to fight Crawford. Doesn't it seem like that too? So. Does Canelo just not want anyone to call his shots? Because I do understand this. He wants Berlanga.

If you're a fighter and you want the Saudi money, you got to let them call the shots. True. You got to let them call the shots. To an extent, yes let them call the shot to an extent, to an extent on the direction, on everything on that. It seems like Turkey tells people, this is who you're fighting. No one does that to Canelo, but Canelo is going to be missing out. Look, I think he's too young to lean on the excuse of what I've done everything. And I don't owe you anymore.

If he's 36, 37, but he's like 32, 33, still in the midst of it. So damn dude. I mean, if, if, I mean, boxing Santa Claus has appeared and Canelo still won't open the gift. Yes.

Well, but it also appeared at a point where he doesn't really, he is his own Santa Claus. No, but if you're, if you're the man in the arena, once you become your own industry within the industry, you are less reliant upon individual matchups.

It's a bad duck, dude. It's a bad duck. It's a bad one. It's a bad duck. And I don't want to see it because I respect Saul. I really do. I don't want to see this. Dude, the way he unified.

What year was that? 2021 when he finished? Yeah. The way he unified was incredible. Badass. But we're three years past that, and we're at a different point now. All right. BC, let's move on while we can. Again, we're going to be joined by Randy Couture in about 20 minutes or so.

BC, let's talk about the UFC show. So there's a brand new show on the Roku channel. This is a fast channel. I just ducked into your shot. I'm sorry. Which stands for Free Ad Supported Tier. These are these channels that appear, as long as you have a broadband connection or even just a television or both, they kind of just show up and you don't, you don't go and pick

what you want to watch. It's just on like regular television and they make money on ads. It's a gigantic new growth market that kind of took off in the middle of the pandemic. But Roku has a show now on their own channel called fight Inc. It's about the UFC machine, essentially BC. Now in part one of the show, the UFC execs kind of, they show a lot, how fights get made, how fights fall through. It's basically, in my opinion, taking embedded and countdown,

all the great things they do behind the scenes ahead of a fight, putting them together and kind of making a movie. Remember like when your favorite TV show or The Simpsons would suddenly have a two-hour movie? It felt like that, taking the elements they already do, putting it together for a three-part series, and it felt like a big movie of seeing how the sausage is made. And they let us see a lot of how that sausage is made.

Well, I mean, you must know it's heavily edited. Oh, it is heavily seasoned and flavored and preservative. I mean, what they want to show you and what they don't want to show you is highly curated. People are like, I get to see the truth. You get to see a little fraction of the truth. It's what they wanted to show us that is bringing the most debate. I mean, the UFC doesn't put their stamp on anything they don't have creative control over, period. Okay.

That being said, it is interesting. It's causing quite a stir. There's lots that come out about it. It is, we should say, very well produced. Well edited, well shot. The people who are making it clearly know what they are doing. And by the way, I should say this. It's smart of the UFC to get on a fast channel that's entirely a new growth market

where you don't have to have a television subscription or a Netflix subscription. It's all free. That's great. It is well produced. It's premium content. And they get to access the fans in all kinds of new ways. The UFC has always been very, very good about when YouTube blew up, let's just go on there. When reality shows are hot, let's get one there. Facebook prelims back in the day.

Facebook prelims. They've been very, very good about embracing these new ways of reaching audiences. So I will give them credit for that. That being said, it has also showed how they deal with some of their fighter talent. And it's not to say that one side is always wrong or the other, but there was one incident that came up with Aljamain Sterling. This was before his bout with sean o'malley he ultimately lost his title in that contest getting stopped and bc heavy-handed well let's just do this let's roll the clip and then i want to ask you a question about it let's take a look so we make the fight aljo versus o'malley but when he goes out in the public he just says all the wrong things. I still have injuries, and I'm still nursing to this day.

I announce a fight, and then the first thing Aljo says is, well, if my body holds up. So now you have fans going, should I buy tickets to Boston and a plane ticket and get a room? Because this guy might not show up. You're either in the fight or you're not in the fight. I'm going to fight, even though it's literally against my will. I got a call that Aljo sounds like he doesn't really want to fight.

Aljo's one of those guys who just can't get out of his own way. I just want you and I to be on the same page, which is you don't want to fight, Aljo. You don't have to fight. I'm not forcing you to fight. So you got to decide what you want to do. And whatever you decide, I'm cool with. So I guess where I sit is it kind of puts me in a bad light

where it's like this guy can't get out of his own way. He kind of ruined things. And I'm like, I don't get that thought process of doing that to someone who's always done whatever was asked for him to do. But I can tell you, you're at your f***ing peak. You've looked incredible. And it's just this opportunity for you

to take his audience that he has built in and introduce you to them. But instead of using the platform and the increased media coverage, it's almost like you're working against it i see it playing 100 i i just still feel like you said the communication out of the gate was kind of like it was a little blindsider you know what i mean like i literally just fought and david made the fight right then and there i know it's a big opportunity my my only thing like i said from

the very beginning was damn i just wish we had a conversation. That was it. All right, my man. All right. Good talking to you this week. Fighters can be very paranoid people. They start thinking, well, they want me to win. The rest of it's not really relevant. BC, why would UFC release this footage thinking it makes them look good? That's sort of the issue with this whole series

where it's heavy hagiography. Is that the right word? Hagiography. Hagiographic. It's heavy on the propaganda infomercial. Why would they show this when it almost feeds into some of the stereotypes of how they treat certain champions? Tyron Woodley is a great example.

Now I'll Jermaine Sterling, where it's like they have their obvious favorites and this is how they treat the other ones. And if you wanted to build that narrative that the UFC really wanted O'Malley to win and really wanted him to have his best chance to do it in Boston on that date, which mean they needed a healthy Al Jermaine to sign off on. Could they put the pressure on him to convince him?

And would that help that narrative of O'Malley needs an injured Al Jermaine who's not at 100%? It feeds into that, whether that's true or not. But here's the reason why I think they leave that in there to show you, because they spent the rest of the time praising whether it's Alexander Volkanovsky's willingness to take the last minute Abu Dhabi rematch with Mahachev, whether it's, you can name

four or five other instances in that documentary of showing these guys that are in their minds savages who will drop everything no matter the injury. Look, they purposely spent just as much time dogging Aljo in that as they did showing that O'Malley suffered a rib injury ahead of the same fight and really harped

on the idea that he's not going to pull out no matter what because he openly idolizes the path that McGregor put down and there's certain fighters that they're like that. No matter what, they're going to show up and fight. So Luke, I think that this plays into what did they want to achieve with this? Well, they certainly wanted to

raise their profile and even more and show people this is the secrets to our success because there is a lot of planned dialogue. And that's my only issue with it. It's well shot. It's pretty interesting, especially the behind the scenes stuff

of seeing how Adesanya responds to defeat so humbly. All that stuff's great to see that inside. There's a lot of canned lines that Dana delivers that you know is sort of pre-written and handed to him to move the segments along that just come out as being very hypocritical. So I think then them putting the, the Aljo thing is they're trying to show people that an infomercial to the future fighters too. If you want to make it, if you want to be one of the 1% of 1% who make it on this level and get the real money here, you've got to be a savage.

And I think it's their way of showing the public, which I think is a horrible thing to do to your champion, to a guy that's still competing. And you know that, see, this guy is a whiner and he doesn't have it. Be more like this guy, be more willing to take huge opportunities.

Cause that's what these bosses are like. Can't you see people from watching this? We are savages. We don't take days off. Like that's the message they're putting forth and they want that from the top to the bottom. And I understand that,

but it just plays into how they, like, look, they did a rant about how Habib's so great because he's 36 and he knows that, you know,

the young guys need the next in line. If you're not willing to fight the next in line, you got to step aside. They're all like, yeah, that's what a champion should do.

But then Jon Jones doesn't, you know, he can act like how he wants to. It's always sort of like, there's a lot of that in this. I feel bad for Aljo because this plays into all those storylines. And I don't mean necessarily the storyline of treating black champions.

Reminder, like after this fight, he, or he lost this fight, lost his title, had to move weight classes ultimately. I mean, that was probably some degree inevitable, but like, it's also interesting. Hunter Campbell sort of seems to be taking the role of Lorenzo Fertitta where- And Joe Silva in the way they merged the two together. A little bit, yeah. but like it's also interesting hunter campbell sort of seems to be taking the role of lorenzo for tita where joe silva in the way they merged a little bit yeah yeah well so joe silva was

antagonistic and he hunter campbell seems a little more good cop to me dana's a little bit more bad cop that was always the relationship between him and didn't make it seem like hunter really pulls the strings well we've known that i mean that's no but like really pulls the strings i don't believe that people say i wasn't under the impression that he wasn't. There are people that say, oh, Dana's just a front man now. No, I don't believe that. He's not just a front man, but Hunter Campbell is much more instrumental to day-to-day activities than I think Dana would be. But the one I'm trying to make is when Dana and Lorenzo were around, Dana would be the one who would lash out in the media.

And then Lorenzo would be the one to have lash out in the media. And then Lorenzo would be the one that would have a calm conversation with you. Even to me, Lorenzo came up to me when MMA was legalized in New York. Yes. Lorenzo came up to me and then was, I mean, could not have been nicer. Could not have been nicer. So I think Hunter Campbell tries to be this kind of like, I mean, I'm on your side interlocutor.

But I just want to point out, like the pressure that they put on these guys, correct me if I'm wrong, BC, correct me if I'm on your side interlocutor. But I just want to point out, like, the pressure that they put on these guys. Correct me if I'm wrong, BC. Correct me if I'm wrong. When the fight was announced between Shawn and Aljamain, it actually was not signed. They had a verbal agreement, but they didn't have any kind of written agreement. They had an announcement, and he's like, well, now you're saying, you know, I want. Aljamain's saying he can't fight.

And it's like, well, he's saying he can't fight because he actually isn't really sure. And the turnaround, by the way, it was not great for him. He ended up losing his title. He was right. All of those things nagging in his psych, his,

his, his consciousness ultimately were the exact right part of it. And they make it out to be like, you've got this opportunity to go like double down when you're gambling. Like you, you, you just made a hundred bucks. You've got an opportunity to double your earnings.

And in the end, his fans, and in the end, and in the end, the house always wins. That's really the reality. It felt dirty in that regard. It definitely promotes the things that they do great and that they've been so successful.

And you can't take that away from them to a large degree. As long as you remove sort of the months, opsony, that word side of it. But Luke, there's also just like a lot of, like I said, those can lines,

like it's cool that Dan is good to his employees, but do you think he really puts on this like employee fair? I mean, he's letting kids dunk him and he's giving them $500 gift bags. It's like, if you're a fighter, you're literally watching the evil empire that, that isn't cutting you in on what you deserve. You're watching them driving fast cars and go away on vacations. And they're not the ones ever taking a punch. And I don't'm just saying like it must make you feel like crap so i want to play one clip and we can sort of bring this to a close but luke i got to ask you before i play this clip because it's going to be two segments back to back that are seemingly contradictory of each other in comical ways do they not see that it is do they not see the irony in here let's go to dana and the reason

that this sport grew so fast and got so big is because it's never, ever about the money. That happens with winning and with success. But it was much harder in the early days than it is now to not chase the money. But if your personal life and your professional life is all about money, you are going to live one miserable existence.

That I promise you. If you're a happy person and you love your life and you love getting up out of bed every day, you're the richest f***ing dude I know. Okay, fair enough, fair enough. Off the private jet, but okay, fair enough. Vacation time. He's got a real monastic lifestyle until he came to italy

and capri is next level you know my kids are getting to the age where look at the size of that yacht doing their own thing how big so you gotta see is your yacht that big this year my yacht's not that big hang out only that's keto bro Only ask Keto, bro. I mean, it's my birthday. You're 54 today? 54. Look a lot older than that. I thought you were turning 57. Cut.

We've got a provision for the casino downstairs. If you and Aiden would like to play a game or two. So he literally hired a local casino to bring in dealers and tables. Listen, BC, if you just get up in the morning and you love your life. Yep, move it all over here to daddy. Can't even go on vacation without playing. The sickness is real. I just like, okay, so like, oh like oh bc you're funny you're talking look he literally they could have put a segue in there they literally segued him saying if you live your

life only about money you know that like this we would never be here if i only live my life about money to him saying the sickness is real when he rented like if you're a fighter watching this you must be like who the hell am i working for it It's amazing to me. I mean, I'm waiting for the episode where they talk about the antitrust case. That's going to be my favorite one because those papers uncover, by the way, they just reached a $335 financial settlement, which should have been, you know, 10 X that, but more to the point that the documents show, as we've been over a million times that they have that fighter compensation is 20% or less. We measured it as low as 13 in certain years

and then to make the argument with the straight face that money doesn't matter in a world where you're taking that kind of cut from the revenue generated into trends like shocking like i look first and foremost dana built his own wealth you can do whatever you want with it no one no one no one is saying dana white should not be very rich. He should be very rich. You're allowing a segue of a canned line about how you'll never be happy if you live your life about money to him admitting to the sickness of the addiction to the gambling and having both that size. All I'm saying is it's a horrible look, which is my only issue with half of this series, Luke. But it's an interesting look on the inside.

It was good to see some in, you know, some of the employees that we like in there and see them get some FaceTime in there. Laura Sanko had a big, had a big voice in that, but it was very similar to the, to the Netflix kind of McGregor one where they spent a half hour about how

he's such a great husband and father, Luke. Yeah. I also agree. But by the way, the Christoph there's a, there's a guy in there who works in the PR department that was a former training partner of mine he's a good kid he's a great guy christophe yeah christophe christophe is a one of the nicest guys he was

in the sean strickland segment where they had a meeting about his uh ridiculousness so they do talk about that very quickly i want to say about that that was one like okay so like you know showing daniel like oh you know if you're you could be whoever and you love your job and you get up like dude if you don't make a million dollars, who the fuck loves their job? Like I love doing this show, but I have to get up at four 30 in the morning and leave my wife and kid. And it causes all kinds of problems at home because my wife has to do extra work and she has her own job. And then I have to sit on trains for eight hours on these Mondays. And don't get me wrong. I'm lucky to do it. But at the same time, like very easy to love your job

when you're making, you know, a you're making $100 million every five years. Okay. The point I wanted to make was that one meeting, though, people were like, oh, they had to have meetings about Sean Strickland. Dude, what fucking corporation would employ a guy like that and not have meetings? I'm just happy they actually do. Because it makes you wonder if they're just like, no, we don't care about that. Of all the things that they showed, I thought that was like, of course they had to do that. Yes.

I'm glad that they showed that. Yes, they had to do that. BC. Yes'm glad that they show that. Yes, they had to do that. BC, we're on the DraftKings network here. We're big fans of DraftKings. I like good partners like DraftKings. Good partners like DraftKings. And of course, BC, everyone knows the fight night experience. When everything is dialed in

and you got a couple, you know, you put some bets down and everything just feels like it's coming together. That's one of the best things you can do as a sports fan. So we here at Morning Combat have partnered with DraftKings Sportsbook, okay? Both for UFC Fight Night coming up and, of course, Gervonta Davis, the biggest star in boxing, is back this weekend. Right now, right now, all new customers who bet just $5

will get $150 in bonus bets instantly. I can go bet Tank Davis versus Frank Martin. I can bet Benavidez. I could bet the UFC card. And if I put $5 down as a new customer after downloading the DraftKings Sportsbook app, you're talking about $150 in bonus bets. Now, the key is you've got to use the promo code MK. MK is the promo code you've got to use, BC.

That is a great way to stay in on the action. Because you know you'll be watching these fights anyway. You'd be watching us at morning combat previewing and reviewing and all that. Uh, get in the game. Okay. Use your $150 in bonus bets in draft King. Same game parlays for a shot at even bigger payout, combine multiple bets together from the same game. Uh, this is a great way to get down.

You see, by the way, if sports betting is not yet available in your state, wherever you might live, you don't have to worry. DraftKings is the one-stop shop for all things. How about Daily Fantasy where you can join in on all the fun and have the shot to win cash prizes. So as we just said, here we go. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app right now. New customers use the promo code

MK, the letter M, the letter K, and bet just $5 on any wager and get $150 in bonus bets instantly. Promo code MK only at DraftKings Sportsbook, BC, the crown. It is yours. You're darn right about that. There it is, DraftKings in the house, 5 p.m. Eastern on the DraftKings Network every Monday morning.

All right, we have a few more minutes, I believe, before Randy gets here, BC. Yeah, do you think that on the dunk tank, instead of giving $50 to little kids, that he should, Dana should let fighters? They could probably use that $500, right? Some of them probably could. Did you see, by the way, we'll talk about the weekend's fights here when we resume the conversation about it.

Did you see Dustin Stoltzfus had nerve damage from his face, from that elbow he took from bruno fajera that was the eighth spinning elbow knockout in ufc history that was gnarly that dude's had three fights and has bruno has had three fights and all three have been fucking exciting and he's someone's gonna sleep him because he's so aggressive you know but that motherfucker is exciting all right he's super exciting um how was the uh nats game with your dad now that we've got a few minutes to kill here uh they won which was better than the mets game i went to a couple weeks ago or

whatever that was when they got yeah the mets are awful no the mets won nine to one i left when it was nine to one i was like okay well this has gone off the fucking rails so fuck all that we left it was good weather Weather was beautiful. Dude, when, when, you know how it is when the weather is warm, but not muggy. And then the golden hour hits where it's just, I mean, you're in the ballpark with the open air. Great podcast too.

I know what I wanted to ask you quickly is this week in Vegas, you and I, our man and MK super fan and great listener, Oteel Burbridge, you know the basis for Dead & Company comes through. Since you owe me an OK Bet defeat in 2023, you and I could end up at the Sphere to see John Mayer, Bob Weir, Oteel Burbridge & Company dead and company in what I can only assume, based on firsthand MK donks who have been there, is a life-changing experience. I don't think it's going to be life-changing

in the way you imagine. For me or you? I mean, I think my life is changing just thinking about it, you know? Noseda, do you listen to Dead & Company? He's a... Luke... Long Island Luke gets down the concert scene,

especially 90s acts that are still playing around. Like what? Who? Like a third eye blind. Yeah. Well, you just, you just agreed you were going to a random show coming up.

Which one was that? Everclear. Yes. Which I support. Father of man. Dude, that was, they played three chords for 20 years and made a gazillion

dollars dude santa monica's a better song we can't live beside the ocean all the all these bands that were big when we were in high school are still making money off of like three hits as they should and as we will one day we'll be doing you know tip to tip when we're in our late 60s hopefully luke still still playing that bit out right no we're not doing that no no no i'll have fucking killed you before that okay okay great uh so do you have any misgivings if we end up in the sphere this week i mean you must i'm just trying to figure out what drugs i can either bring in in my tummy or in my lungs that are going to allow me to tolerate this have you seen any any of the videos of how seemingly transcendental the... I feel bad because O'Teal's going to get mad when I say this.

I have seen the videos. The videos look incredible. But then I hear the music. Come on. You have no grounds to stand on here regarding your musical taste. It's not a mystery to me why people don't like Cannibal Corpse. I understand that. I fully accept it. Or hate metal in general. Or any kind of that stuff. I fully get it. taste it's not a mystery to me why people don't like cannibal corpse i understand that i fully

accept it or or hate metal in general or any kind of that stuff i fully i fully get it it is a mystery to me why people like this music that you listen to it is a mystery jam band roots rock seriously i don't i don't i genuinely don't know how you can enjoy it without an enormous amount of drugs. The intersection of rock and roll, folk, country, you know. Sounds miserable. Sounds miserable. Do you like any Dead songs? Is there one that will come out and you'll be like, you know what, that's my jam. I like the sublime cover of Scarlet Begonia.

Which is pretty badass. It's a good cover. It is pretty tremendous. It's a good cover. What's the biggest Grateful Dead hit? Probably in their prime trucking but probably numbers wise it was the touch of gray in the 80s when they came back so my fraternity brothers would always play trucking and i would want to take a fucking baseball bat to the speakers or um

okay okay that's that's really aggressive i mean if you're going on hits but they're even though they have the hits it's more about the you know it's obviously more about the live experience look okay which looks miserable. I mean, there's going to be some hairy, greasy people that are in another world speaking to aliens dancing around you. Which is fine. I don't mind that. I mean, it's got to be better than that. I mean, listen, if there's one thing I understand about my shows and their shows, fucking weirdos show up.

I get that part. Do you have any reverence for the underrated guitar playing of John Mayer? Is he in this band? He's playing Jerry Garcia role. Oh, he is? Yes. I've said it like a hundred times. He was good on Chappelle Show.

Okay. Do you remember that skit? Where they go to like black barbershops and then like. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Where they were trying to see who dances and who doesn't kind of thing. That was a good bit. That was a funny little bit.

All right. Well, this should be something, Luke. I mean, the experience alone. I feel bad. I know if O'Teal's watching, he's going to make me, you know. I just, I want to be nice to him, but I just got to be honest. Like, I cannot stand. Grateful Dead might be the worst band ever.

Oh, wow. Okay, I don't stand for this at all, this slander. The only one who might be worse is Phish. Okay. Phish might be worse. O'Teal, maybe if you only can come through The only one who might be worse is Fish. Fish might be worse. Maybe if you only can come through with one, that might work out even better. No, this is the deal. You're supposed to take me

to a concert I would want to go to the least. I think the victory for me is going to a concert alone. The victory is I don't have to take you to a concert so you don't ruin the greatest experience of my life. I'll go. I will honor that bet. I will of my life. I'll go. I will honor that bet.

I will honor the bet. I will go. I'll complain. You want to get into UFC Louisville as we go? Yeah, I guess we're waiting on Randy Couture, so we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, BC, I'm glad you brought it up. Let's talk very quickly, if we can, about UFC Louisville. There were some good fights over the weekend.

So I'll start like this. Okay, we have to talk about the main event. Now, Sardine Imavov, or Imavov, excuse me, and Jared Cannoneer. Jared Cannoneer, I believe, was up 29-28 on two of three, two of three judges scorecards heading into the fourth round. But the fourth round is where everything kind of fell apart for him. Now he was clearly hurt. There is no question about whether or not he was hurt. question by the way do we have the video of it at all is it have you seen this shit no okay either way bc i got great shit coming though okay was the stoppage in the main event premature 100 it was a bad stop tell me why even though cannoneer was visibly hurt before that yes and even though that was seemingly a sustained sort of, you know,

knock him from pillar to post type of moment, can and near still had it together. In fact, a second and a half before the stoppage, can and near slipped a punch and landed the right hook over the top. So then to see him get hit, not, you know,

overly flush, but just get touched with one more shot. And then Herzog jumps in. Obviously I'm always going to respect the difficulty of being in that spot where you want to get that stoppage. Perfect. You always want to get it, you know,

to, I'd always prefer too early than too late, but man, we always hate too early, right? We hate too early. You got to be exact, but cannon near was also rocked and wobbled at the end of the second round

and recovered. And you got it. And it wasn't like he was, you know, knocked down and barely with it. He was still on his feet and still protecting it. And it wasn't like he was, you know, knocked down and barely with it. He was still on his feet and still protecting himself. And like I said, still firing back.

There's no justification for it. Obviously what happened was Herzog saw the initial wobble that led into that sequence and obviously was looking out for Jared to, so he doesn't stand there and be a punching bag or pinata. But in my opinion, he was covering up, he was switching, he was doing enough.

No, that that's a horrible stoppage. And then when you see that he's covering up he was switching he was doing enough no that that's a horrible stoppage and then when you see that he's down he's up two to one in that point okay he's probably going to lose that round but it's going to be two two going into the fifth and i believe that he would have been able to clear the cobwebs and have a good shot at at at preventing the stoppage in that round and keeping himself in there because he did it two rounds earlier um i like the way he came back in round three by the way at 40 karen near where the fight was seemingly going in the wrong

direction. And he pulled it back. It is a big win for him off. But the fact that we're even talking in the post-fight interview about potentially getting a title shot off of this, like, like, come on,

what are we doing here? Guys, the focus, I know you're not going to bang the drum and beat up Jason Herzog and like, like it's going to happen. Guys are going to miss in that moment. But you asked me straight up.

Did he get it wrong? Yeah, he got it wrong. He robbed a guy of a spot of a chance to win a fight in in that moment. But you asked me straight up. Did he get it wrong? Yeah, he got it wrong. He robbed a guy of a spot of a chance to win a fight in a big moment. Who's 40 and who knows, you know, how much. I mean, look, is Canada going to get back to the top? You can make that debate in that argument, but he looked pretty credible in there against a very good opponent. Here's the thing.

I mean, it was a little early for me in the sense that Canada was, as I mentioned, clearly hurt. Right. Clearly in trouble. And when do you pull the trigger? Like, people are like, oh, he didn't fall. Well, you don't really have to wait for that, do you? Well, he didn't, you know, he wasn't, he was firing back a little bit, which is true. Although the one big shot he threw, there was some more sustained offense afterwards.

I just feel like, BC, correct me if I'm wrong. Do you feel like if Herzog had waited maybe another three to five seconds and something didn't change after that, that would have been a little bit different? I think what went against Kananir was that that was a sustained sequence. There was moment to moment to moment, and it kept building. Yes. But I didn't see him go out or be— He doesn't have to go out i get that but

like did you see what happened in a couple fights earlier in the puna lehi fight i mean like there's some wars that were going on who was the referee in that contest i don't remember in that moment but it just wasn't herzog is a very good referee it wasn't consistent with the standards uh you you actually don't see this you see this a lot more in boxing probably because there's the higher potential for head trauma and we actually see deaths in the ring unfortunately so maybe there should be that close so it's i think it sticks out more in mma because we don't deal with this a lot in fact if anything we argue if it's going on too long this is that rare one that fell on this side of the dial but i think what went against him was that there was

this long sequence but i think that sequence really has to be you know what i mean it really has to be exclamation point where it's like okay yep the fight's over fight's over. Let's stop it. I didn't see that moment. He's right there, but he's got to be blogging. Look, the fight's moving. So he's got to be, you know,

in the right spot. Could he get the wrong visual at the wrong time? Obviously, even though he's got a better view than us, he's a human. So I'm not saying, you know, let's burn them.

No, no, no. That's not what I'm saying either. I don't need Jonah Vark all over again. Also, but here's the thing. I would say I do feel bad for cannoneer who has a

winner for sean strickland real bad for him has a winner for sean strickland 40 years old this is not catastrophic as a loss especially since the stoppage itself is controversial but it does make climbing back to a part a part where you can get the title significantly more difficult than it already was i think that's the first thing i'd say The second thing I'd say is it is a good win in the sense of, um, I thought he was performing well overall, even though he was down a little bit, but at the same time,

it's like, dude, you don't really get much of a mandate from this win. It does probably put him into the top five space because that's where canoneer was. And so they're going to trade places from this in all likelihood, but like you didn't see this fight and think, oh yeah, that yeah that guy let's let's put him to the front of the line if he eventually gets up there you couldn't knock it but it's not like the kind of one where you're

like holy shit you want your shot you wanted it to be that moment i'm sure imavov it's not his fault by the way that the fight was stopped i wanted to give that moment but i didn't fully see it and luke as a whole i like the direction he's going, and Imavov's now got considerable five-round experience in terms of main eventing these fight nights, so we're seeing more of what he's really made of. I like a lot of it. I get a poor man's Gegard Mousasi vibe from him, but I've

yet to fully see what I'm exactly looking for that tells me true title threat. I don't see that yet. Fair enough. There's not enough well-roundedness. He's a very, very, he's a real, he's a real talent. He's game. He's a very, very, he's a real, he's a real talent. He's game. He's game. He'll give most guys a tough night. I also want to say this. Chris Curtis was there

in attendance, and he was saying, because, you know, he would, he got online afterwards on Twitter and was like, guys, I don't understand what the problem is with the stoppage. And people, like, jumped all over him. But what he explained was, if you actually watched it from cage side, the stoppage looked far more justifiable.

Now, there were still some people booing the stoppage in the end or whatever, but he thought like, oh, in real time, watching it here, didn't think it was that bad. Then you go back and you watch it on tape, and you're like, yeah, it looks a little bit different. I cannot overstate this.

If you've never seen an MMA fight up close and watched it, and then go back and watch the tape of it, they often look so different. Now Herzog obviously has the best seat in the house because he's in the cage, so I don't know what you want to say about that, but some context I think was worth mentioning.

Also, BC, we have to mention from the UFC Louisville. By the way, the highest gate in UFC fight night history. I think a lot of that's price gouging, but still. Yeah, I didn't see like a full crowd. It seemed like there were patches. So it wasn't full. They were alive. They were alive.

Dude, the Kentucky crowd was live, and I think it was nearly, just a shade under 20,000. So sell it or not, it was a big crowd, and they were alive for it, and they paid a lot of money. So good for them. KFC Yum Center. Dominic Reyes. Didn't feel good. Dominic Reyes, we should just say it out loud, rescued his career on Saturday,

stopping Dustin Jacoby in the first round. BC, what can you say about that? I can't stop getting in your camera. Sorry about that. Dom Reyes needed this. We needed this as Dom Reyes fans. You want to see a guy who physically is still at the tail end of his physical prime. You don't want to see it crumble the way it seemed like it was going for him and everything that has happened post john

jones fight where yes you can make an argument that that's the only time i saw a guy beat john jones legitimately right uh luke is more ardent in that than i am in a close very good fight but it's been disastrous the reinvention attempt at the glover to share a gym you know and then you go out there and you're thinking big things and it's another one-sided stoppage defeat he didn't get the time to show us the full package but he got into a little bit of a skirmish and had had the right finishing package seemed confident seemed like he could take a punch in there overall when you consider that he hasn't had a victory in five calendar years to break this stretch look if this if this is a loss in any form, he might be in the PFL next, right? I don't say that like to rip on the PFL, but they might be going after him like they just did Mark G. Casey to sign him as a free agent name right there.

He resurrected it, but I think he may have exercised some kind of demon in doing so. Because did you see like the celebration, the post-fight interview? It felt like that weight, he got it off of him, Luke, and that maybe it's a rejuvenating win in that regard. I think that's the most we can hope for because he reached the pinnacle of how good he can be against Jon Jones, and it's just been a dive since then. I thought he beat Jon Jones. Right, and then the Blachowicz fight just kind of fell apart

right when he was in it, and then it's been nothing since then. Uri as well. Uri put his lights out, and then it was a whole thing. I'll say this. You know what I really loved about this win, BC? Jacoby was in his face pressuring hard. And you actually watch. He waits, he waits, he waits. And then he cracks him right in between his stride. So he split his timing, which is hard to do.

But he has eyes open, under duress, throwing shots. Dude, he didn't close his eyes and then just wing something or just try and go square and then just brawl it out. He waited for his moment. He kept his composure under fire, BC, landed the shot, and then ultimately followed up and then finished him off. So for a guy who's been viciously KO'd

to still have that composure under an attacking opponent, one who is more striker than anything else. Very impressive. Yeah. And you could see his coaching. You know what I loved about it too? His coaches were so happy for him. Who is the new team?

I don't know. I don't know. I haven't been, I would, I candidly did not pay close attention to that heading. There you go. Long Island. Luke,

do you claim him on Long island because he played college football over there he was the it guy at his high school but he's from what is it new mexico is from i'm not sure but somewhere out west i think i'm not sure um nevertheless i i was so impressed by that i was like dude what a great win was it the toughest opponent that he possibly could have had? No, but it was a good one, and it was one where he showed a willingness to engage the fight even under very difficult terms. Love that. Indeed. We're trying to track down Randy Couture.

My favorite thing about the PFL is this is very PFL of them to just not show. I mean, it's quite nice. We don't know. Like the Conor situation, Luke. We don't know. We may find out in a few weeks. By the way, someone sent me an email about the Conor thing. What do you think about this as a rebuttal that they think he may have had some kind of a cut or he was not necessarily ambulatory in a way that if he had

shown up publicly i agree with that i agree that that is the reason there was something some kind of injury slash you know like i said if he had a black let's say he got caught in sparring and got a black eye right he's like's like, I'm not going in the public. Black eye don't buy. Okay, what if it's eye close? What if it's swollen eye shut? Can you cut? So in other words, the argument would be, okay, it's not bad enough to derail the fight, but it was bad enough to make people know.

But then again, we saw the picture of him afterwards and he was. Yeah. And here's my other point too. It's like, if it's, if you're saying it's not bad enough to ever call the fight off, who cares? It's kind of my response you know what i mean like you could say we've talked to the doctors we're fine all systems go just blah blah even if like i always said even if the update is not even an update it's just written in full pr speak yeah just go on record and say it it's kind of like when we got no response after the dana

slapping incident or anything something that's controversial that they don't want to talk about it's like but it's you have to yeah it's just weird that's controversial that they don't want to talk about. It's like, but it's, you have to, it's just weird. It's just weird. I don't know. We, none of us know.

It's just publicly traded company and ESPN. You kind of have to last thing on UFC Louisville. If we can, how about Raul Rosas Jr. Now somebody, I'll ask you how about Raul Rosas Jr. This is to me, the best performance he's had.

Yeah, but you're, can I tell you why? But yeah, but you're out here trying to say the rookie Tertius wasn't, wasn't a, a, he not a big test,

but like, wasn't going to be a test, but he game and he's, he's, he is game. I'll give him that. And he is aggressive. I'll give him that.

He has really, really porous takedown defense and against the guy like Rosas Jr. Who would have, or whatever else you want to say about him has very good takedowns. It's dude. This is the thing that people keep getting wrong. This is, Rosas Jr., or whatever else you want to say about him, has very good takedowns. This is the thing that people keep getting wrong. These are the guys Rosas Jr. should be fighting. He should not be fighting guys who can give him, at age 19, very difficult tests.

They should be incrementally difficult ones, but ones he can win. That's exactly what he got. This was the first time I felt like they match made him appropriately. They give him a guy he could beat with his own natural style who has some experience. 16 fights, this was his 17th pro fight. And, you know, to your point, is going to be squirmy and resisting.

And that first round was fun. It went back and forth. And this is the point I want to make. Rosas didn't come out just fucking... Took his time. In fact, it was Tertios who was the one who was being, on my judgment, way too aggressive. And it was Rosas didn't come out just fucking took his time. In fact, it was Tertius who was the one who was being, on my judgment, way too aggressive. And it was Rosas who calmly took his time.

I love the performance, dude. So much better. So much better. Okay, so you're going to give him some flowers now. Yes. I'm not going to say that he beat someone and was like, oh, let's just fast forward to the front of the division. Let's take our time. He's fun to watch, and he's seemingly putting it together.

My point is, wait. Let's develop this guy slowly. We don't have to rush anything. Is he good? Yes, of course he's good. We don't have to give him guys who can stop his takedowns. We are at the stage where we need to be giving him guys who can't so that he can get various other forms of resistance,

build his confidence, and by the time he's 22, 23, something like that, then you can begin to see what's up. His wrestling and grappling is very good. How good is it, though? Because he, I mean, there were times where he would make a reversal on Tertius and just kind of spin him around. I mean, he was like ragdolling him, it seemed, at times.

Okay, I'm not sure what to do with that because we have Tao in 13 minutes. Yeah, we can punt on that. Yeah. Did you hear what he said? Yeah, kind of.

It's broken up, but to close on Rosa. Yes. How, how, how good is that ground game? It seems like it's, it's,

it's a good, it's, I mean, it's not next level, right? It's very good. You won't know how good it is until he faces someone with very good resistance. Okay.

So you're just saying, look, this wasn't that. You got a game fun fighter in front of you, but he took care of him. This is my judgment. Some kid who you see in AAA ball, who's just beating the fuck out of those guys. Is he ready for the big leagues, like the real tough opponents yet? No, he's not ready for that yet. But he doesn't need to be. He's 19 just give him more experience

in the octagon and he could put the pieces of his game together and then later we can see what's up the crowd loves him crowd really i mean they went nuts after that submission win i don't know if everybody's betting on him or whatever but he seems to have so i mean look some people clown on his pronunciations and and but he seems to have a very charismatic way he approaches it. But him getting out of that submission at the end of round one with the rear naked jump on him, very calm, very systematic in how he did that. This is what I mean. I was very impressed by that. This is what I like.

He got good experience against an ultimately overmatched opponent, which you saw, but a, a resisting one, a fierce one. And it's exactly the kind of experience he needs at this stage of his career for folks who want to see him as champion. This is the building block more of this. And then you can escalate as he goes along. That's what I want to see. And then the big improvement I saw from the last two fights he had, he was just coming out.

Yeah. He didn't do that this time. But we still, we didn't really get to see him strike in this fight. No, this is what I mean. This is what I mean. Yeah, you're right. He's not, we're not ready for that part of the story yet. Yeah, but I do think it's an attraction.

Every time he's on the card, I'm interested to see him where he is in the development, almost in an Aaron Pico-like way, where you're like, it's like, I got to see where he's at in this. Okay. Let's quickly go to topic number five. We see if you want to leave that one off or, that one off? Or how do you want to do it? Why don't you just take us in here?

Yeah, fine. So we had a bit of a combat sports weekend. There was the PFL over the weekend, or PFL Europe anyway. There was one championship. They had some events over the weekend, although they were marred with weight missing, and there was a lot going on. And then, of course, there was also Ryzen BC. My question to you, and I can go first if you want, is there any one bout among one Ryzen and PFL

that stood out to you for any particular reason? Well, I wanted to ask you because I saw on the one card, which was heavy on Muay Thai, but did bring a lot of eyeballs, it seemed, to the matchups. CK'd Rutolo make that change from grappling to making the MMA debut. How impressed were you by his first round submission? Like, is he an MMA prospect, or is this more of a grappler who's trying it out?

No, he, again, we are very, very, very early into that, and I think we're also at a stage now where it used to be if you were Cade Ruotolo good, you could just go to MMA and, like, already start beating really good guys. MMA is not like that anymore. But for a debut and the clinical nature of how he finishes and gets to positions that he wants, he looked fucking awesome. I is not like that anymore. But for a debut and the clinical nature of how he finishes and gets to

positions that he wants, he looked fucking awesome. I mean, that was great. I would actually say, though, that the bout that stood out to me that was the most interesting over the weekend was it didn't get much fanfare, but it was the rematch between Kyoji Horiguchi and Sergio Pettis. Horiguchi getting revenge,

getting the nod in the end, winning, ultimately. And strangely, Sergio Pettis, after the, getting the nod in the end, winning ultimately. And strangely, Sergio Pettis after the fight, taking to social media, saying a bunch of negative shit about the whole thing. I was actually kind of surprised by that. They seemed very cordial after the event was over inside the ring itself. Also Juan Archuleta losing on that card. He got submitted by Earpst. So he lost the rise in Bantamweight he did yeah that changed hands

or is it Feather that's Bantam so in the end Horiguchi getting back to his winning ways was I thought pretty important how big was that I don't get into the grappling like you do although I'll get into anything Craig Jones related you better believe that actually we probably should talk about those death threats but Mikey Musumechi

who came fresh off the pizza slice with Brandon Schaub, he beat the only guy to ever beat him, I guess, or the last guy to ever beat him or something like that. I missed that match. I didn't see it. I saw the finish, and it was pretty fucking clinical as well.

That guy's not going to MMA, right? I mean, I respect what these grapplers are doing. He doesn't need to. When you're like, I mean, again, the rule of total brothers could be in that category as well, but you're winning like Mikey Musumechi, who it's like if he wasn't doing jujitsu, he'd be doing Dungeons & Dragons. Probably, yeah.

I feel like that's not a good fit for MMA. You need one who's a little more physically imposing as a style. He doesn't quite have that. But obviously his jiu-jitsu is insane. If you're going to talk about that, if you're going to talk about Ryzen, don't you have to talk about Kai Asakura, the UFC? I guess you don't.

So it's weird, right? So there's a theory going out there.'s not necessarily my theory i've seen a lot of people float it especially guys who are big on prospects i'm not going to do this when we talk about kai because that's fine that's fine what i was going to say is this over the weekend a guy who had attempted to become a triple champ named um saladine parnass he's still the double champ in KSW. He, 25 years of age, absolute phenom from France, like the kind of guy you're like, athlete, the whole bit, again, competing in multiple weight classes.

You're just like, damn, dude, that's the guy that UFC's got to get. And he re-signed with KSW, which was really strange. There's a theory out there that the UFC believes, hey, if that guy pans out, he's going to end up here anyway. We don't need to go overpaying for them. And we could just wait. If they're good enough, we'll get them when they're ready. If not, we'll just get more rank and file talent.

And I don't know how fully true that theory is, but it does seem plausible in certain parts because Parnas is a guy you would have wanted no doubt about it. And then they just kind of seemingly passed on him or I don't even know what interest that they had. Now, the challenge to that is they did sign Kai Asakura, who is an action fighter. He's very good. He will be an interesting addition to the 135-pound division. No doubt, yeah.

He's flawed too. He's flawed as well. I don't think he's going to win a title in UFC. No, but he's a firecracker who can go in there. But it's a great addition to an already stacked weight class. People were saying maybe a fight with Piotr Jan. So something to pay attention to is see how true that theory is that they're passing on some of these guys.

Dude, European MMA is doing something really weird right now. There's so much demand for MMA that you can keep homegrown stars longer. UFC is not doing as many shows in Europe as they once did. You're seeing Octagon had a stadium show in Prague over the weekend. Yes. Right. KSW has already been doing that. They're keeping their homegrown guys a little bit longer,

which is good for them. It's good for the scene there. And it's just a change in how prospects usually got siphoned right into the ufc now they're kind of staying put and i i wonder what that might do for their long-term potential it might be good for all parties kind of it just makes it weird because now there's like guys who could clearly compete in the ufc who are ready to sign they're just not signing them in certain cases i'm ready to see kai That's fireworks. That's instant fireworks. Also, yeah, go for it.

The Manny Pacquiao thing. Can we talk about that? Yeah, but I don't get this now. So Manny Pacquiao has a scheduled striking rules bout with, I think they're featherweight champion Chihiro Suzuki. In Rizin. In Rizin. It's an exhibition.

But also a rumored boxing bout with Mario Barrios, which I guess would be at 140 or 147. So Mario Barrios has a secondary welterweight title. I believe, I don't believe he has a full one. Okay. Uh, he just, you know, he's looking good lately under Bob Santos. Shout out to him. But this is Manny Pacquiao at age 45, who I believe is amping up for another big run

politically looking to get another big fight, which look, the reason why he was going to fight Spence, which turned into the last minute replacement Ugas, which was really the last time we saw Manny in a fight that sort of mattered, right? A pay-per-view that he got kind of humbled in, in a one-sided somewhat one-sided loss. I think Manny looks at the, the fights around the political season as a big commercial for that.

But at 45 to come back and fight a guy who's in it, like, you know, Luke, I use Manny's name a lot. When I talk about potential fun fights that lean a little into the freak. And I say, Manny, in this age, either you're going to fight Floyd in some kind of exhibition rematch under the Risen banner, which has been bounced around for a while, or you're not. But now this seems like he's super serious, unless he's fighting

a smaller guy, in my opinion, with big star power, where you're just looking to put their brands together. Like I've said, Ryan Garcia against Manny Pacquiao in the past, or even tank, which I know you hate. I'm almost more dumbfounded than why he would kind of chase after a secondary world title here against a guy who's live here at Mario Barrios, who is young and in his prime and looks to be getting better. Is he broke?

I don't know. I mean, that's always been the long rumor because of how charitable he is and tax problems too. Right. And yeah. And just brings hundreds of people with him everywhere he goes and you know it's it's a thing but i don't know i feel bad about this idea he would have to shock me i mean he shocked me at

40 when he fought keith thurman on pay-per-view and looked that incredible and won a great close fight it didn't shock me when he looked bad against jeff horn a couple years earlier because i thought that was physically the end it didn't shock me when he looked bad against jeff horn a couple years earlier because i thought that was physically the end it didn't shock me when you look bad against ugas because you're like literally how long can you keep this up where your speed and your footwork is sublime to be able to hang against these guys i don't know what he's gonna have left now 45 i know he hasn't been in there taking shots outside of a couple exhibitions but this is just it's a little weird to me to see this it is i mean wouldn't, wouldn't you expect him to... I don't get it. Wouldn't you expect a tank fight over this? Wouldn't you?

Something like that? Some kind of big Super Bowl? Pacquiao is adored, but seriously, among current pay-per-view buying boxing fans, how much do they want to see Pacquiao fight? And when I say want, I mean in terms of what they'll actually spend on it. I don't know. It's hard to pin down right now. It's hard to pin down what's left in that. Yeah.

What's left in that... You've always been higher on that than I ever have, even when he was supposed to fight. Oh, as a B-side. That's where I think he is. I mean, if there's anything left in terms of him fighting a true A-side, right, it's on a true elite. I mean, it's on him being the B-side with his name.

Or maybe he looks at Barrios as a guy he thinks he can beat. He'd have to really shock me in terms of where I'm imagining he's at at age 45 age 45 it's just yeah i don't want to see i don't want to see him do what roy jones did which is just that that twilight of hanging on when you're when you're too old kind of just becomes a decade and a half let me ask you a serious question worst case scenario let me ask you a serious question is there no one in influencer boxing he can fight at 154 even or whatever fucking way i don't know who what are we gonna do. I don't know who. What are we going to do? I don't know who. Who's a smaller weighted Jake Paul?

I don't know. Is that even a thing? By the way, they rebooked that one for a Friday, the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson bout. Friday, what is the date? Or Noseda? 18th or something? 17th?

Whatever Friday it is, because I guess there's going to be a Cowboys game there that Sunday. So they got to make, they got to have a faster turnover, but yeah, they rebooked that one. By the way, they also used a more modern photo of a Tyson this time, rather than one that was 20 years old. Yeah. That was nice of them. November 15th. Yeah. They're going to redo that one. So that's going to be interesting on a Friday night, but.

I actually kind of like Friday night fights. I'm a fan of that. I am a fan when you go away from the typical thing, especially if you're going to redo that one. So that's going to be interesting on a Friday night, but I actually kind of like Friday night fights. I'm, I'm, I'm a fan of that. I am a fan when you go away from the typical thing, especially if you're going to be going up against, and we don't know this early of what that'll be, but if you're going up against a UFC pay-per-view or something that could potentially compete against you, the question in my mind is why,

when there's so many dates, but then again, you could put a date down there and someone else schedules a fight the same day. And what are you going to do? It's an open market. No pay-per-view. It's going to be on Netflix.

So it's just, and by the way, they're going to, there was rumors that they were going to put Katie Taylor or Amanda Serrano to somewhere else during the course of the year. No. It's going to stay on this card. It's going to still be the co-main event. They're moving it back.

They're still main co-main as a pair. How are you doing over there, B-Side? Sorry, I'm just trying. We're setting up. So unfortunately, Luke, we were unable to pull Randy Couture, so sorry for promising that to the audience. But we do have Teofimo Lopez in a few moments here as we are beginning the connection process. He is coming through.

Yeah, we will be getting him today. Okay, very good. The WBO 140-pound title holder who's got a fight coming up. And, you know, we've got him. We're going to connect him. He doesn't have to speak. You know, that was a – remember the last fight against going to connect him. He doesn't have to speak. Remember the last fight against Jermaine Ortiz?

It was a tough fight. Tough fight. Tough style to fight against in that regard. Jermaine Ortiz is one of those guys where he doesn't necessarily win all the big ones, but he makes every guy look... It's hard to look good beating him. I'll put it that way, right? Indeed. Indeed.

It's like Phil Davis. Phil Davis is hard to beat and look good doing it it's not a marketable style though i think ortiz could be better if you mix in more often you mean jimmy ortiz yeah i think he you know i think that was a frustrating style lopez is a very fun sometimes you got to survive in advance and teo did that last time and he was coming off that sublime performance and taking the title from josh taylor and really announcing himself at 140 pounds so be interested to see as he approaches this July 29th return. We'll be talking to him in a few moments, but you get by this one and those big fights are going to be calling once again. I mean, Tao is still one of the most electrifying fighters

in and around this pound for pound top 10. This is the last fighter in his top rank deal, correct? I believe that's right. Yeah, we'll see. Him and Bob are doing the photo together. Have you seen that? Him and Grandpa, yeah. Shut the fuck up you little prick yeah prick those judges that was atrocious i'll never bring another american fighter over here mma is for skinhead

white guys isn't it uh who like watching skinhead white guys. Didn't he say it was gay skinheads? Or just skinheads? Back then, people did say stuff like that. Yeah. Back in like 2010. Yeah, prick. Yeah, little prick.

Yeah, little prick. Hey, shout out to this great t-shirt, by the way. Pacer's Gym. Arnold Allen's dad, Pacer Allen. Made by. Fresh bird shit included. Made by Average Joe Art. I'm sure you could probably purchase this on some Arnold Allen merch site right there.

One of our favorite fighters. Hey, some fans are asking, Luke, will they ever see a Room Service Diaries again? This weekend. We'll do one. Okay, well, that's a RSD 1.0. Oh, you mean like the old joint? I'd like to get the 2.0 back on the road, too, eventually soon. You know what I'm saying?

But yeah, we'll be back this week. So we're going to give people live show thursday live show friday room service diaries we're going to hit them where it counts luke all right right below the belt you know that's right uh long island luke how are we doing over here they're trying to get it situated all right all right we've had some technical difficulties today luke but that's the uh the life cycle listen when you book live interviews you know it's like it's like it's like going to war they're not all going to be here at the end yes yes yes yes you may step on a landmine it just doesn't it just doesn't work it is my experience has been it just doesn't work out that

way luke did you ever uh fear for your life as a marine at any point no no okay that's good well was i supposed to i didn't know i didn't know if you were like somewhere like the a bomb you know a grenade went off and during basic and it was close i mean i definitely did you know we've done i've done grenade throwing we did i've told us before the everyone's like what's the coolest thing ever fired i mean obviously the howitzer was the big one but in terms of like you know um firearms such I mean, obviously the howitzer was the big one, but in terms of like, you know, firearms, such as you can call it that, it was the Mork 19 grenade launcher. So this is a grenade launcher where you have to sit and it's a butterfly trigger. So it's two handles here and then it's a butterfly trigger like this.

Yeah. And your feet, you have to go on the, essentially the thing that holds it and it's belt fed. It's belt fed grenade launcher. So you hold, and it's belt-fed. It's a belt-fed grenade launcher. You hold it, and it just goes... And it's just shooting out grenades. That's pretty fucking cool. Where did you do your basic? Parasol in South Carolina.

Oh, shit, that's like Sergeant Slaughter territory. I don't think that's the case. He didn't really serve. Do you think that's a violation? Like, you're against me. Like stolen valor from pro wrestling? Because it's his character. So he's sort of made it part of his

story, even though I don't think it's actually part of his story. But other people have done that. They've claimed service when they haven't. Prominent people. Yeah, they do that shit. People will lie. That's just what I want from the UFC. Tell the truth. Is that too hard? Apparently. But then people get on us and they're like, well, why didn't

you guys tell the truth when you were going through that long divorce with the other people well also the divorce isn't even over yet that's why still going we're literally every fucking day still going through it that's why yeah but you know we won't talk bad about mom or dad no no i'm not saying there's anything negative to say per se i'm just saying like we're not done. We're not even fucking done with it yet. It's still ongoing. Is that a Real Madrid champions jacket? No, I got this one a few. I mean, every Real Madrid jacket is a champions jacket.

Who's your favorite Real Madrid player? Well, currently. You can't say Mbappe. I want to say so many insulting things to you yeah i would probably say vinny vinny jr yeah is he from what country brazil brazil okay okay oh we got him yeah let's do it all right let's connect that appreciate your hard work back there long island luke uh we're gonna bring in uh my favorite guest that we have recurring on the show he's the most electrifying uh man in boxing in my takeover yeah the takeover it's teo fema lopez jr he is wbo and lineal jr welterweight champion and he'll be back on espn june 29th in miami defending that wbo strap against steve claggett let's bring him in right now oh yeah the takeover is back at it teo we love chatting with

you you survived in advance against jermaine ortiz and it wasn't easy but the landscape in boxing is looking very uh rich at the moment and you're a big player in that how you feeling great to have you back on the show my guy guy. Oh, man, I'm doing great, man. And I don't know if I survived it because it was too easy in the sense of a guy not wanting to fight with me. However, I'm doing

great, man. Staying on top. That's where we need to be. The king stays king and in all generosity of everything, man, I'm looking forward to give the fight fans what they're looking for. And that's just great fights, great exhibitions and all generosity of everything, man. I'm looking forward to give the fight fans what they're looking for. And that's just great fights, great exhibitions in all these types of ways and just putting on entertainment for the fans out there and to all the fight fans that are watching.

Okay, what can we expect from you in Miami on June 29th here? Steve Claggett is a name we know. Is he in your league? Is this going? What do you expect what are your expectations style wise when you two touch gloves there in miami oh stylistically this guy is gonna it's a come straight forward fighter you know throws a lot of punches i've seen him stop a lot of fighters you know and this guy's number one in canada and on top of that, this guy's a natural 147 pounder coming to 140. And on top of

that, despite his record and everything else, this guy is top 15, top 20 in my weight division. So, you know, I'm looking at fighting the best of the best as always. We wanted those champions like the likes of Sabrio Matias, Isaac Cruz, and even Devin Haney at that one particular time. Devin had that situation with Ryan Garcia. However, the whole Austrian situation happened the way it did. But, you know, we wanted these guys. We wanted to fight the champions to make a unification bout. And they have their own agenda.

So, you know, this is who we're facing is Steve Claggett. No pushover, no slouch, really. And I know this guy, it's like a Rocky Balboa movie for him. So, you know, this is my moment right here to really show why I should stay on top and be number one as I am. Taylor, did I hear, correct the record, is this your last fight with top rank? I believe that's Shakur Stevenson. You know, I believe Shak stevenson is his last

fight july 6th at the uh what is it prudential center yeah yes in new jersey uh for myself you know you just never know you know a lot of things are changing a lot of things are are happening the way they need to i'm just staying focused right now you know spoke with Jeremy from Top Rank, and I spoke to a lot of the chairmen from Top Rank. We have good relationships more than ever now. We're having a lot of great communication on that end. For me, I just told him, listen, I just want to stay active this year. Put me with whoever, anyone, I don't really care. These other guys don't want to fight me.

Obviously, it is showing if you really tap into the sport of boxing and in the business field. So right now, you know, I'm looking at fighting three to four times this year. And so far, we're on the right course. And without any injuries, thank the Lord above. So I'm looking forward to a great night. Are you only wanting fights at 140? Or would you jump around up or down weight classes depending on the opponent uh if it permits you know what i'm saying my main goal at this moment is to have that triple crown and that triple crown for me is terrence crawford you know um a lot of people laugh at that yeah really a lot of people laugh at that a lot of people say this though you're not ready and this and that But like they said the same thing for me with

Josh Taylor. They also said the same thing for me, for Vasily Lomachenko and for Richard Coleman. So, you know, and look how those outcomes came out. I'm just someone that likes to face the best. Samus Crawford is one of the best fighters in the world to this day. And I know that. And that's the type of person person really i want to face you know that guy has every type of style that you could really um adapt to and i want to test my limits with him how do you think his fight with madrimov goes i believe it goes the way it needs to go you know his this is first fight at 154 he's moving up slowly but surely so that he could

get that mega fight check with uh saul canelo alvarez you know it's part of his um his it's part of his route and his in his way of trying to leave the game at on top which i respect him for however you know you got guys here closer to your weight division that are willing to face you and fight you you know and i believe that this is that are willing to face you and fight you. You know, and I believe that this is the reincarnation of Duran and Leonard. You know, 2.0. This is Teofimo Crawford will be that. So why not give the people what they really want to see?

And we're much closer in weight classes. You know, I believe Crawford is going to do what he has to do. I believe he may stop the guy with a body shot. But this guy is no slouch as well. You know? So, you know, we're, we're so hard on everybody. Everybody's so hard on us. How little do they know though? We're facing tough, tough oppositions. Yeah. Yeah. No, no fight is going to be a cakewalk. We know that when you mentioned Crawford, I want to ask you, are you talking about 47 or one 54? And when you're talking about, and I love that you're talking about this,

that you're, you want to fight the guy who many think are the best in the world. What do you think you bring that he hasn't seen? So it's a two part question there. Well, to start with your first question, I believe that 54, I can make for Crawford.

I don't mind. I give him the upper hand, you know, he's the champion. He's the guy that is the, so, so, so quote unquote unquote the first

two-time male undisputed champion of this era so you know he has that a-side uh resume you know so i'll give him that i know where i stand i know who i am and um and then to answer the second part of the question i believe that with with crawford and all these things, my speed, speed, power, IQ. I'm not even in my prime yet, which is a scary thing. And I faced a lot of those tougher oppositions younger than he did. You know, he's on his way at, what, 35, 36? You know, and age is nothing but a number, of course. However, it's the opposition that I did at 22, 23, 24.

Now I'm 26. So all those things ended up becoming my best asset because I faced top, top, top tier fighters, champions, undisputed champions. So for a guy like Crawford um I believe that I have all those things to match with him and do better and I'm younger and prettier and handsome you know and uh I love my style I got a lot of swag to it you're a pretty handsome dude that's what we talk about in this show all the time, Teofimo, no question. Look, we got to talk about the elephant in the boxing room, Saudi Arabia,

because fans are fired up. Their dream fights are being made. Us as journalists are going, I guess we're pretty fired up too because our dream fights are being made. I haven't seen you get that huge bag yet, but what does a businessman like you think about what's been going on over the past few months and a year really of this takeover from Turkey, Al-Ashiq and company? I mean,

A is very well, you know, his excellency, you know, of Turkey, I think he's doing a great job. You know, obviously it shows, you know, you have Oscar De La Hoya now in the mix wanting to do that five versus five with top rank and golden boy promotions. So you see a lot of things progressing in the sport. You know, everyone wants to finally get their hands involved with Turkey, which is a great thing. You know, it kind of extends the duration of boxing and not dying. So, you know, for him, I really appreciate that he's doing a great job with our sport. He loves the sport. Obviously, he knows who has that it factor, you know, and obviously he has his eye on me.

However, things are just the way they are at the moment. I just got to keep doing my part, keep entertaining the crowd, keep putting seats, keep putting butts in seats. And then from there, you know, we see where everything progresses from there. Maybe he will listen to me and have that Crawford fight happen instead of Canelo. We'll see what happens in the near future. Teofimo, what's going to happen this weekend when Gervonta Davis is back against Frank Martin?

Who wins and why? Like I said before in a previous interview, and I'll say this here on live, I believe that, listen, Frank Martin is not a slouch. And I'm not going to take that away from him and discredit everything that he's done so far to get to the fight with giovanni tank davis however there is however there's a lot of respect there you know you can see it when they're talking you can see it and and tank is someone that likes to get into your mind and if he gets to your mind

and those pressers and stuff like that, he's kind of winning half the battle right there. You know, I'm not going to, I know everyone is looking away from Frank Martin. I believe that Javante has what it takes to beat him. Obviously, it's probably more profound for him to win in an outclassing way than it is for Frank Martin. I believe that Frank needs to really, really just bite down on that mouthpiece. And obviously, if he does get hit, you know, snap around it.

You know, that's a wake-up call and work through it. You know, Tank is very lazy in there, but he's just waiting for that one good shot to really finish the fight, you know, because he has that. You know, and that's nothing bad. That's just a finish the fight you know because he has that you know and that's nothing bad that's just a gift that you know he has he's worked very hard for it i believe that tank finishes him less than six wow wow wow bold prediction right there all right we're gonna see you back you look at the you know you look at how everything looks and yeah you kind of see it for what it is well we, we're going to see you in Miami,

June 29th, ESPN, Steve Claggett. You'll defend your title. Let me ask you this. Cause you, to close, you brought up an interesting scenario in which people want Canelo to fight

Benavidez, but it seems like he won't. So then people want him to fight Crawford and it kind of seems like he won't. And you're willing to slide in and fight Crawford. And we talked about that and that's badass. The heck's going on with big red. We love Canelo. We all do from a fighter's point of view is the stances he's taking are they justified

or despite everything he accomplished should he still be fighting Benavidez and Crawford because that's what the fans in history seems to want you know I believe that no matter what Canelo Saúl Canelo does, he's done so much, really, in the sport of boxing thus far. He is the face of boxing, and whether people like it or not. So he faces Benavidez. Let's say he faces Benavidez.

He does what he has to do with Benavidez. People are always going to say, well, he didn't fight Crawford. Then he goes and faces Crawford. He does what he does with Crawford. Well, he didn't fight this guy, or he didn't fight that guy. so obviously Canelo understands his his line of work he understands his career and the guy is basically saying I do whatever I want because I've earned that you know however is it an eye candy look for all the fight fans around the world

maybe not but there's a point in time where you go from a want to a need and the guy just needs to just stay active that's really it whoever he faces people are still gonna sit down and watch him you know um maybe maybe those fights will happen when we i'm not taking that away you know those are great oppositions those are great fights those are mega mega fights for the sport of boxing it's a a great look for us. You know, I'm hearing a lot of, you know, boxing is dying. I'm hearing a lot of the MMA is taking over. But to this day, if you look at it on Google search, boxing is the toughest sport in the world for a reason. You know, this is not nothing that's a take like me. So for Saul Canelo Alvarez, honestly, the guy's made over a hundred million dollars in his career.

Guy could do whatever he wants. Oh, come on, Tao. You don't mean that. I mean, that's a respectful answer, but come on, face the smoke. Give us that benefit. This is what we want. You know what? If you were in the shoes, I think you'd take the fight, but that's just me being a bullshitter right here. Okay. Sorry about that. No, it's not bullshit. I believe that. Yeah. I'm that guy, but we don't know what Canelo, what his deals are behind the scenes. We don't know if he's not allowed to face him, you know, behind the scenes.

You know, a lot of people, you know, a lot of people don't know how tied in a lot of big people are in sports and boxing. So maybe he does. I don't believe that he's scared of anybody. I mean, he faced Floyd Mayweather at 23 years young, you know. So and that was Floyd really on his peak of, uh, in his prime, like pinnacle of his career. So imagine that, you know, I don't think that the guy is scared to face these dudes. I just believe that, you know, there's someone in the back that is, um, making sure that it doesn't happen. It's business. They

say, I know he has to go very quickly I know you gotta go very quickly what is the funniest or meanest thing that Bob Arum has ever said to you shut the fuck up shut the fuck up he called me a schmuck he was like oh you schmuck that's probably the meanest

thing that he told me I said I talked about why not having, you know, at the time, Undisputed, 135, myself, and then Undisputed champion at that time, Josh Taylor. Well, we face each other. And that was the come up of two-time Undisputed. And that was in front of Mauricio Suleiman. It was on an interview and Bob Arum on my left side. And Bob was like, you don't know what you're talking about, you schmuck.

I was like, but wait, isn't it possible to happen? And then little did we know, what was it, Jamel Charlo, who was an undisputed champion, ended up fighting Saul Canelo Alvarez for the same situation, which I kind of found like, am I really a schmuck or I'm just ahead of the curve? So we'll see. I've been ahead of the curve for a while.

June 29th, ESPN from Miami. Teo Fimo Lopez is back against Steve Claggett. Teo, thank you. Always a pleasure, sir. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Don't miss the fight. June 29th in Miami.

ESPN. Let's go. There it is. There it is. There it is. A good fella indeed. By the way, people are riding me left and right they're like dude Connor's injured that's what it is now they don't

have a great explanation he's injured well here's the thing I'm not saying he's not I just don't understand if he was injured before and remember they said the press conference was postponed you can't just look at another week later that's what I'm saying it's just it feels just the handling of it listen I have no fucking idea

you guys are all probably right you know more than me and i mean that sincerely it's just if it is an injury i've never seen the i'll say it this way if it is an injury i've never seen ufc handle it this way i know not at this point this is like a 2007 reaction from them this is like something that's just like so i'm not saying he's not i don't know what it is i just find if it is an injury it it's a weird way to handle it that's all i'm saying that's all you love that part of that roku thing when they're like dana fucking hates the media but the media love him and i'm like not so sure how true that is all right well luke that brings us to the shitty part of this show but like you know like when you know you

could say bad but it really means i did not take a dump in there i could i hope so i did not i did not take it i scoured the globe and i talk a big game here that i brought it i hope i brought it this week i i've got the good the bad the ugly the uh the odds and ends the in-betweens whatever we usually say in the combat sports and beyond this is my feces have you seen it Luke, don't you love when they get great UFC moments where we couldn't hear the audio? We just saw the camera and then they'll put it out later with the subtitles underneath. They did this and they captured a great meeting between Joe Rogan and Donald Trump at UFC 302. Let's see the subtitles to see their conversation. The meeting right now is pretty staggering. And you had to imagine Let's see the subtitles to see their conversation. Right now, it's pretty staggering.

And you had to imagine that's what was going to happen. You know what? You know what? Trump won't let you have it. He doesn't sugarcoat it, right? He grabbed that situation by the, you know. Dude, you love those jokes. No one loves those jokes.

I got like three jokes on rotation at this point. Yeah, that's where I'm at. All right. Hey, let's go to UFC Louisville where the crowd did deliver here. Ricky Tercios, though, refused to touch gloves with Raul Rosas. And they tried to kick him, Luke. Yeah, like I said, a bit of a firecracker, this guy. There was some fire between them in the buildup.

But I enjoyed it. Dude, I like Ricky Tertios. From tough, he brings it, dude. I'm a Tertios super fan. I'd wear a t-shirt, Luke. I'm more of an Ilya Teporya guy. Yeah, yeah, you are. Is he a Real Madrid fan, too?

Oh, yeah. Big time. Oh, this is all coming together. Is he a hardcore metal fan, too? Well, if he is, then, you know know he does like bbls right you are kind of patterning your life i think any real heterosexual man okay here we go here we go with that uh some guys like lunch ladies i don't look uh can you translate what raul rosas was saying here in the celebration i have not picked up on this lesson in rosetta stone yet okay he would go on to say one of his high school friends that's their their catchphrase it's like that

chupapi moninho guy on instagram so i do know that like inside mexican culture they have like what they call uh the grito like uh like a scream you know not scrubbing the screen like a yell yes yes so maybe there's something to that i don't know all right all right we'll see what happens called the grito, like a scream. You know what I'm talking about? A scream, like a yell. Yes. So maybe there's something to that. I don't know. All right. All right. We'll see what happens with that. Let's keep it going over here to Bruno Fajeda.

We mentioned the eighth spinning elbow knockout. Fucking hell, dude. Look at that. Dude, Stolfus did take it, though. He stood right back up. Yeah, dude, these guys are all tough as shit. Yeah, they are. Damn.

I mean, that's a hammer he just got. I know. I mean, that would have had you and me in the fetal just shitting ourselves. See, maybe Jason Herzog was affected by this because he did ref this fight, Luke. Maybe. Who knows? I don't know. He's a pretty experienced ref, but that was vicious.

You know, he once gave Arash Markazi a broken rib in a referee seminar they did. Was that pre- or post-plagiarism? Okay. I don't accept that. That's my friend. Luke, let's go over to Andrea lee had a kissing booth in her corner between rounds in her split decision loss to montana de la rosa okay was that the guy who said the bunch of racist shit i don't know i don't know who she's dating i

think that was tracy cortez in her corner as well but everybody got a little smooch action on that that's how we start mk yeah i thought mike per that with Coach Latorre, right? I don't know, but he is a pioneer in many ways. He is. Also, Luke, WWE and UFC crossed over this weekend. TKO had SmackDown in Louisville on Friday night. Fight Night

in Louisville on Saturday night at the KFC Yum Center. Let's go to Friday. Here's your announce team. Look at Brendan Fitzgerald. This was exactly what I would do if the camera was on me at a WWE event. Ready for it? Yeah. That's called the crotch chop. The DX crotch chop.

DX? Yeah. Do you know who was in D-Generation X? One of the greatest. The only one I know is, what's his face? The guy who runs the organization now. Triple H. Yes.

I don't know anybody else. Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels was a. He was in DX. I didn't know that. Okay. Yeah. China. China a... He was in DX. I didn't know that. Okay. Yeah, China. Oh, wait.

But wasn't the other guy also in that that everyone hated? Xbox. Yes. Yeah. He changes names when he goes back and forth. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

There it is, Luke. Also, Luke, we're going to move on here to a clip that I'm going to put in the Have You Seen This Shit Hall of Fame based on fan demand. Okay. Eddie Hall, the strong man, making his MMA debut against two small men. Just chucking his hoe. Hold that. Hold that, bitch.

This even made it to my kids, dude. Everyone's talking about this clip. What promotion is this? I don't know. Who gives a shit? This is just chucking. Look at him. Hold that, bitch. This looks like Andre the Giant at the end of the WrestleMania 2 Battle Royal. Can I be honest about this? The first time I saw this clip, because Eddie is not, so people who don't know this, the

best strongmen in the world are typically like 6'4 and taller, and then they're usually high 300s, low 400s. Theorne Bernson? Theorne Bjornsson? Yeah, he's like 6'9, and at his peak he was like 450. We should have asked Tao Fimo about that body shot from Theorne Bjornsson. Fuck. Damn.

Okay, but either way, either way, Eddie is shorter. his peak, he was like four 50. We should ask tail female about that body shot from the orange. Fuck. Damn. Okay. But either way, either way, Eddie is shorter. He's six, two. So he's not that tall by strongman standards. So the first time I saw this clip,

play it one more time, play it one more time. So the first time I saw this clip, I'm watching on my phone. I'm watching on my phone. I thought that these two guys were little people. I thought they were little people. So they're much smaller.

I know. I thought he was knocking out. I'm not gonna say, you know, the M word. He was knocking out little people. I thought they were little people. Well, they're much smaller. I know. I thought he was knocking out, I'm not going to say the M word, he was knocking out little people. I was like, oh, my fucking God. So were these like bantamweights or flyweights or something? These guys have got to be like regular old, just hold that shit. Face down on that hoe. Are they called freak fight?

Did I see freak fight on that apron there? Board of Kings. Board of Kings right there. All right. You know what should be outlawed as a sport, Luke, when you combine football and port-a-pots together? of kings word of kings right there all right you know what should be outlawed as a sport luke uh when you combine football and porta pots together that's got to be the worst offense you can do as a human that's pretty fucking bad and that

lady's screaming in pure terror so that she did door down if you knock somebody door down so that means they can't get out yeah uh oh yeah i don't know that's a good question door down did you get covered in that ish right dude i you know i went to like the renaissance festival one time it looked like they were having abortions down in there okay i'm out of this conversation um i don't know what this one's called but i wrote down ass train it's coming get ready cook water back up i guess you never know what you're going to see on this show what's that feel like people pay us to do this show

and I can't believe it you want to ask me any questions about this? That's somewhere in China, by the way. I think that's Guangzhou. I could be wrong about that. Could be wrong about that. Hey, UFC Louisville had so many clips, we have a bonus section here.

Let's go. This felt really good. We mentioned it. Dom Reyes getting his first win in five years. Look at him. Nicely done, dude. That's such a great shot that he just puts him away. Fucking awesome, man.

You can see the relief. If he had lost here, especially if he'd been stretched, that would have been it. Oh, yeah. That would have been it. Good finish. And then the celebration. You can see the relief he got lost here especially if he'd been stretched that would have been oh yeah that would have been it good finish and then the celebration you could see the relief luke this is yeah good for him man good for him well did you hear about his post-fight interview and what he had you asked knock on the door luke you ask you shall receive sometimes let's listen in here on race we're in the kfc center man i've been craving fried chicken the whole camp. Where's the fried chicken at? I'm craving KFC. Before you go to get yourself some KFC.

For real, though, I really want some KFC. You're really craving the fried chicken. I really want fried chicken. I believe we can help you out now because we can't see you. Oh, wait a minute. Let's go. We have got to thank you, Rob, for that. So you have earned it.

You know, how quickly do you think you would like to get back in there? Look, that's a nice work from the UFC production staff right there. Breaking news. Oh, you're not into this fried chicken reveal? Not that much. Gilbert Burns versus Sean Brady targeted for UFC main event on September 7th. Pretty badass. That's a great fight.

That's a pretty badass fight. That's a great main event. Before I made a nice health turn, Luke, we used to have hot dogs delivered to me on set like that on the regular you're gonna die in like five years let's go uh let's keep it going here luke welterweight carlos pratis is that how you say it i think it's process like a ch check out this ko1 here on on on this finishing strike at the end of the round yeah yeah we got him occupied with his guard and held on to the other hand. So you kind of know where everything's going.

He's fired up the middle. Well, there ain't nothing like a celebratory sig after you make love to somebody, Luke. And there ain't nothing like getting a bonus on top of that. Did you see Carlos Prattis after the fight? Raul Rosa Jr., Bruno Ferreira, Tom Reeves, and Carlos Prats. Got the bonus, 50k, and a new port light, Luke. Smoking like a Thai fighter, man.

That's fucking sick. So he was claiming when they interviewed him afterwards that he said he smokes before and after every fight because of the stress and tension. Yeah, I understand that. I vape like that. Vapes are for closers. Luke Thomas once said that, okay?

Let's keep it going here, Luke. Watch Stephen A strut into the TD Garden for game one of the NBA Finals in Boston. He got criticized for this, but he said, look, this is the way I walk in a room. Yeah, he walks like he's the most important guy in the room. Either that or he shit his pants.

Also, like he ate sushi from AutoZone. Either that or the shit his pants. Also, like he ate sushi from AutoZone. Either that or the crown was his, Luke. You know what I mean? There you go. Okay, let's keep it going here. We like these UFC knockout memes because they're creative, even though they're insulting. I've told you this before. I had the sushi

at the CVS or the Walgreens underneath on the Avenue of America. It was underneath Fox News. It was a CVS underground, and I had sushi at that CVS. are the Walgreens underneath on the Avenue of America. It's underneath Fox News. Why? There's a CVS underground and I had sushi at that CVS. Why would you? I had diarrhea. You're still drinking Monsters.

I've been watching you. You're going to kill me. No, no, I have coffee today. Yeah, but like some days you let this filth into your body. Didn't you learn lessons? Says the fucking guy who couldn't eat more glizzies

and then it was like, I'm clean now. Who eats more glizzies? You are fucking Joey Chestnut. No, I'm clean. That activity would have killed me. All right.

All right. Okay, where are we at? Let's go to this latest UFC knockout meme. Better make that motherfucking chicken. I'm talking about it. That's nice right there. All right. Let's go to PFL Europe from Newcastle, England.

Luke, check out Chanel Dyer. Oh, this is so nice. This is so nice. She goes to the leg, and she stabs to the body here, and then she goes low, and then she'll go high in just a second, right? Getting her opponent to think low. Bop. Oh, what a fucking.

It's so nicely set up. That was great. Now hear this, right to the lower ear. You see that was perfect. Perfect placement right there. Let's keep it going. Savannah Marshall, the boxer.

What did she, the unified undisputed women's middle unified women's middleweight boxing champion. Who's only pro defeat is to Clarissa shields. This is her MMA debut. I thought she'd have a little bit more punching power, but, or maybe her opponent is tough as shit.

I don't know. She got into a bit of a war here, Luke. She had to endure some of a war here, Luke. She had to endure some stuff. This is late in round one. You see Clarissa Shields was cage side and is cheering on Savannah Marshall. Listen, I saw someone say this on Twitter, so I'm stealing their point, but I forget who it was, so you have to forgive me.

Just make Savannah Marshall versus Clarissa Shields next. In the smart cage? In the smart cage. In MMA or box? No, no, no. In MMA. All right, well, let's see the post-fight festivities here between the two. They both faced off in the ring. Let's bring Clarissa in.

I mean, you must be, first of all, delighted for Savannah tonight. What a performance. Yeah, yeah, good job. You looked at worse than me, my friend. Oh, yeah. You looked at worse than me. Are we getting on in the cage or what there we go all right it looks like they're gonna do it if you're pfl you kind of gotta jump on this right now see the weird thing is that we thought they were the only sort of viable

opponent for each other in boxing to have a big fight right but now shields as you see she's gonna move up to heavyweight i didn't even know there was titles in a women's i read a stat that there is something like only 20 women worldwide who are registered so she's gonna fight at light heavyweight for two light heavyweight titles and a heavyweight title it's a little bit weird yeah i mean it's it's sort of that's why they're fighting in fucking mma i mean that's if that's a fair point right there you're right about that all right uh let's go elsewhere in mma over the weekend this is from fcc 38 william haycox delivering a banana split sub yeah that is fucking brutal just tearing tearing your crotch yeah you just tear that guy's uh that guy's uh what do you call that that landing strip guy was the guy who won haycox

he's like hey yeah just just ripping that grundle strap in in half there that that uh wow that is painful okay let's go to japanese mma did you see this face off watch the activity of the gentleman on the right okay a lot of posturing a lot of just are they gonna smooch we're gonna fight and it's all the same look right you know what i mean time to have sex yeah we're fighting it's all the same luke right you know what i mean time to have sex we're gonna bang the guy that's us on the who's the fat guy in the back he's awesome no but see he won't stop luke so so here's dude what the fuck can't stop won't stop i mean is this an adult film what is this wow that's a lot of foreplay. Whew. Okay. Hey, let's go to the underground. This is an underground fight club.

It is Pride Month. Yes, it is. Watch this face. Oh! Oh, what the fuck, man? This was a face-off for some underground. Hold that shit, bitch. Oh, my God.

Was it the fucking Jabberwockies fight league? What are these fucking guys? I think they're just COVID conscious, Luke. Okay, all right. Hey, let's go to good news. Let's go to Davey, Florida, where former UFC title challenger and WSOF slash PFL champion Marlon Maraish has officially become a police officer in Davey, Florida. Hey, Marlon, if you see Mikey out there with an expensive bong in his hands, lock him up.

We should get a lock him up chant going. What do you think about old Marlon making the career switch here? MMA fighter to cop pipeline is a weird one for me. Because I know a lot of guys, people don't realize this, when you get out of the military, if you did any kind of combat arms, you have no transferable skills to the fucking civilian world. So they all become cops. And complicated feelings I have about that.

Okay, all right. Well, Luke, this is our urinal cake moment of the week watch this guy's fancy footwork oh you know this is some finance bro fuck this asshole wow hey shit dick face new segment alert joke of the week time okay did you know everything is made in china except for babies? They're made in vagina. That kid should have been aborted. That's too far. That is too far.

I followed him thinking I was going to get good humor, but it was very over the top. You know, sometimes I like a good 9-11 joke. It got too far. It got too far for me. Why don't you tell the people what jokes you've been sending me? I don't have to. I don't have to. You can't help me.

All right. This week, even in boxing, gave us a variety of stuff. How about Callum Walsh improving to 11-0 here with his KO on UFC Fight Pass? Now, is he fighting a gas station attendant? Who's he fighting? Kind of, but he's been stepping it up slowly. Baby Shark Tabitha Ricci, probably very excited. Yeah, yeah.

Listen, from what I've seen, he looks great, but I just haven't seen him against anybody good. Let's go to the top-ranked co-main. You know Brooklyn-based prospect, 27-year-old Bruce Shushu Carrington, who is always in this segment because he makes ferocious knockouts. He improved to 12-0 in his young rising career at 126 pounds, but it wasn't so much the finish that people were talking about. This part I saw. Let's go to the next clip.

Nayua In monster was in new york for the boxing that's his head right there for the boxing writers dinner and shushu bowed at him and called him out and got the wave yeah respect so think about this nayua in a way is the undisputed champion at 122 his fourth division we are sort of throwing out there some ideas like will they move up even higher what about 12 and oh bruce shushu carrying it seems early to get on that guy's radar, but you want the smoke? You want the smoke, right? Yeah.

You down? He's not ready for it in a way. We should just shut the fuck up. Okay, let's go to who's not ready for primetime anymore. Unfortunately, that's Adrian, the problem, Broner. Oh, fucking Jesus. Oh, boy. This is in South Florida, a Don King-promoted card.

This is round two of their pay-per-view main event. Blair Cobb's dropping him. Dude, look at how bad he looks. Blair Cobb's returning from a two-year layoff to essentially just dominate Broner up and down over the distance. Broner lost a tooth on that knockdown. He did.

It's over. If he had won here, he could have been fighting Conor Benn, Devin Haney. There was some talk about Ryan Garcia. It was a wipeout, dude. It was a fucking wipeout. It was bad, dude. Yeah, it was really bad. All right, Luke, it's time for your prank of the week. Let's go to Walmart.

Some help down over here? Yeah, sure, absolutely. Just over here on this side. We've all been here. Excuse me. I don't have a voice. My friend thought you were beautiful. He just wanted to get your number.

Okay, no, no, no, no, no, no. That is not what you said. Is that too far, Luke? Because I laughed already on this one, okay? I mean, harassing just Walmart employees, I don't think it's great, you know? All right. Let's go to the carnival.

Have you ever seen a shot this good? Holy shit. Do you know how impossible that shot is? And to walk off on top of it. She's like George Corpsegrinder from Carnival Corpse. Just walking off, Hibachi style, Gilbert Arenas, just like, yep, it's in. She's like george corpse grinder from uh just walking off hibachi style gilbert arenas just like yep it's in she had she had like the 50 cent pitch but it just ended up somehow being a strike how bad that actual shot is though it's the left of the rim and it just

somehow ricocheted ever yeah wow all right big week for nate diaz and the 209 first let's go to the zach bryan concert during the encore in la.A. Who would have thought Nate Diaz would come out? Never pegged him a country rock fan. I don't know who, what's his big song? I don't know. I don't know any of his music. Okay. Were you surprised to see Nate Diaz there?

I mean, I'd rather see him at Cannibal Corpse. I guess, yeah, I guess. I don't know. I think Nate Diaz would be down for to see Nate Diaz there? I mean, I'd rather see him at Cannibal Corpse. I guess. Yeah, I guess. I don't know. I think Nate Diaz would be down for a Norwegian rowing rock, like you're into. Pirate rock. Viking metal? Viking rock. Yeah.

Viking metal? No. I hope not. All right. I'd lose all respect for him. Okay. Well, first, Nate lived it up with Zach Bryan, and then he told off Brian Campbell again, Luke, at the press conference.

He liked telling you off. I've noticed that. What do you care about, Nate? Not this fucking press conference, bro. I'm sick of sitting here. I'm sick of looking at it. All these motherfuckers. I'm sick of looking at you, too.

I'm sick of this whole shit. I'm done with this whole press conference shit. I'm glad we're here to promote these great fights that are happening. That's cool as fuck. But you know what? Besides that, I think my work here is done. I'm done doing all this shit. No more press conferences till my next fight.

Fuck this ugly motherfucker. Man, I hate to disrespect you, but I'm sick of seeing you too. I'm out. I'm glad to see everybody. Peace out. Hey, shout out to Danny Jacobs and my boy Chris Avila. Love. Kick ass. I'll see y'all next time. So, Luke, we thought that was going to end there, which is

the second straight time. Yeah, it turns out it did not end there, which is the second straight time. Yeah, it turns out it did not end there. The second straight time Nate Diaz walked off. By the way, they have a new date, July 6th, on pay-per-view, Anaheim, California. Are you going to work that event? I hope so. Could be, could be.

Let's find out. The promoters got what I think they wanted with a viral moment afterwards. So, Luke, watch the guy in the dreadlocks. That's Killshot. Why would you fucking punch Jorge Masvidal? So that's Killshot. He's a bare-knuckle fighter. And that's jorge capatillo the boxing trainer of jorge masvid who was dude they're just ganging up on him jesus he was about that life he was kind of ruled the

hero let me ask the question is he okay he is he had a little knot on his head but kill shot with the dreads was cut and was bleeding his name is steve can we just call him steve oh sorry but here yeah actually i have no idea so luke it got wild quick a couple rows of seats got knocked over and i took i took shelter people were like was bc in the middle of that frick no there's anthony pettis yep there's uh fernando vargas holding capatillo dude capatillo wanted all the smoke right there did you see that like god bless him he welcomes that shit gets dangerous man motherfuckers turn their ankles at a bare minimum. So watch this. So first, Mosvidal slapped Killshot's hand down. Then Killshot threw a punch.

And look at Capitulo just walking into traffic. But Luke, there's another camera angle where Mosvidal, right about here, we're going to pick it up from here, got his comeback for his coach, got his comeuppance. Watch Mosvidal on the yellow t-shirt right there. Bro. Dragging by the dreads dude dragging him like a grandmother and in a on a child that's acting up in the fucking park man so

i was back in the backstage area after this and kill shot was bleeding and it was mayhem and i heard this loud noise out in the in the alleyway of the arena now inside that sounded like another brawl but they actually have footage of what happened nate diaz got caught up in an interview here and he almost went at it with masvidal watch this yeah they try to put up on the mindset that you have coming into this fight fuck you looking at come down and get your fucking asses whipped in sorry motherfuckers yeah turn around bitch You think you just sold another million pay-per-views? I don't know, I don't give a fuck. Let's go! Oh, it's on, look, it's on.

This is right when I walked out, this moment. You make it move! I'll say this. That's the best publicity this fight has had since it was announced. Okay, see that security guard right there that looked overwhelmed? Yeah. He came up to me before the event and he was like, are we sure that none of these guys have firearms? And I was like, I hope, I hope.

Luke, I wanted to ask you that, though. Yeah. This event needed something like this. I tried to stir it up on the press tour. There was a lot of trash talk in this actual press conference between the two, first time they really went at it. What do you think this does to this fight for July 6th? Because they've got the right date now. I still think the fight is dead on arrival.

Yeah, that's aggressive. Because it's basically, it feels like you've got two real fighters. There's no denying Nate and Jorge are real, real deal fighters, but it feels like influencer boxing. I don't know who the audience is. Because of the spectacle that that's kind of, I mean,

they have real fights on Danny Jacobs is in the co-main event. I understand. I understand. Like, don't get me wrong. Like I've not like rooting for it to do poorly. That's not what I mean, but you've got,

it just, it's a weird... It's a weird appeal. I think it's going to tank. I hope it's a brawl. It might be. In the ring, not in the crowd. That's what I hope. One more clip for you, Luke. And hopefully one day,

maybe when we launch the Friday show for the first time, we need to give the fans a gift if we ever launch that Friday show that we're working on. We keep trying. We're fucking trying. We'll celebrate with this. Light it up already. I'm scared.

Light it. All right, Uncle Bobby, here we go. Light it. Light it now. Hold on. I'm dying here. Light it. Light it.

Go to the moon. Light it already. Let's go, Uncle Bobby. Yeah. Face down, baby. Light it already. Let's go, Bobby. Big pound baby. Light it already. Holy shit. You can't endure that.

You cannot endure that. I don't want to. I just want to die. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, wow. wow that is that is living the dream

that's about as good as it gets right there that's the shit of the week Luke I mean it was a decent batch I think we're trending upward good I hope in terms of the shit lately okay maybe we should bring back fan subs one week i still feel like you don't put enough people like biting it on skateboards and

shit i had a i had a few of those in the chamber you're right i knew the north korean censors taking that out no no no no they didn't they didn't uh thank you by the way for teo fema lopez in this episode uh hopefully we'll get randy couture in the future i love that talking to that man look he's a legend okay when it happens when it happens yeah he is um which was not today i mean he's captain america dude that still matters to me that still means something yeah not to you no uh pfl is this thursday by the way yeah that's in connecticut it's a moldavsky versus linton vissell to bellator uh alumni yeah but then there's like Karmouche versus Watanabe too. Which is, yeah, another Bellator fight.

But Maheta's on that show. On the prelims. Yeah, and Tyler Santos on the prelims too. Kind of weird. Don't get that. You know what they should do? Pull all their talent together and just do pay-per-views

with all their talent together. Just be exclusively pay-per-view. Just fold up shop. Charge $20. We should probably fold up shop too. This is just full-dome shop. Charge $20. We should probably full-dome shop. I'm just teasing. Can we tease? No one's allowed to tease anymore in MMA.

All right. So this week, Luke, one more time. One more time. We're out of here. We'll be in Vegas essentially on Wednesday. Thursday, we're going to have a dynamic show. All kinds of stars coming through. What time?

What time should they expect? I'm not sure about that yet, but we're definitely going to have Gervonta, Frank Martin, David Benavidez, the whole nine yards. They're all going to be there. It's going to be great. Friday, another show live from the Blue Wire Studios. I believe Stack, Steven Jackson, is going to join us for that show. Yes, that's at the SiriusXM studio.

That's right, in the wind. And then Saturday, the fights. I'll be back for that. I'm going to leave Saturday morning. You're going to stay, in the wind. And then Saturday, the fights. I'll be back for that. I'm going to leave Saturday morning. You're going to stay, correct? I'm going to stay for these fights. What are you doing for Father's Day? That's also my wife's birthday.

Yeah. And if you remember the last time I flew to Vegas, the Sunday was my anniversary, and I didn't make it home because of flight delays. I remember this, yes. So I hope I make it home for my wife's birthday slash Father's Day. I'll be flying back.

So that's it. Hopefully you have a great time with your Day. I'll be flying back. So that's it. Hopefully you have a great time with your family. My wife is planning something. I don't know. No, my dad's not going to be for Father's Day, but he was up for like four days just recently. What would I have to, that legit question.

What would I have to do? Is it money to get him to join us on Zoom for a special episode where I have a lot of ideas. You have a better chance of banging Salma Hayek than you do interviewing my father. All right. So you're telling me there's a chance. All right, let's close it up here. Reminders, you can follow us on the social,

all that good stuff, youtube.com slash morningcombat. Again, stay tuned for announcements on when those shows on thursday and friday will be rsd 1.0 this rsd 1.0 maybe maybe just maybe we'll be going to the concert i don't know maybe then company at the sphere if you're donks and you're weird and you're out there okay leave me leave me the fuck alone keep your distance but pass that pass a little bit of the ducci to the left side i'll take some of that uh and then of course we saw the merch there in the whole nine yards bc any final thoughts i don't i don't think i have any more thoughts today i think that's the end of it so in in brendan fitzgerald inspiration let's see

it let's see it let's see it put the camera on my package i like how you did it wrong the first time you fucking moron. All right, until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.