MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - McGREGOR VS. CERRONE, UFC 246, CLARESSA SHIELDS 3 DIVISION CHAMP!

Episode Date: January 13, 2020

Luke and Brian preview Conor McGregor's return to the octagon this weekend and the rest of the action at UFC 246. They also break down Claressa Shields' historic win this past weekend and what is next for the undisputed champ. Don't miss the comedy towards the end of this episode! #MorningKombat #McGregorCerrone #UFC246 MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL, Showtime's first live digital series, spotlights the weekend’s biggest news from the world of combat sports. MORNING KOMBAT airs live every Monday at 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT. Subscribe to Morning Kombat! https://bit.ly/2lPpvsj Get more SHOWTIME: Website: http://www.sho.com/sho/home Follow: https://twitter.com/SHO_Network Like: https://www.facebook.com/showtime Instagram: https://instagram.com/showtime/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And it is time for Morning Combat. Hello there. Good morning to you. Good afternoon. Good evening. Whatever time it is. My name is Luke Thomas. I'm the host of this program.

And alongside my healthy and living co-host, Brian Campbell from CBS Sports. Back from the dead. Apologize for missing last week, but I had to refuel for the new year. Pneumonia, no joke, Luke. So take care of yourself. Give the folks an update. You got a clean bill of health?

Got a clean bill of health. I'm back. We have a busy January, my friend. Look, last time we did this show, we were kind of buzzed all because, right? This is how we do it, but it's up to us to make some changes in our lives personally for the show, right? No more gas stations, right? Maybe make this show a little less thirsty, all right?

And I know you're like, it's a dong show. No, all right? Let's get serious about combat. All right. You ready for this? Yes. Well, we have a lot to get to. So it is going to be a busy January.

It's going to be a busy February and March and certainly April and beyond. This is our first show of 2020. So without further ado, Brian Campbell, let us kick things off here. Topic one this Saturday is the return of Conor McGregor, UFC 246, the main event. Cowboy Cerrone will be stepping up to the plate to see what happens when Conor McGregor comes back. His first fight since losing at UFC 229 to Habib Nurmagomedov. The question I would like to start off with, Brian, I actually pitch it to you first. Sometimes I like to go first.

Sometimes I want to pitch it to you. Based on everything we have seen pre-fight, and we had a conversation about this yesterday. Maybe you disagree, but I saw Chuck Mendenhall, our trustee steed here on the show. He was saying it feels like the sneakiest fight week in McGregor history. I tend to agree. But based on everything you have heard from Conor or people say about Conor who are somewhat in the know, what kind of Conor are you expecting? Do you believe that the king is back? What have you been able to ascertain given the amount of information that has been out there?

I believe we're going to get the closest thing to the King being back at 31 years old, coming off of such a long layoff, which does disaster to the idea of the kind of fighter he is. Somebody who relies on technique, rhythm, timing, and needs to be busy. Why was he so unbelievable in 2015 and 2016? He fought three times both years, and he was sharp, and he was ready, and he was there, taking off the kind of break that he did. One fight in three years. Certainly, no matter what you think about UFC 229, that's not 100% prime Conor.

And that's sort of been the theme heading into this fight. Is the king back? I don't know if the king can ever be the king again. That's something that can really only be answered not just Saturday night, but the next few fights, especially if he can fight three times this year, which is his goal. But I think if you can gain anything from Tone, and I'm really pointing at that Mack Life interview, you know, yes, it's an in-house interview, but you really got a first chance to get up close and personal with him. Something to, you're in Chuck's point of why this fight may not have this feeling of buzz as if like a ship's about to crash into us.

Well, they didn't do a public press conference, right? They didn't do any kind of media tours, maybe because of the sexual assault stuff. So coming so close to the holidays, it's kind of just parachuted in right now. It's going to be a massive fight night. It's probably going to do monster business. All of our websites I covered are going to do monster business.

But the idea of can the king still be the king, I have liked what I've heard from him. I have liked the hutzpah coming out of him. If I can say one thing about the build of 229, it was unlike any other fight build we'd ever seen because of the Dolly incident in April in Brooklyn. It became instantly a grudge

match of a nasty level that we'd never seen. We knew it had skyrocket potential to break the pay-per-view record. It did. Only fight in MMA history to go two million buys on pay-per-view. But it was a, and I'm specifically referring to Conor in that Radio City Music Hall with Habib, it was just a zero to 60 Conor. It was like a go for the throw in every comment Conor. Go after everything. It wasn't that full-on confident showboating, Connor, from the Aldo build, from the first Diaz build. I think I'm hearing a little bit more of that. And if you want to do cut and paste math and you're hearing John Cavanaugh and them say, look, we've never seen

him this, you know, this dialed in in a while. And you hear Connor being honest about the potential disaster that was that Habib camp. If you put all of that together and he can be the best version that he can be at 31 coming off a break, we could see a big year coming for Conor McGregor that starts on Saturday night. I'm of a few different minds on this. I mean, on the one hand, I've talked about it before. People always have these questions. How good is Conor striking? How good is his ground game?

You talk to his critics, they'll tell you he's some kind of fraud who has pulled a magician's trick on everybody. You talk to his camp, his inner circle, and they make him sound like he's a North Korean dictator. He gets 18 holes in one, 18 holes in a row, right? So it's very hard to get an understanding of things. But here's what I would say in terms of the good side of what I've heard. I did not like the suggestion from his longtime head trainer, John Kavanaugh, that Conor's essentially running his camp. I've talked to some folks over in Ireland, and they kind of tell me that's been the case maybe for a little while, so it may not be new, and I'm not saying that will cost him

against Cerrone. I just think against elite opposition consistently over time, eventually that might bite you in the ass, so that part wasn't great, but I'll tell you what. At 170, there are some interesting questions that we'll assess here in just a second. But I like that he is not trying to be the old thing that he was. To me, maybe if he beats Cerrone, he will come out there and he will just say, okay, let's dust off. Well, he's humbled. He's legitimately humbled, and that's why. Right, but that's a good thing, I think.

He may go out and beat Cerrone and then dust off the old material, in which case we're back to where we were. And I do think he reserves animosity for the Khabibs of the world. Maybe Justin Gaethjes, maybe Masvidal. I guess we'll have to see Nate as well. Who knows? But in the case of Cerrone, I'm liking what I'm hearing in the sense that it seems very planned. It seems very thoughtful.

We talked about it when it was a Justin choice or a Cerrone choice. What was the right fight for him to take at that juncture? The Cerrone fight, I think, is the better one. Everyone has been kind of alarmed by Conor that he's been reserved. I have to tell you, I am heartened by that. But here's the even better news. Let's assume for just a second, Brian Campbell, that the peak Conor McGregor was UFC 205 against Eddie Alvarez.

I think that's the best I've ever seen him. Maybe you disagree. Do you think that's the best you've ever seen Conor McGregor was UFC 205 against Eddie Alvarez. I think that's the best I've ever seen him. Maybe you disagree. Do you think that's the best you've ever seen Conor? The 13 seconds against Al was hard to say. I talk about the Conor magic a lot. The magic was, the jar was full at that point. You felt like he could accomplish anything. But imagine you didn't know anything about him

and you just watched that fight. You'd walk away unbelievably impressed. If that guy shows up or a version at 170 of that guy, Cerrone has no chance. I think the good news for Conor fans is you can get a guy, I think, one or two steps below that. And not because Cerrone is some chump, but because the wind is at Conor's back stylistically, that this is just the right opportunity to get back there. And his focus, he said before, was achieving certain benchmarks. I want to get this amount of money. I want to get these titles. The new benchmark is absolute,

unequivocal, let's wring the sponge dry. How good can I actually be? I don't even think he needs to go for that goal. But if that's your North Star, you can be a little bit less because of the time off and still get the win. I'll say this. The good news is Conor should win. The bad news is if he doesn't, I think it's absolutely disastrous for his career. Absolutely. I think the new benchmark is, in my mind, actually starting and creating a legitimate second chapter to his career. So what does that mean? If he loses this fight, we can get into what would be at stake and what would happen next and all that. But he's certainly at a weird spot. Only 31 years old, not that far removed from his physical prime, didn't take a lot of damage the last few years.

Yet at the same time, he's not that far from becoming full-time celebrity fighter. He's not that far from us going, well, he's one-dimensional now. He's always been one-dimensional. Yeah, he had that run where the magic was great and he was consistent, but now let's just cash him out a few times and let's see him go. He's at that sort of seesaw moment where it's like which path are you gonna go he could end up becoming legitimately one of the all-time greats and to do that you have to have a second chapter look at a guy like Randy Couture was able to sort of reinvent and create different

roads at different weight classes or suffer a couple defeats but come back this is why this fight in this year is going to be so damn compelling for Connor because he's really got to figure out it's not it's not piece of the ownership in the UFC you're not getting that brother all right you were top of the mountain three years ago the last time we saw you fight now I think it's more about can he get back to a being a legitimate title contender given how much MMA has evolved and changed while he's been gone right and potentially doing that at 170 now I told you that I liked the bombastic side, the confidence that I'm seeing coming out of him. It's not overly over the top, as we talked about.

He's humbled. There's a little bit of stuff in there that's more just talk to pump himself up. Him relapsing over the Habib fight and showing you round by round. Well, I was winning this round, and he only did this. And his assessment of what was going on seems a little bit off. That's off, but I think to a certain degree, any fighter, any fighter has to be a con man to themselves to talk them into sort of the confidence that you need to go in there and perform.

Just to push back on that, if I may, did you ever hear GSP do that? I never heard him do that. Oh, I'm not sitting here and telling you that this is the best move for Conor. I'm saying this is kind of how he works and it doesn't scare me as much. The thing that potentially scares me is that he's sprinkling on top the idea of, look, I want Habib. I want to get back in that title line at 155. But if that doesn't happen, I'll go up there and take the 170 title.

I think there's a difference between when he used to do that, when Tyron Woodley was champion, and it got in his face because he is so high on top of the mountain back then, and mystic back to the gills, that he can talk trash to anybody and talk himself into believing that he can do it. But in your early 30s, when you're this one-dimensional, do you really want to be talking that confidently publicly about going in there and knocking out Usman and dealing with those wrestlers? I don't know if that's the smart move in the angle to go to, but if he is going to have a legitimate second chapter in his career that begins this year, he's going to have to figure out who he is as a fighter three, four years removed

from when he would just walk people down and get them out with one punch, and can he become more well-rounded? Can he prove to us that he can be a legitimate 170-pound fighter? So here's the thing for me. It's like, if you look at Mayweather, why was Mayweather able to take really long breaks in his career? Because he was so far ahead of everyone else, it just didn't matter. He could literally kick his feet up, let the game keep going, decide he

wants to make another 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 mil, and then come back and just mollywop somebody. Now again, towards the end of his career, we all know he got a little bit selective about the timing of the opposition to a degree. Oh, he's always been selective. Let's be honest. Okay, but fair enough. But he fought tough guys. All right. But the point being is this. You have seen the very, very, very best But he fought tough guys. All right. But the point being is this. You have seen the very, very, very best ones in MMA do that. Your Jon Jones, who dominated the last decade.

Your GSP, who for the most part outside that four-year sabbatical, he could take a four-year sabbatical, come back and still win the middleweight title against Michael Bisping. Those guys were able to take time off and still achieve pretty remarkable things. The question has always been, is Conor really that good? Or was he just on a hot streak? Here's the interesting part for me about 170. First of all, or even 155, we're going to find out exactly which Conor is here. Now, is it a new Conor? Is it the old Conor? Is the new Conor better than the old Conor? Is he much worse? I don't know what the answer to that is. But to me, when he says, well, yeah, if I can get the 155 title, great. If not, I'm just going to go to 170.

On the one hand, I like the fact that he's giving himself options. On the other hand, there used to be this fun and magical tension between his imagination and your own skepticism. That's a great way to say it. Right? And now that tension is more like just skepticism. You're like 170, Kamaru Usman, are you shitting me? Now you're most like, dude, you're sounding delusional. He always did, but you're always like, but every time I doubt him, he's wrong.

It's a similar kind of setup, but with different mechanics operating, I think, internally in the fan base as well as among the media. So if he can go and achieve great heights, he's got great obstacles in front of him that will enable him to do that. But it also feels like before I doubted his delusion and I paid for it. Now I'm like, I feel much more secure in being sure of some of the heights of his delusion. That's why this fight is in where he is in our eyes is such a trapeze act for him.

It could go either way. I'm wrong. When I originally said you're doing this cowboy fight now when he's coming off two losses, it could have been so much bigger if you did it last year when dad cowboy was rising and trying to get that, you know, elusive title shot. I think it's actually better now because you can talk me into 50-50. You can talk me into either direction. Conor's going to walk out there and knock him out in the first minute or Conor's going to get exposed because it's the wrong tough guy

when you're one dimensional and you haven't been around in a while and you have a historically questionable gas tank outside of that one fight at UFC 202. In either direction, the extremes, I would 100% buy in if you told me that's going to happen. It's such a precarious spot. Yeah, Star Power fights, look, whether he loses his next six fights, every time he fights, we're going to watch it, just like we watched the tail end of the Mike Tyson run when it was just a complete circus sideshow. But he also has

a chance to get back in line and prove he can have a second career. I mean, the great ones, the Ali's, right? They constantly were able to reinvent. We're really at that precarious moment. It's theater. It's the perfect kind of theater. Is he an all-time great, or was he just a guy who was good at one time?

Alright, so we move on now to a little bit of X's and O's and as much as we can do them, which is to say, Brian Campbell, there are probably, and in every case, usually many factors that affect an outcome on both sides of the equation for the opponent, for the venue, for the buildup, for everybody. Many, many things explain why someone wins and why someone loses. And as we know in fighting, it's almost always a zero-sum game. But that being said, Brian Campbell, I would like to know what you think. I'll go first this time. But the question will be put to the table is, what is the big X factor for you?

What is the one factor you think, at the end of the day, will really decide this bout? And the obvious ones will you look at, given that this bout is 170 pounds, would be, well, what about Conor's cardio, right? Because to the extent that that doesn't fade, he should basically be okay. He looks like he's well-muscled at 170 versus just kind of not taking training as seriously perhaps as he could have,

but then being below the weight threshold because he's just way out of the normal boundaries of where he typically is for his weight management. So in other words, he has settled into the weight class, but I don't know if that extra power from the extra muscle, I mean, it'll help his punching power, but will it help his gas tank? I don't really know. That's another one. For dissected, we looked at Cerrone's wrestling.

I think that's a big one. I'm actually going to go a little bit to something I just alluded, something that we don't really ever talk about. We always talk about Conor as this amazing power puncher. And at 145, there's no doubt. At 155, I would say he is a very, very solid power puncher. Really, really good. Top of the food chain.

Four-punch combination to take out Eddie. It wasn't one punch and he starked him, but he can hurt you. And he's accurate in his timing. It's more than just that, of course. But I'm speaking just about the power. I actually think the jury is still out on that at 170. I understand he fought Diaz twice and in both of those fights he bloodied him.

He won one of them. He rocked him in both. Don't misunderstand me. But I can't quite tell if it's because that Diaz didn't go away because Diaz has a rock chin. That could absolutely be an explanation. Or if it's because at some point that great power that is extreme at 145 and very good at 155 is like good at 170 but not enough.

And here's why. You look at some of the power punchers from a southpaw position that Cowboy has fought, Rick Story, Robbie Lawler, these were both 170ers. They couldn't put him away. So to me, it's like, do I think that Conor's the better boxer? Of course. Do I think he'll be able to implement his game early? I especially do. Do I think he'll land?

It's a virtual certainty. Do I think he has the power punching, Brian Campbell? I think that he does. But there's a little part of me that's like, this needs to play out some more. Two fights against the same guy, not enough to answer that question. Absolutely. And if you say what's the biggest X factor, the biggest way to sum up the odds of this fight, which Conor has a pretty strong favorite here when the biggest odds came out, I think it's obvious. It's the fact that if Conor's one dimensional, well, that one dimension matches up so perfectly with Cowboy's vulnerability,

which is he can have a flash chin and he's a slow starter. He gets hit more early than he does late. Historically, he almost needs to get hit a little bit to wake up and be at his best in there. That could be bad news for him. That's why the odds are where they are. Obviously, you're going to get a lot of people running in last minute, putting some money on Cowboy. It's a good bet, of course.

But what happens, though, and this is the question in every Conor fight. It was the question in the Habib fight for different reasons. What happens if the fight goes past one round? If that sort of my strength and your weakness coming together to create explosion does not happen. He had a 2-1 striking differential on Habib in the third round of their fight. So is it really true that after two he's not the same? And he had a strong fourth round against Diaz. What do you think?

At this point, to say Conor is a frontrunner in the late rounds is kind of tough. He did sort of come back in 2-0-2 against Nate in the rematch, but he hit the wall a couple times where he looked like he was on the way out. Yeah, he came back against Chad Mendes in a two-round fight. We really haven't seen him too consistently there, so the jury is still kind of out, and

that's where the many unknowns are. But to put on your Professor Salt-N-Pepa hat and know the history of Cowboys' ground game, it's certainly safe to say Cowboys' the better all-around fighter who has more ways to win this fight, and that's something that's negative against Conor. But what Conor said, especially in that Matt Life interview, was that I'm just better. I'm just better than all these guys. My craft, when I can get myself tuned in and where I need to be with consistency, I'm just better than these guys. I also believe that. But what happens when those two worlds collide at the end of round three? That's where I don't know exactly what this fight will look like.

Certainly the default nature says the longer this fight goes, it certainly does not favor Conor. But can Cowboy utilize his strengths that he actually has on the ground? Will he try to take it there? There's so many unknowns. So for me, the argument about as a general rule, you're looking at two fighters, you're trying to figure out who's going to win here. This won't always help you.

There will be many times where this is not the case. You know, Ray Mercer knocked out Tim Silvio, right? Okay? In MMA. But the reality, or like, maybe it was a boxing fight with MMA gloves. No, they changed it to MMA at the last minute. Okay, I can't remember the rules anymore. But the point being is this.

Skills win fights. And in general, the person with more skills, certainly at a polished level, should be able to beat the person who has less skills. But here's the reality. Was Jose Aldo more skilled well-rounded-wise than Conor McGregor? There's no doubt. He was a world-level brown belt before he even got to black belt. Conor, I think, was a purple or a brown belt on the ground.

He was automatically better on the ground. Was better defensive wrestling. Was Eddie Alvarez a better overall fighter than Conor McGregor in terms of his wrestling and submissions? I would argue that he was. Conor consistently finds himself in places where many of his opposition are certainly more well-rounded. It just doesn't matter because he finds ways to contain the game around his skill sets to the point where he's always keeping that imbalance.

Rather than there being a general imbalance, he defines the fight, typically anyway, not against a B, where he couldn't. He defines it in such a way where your relative advantages don't match his absolute advantage in this one particular area. So the question is whether that will happen. I think if it goes past round three, well then it becomes a different debate. Conor's lack of relative ability in terms of those other dimensions that Cowboy has, I think will be fully relevant. But early, it just historically in McGregor fights has not been the case. This is what I'm saying.

If past his prologue, Conor McGregor should not lose this fight. So if he does, that's a horrible sign, which brings me now to my third question, if I may, Brian Campbell. Let's go through it for both guys. What happens for McGregor and the sport and the UFC if he wins or loses? Same question for Cerrone. We start, however, with Conor. If Conor wins, what does it do for him? What does it do for UFC? What does it do for the future? Business-wise, Conor-wise, obviously a win is huge. You can certainly make a great claim that this fight is set up to give him that victory. It's a guy with a name that he can sell, but a guy he

can be, and in theory, should be. If he wins, he starts what I think will be a three-fight year, and it'll be a progression into monster pay-per-view record-type fights, either against Habib, either against Jorge Masvidal. A win here, though, is so important. Like I said, when you're

at that crossroads, are you going to be the journeyman celebrity fighter, or are you going down the road of getting back in that top ten, pound for pound, and getting back in, being a title contender in multiple divisions? His next fight, if he beats Cowboy, will be the biggest fight you can make in the sport. That sums it up alone in sort of what's at stake

and where Conor would go. It would really be up to that point of who wins Tony Habib and which direction UFC wants to go in that moment. Did you ask me what happens if Cowboy wins? No, no, no. We'll go to that in just a second. Let's talk about Conor if he loses. That's the thing where it's like the word disastrous would not be out of place. How disastrous, though, is key.

Some of it depends on how exactly Conor would lose this fight. If this was an action fight that went back and forth and he had chances to win and then he loses a hard fought decision he's going down a peg but he's not going to break neck let's cancel things like he would if he runs out of gas in the third round and gets submitted via rear naked choke

right? Where he had moments early but he faded again and you're like same old Conor one dimensional all the negatives that we associate with him historically. I mean if he gets dominated and loses in any form I I think, yes, disastrous. He would instantly go into, what are we doing with him? Do we cash him out against Masvidal? Do we get Nate written right away to do that trilogy?

Do we go down the line where he's only fighting the rest of the way, the Nates, the Knicks? Can we get GSP to care about a fight with him? That type of stuff. You're really in that crossroads picking the other lane, I think, for the rest of his career, Luke. It's tough to put that much on one fight, but if he can't beat this version of Cowboy Cerrone

and look great doing it, which obviously is no easy task, but this is Conor McGregor we're talking about. This is a guy who has been at worst number three pound for pound when he was active for the last three years. This is a guy who broke every pay-per-view record. This is a guy who claims Muhammad Ali-like claims about himself. This fight decides whether he just is a ticket seller moving forward or he's for real, and I really believe that.

How bad is it for the sport if he loses? UFC did not have Conor McGregor fight in 2019, and in large part to the ESPN deal, you have Dana White saying, this was our best year financially ever. They're just a couple years removed from a $4 billion sale. They're fine whether he fights or doesn't fight again. I'm secure in saying that.

They could go to a whole new level, especially with the vehicle of ESPN promoting their fights if Conor not only fights three times this year, but is a relevant, legit title contender and player. Like I said, if you tell me you can see the future and Conor's going to lose his next five fights, all five of those are going to sell big. And no matter what, you get Conor involved, it's going to matter. But he really

has an opportunity, Luke, to do so many big things that if he does lose, again, not really disastrous, but you're missing out on a giant cash-in potential. Yeah, so I would say this. Let's talk about if he wins, right, if Conor wins. First of all, this is the most crucial win of the three he could potentially have. This is the one where you get this, so to speak, monkey off your back. Now you can go 155, you can go 170. Do you want to go BMF?

I'd have to give him a title shot, but certainly he would be in the conversation because he's Conor. 155, he might force the Khabib fight. Like, it puts you in the absolute catbird seat. That's amazing. I also think his fan base, they respond to the boundaries of his own imagination about himself. So they've been kind of active, but not as much as they normally are. Like, are the Irish going to travel like they have been in the past? 246 is not a sellout yet, as far as I know, certainly on the secondary market.

So my point being is, they're waiting to have their own imagination re-sparked, rekindled, to have everything, to get the band, so to speak, back together again. He beats Don Cerrone, I think that that drumbeat goes boom, boom, boom, for the next several months. And I think if he can lose the next one, that'll be

not okay, but at the end of the world, if he can win two out of three on the year. He went two out of three on the year, that's a good year in the UFC, man. If you're telling me he's going to win two or three and the loss will be either against Habib in a rematch for the title or to Masvidal for the BMA. Yeah, this is where you need to be. That's exactly fine. There's no problem with that at all. But would you agree you get stopped by a 36-year-old cowboy at this point?

Okay. It's really a disaster. You lose to a cowboy, it's a disaster. It's a disaster. And I know Dana's like, well, everyone's not giving Cerrone the credit. It's like, bro, you booked him cynically. That's kind of on you, not on us.

Real quick, if Conor loses, he's fighting Mike Perry next. That's where it shows you the direction he would go. It's not that Cerrone is some chump. He's one of the most decorated fighters the UFC has ever had. That is a literal fact. But the style matchup is, the guy who beat Eddie Alvarez would never lose to Donald Cerrone.

And that's not a slight on Cerrone. That's a compliment of the genius of that guy that night in Conor McGregor. So if he loses, it's a major reevaluation of the kind of potential that I think he has. Probably some overreaction, I suspect, because he could go and lose the first one and then maybe get a nice rebound at the end of the year. We'll have to see. But to me, it would force a major recalibration of who he is. Now, you're right about one thing. The UFC has done a really good job of limiting the volatility in their business model by getting the guaranteed revenue from ESPN. They have a guaranteed overseas revenue in ways they've never had before. They get a lot of money now that it's just contractual. I don't think they

worry so much. And you're right, Conor's been gone. But it's a difference between Conor being on sabbatical and then Conor being back and losing. That, to me, you're going to get a lot of people being like, MMA's biggest star is dying, blah, blah, blah. New York Times was writing stories about this, about the lack of stars in MMA with Conor. Well, he lost a number of commandos, but he had essentially gone back on sabbatical. So if he's back and losing, I do think it feeds some media narratives, even if it doesn't match reality. Let me ask you a question you don't want to answer. Is Conor more or less likely to close 2020 in a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather, knowing the Floyd and Dana relationship, if he wins or loses on Saturday?

Wow, that's a good question. I'll say less. I'll say less. Just because I don't think Floyd wants it anymore. The money, yes, but he's got other ways to make some money. But, God, you never know. I didn't think it was going to happen the first time, so what the fuck, Warren? We've got to go to the Cerrone part.

Well, let me ask you an uber cynical question about Cerrone. Is it fair to say when we talked about, well, maybe Conor's just always been better, and as long as he's 75% Conor in there, he's just going to be better. Is it fair to say that Cerrone's ultimate weakness is that he can't beat the true elites and that there's really not a scenario – So – That when you match up against a Conor, he's going to lose. Like Conor said to Ariel in the preview of that ESPN interview that's coming up this week,

he said, I'll be Donald at 55, 70 with the flu, whatever you want to set up. I'll always beat him. Is there any elements of that that's somewhat true? So this is what I mean about the calibration of Conor McGregor. If this was 2016-era Conor McGregor, that would be a very true statement. And it might be true today. We just have to see on Saturday. But you're right.

If you look at, like, for example, he did 10 fights, Don Cerrone did, at welterweight. He went 6-4 in that time. His two best wins, I would argue, probably Patrick Otey, because he was ranked somewhere around 12th or so at the time. Rick Story was another good one. Matt Brown was around the 9 or 10 mark. So those were his...

The way he finished him. Yeah, yeah, it was phenomenal. So those are probably his best wins. But if you actually look at his best wins at lightweight, they're against much higher-ranked opposition, including Al Iaquinto most recently. So you're not necessarily ready to look in that camera and say, he's Craig Bijoux, he's a compiler.

This is the point. If Conor can't beat that guy, the guy who has lost to those guys, who are in the top five space, top four space, top three, it would tell you where Conor is today. Maybe not permanently, but today. Very quickly, because Jay wants us to move on. In 2020, I'm not intimidated by that. Let me just say this real quickly.

We'll cut out half of the conversation, which is to say, what if Cowboy Cerrone wins? So I had a conversation with Brendan Schaub about this, too. I would love to know, what does it do for his career? It's the biggest win of his career. That's true. And it's the biggest payday in theory on paper right now. Forget that. I mean, it's not going to get a title shot out of it. The idea of

Cowboy putting that final thing on the end of his career like Bisping did in upset fashion, that's over. That was last year's storyline. It's over. What this can give him, though, I think, is one more massive fight, and if he got Jorge Masvidal from this with the BMF title on the line,

where you can create this storyline, cowboy, always a bridesmaid, never a bride, maybe he can walk away with that BMF, it's one more big-time dance in the main event, big-time money, you know, playground. After that, you're talking about when's he going to retire, what other fun old names are there to match against him. That's it. No, no, here's what I mean. Cerrone wins, let's say he stops him inside too.

Dramatic win, right? Even if he gets dropped himself in the first. Dramatic win. Does he become an overnight sensation? Which is to say, Nate Diaz became a big star in part because of who he was, but the dynamic of his win was a big deal. Khabib, now a global brand. What does it do for the visibility and the popularity of Donald Cerrone if he wins via

stoppage against Conor McGregor? I don't think it does that much. I think that's so wrong. I feel like he's... That is where Dana White is right. You mean to tell me he goes in there and knocks that guy out, which no one has ever done, and no one's going to turn this guy into an overnight star? As big as Diaz?

No. As big as Khabib? No. Much bigger than what he is today? Yes. Yes. I feel like his celebrity has sort of maxed out. I mean, he is who he is.

He's on the back of a Budweiser can this week, and it's great. But I don't see him, you know, first of all, I don't see him winning a lot of huge fights left in his career. But you're just saying that there's a pocket of middle America who doesn't watch MMA and has never heard of him, and they will fall so in love with him because of a win over a questionable Conor coming in that he will launch into a Diaz-like cult following. He's already there in the cult following.

No, not a Diaz-like. Something less than that, but something much more than what he has. You act like Blue Collar America fully is cognizant of him. Not exactly. The one thing against Cerrone is that, you're right, he's a little bit of a known commodity. He's had some great wins. He's had some bad losses. You kind of know what you're going to get at the same time.

You can't have it both ways. If this is his best win, it's going to have the best results for his visibility. Not like Khabib. Not like Diaz. I agree. But I think the blue-collar hero that he has been would be times 10. Take the pulse of the public. Is Conor more hero

or more villain entering this fight? And the pulse of the American public? I mean, he should be a villain. Probably a villain, Take the pulse of the public. Is Conor more hero or more villain entering this fight? And the pulse of the American public. Ooh. I mean, he should be a villain. Probably a villain, but here's the truth about it. Don't you feel like what casual fans, and hardcore fans to an extent as well, they don't love anything more than an America than for a redemption story. If he came out there and, like, you know, knocks out Don Cerrone

and then shows tears of joy, like, I'm back, I'm back, I think people would be like, you know what? He's learned his lesson. So you're saying there's still hope for War Machine. I got it. Ship has sailed on that one a little bit. All right, let's get on to this. Clarissa Shields scored a big win over the weekend.

Brian Campbell beating Ivana Habazin. Habazin? I can never pronounce her name correctly. So this gives Clarissa Shields the WBCWBO junior middleweight titles. It's her third weight class. She becomes the fastest boxer, male or female, in the shortest amount of time to collect belts in three different weight classes. Of course, 154 pounds is what this was.

Now, this fight was over. She gets, Habazin scores her first being knocked down. She took a knee off a body shot, although there should have been maybe a penalty there because Clarissa just kept hitting her when she was down. But Clarissa scores at her lowest weight. She scores her first ever knockdown. Now, she didn't stop her. There was some debate about whether she would, but Clarissa just dominated this woman. There was nothing she had for her past the first round. I won't say it was ugly, but it was when we got to like the eighth, ninth,

and tenth round, I'm thinking to myself, how busy is corner can call this at any point? So the question is what should be next for her? Let me tell you how I feel about this, Brian Campbell, because I'm not saying I've done a 180, but I've got a weird feeling. I don't know what to do with it, which is to say, I normally hate these MMA versus boxing crossover fights. Mayweather-Gregor was good for business, but it was a stupid fight. I mean, we had stupid fun.

All's well that ends well. But then when Masvidal won at Canelo, I was like, no, please, God. Couture, Tony. Yeah, I mean, just no, please, God. I mean, I love Jorge Masvidal. Whatever they're paying him, it's not enough. But I just don't want to see that fight. I want to see Jorge fight other MMA fighters.

You know the drill. But if I had to ask the average MMA fan, hell, even the average boxing fan, okay, great win by Clarissa. Unbelievable job. She is just a marvel to watch. Who's next? They probably can't name anybody. And if I said, well, what about Amanda Nunes?

All the attention perks up. Now, I realize what I'm saying, it goes against everything I believe. But I have to tell you, if you can't name who should be next if you can't name two Maybe three people who should be next another was this Jimenez lady who won on DAZN who called her out, but forget it She's gonna get molly whopped with a vermic that fight isn't Layla Ali Yeah, and also here this is shit my point being is honestly and I hate to say this But the most interesting fight I can even think of, not totally, but basically, it's a fight against Amanda Nunes. What are we doing here, Brian Campbell? Save me from myself.

You're right, but there's a way to do it correctly. So here's the deal. I'll always give Clarissa Shields so much credit because she's trying from day one to say, you know, whether you like the term quote or not. Which I don't. Greatest women of all time. Anyway, she wanted to be the best, and she from a very early time, right? She was already famous from becoming the first double Olympic gold medalist right when women were allowed to box in the Olympics. So she had that stardom coming in.

And right away, she wanted to be great. Three titles in different divisions in 10 pro fights. Turned pro at 168. Now moving down to 54. She's ready to fight and willing to fight anybody. There's nobody. That's the problem, right? Christina Hammer, there was a story we could build. Hammer had marketability. It was

booked correctly. Problem is Shields is just better than anyone around her. There's not parity across the board, right? The parity is that everybody is sort of seemingly below average, and Clarissa Shields is legitimately great. You know, she's more athletic, she's stronger, she's quicker than them. And a lot of this stuff about... And she's mean, too.

And she has the right personality. She could play hero or villain equally, and I've seen her do it. Maybe sometimes she doesn't get the knockouts because women's boxing is still two-minute rounds and only 10 rounds as opposed to 12, whatever. But there's nobody left. And the idea of her moving down in weight seemed to be her saying, okay, everyone thinks Cecilia Brekus, the undisputed women's welterweight champion, is the number one pound-for-pound. I'm going to get as close as I can to get down to her.

Brekus is 147 pounds, and maybe we can do a super fight where I take all her belts and I'm the number one pound for pound. It doesn't feel like that fight. So I had Clarissa on my radio show on Tuesday of this past week and I asked her, can you make 145 for MMA or 147 for boxing potentially against the fight against Breakhouse? She told me she can't. She can't do it. So here's the deal on that. And by the way, Breakhouse is 38 years old. I'm sure, you know, she might be looking to go. Yeah, distinguished. But she might be looking to get someone like a Katie Taylor, someone famous, someone popular who's in the lower weight class. And that's the problem for Clarissa right now. All the names in women's boxing are a little bit lower in those weight classes. But when it comes to making this kind of crossover, and again, I'll give Clarissa credit. She showed up at the bit last UFC pay-per-view

card and was doing interviews with everybody. She's putting herself out there. She's sparred with Cyborg in the past. She's done those things. If you're going to do this, though, it can't be, give me four months to try to learn takedown defense, and then I'm going in there against the real greatest of all time, Amanda Nunez. I think it has to be almost Holly Holm-like, where you say, okay, I've conquered boxing and there's no one else. Give me a year and a half, two years to figure out what type of

MMA fighter I possibly could be when you mix in the advantage that I'm going to have on the hands and the fact that she's young and a great athlete. There is potential. I mean, I know Holly Holmes, a different story because even though she was a long reigning boxing champion, she had a kickboxing background. It was a little bit easier of a transition. Although I don't know if we always give Holly the credit she may deserve for making that transition. I would not want to be like, you're telling me a year from now, she faces Nunez and just gets handled on the ground in a minute and a half. Let her actually commit to a full-time transition to UFC. Then you have a story. There's money to be made. There's big fights you can make. I think it would have to come down to what Clarissa really wants in terms

of her future. Yeah. So I actually asked her, I was like, let me play cynic for a second, Clarissa. We saw what happened when Conor fought Mayweather. It didn't go his way. I had a few other ones listed where people tried to cross over and it just goes poorly. I'm like, why should any fan believe that your situation will be any different? By the way, Floyd was 42

and had been retired for two years, right? Or 40 or whatever. Different scenario than we're talking about Amanda Nunes in her absolute prime. Yeah, Floyd was post-prime at that point. And her answer, I thought, was kind of interesting depending on what she decides to do with it, which leads right into your answer, which was, she goes, I'm 24.

I have time. And I was like, well, does that mean if you decide to like, not hang it up because you'd still be competing, but if you decide to make the move to MMA, you would just maybe spend four years doing that? And she didn't quite give me an answer, so I don't know how to answer it, except to say if she does that, she's right. She does have time. You can get these guys who are Olympic wrestlers, and you can say, well, wrestling is a better base

to transition over to MMA, and that's fine. But we're talking about women's MMA, which is still in development. If she decides after this to say, I'm going to go train with Jon Bones Jones, and I'm going to get better at Greg Jackson, I'm going to take a fight at, you know, Fart FC, and then whoever, blah, blah, blah, and then slowly build her way up, right? Because folks forget, Dave Bautista, the pro wrestler, he didn't go jump to the UFC. He fought in some regional, podunk, whatever

show, but he won. But that's what you're supposed to do. And he got hit by that truck driver a bunch of times, too, yeah. Yeah, exactly. But this is the point. That's what you're supposed to do. That's the build-up. I always say this about CM Punk. It's like, dude, if you really want to get better, if this actually really matters to you as a fighter, you don't need to start in the UFC. You got to start somewhere else way below. So if she commits to that, that to me is an interesting idea.

The problem is that does not guarantee you a UFC future. That's a great point. Because you could go down there and you can get absolutely smashed by some jiu-jitsu black belt who just takes you down a trip. And at the same time, let's talk about weight. She just made the 154-pound limit to win those titles outside of Kayla Harrison and PFL right around that weight class. There's not a ton of options. So whether it's look, you can argue the other point and say, if you're Clarissa, you would be doing that for the exposure for the look.

MMA is a sport in which they develop women and there's paydays there. Right. More than women's boxing. So would be just doing it once, even if you know you're going to lose, worth it for the potential exposure and payday? I don't know. You'd have to be on her side of the fence to really understand that. I don't know if it would be worth it to your brand to go into a fight you can't win and lose it.

Again, when Floyd was 40 and retired, a couple years removed from the sport, Conor had the magic behind him. It was a little bit different of a scenario, even though on the inside no one really thought Conor could win. behind him. It was a little bit different of a scenario, even though on the inside, no one really thought Conor could win. But you get what I'm saying. Is Dana White really going to agree to a contract where even if it was stipulated, we're okay, Clarissa, you have to go fight in MMA first.

She goes and either gets hammered from mount with elbows or gets her back taken and choked out. That's not good for her brand. You could say, okay, we're going to go in a boxing match second. Is Dana White really going to agree to a deal like that? He's never agreed to a deal like that. She wanted a moonlight being Clarissa.

If she wanted a moonlight on the side, go somewhere like a, you know, Heather Hardy made the jump to Bellator and had a couple fights. Do something where

the matchmaking can be set up to really give you a showcase to see if you can do this and take your time to build to that. It could be something

only 24 years old, like you said. I don't want to see her in some one-off with no time and experience against the best of all time. What she lacks is a worthy adversary. It's really the problem that she's

up against. She's so good, she's too good for who's around her, to the point where she now has to look at other sports, because there's no opportunity for her. And as you pointed out, Floyd 42, Calista Shields 24. It's a bit of a tough nut to crack. So we'll have to see what happens. Alright, last, but certainly not least,

last week it was revealed by Jessica Penne, who was previously an Adam Wheaton Invicta champion down there for a time, I believe, or she fought Michelle Watterson for it. Anyway, ended up being a UFC strawweight. She lost 18 months of her career for a prescription drug that she had told USADA she was taking, and because the guy had legitimate medical benefit and a

legitimate medical need, they reduced her punishment down to 18 months. She served it. She comes back, was supposed to have a fight. She twists her ankle. They try to book her for another one, and she missed it because she had trace levels, she says, of stanozolol. She sent the contaminated supplement that she argues was there to one lab. They discovered that, yes, it is covered in this.

Apparently, according to USADA's own investigation, they could not reproduce the results that they found, in this other laboratory. Well, that's funny because in the past when you saw it, I couldn't figure it out like with John Jones. They're just like, well, he can fight because we can't figure out the science. Don't get me started, Brian Campbell. In any event, what Jessica Penney's claims are is that now she has been, you saw I didn't

tell her you have to retire. What they told her was you need to sign up for a four-year suspension. But at her age, she's in her, I think, mid to late 30s at this point. The amount of money she's put in to try to defend herself. She's already had to be a Lyft driver, dog walker, just to make ends meet. She's now asking for $40,000 in legal fees to be defrayed. It's incredibly tragic. So go first.

What is your assessment of what is happening here? I don't know. I don't know anymore where I should stand. I've never been sort of as zealous as you at saying... Not as zealous. Okay, but go ahead. Angry. Angry, yes. Irrational. I'm the one who's irrational.

Surly. Surly, yes. Hairy. Hairy, yes. You get the point where I'm going here. I don't know if I'm ready to go extreme yet. And what would be extreme? Just going, I'm sick of this drug testing. I'm sick of who gets better treatment over others. I'm sick of picograms.

Hey, F it. Let's use what you want, but you got to get tested so we can all see what you're doing. And even that would be a crap show and people would be able to block and anything like that. I don't actually know what the right answer is anymore. I cannot get over though, and we said it before on the show, that USADA and MMA could be so down to the damn sand grain to be able to find that you used not steroids but a over-the-counter product that may have had a little bit in there but in boxing they can go thousands of tests over multiple years in big-time pay-per-view fights and have one failed test so it's hard for me along with the clown and carnival show that happened to john jones to have any kind of confidence in what you saw this doing so when i see see this story, I go, oh, Jessica Penny got screwed once again. What

are we doing here? Maybe Luke is actually right. I know USADA came back out with the sort of countering some of the things that Jessica had said. A little bit. But I'm literally getting to the point where I don't even want to read the fine details of there. I'm just sick of this. I don't feel like this is an accurate representation of who's using and who's using what and who's trying to cheat. I, deep inside, am more apt using what and who's trying to cheat. Deep inside, I'm more apt to believe that everybody's trying to cheat to a certain degree, but I don't think USADA's the answer, and I'm done trying to figure out in my own brain

was that just a pictogram or is that somebody that's clouding their system through microdosing? Use what you want now. I just want to see fun fights. I don't think using what you want is the answer either. It's not, but I'm at that frustration level where I don't even have an articulate take because it just seems like such a large disaster here. It's the same situation we come to with every other one of these. Look, here's what's happening

in USADA. It's falling along the same fault line that we get to when we talk about things like fighter pay, where you begin to realize, wow, I mean, this is actually, yes, you can make good money fighting depending on the circumstance, but boy, there appears to be a real imbalance in who gets what and what the benefits are. And you can find that fault line everywhere, in the Reebok situation, you know, show and win money, whatever you want to do, any kind of way in which the reality of the UFC's institutional interests taking precedence over fighter benefit. This is just the same situation refracted through anti-doping, which is to say the following.

No one rational, I think, is against anti-doping. The big mystery or misconceptions, I'm against it. I'm not. What I'm in favor of is a system that doesn't intentionally hurt the innocents. That's what I am not in favor of. So to me, yes, do you want to blame fighters for not having a union? Because if they did, they'd be able to negotiate better protections, both in terms of a union that could defray legal costs,

provide them with legal services, or perhaps would write into the bylaws certain protections where, let's just, I'm going to make up something. If one water-accredited laboratory says that this was contaminated one doesn't we default to the one that does because that's enough for us or whatever fair that the haves have to get that the have nots have to get their career destroyed by an injunction in terms of doping and anti-doping these are negotiable portions of any kind of labor contract when there is a union so do i blame the fighters to an extent for the situation that they are in?

I suppose that I do. But this is the reality. I'm going to keep saying it over and over and over again because it's going to keep being true. The arrangement between the UFC and USADA is designed in principle to protect the institutional interests of both parties, in particular the UFC they can claim and they might even mean it to be benevolent overseers of the rights and interests of fighters we care about them we want to protect them and to their Defense over time some of the policies have gotten better

But as you can see the same fault lines emerge every time because USADA does not, principally, their main function is to not care about the fighters. It is to promote an ideology and a set of policies that enforce that ideology. The UFC is trying to protect their institutional interests. There is no one at the table to represent the fighters. And as long as that is the case, this is going to keep happening. Because it's certainly sad, this scenario, Tom Lawler's scenario, Jessica Andrade, what, a year before she won the championship, saying that she had to sell off her equipment to be able to afford training camps? I mean, like, random stuff like this happening, is, should we get Bjorn Rebny out of the bullpen?

Is union yes the only way to go here? I tend to think so. But I don't know if Bjorn Rebny is the answer, my man. No. Let's ask Tim Kennedy. All right. With that in mind, we are done now with our top five. It's time for your questions for us.

This is what we call DMs from donks. See the donkey there. You approve that graphic? I know you're very critical here. Well, I mean, we're still in Guantanamo Bay, so what are you going to do? Okay. First up here, I'll go to you, Mr. Campbell. Yeah, bring it.

From DirtyDiaz79, do you think they watered down the McGregor Cowboy card to use as a future leverage against McGregor if it doesn't do as well as his other pay-per-views, as far as money negotiations, I mean? No, because the model has changed in terms of the power that you get from becoming a high-level pay-per-view producer. Yeah, but he's the highest level.

Because of the ESPN deal. I do get that. I think it's more of a reality of what they know. They don't have to load up this card because you're selling it because of one fight and specifically one man. And it's sort of the boxing model, but that's what it is right now. You know,

when you have UFC 245, three title fights, but Colby and Kamaru in the main event, neither one really able to carry that or become a singular reason why someone buys that card. That's why you would load it up a little bit more. This is what it is. It's Conor McGregor.

He's back. We fought one time in three years. He's the biggest star in this sport's history. This is almost a smart business move, even though, obviously, I'm not all for it. The more the pay-per-views get watered down. I don't take the cynical view that they were like, okay, we're going to put a bunch of scrubs next to Conor. First of all, there are a couple of gems on this card we'll talk about later. But the other part is, it's the opposite.

It's actually such faith in Conor that they realize he doesn't, I mean, he might need a supporting act in the sense of an A-side, B-side main event. But beyond that, he doesn't need any help. Yes, I realize they made 205 when he was at his peak. And it was this huge card and blah, blah, blah. That was like this sort of celebratory orgy of UFC strength. When they're trying to put together maybe three fights for him in a calendar year, they just, he doesn't need

any help. He doesn't need any help. That was still Dana giving the finger to the New York State Legislature being like, this is what you could have had. Right. Fair point, too. It was a display of strength. Conor doesn't need any help. And, you know, you got a good B-side in Cerrone. We're talking about the relative lack of interest.

Understand what the word is we're saying there. Relative. This is still going to sell a million pay-per-view buys. Easy. Easy. It'll be the second biggest pay-per-view card of the year. I'm telling you it will be. Probably.

If he wins, the next one is bigger. If it's a Habib rematch or something or Masvidal, that's bigger. You have to understand, like there's really very little people that could get you a million, let alone flirt with the idea of two million. It's Conor and nobody else like without. That's his baseline. Yeah, without placing two legitimate A-level stars against each other. Right. So, no, they're not sabotaging him.

They're actually being like, thanks for taking care of us. All right, next. This is from someone who says, I am slave. Oh, wow. I am slave. Oh, wow. I am slave. That's nice. Do you ever see a situation where the UFC would be willing to cross-promote

the way Bellator and Ryzen did? I understand Dana's stance on not wanting to hurt his product by sending a fighter over that loses, Chuck Liddell and Pride, for example. But could you ever see, and under what circumstances, if any, Dana White allowing such an event to take place?

What are some matchups you'd like to see? What do you think? No, I would not see such a situation to take place. And the follow-up question would be, what would be the outlier in this situation? If a star emerged, I guess equivalent to where Fedor was back when Vadim was behind him in M1 and UFC was reaching out to try to make Brock Fedor. And obviously that wasn't like young Fedor. It was still an old Fedor. It's almost wasn't like young Fedor. It was still an old Fedor.

It's almost impossible to be what that is. It's almost impossible. So it would have to be somebody like a Michael Venom Page in Bellator or in One or somebody like that. I know now he's lost and somewhat exposed. But somebody who could come out of nowhere and be a phenomenon and not just be a great fighter but obviously be a marketing phenomenon where UFC would ever be entertained to the idea of saying,

well, we can't sign him but maybe in a one-night situation we can deal with somebody else and share their star and put our best against his to prove to the world that we are number one but that's not gonna even if that happened even if you told me tomorrow the Tiger Woods of MMA is gonna pop up and he's gonna be with PFL or whatever you know even if's going to happen, it would have to be sustained success over a long period of time, which is why I guess the only – since UFC really became UFC and completely cornered the market and dominated, I think Fedor's that only one who really ever put them in that spot

where it's like, do we want to give a little bit of our soul to try to make this fight happen? I'm not saying it's impossible because there are ways it could happen, but it is basically impossible to be what Fedor represented to the UFC at the peak of their powers trying to get him there is no other organization out there

that means what Pride meant to UFC at that time and of course UFC is a completely different scenario now but I'm saying there was a while there where it was clear Pride was better than UFC then it got kind of debatable. Then maybe even UFC pulled ahead. But all that time, there's relative parity with pride in terms of what they were doing and what it meant.

When Fedor fought Krokop in 2004, that was the best heavyweight fight on the planet between the two best heavyweights, period. It wasn't even a contest. That doesn't exist really for the marquee divisions outside of UFC. You can approximate it in other places. I would say if you got someone who was like a good MMA fighter, like two, three fights, and then they got like pro boxing fights, maybe they grew up boxing. What if Aaron Pico had become that?

Oh, if Aaron Pico had like turned into what we, he's still mine, we'll see. But somebody who had done something in another sport outside of MMA to really really boost their profile and he was in expendables four let's say takes it back to mma outside of ufc that's possible but just beating other mma fighters outside of ufc i think you can be a big deal like a mom at kaladov in poland or uh you know a edward foleyang in the philippines one, whatever those guys mean there. What's the guy who Brandon Vera fought who was a big deal in, I think, Myanmar? Oh, yeah.

In any event, you can be something like that, a regional hero, but you can't be what Fedor was. He was a global brand at that time. I just don't know how you could do that. And by the way, to answer the question, Dana would never do it. Dana sent Chuck over to Pride because he thought Chuck was going to win. And he needed the visibility boost and the third party validation, but you beat Overeem, you don't beat Rampage.

Things go bad. Okay. The Real James Whitworth says, Brian Campbell, should the women's 145 pound division be... Why am I reading like an old person with a Werther's Originals in my mouth? You can look at that big screen right there. Jesus, fuck. I am going blind. There's a picture with two guys with dongs touching over your shoulder. I know.

And you have sullied this place, but it's okay. Should the women's 145-pound division be opened up like light... Jesus, fuck. Motherfuck. Should the women's 145-pound division be opened up like heavyweight is for men and be set at 165 pounds? More signings, no weight cuts for the bigger girls, and a fresh challenge for a man to do this.

Shout out to the bigger girls, right? Yeah, I know. Yeah, I called you fat. Look at me. I'm skinny, right? I know. They're 165 pounds. Well, they can get kind of big at that weight.

But all right. Amir, are you ticklish? You going with me down this road? Here we go. Here come the dong jokes. All right, go ahead. Go ahead. What do you think?

No. I don't see. He, like, opens it up. I get what they're saying. So they were saying, look. Is there a flood of talent past 155? Like, no, there's not. In opening it up, you get technically more.

It doesn't get better. To be fair, to be fair, we just had a conversation about Clarissa Shields. What if she made a full-time move into MMA? And I'm sort of saying, well, if she just cut down to 154, and we don't believe that she can cut down further, then she's an MMA heavyweight in reality, right? So I guess maybe there should be an open area

where you say, if you can't make the more glamour divisions, if you will, of like a 25-35, not like 45's a glamour division, who the hell is there, right? I want to say no off the start. And I don't like how they said the bigger girls.

Are your sensibilities hurt? Bigger girls need love too, right? Are you being an SJ dub? But, you know what? I've come full circle in the last 30 seconds. I actually like the idea. Because there is no heavyweight in women's, right? We used to tell Cyborg, if you can't

make 35, you can't fight, right? If you want to fight a 155 inside the 145 to 165 division, just make it a quote-unquote catchweight in the contract. All right, that's brilliant. What was the person's name who said that? The real James Whitworth. All right, all right. I'm usually dealing with the fake James Whitworth. That's great.

All right. Yeah, who is the fake one? Yeah, exactly. Here we go. All right, from Infamaz Z with Jaime Mungi, spelled wrong, victory over the weekend. Do you see a Canelo fight in the future, sort of a passing the torch kind of fight? By the way, my username is pronounced Infamous. LOL, I'm such a donk.

Oh, wow. You're a little more than that. First of all, what do you think about Jaime Mungi? All right, we're talking about Canelo passing the torch. Canelo's like 29 years old, right? So, no, we're not anywhere near that. Did you watch the Spike O'Sullivan fight that was in Texas? I did.

You're seeing more wrinkles from Jaime Munguia. His first fight at middleweight, Eric Morales in his corner, El Terrible, my guy who's trying to turn him from just being a car that's running into oncoming traffic. And I like the jab. I like the some of the wrinkles we saw. How do you think his power looked at that weight class? The jury's still out because you look at somebody like David Lemieux who took out Spike O'Sullivan with the first big punch he landed. But look,

Spike's also a tough out in that regard. I think the real question here is, is Jaime Munguia, because he's on the zone now that he's that middleweight, and the fact that he's Mexican, could this be a big fight for Canelo down the road? It could be, but I don't think in the near future because I'm not convinced Canelo will

fight again at middleweight unless there was something giant that comes out of nowhere. I think he likes not having to cut down. I think he likes the speed advantages he has at 68. I think he'd be more apt to make Triple G. Remember this? They did together those two fights. I think he's more apt to make Triple G. Remember this? Hey! The business they did together, those two fights.

Supremacy. I think he's more apt to make Triple G or Demetrius Andrade, who has the WBO middleweight title, come up in weight to face him than not. Also, I watched... He could be a long-term opponent, but nothing serious. He's 22 years old. I watched Jaime Munguia against Spike O'Sullivan. Spike had his moments.

The stoppage was late, if you ask me. His corner, I know that through the towel and I know he bitched about it but they didn't need to send him out for what the 10th round or 11th round whatever it was here's what I saw from Jaime Munguia I thought his power looked good but not overwhelming at 160 but I guess we'll see

I thought that Sergio Mora's commentary was actually pretty good this time Sergio Mora is arguably I know we got Paul Malnati at Showtime and he's at the top of his game, but Sergio Moura is climbing the ladder in terms of great fighter analysts. Which was that Lungia was, you could see he was trying to work out these new skills and sometimes they were there,

the jab you noted, but then he would kind of get lazy and just go back to what he was doing. I did like some of the combination punching from him. Here's what I would say. Even if they made the Canelo fight, it's not a passing of the torch if Canelo beats your ass, which I think is exactly what would say. Even if they made the Canelo fight, it's not a passing of the torch if Canelo beats your ass, which I think is exactly what would happen. They're not equivalent boxers in terms of not really their ranking,

but just forget rankings, forget numbers. You put those two guys together, Canelo's going to knock his ass out, and it's not going to be very close. So, A, I don't want to see the fight from that standpoint. Well, unless Munguia does have a great chin. So, you don't know. Okay, but he would get abused. I'm sorry.

He would just get abused. But Canelo is just a much better, much better boxer. And himself, a power puncher all the way up to 168, as we've seen. So, the point being is, Munguia is an interesting, interesting rising prospect, yet nay contender. Pump the brakes on that talk. And change your username. You know, when Jay tells me to go to the next one in my ear,

can I tell you the way he tells me puts me on mega tilt? He's always like, next! He's so fucking bored back there. Jay? Wow. I thought we were going to bring Jay up. Now he's making fun of my inability to read. Last question for you here from the Donks. Brian Campbell from Edwin's Picture.

How do you decide whether to watch a movie in the theaters or not? I'm not a regular theater watcher. What gets you to the cinema? I'm not a regular theater watcher, but what would get me to the cinema would be something that I need to be a part of the conversation. So I need to have seen it,

right? I'm not a regular movie goer. It usually takes a star Wars type thing or a rehash of a movie. I loved back in the day that they did it again and I'm ready to hate it so much that I have to see it to prove to myself that it had nothing close to what the original did. Remember when the Willy Wonka came out with

Johnny Depp? I was like, oh crap, I gotta see it. I know I'm gonna hate it. I hated it. Anyway, that's my point on that. Uncut Gems, a lot of people talking about it. It makes me want to go to the theater. I'm a Sandler guy, right? And this is not Billy Madison here. This is a good-ass movie, potentially with Oscar potential, although they got screwed. That is the kind of thing that would get me out there.

But I'm not, you know, I've long since retired from being a cultured movie fan who cares about the Oscar awards and goes to the theater on the regular. Do you go to the theater with assigned seats or do you just random pick whatever? Oh, dude, once you get one taste of the laying down on that bed, I don't care what other people did in that bed, right? Yeah. I'm not worried about that. In fact, I lay my jacket down

and then lay on top of it. Yeah. That's, I mean, that's your, it's like being in your own house. So my producer on my radio show was like, I like to go to the theater where you don't have assigned seating. And I'm like, that's because you're not housebroken and you're a stupid person. And he was like, but I don't understand. I'm like, that's because you're not housebroken

and you're a stupid person. And he was like, but I don't understand. I'm like, that's because you pee in the corner. Oh, wow. Speaking of that. Hold on. I need to answer the question. Decide whether you go to the movie theaters or not.

What is the value add in going to the theater? You're in front of a tremendous screen. Experience, yeah. The experience, you get the popcorn and all that stuff. You get the big seats, right? You get the nice sound system. I need to have a movie

that delivers on those senses and those things. So, Avengers Endgame, Star Wars. T2 Judgment Day. T2 Judgment Day. That mattered in 92.

I know it's on Netflix, but like, a marriage story? I need to see Adam Driver crying on a big ass fucking screen? Well, that's the problem is,

since I've retired from caring about movies, the only time I go is a date night with my wife or bringing the kids to a movie they really want to see. I like how you take your wife on a date where neither of you talk to each other. All of those are, well, you get dinner with it and there's a car, right? All of those inevitably lead to movies that, you're right, don't need to be watched in a theater, can be watched at home. I want to talk to you about movie etiquette because I admit I grew up grew up in Connecticut, but not- Do you woo in the movies too?

Not a cultured area of Connecticut. I grew up in a factory town. When I met my wife and started dating her, and we went to the theater together, we sat down for the first time, maybe like the 10th date or whatever. It wasn't like date one. I remember saying to her, I'm like, this might be the first movie I've been to in a full decade in which I didn't at least bring in four cans of beer. And she's like, like horrified. Like what? Like what? And I'm like, yeah, that's just sort of what you do, right? Like, yeah, you sneak the candy in there, but you got to bring the alcohol as well. And I mean, I used to go get, get real high and go to like matinees during the day with

dudes who would just like drink beer in the theater and just piss right there from the seat because you know when you go during the day there's like three people in the theater um looking back that way you're literally not housebroken i was making a joke about that that's what that's what randomly triggered it i wouldn't do that but i would sean coin shout out to you i would hang out with people who would act like that okay who would just you know you you never sit next to you you go it's like my dad when he goes to the movies my mom he always makes her sit like one or two chairs down so we can completely stretch out he can just spray his urine no my dad wouldn't spray the urine but Sean Coyne would just let that thing out on like the well and you know I'd like to tell you I'd like to tell you I have friends

better than that but this is a true story they didn't do it in the, but I lived in New York City in 2002 and 2003 and 2004, right? And back then they still had pay phones when they were going away. And a buddy of mine, when he had to piss, he would not go into the bar. What he would do is he would go to the pay phone, and he would pretend like he's having a really aggressive conversation, but like about really important things. No, no, no, no. I said sell. No, no, no.

Not buy. Sell. Meanwhile, he's urinating all over the stall. And he ended up being a really successful graphic designer. So what I'm trying to say here is I drew the line on not pissing in the theater because that's gross and barbaric to me.

But if you're a single man in your 20s and you don't bring at least four beers into a movie, where I come from, that's just how, that's the way you live. Are we going to seriously debate whether or not it's awesome to urinate on yourself in a movie theater? Well, you're not getting the urine on yourself. It's more of just a full-on I don't care about life disrespect. You're hitting the back of the chair.

But the problem is it's sliding down. It's also going to spray all over you. Yeah, it's disgusting. Am I supposed to condone this? I'm not saying I enjoy that. Your friend should have been sent to Guantanamo Bay. Of course I don't endorse this. Drinking in a theater, though.

He should have been rectally fed the rest of his life. I mean, are you kidding? Wow. I don't understand. Here's the thing. I don't mind going to the movies high, but going drunk, don't you just forget all the details of the movie? I went to the Jackass movie. And by the way, I don't get drunk off four beers.

You just drink four beers. That happened. Okay, well, you didn't miss much. I mean, you can always watch that one again. That's not a big deal. But going high, it's kind of fun. Going drunk, you just never forget anything. You just forget it all.

All right. All right. I can't wait for next week's conversation where you would be like, look, I shit myself all the time. I've been in theaters. Let's debate the merits. I've been to multiple movies where fistfights broke out in the theater opening night of the program all right apparently have an actual Jack

City it's a good movie it's uh we have another question here I did not it's not screened from King Derek who you got tonight Clemson or LSU what do you think you're gonna watch that King Derek he sounds like a football player he does but you know what probably a d2 scrub. D2 scrub. I heard he was a scholarship athlete. I don't have a take here. Do you watch Coach Favotto? You know, I did. You know, I worked at ESPN for many years where we had to watch every game, so I'm woke

to it. But I say this, Luke, and you're going to clown me. When you begin to cover pro wrestling as a sport, you no longer have the time to watch actual sports if you want to be considered an expert a sport, you no longer have the time to watch actual sports if you want to be considered an expert. Good news for me. I'm not proud of saying that, but it's a time suck like no other, Luke, okay?

That I can believe. That I can believe. For tonight, I've got to tell you, I've been big on, I hate his name, but I've been big on Dabo Sweeney and what Clemson can do, but then you watch LSU and they just seem to be unstoppable.

Have you heard their head coach from LSU? I think it's Mark Orgeron, whatever his name is. Oh, Ed. Ed Orgeron. Ed Orgeron. From Mississippi? No, no, no, no, from LSU. Yeah.

Go Tigers. Yeah. Death Valley, where all those dreams go to die. Like, you should sing in a metal band, sir. You'd be pretty fucking good. You should be in Cannibal Corpse. He should be. He should replace that Cannibal Corpse. He should be. He should replace that guy that went to jail for touching kids.

There's no guy that went to jail for touching kids. The guy who was mentally nuts, he had sitting... Coach Sandusky on bass, that guy. No, no, no, no, no. He was committing arson. Oh, that's fine. He was committing arson. But he has mental problems.

They replaced him. All right, that's good. We got another psycho in there. Now's the time on Sprockets when we do Slapdick. Hey, I've been good this show, all right? You've been great. All right, all right. And the most important news is you're alive.

I am alive, and that's great, okay? I have to say, when you got sick there, I was worried about my paychecks here. I was like, what are you going to do? Who would you have replaced? Who would you have brought in here to bring that type of intensity? Who would urinate on themselves while watching pro wrestling? I could get you Sean Coyne for that. I don't know.

All right, here we go. Have you seen this shit? Luke, I'm a couple weeks late to this. As you know, we span the globe for the good, bad, and the ugly. We certainly do. Combat sports and beyond. A couple weeks late to this, but have you heard of this Senegalese giant, this wrestler named Roug Roug, Umar Kane?

I'm guessing it's not the white gentleman. No, the white gentleman has a Camara a lot. This is Roug Roug's pro debut in MMA a couple weeks back. Is this the best way ever to escape from a Kimura or what? Holy shit. Good lord, get that trash bag out of there. Dude, he is strong. Yes. He's

trying to dig his head into the ground. Well, he's not very technical, but he's strong as shit. This was at ARES FC1. I have no idea what that means. Dude, do you understand how strong you have to be to stand up from this? I want to see this guy every night, every time, every time he fights. You get that guy a real training scenario, and he is going to do what? Dude, you have to be butt strong to do this.

Look at how jacked that guy is. That is just unnatural strength. Oh, my God. Have you seen that shit? All right, yes. Get him out of MMA. Put him in weightlifting. That's what I'm talking about? All right, yes. Get him out of MMA, put him in weightlifting. That's what I'm talking about, yeah.

That dude is explosive. Get him into football, something there. Let him hurt people. All right. Hey, let's move on. We're going to go into an MMA cage, but this isn't sanctioned mixed martial arts.

What kind of Dungeons and Dragons bullshit is this? I knew who you pulled it from, Gribaka Hitman, which is Kaposa on Twitter. Kaposa's always got this stuff. He's amazing. He loves this.

Are you into the night fighting shit? No, what kind of nerd? Get out of here. This does nothing for me. And Kaposa called this the Derek, Louis, Francis, and Ganu of night fights. He said there's just not enough action. I don't care. Unless you're telling me ahead of time these video game nerds will die,

the loser will be gone from the earth. That's a very Luke Thomas reaction for me. You've got to fight to the death if you're going to do this. Even the referee is wearing armor. The referee is wearing armor? For what? I don't even know what the point is of wearing armor. The swords don't do shit.

Is this role playing? Isn't there a renaissance fair you can go to? Do you like the renaissance fair? No, they're weird. Do you want to see the renaissance fair you can go to like come on do you like the renaissance fair no they're weird they're like they're they're the renaissance fair every time do you want to see the the renaissance fair i thought it's your people the people that that hate the lord you know all the all the yeah but they're different kind of people that hate the lord they're like the pagans who actually think there's a different lord so they're also awful okay okay uh i also hate them you've never seen

anything grosser than your life than the stack of detritus. Go into an outhouse at the Renaissance Festival and just look at what has been left there. It's actually like looking at this fight. It's something similar. Alright, back to real fights here. Let's go to LFA 55. I want to introduce you to Haley Cowan. Oh my god!

A former All-American D1 gymnast now fighting in MMA and take this in the face oh wow when was this this was a couple weeks ago lfa 55. bop oh my god hoof and mouth disease right there wow yes hey we see the the the we saw wrestlers make the mma transition a while back maybe gymnasts maybe you know people that can kick like that. People that flexible, Luke. You remember your college days, right? Yeah, well, the thing is... Chasing the muff around, right? Chasing the muff? Oh, my God.

You're going to get us fired. That's a 90s reference. Stays and Confused. I don't know if you... Yeah, yeah. Well, here's the thing. That would get me out of getting fired. Normally, you see these ladies go and do... Who was the lady? Katie Catanzaro? Did you ever see... Casey Catanzaro, yeah. Casey Catanzaro. Is she a pro wrestler now with WWE? Are you shitting me? Well, she might retire.

She's on the verge of retiring. Wait, wait. She went from doing gymnastics to where I followed her, which was American Ninja Warrior. You didn't see her in the Royal Rumble last year when she climbed up the backside of the ring post? This is not a joke. This is not a joke. Kacy Catanzaro, she's dating WWE superstar Ricochet. I don't know if you're in on that.

Let me guess. It's spelled Rick O'Shea. No, I was going to say. Vince McMahon probably hired him thinking he was getting an Irishman, but really it's the sensation. This is a real thing. How long has she been doing this? Almost two years.

Is she any good? She has some back injuries. There's a false rumor that she was going to retire. Then she said it's not true. She may retire. She's okay. She's very small, but with that gymnastic ability, she's able to do very innovative flip moves using the ring ropes and stuff.

Alright, well it's either that or you can fight MMA. You're going to be a way better athlete then. Take that. Get the hell out of my cage. Look at that. Very Cerrone-esque, catching them with a head kick as they back up. Alright, hey, we're going to roll on here. It was the holiday season, Luke. I hope you and yours enjoyed whatever you do.

Virtual reality is going to eventually take over our life. Have you ever seen Total Recall? But for now, we've got donks like this trying to walk on a... Oh, my God. Oh, he must have been drinking. He gets what he deserves. That's a flat back bump right there. Yeah, it is.

He gets what he deserves right there, right? He's wearing those at the Oculus Rift or the Samsung. Oh, I don't know. But pretty soon we'll be having sex over those, right? We'll never talk to each other. We'll be like the Matrix. We'll just plug in every day. Remember when Arnold in Total Recall was like, I want the slut. Be be honest you say it like it's a bad thing all right all right when

that happens i will be one of the crusaders who take the other pill i will free this world from this luke okay yeah i'm like the dude who was the dude who turned on all the other people in the matrix joe uh joe he was like i don't want to remember nothing he's eating the steak yeah i'm that dude okay put me but you can use me as a battery. I don't care. I want to show you. I know it's the new year. You probably got a gym membership, Luke, trying to get that baby fat off. Here's a new workout thing you can do. Check it out. Hurdle, hop over there. Oh, God!

Taco Tuesday's no more, Luke. Look at this. Are you making a Latin joke? No. Oh, God. Oh, my God. Wow. That looked like it hurt, Lukeke did you make a tacos tuesday joke did you no no i didn't but uh wow luke i mean that i mean look i don't we don't want to clown people and have fun at people's demise with that you're not getting i do love taco too you're not coming back from that luke all right clams casino indeed right you're not oh my God.

Where's the moose knuckle thing you're going to say now? Luke, I don't, I don't, that's too far. Is it too, yeah? Is it past the point of good taste? Is that what we're doing now? It's past the point of good taste here. All right, hey, let's go to some full contact. I don't know what he called this, taekwondo.

There's padding, but watch this. Walk off, liver kick. Look at the slickness on that finish. He sent this dude flying. As he's walking away, like, F you, I got plans. I'm out of here, right? Mark Hunt style. I'm gone.

What is this? What sport? What's the guy in the back doing? Yeah, he's trying to get the, I don't know. Maybe he's telling, you know, remember in Major League II, the Japanese guy, Takahashi? He's like, no mobiles. Remember he did the Sam Cassell thing? You know where I'm going?

The exit is that way. It says exit over the door. Hey, how about that? Have you seen the shit rolls on here, Luke? I think this is tie boxing. Some people think this is fake. Darren Till is one of them on Instagram with these giant gloves. But oh my god!

Hello, sir. Here's your ticket. You've been sent to hell. Luke, look at that. It's just he clubs it with him. Candidate for knockout of your lifetime? Hold that. Is that real? Wow, that is fun.

How big are these dudes? They don't look very athletic. What size gloves are those? Like 18-ouncer. Oh, my God. Wow. All right. Hey, we span the globe here,

Luke. Do we? All right. There's going to be a boxing fight Super Bowl weekend on DAZN. Here we go. YouTubers unite. It's Jake Paul,

brother of Logan and someone named Anis and Gib. I got your nose. No, it's that big. I got your nose. Somebody take Hall of Famer

Shane Mosley out of this scenario. What are you doing there, Shane? Get out of here. Dude, I am drawing the line. He did the, I got your nose bit.

What kind of bullshit is this? Dazon, stop doing this to us. I draw the line. I drink the juice for Logan Paul KSI. Dude, you know who the Paul brothers are? They're like if Ali G was a real person. Yes. I mean, look at what this guy's wearing. The wife beater tucked into the red pants. He's like,

that is who they are, dude. I'm done with this, okay? I got in for the first one. It was fun. Everyone made money. We had a laugh. Dude, they went, Dazon went all in on Malibu's Most Wanted. This is going to be the co-main event of a Demetrius Andrade card.

I know, it's a real card. I know, but I can't do it anymore. I'm signing off from YouTube right now, okay? I just want to point out, everyone's like, this is a smart move by DAZN. You were the same fuckboys that were saying, you know, dude, K-1 having Yokozuna fight. This couldn't be bad for MMA. A word. Remember when Jose Canseco brought the bat into the ring against Hong Man Choi?

That's more entertaining than this. Okay, I'll get down to it. And then ran the whole time? Yeah, all right. Hey, let's roll on here. I can't believe he did the you got your nose bit. Speaking of DAZN. Next time, next time he's got,

I got a nickel from your ear. Speaking of his own, co-main event over the weekend, you see this women's fight? French on Cruz Dizern. She ended up losing to Jimenez, but in the corner, her coach is like,

I quote, you want the weave or you want the title. Look at what the corner does. First, they hold down her arms because her hair kept getting in the way. Won't take it off. Look at this shit this shit Luke if you got real hair if you got fingernails if you got a job you going to school you don't need anybody to No. Throw two fingers in the air. I'm like...

Look at Boxing Bodega. Look at his reaction. I'm like, I'm half... I don't know whether to laugh. That was a real title fight. I'm a little bit horrified. I love that one of the corner men held her arms down because they knew that she would protect the weak.

Look, this happened to Paul and Nal Naj. Remember that fight with Love and More Endu? Peter Kars in the corner had to cut off his fake dreads that he had in there. I've seen that at weigh-ins. I've never seen it in the middle of a fight. But they just pulled the damn weave right off. Dude, what the fuck, man?

And the coach said, you want the weave or you want the title? I felt like a crime I just watched. Or the strap, Jay is telling me in my ear. Okay, well, everyone's been at that crossroads, right, Luke? Holy shit. Are we going to end on that horrible shit? No, we're not. We're not. We're going to take you to some animal MMA, Luke. I'm telling

you, I go everywhere for this shit, okay? Luke, check out this raccoon's ground game here. Takes the back of this pussycat gable grip on... First of all, who has a domesticated raccoon? To the tap?

Oh, that's rear naked. Connor's going out on this. Connor's tapping. Interesting enough that raccoon's name is Habib. And now we smell the ass on the way out. Look, I need something from here. I'm watching the captions. Look, that raccoon would scratch your eyes out, okay?

He would have pleasure urinating in your beard. Okay. That raccoon is also a more sensible bathroom user than your friend at the movie theater. How is the technique, though? How is the technique on that raccoon? Not bad. Okay. Here's what I want to see, though, from these things.

I don't want to see animal on animal violence, which this is not exactly. This is just playful behavior, but I want to see an animal fuck up a person. We have those, too. I have one next week. Next week, a kangaroo took a dude out. When someone's like, oh, let's get too close to the petting zoo. We're going to close on this.

This is the most requested clip in Have You Seen This Shit history. I'm not lying. I had at least 25 tweets, emails, DMs. Oh, I saw this one. It's a restaurant fight, and this guy turns into Ric Flair. Watch this. Lick my hand and chop that shit. Oh, my God.

Son. Hey, I won, Luke. Woo. Son. Dude, what the... Luke, have you ever seen this type of shit in a real fight? This is like pro wrestling moves. Dude, it looks like by the nature of his clothes, he'd been getting fucked up before.

Oh my god! And he went back and just asked for seconds. He folded him up in a suitcase. It's like a three-piece with a where's the container? No, like a slinky trying to go down a pair of stairs. Full-on Ric Flair. I know you hate pro wrestling, but that's impressive, right? Dude, that was amazing. That was amazing.

Here's what it's a, oh, look at Ric Flair take down six, just like that, right? Whatever that means. X-Pac, whatever you want to call him. Yeah, whatever that means. Oh, look at this. Look was amazing. Here's what it's... Oh, look at Ric Flair take down six, just like that, right? Whatever that means. X-Pac, whatever you want to call him. Yeah, whatever that means. Oh, look at this. Look at this. Give me again.

Oh, yeah. Nice reverse knife edge chop. Can we just not do pro wrestling on this fucking show, please? Hey, we got through a hole. Have you seen this shit? No dicks. I've turned over a new leaf, new dong for 2020, okay? My thirst for dicks has gone down, said Brian Campbell.

Have you seen that shit? Yeah, thank you. Brian Campbell, with that in mind, we end on odds and ends. Let's actually do a bit of an exercise here for my odds and ends. Yeah, what do you got? I would like to do name one hidden, underrated something storyline about UFC 246. I'm going to pick this one. Andre Feely taking on Sadiq Youssef. The second

fight, not the main event of the prelims, but the co-main event of the prelims, if that's even a thing. It's on ESPN. An incredibly interesting 145-pound fight. I think most people expect Sadiq Youssef to win. The oddsmakers have him slightly favored. He's very athletic. He's a very good striker, very heavy-handed. But

Andre Feely has turned over a new leaf. You could say he should have won that Michael Johnson fight, which would give him a five-fight win streak. He's on a two-fight win streak. At age 28, 29, I don't think he's the athlete that Yousef is, but his game is finally coming together. He looks really polished. I think Yousef, again, the better athlete, but I don't think he's as polished.

So it's a younger guy who's a little bit raw, maybe a little more naturally talented versus a guy who's also, the way very talented but a little bit more polished what's going to happen when the two collide love that fight on the prelims i know people are dogging this card and they should for the main for the for the main card you have to pay for but there are some gems down on the prelims uh the co-main event is weird so they're using holly holm's name to go in this rematch that no one really wants or cares about against Raquel Pennington. I just wonder, win or lose here, Luke, what's left for Holly Holm? 38 years old and has really had one of the oddest resumes and legacies in MMA history. In her third UFC fight, she shocks the world and knocks out Ronda Rousey,

but has gone two and five since then and is really known for being a credible loser. What I mean by that, putting up really strong performances in title fights, but she's lost her last four title fights. Luke, how do you think we would kind of remember her win or lose here? I don't think she's going back because both of the divisions she fights in Amanda Nunes is on top and she just lost by first round head kick.

Who is Holly home in the end? After all this, when you look back over a seven fight stretch and she only beats Kohea and Anderson and loses to the best that this sport's seen. Also, she's nearing 40 years old though, to keep that in mind. The other part is, who is Raquel Pennington?

Because she had a terrible accident, then she went to Quinn on the stool, which I fully supported her on against Amanda Nunes, then loses that, comes back, I think she lost her first or second fight even after that, but she got on a rebound more recently. So the question is, can she keep that going? Remember that first fight between Pennington and Holm was close.

I guess what I'm saying, is Holm a Hall of Famer for one moment? She'll go in the Hall of Fame at a bare minimum for the win over Rousey because you can go in for single performances. Have you seen a resume like this where somebody is so beloved and respected, and by the way, rightfully so on the respected part, but has lost all of her big fights after Ronda Rousey? Dude, my earpiece is hissing like a 40-ounce. I just opened it. Can you hear it? Jay's revenge.

Can you hear it? Yes, I can. Listen. I don't want... I don't know what goes on in those holes. Put it in your mouth. Put it in your mouth. You don't need Jay the rest of the way. You don't need it, alright? What's the difference between Jay and just static? The answer is static is pleasant. All right.

All right. Last but not least, your odds and ends. Well, one other thing. Macy Barber is in a very featured spot here. It's Roxanne. And here's the thing. She's 3-0 with three KOs, a fourth one in the Dana White Contender Series. It's time for her to make that leap.

The problem is there's no contenders at 35, so you don't want her to make that leap too quick. But she has a chance in a very featured spot against a fighter who is very difficult to finish in Mata Fari to really announce herself, I think. If she can finish Mata Fari in demonstrative fashion, it's like, okay, let's start building the drum to how many fights we think responsibly you can give this 22-year-old before she would be ready for Amanda Nunes.

And then lastly, I'll say this in the opening fight on the main card. So once the pay-per-view kicks off, it's Anthony Pettis going back to 155 against very much the dark horse of that division, Carlos Diego Fajera, who I think is a little bit slept on, which he had a couple losses against when he went up in competition, including Dustin Poirier at 155. But I'd say this, he's been on a great win streak. He just beat, I think, Rusum Havilov and then somebody else in Abu Dhabi. I cannot remember who he beat.

But in any event, now trained by Saif Saoud at a 4-7 MA. And that guy has very good game plans. He gets the best out of his fighters. I actually think that's kind of competitive. If Cowboy came down with herpes between now and Saturday, would Anthony Pettis get the spot against Conor? Herpes. Probably.

I don't know if there's not a lightweight on that card that would be in relevant consideration. I could have picked a different STD. That's all right. Hey, my odds and ends are, Luke. Yes, what are they? 2020 is the new year upon us. We talk in both sports. The fights we want to see, we need to see.

Boxing, obviously, it's a little different because of the power structure and the political side of it. But the one biggest fight we want to see outside of the heavyweights in 2020, undoubtedly, is Terrence Crawford, Errol Spence, two unbeaten welterweight champions, and finally, they have seemingly taken it upon themselves to start to build this. Did you see the

Twitter war that began in the last week and a half? First, it was Errol Spence and Terrence Crawford's sister going at each other. I saw Crawford go after Mike Coppinger. Oh, my. He sent Mike Coppinger to hell in a handbasket. I saw that. Shout out to Mike.

I'm friends with Mike. I don't think anyone's taken an L harder in that moment than Mike right there. But shout out to Mike. Terrence Crawford and Bud and Spence started going back and forth. I'll F and finish you, all this stuff. And it ended with Bud kind of saying, look, Spence and I are cool. We're going to make this happen. Look, this is how you make the big fights when you are on the opposite sides of the street. You don't say, well, it's up to them. You go out there and go after it. This is what we want.

This is what we need. You have to put your promoters and your network in an uncomfortable spot where they have to make it happen or you look bad publicly. That's what these fighters are doing with this. We need to see this fight. I want to see this fight. And, Luke, don't forget one thing, all right? Fury and Wilder are going to have that rematch in February. Double network pay-per-view.

It puts Al Heyman and Bob Arum on coming together for this. If that fight is a monster success, maybe Spence Crawford is doable this year. All right. Maybe. That's how you do it, Luke, right? Yes. You've got to make shit happen. All right.

What happened to my earpiece? What are you doing? You're just drawing now.'re making anything left in the show no we're done You probably have a job you got to get to yes. I've made exactly gets you all right So we appreciate you guys watching today the usual of course give the video a thumbs up subscribe to the channel We'll be by you going to Vegas. Yes. Yes, all right, so have fun out there. Thank you. Enjoy that you're safe, right? Be say I don't care if you're safe. Just don't die. Don't you go dying on me. Hey, we encourage people, though, like you said, please subscribe.

This thing is, Luke, this shit's going some places. It certainly is. I don't know if you're ready for where it's going. I am more than ready. I'm also more than ready to get the fuck out of here because I have a train to catch. All right, so thank you guys so much for watching. We really appreciate it. Like the video, subscribe. Tell your friends about it.

We're back next week for all the wrap up around UFC 246. For Brian, I'm Luke. Until then, may all of your gains be loyal. Outro Music Thank you.