MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - McGregor vs. Poirier 2 | Jones vs. Adesanya, Blachowicz | Bellator 247 | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 63

Episode Date: September 30, 2020

Luke and Brian are back for episode 63 of MK. The boys react to the on-going feud between Conor and Dana that now has McGregor trying to face Dustin Poirier (2:38). They also discuss Jon Jones recent twitter war path where he went after Israel Adesanya and Jan Blachowicz (16:48). PLUS a preview of Bellator 247 and all the breaking news coming out of Milan (27:50). The guys make some revisions to some errors they made in Monday's show (41:12). Finally they close out the show with a deep dive on everything Conor McGregor (48:00). --------------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

This is Morning Combat. the world's biggest fan of chimichurri and mk dissected the conspiracy to my theory he's also from cbs sports brian campbell hi brian how are you buddy hello luke uh welcome it is wednesday as you said welcome to the takeover it begins now mk all day nearly almost every day we are in fact all that in a dime sack where the paper at uh you don't need any other combat shows it's right here luke so uh let's let's do this thing, right? I like to crack jokes and ask how your weekend was and all that weird stuff. You like to get right to the point, brother. That's right. Very quickly, if we can, what is the shirt you're wearing?

I see. Let me see. Hold on. It's Tyson Fury on the right-hand side, and it's a more masculine version of me. Oh, wait. There's Kane and Brock. Braun Strowman. Who is Braun Strowman?

Yeah, it's one of the worst WWE attempts at all time when they took that blood money in the sand in Saudi, and Tyson Fury became the worst celebrity crossover attempt at pro wrestling of all time. But, hey, shout out to him. If you want to wear this shirt, you can pound sand. If you want to wear this hat, though pound sand if you want to wear this hat though and you live in the lower 48 maybe even those other two states it is store.show.com luke how good does that green hoodie feel brother feels pretty good dude it's nice high quality content

you may have to live in three different counties in rhode island to get it but if you do super super high quality store.show that'sO.com for all of your needs there. Of course, thumbs up on the video, subscribe. And if you'd like to try Showtime, you certainly can. Go to Showtime.com for a 30-day free trial. If you like it, keep it. If not, it's free. It's gratis.

You can go and be on your way, and you can go watch, I don't know, something else that sucks. But you don't have to have Showtime. But I would recommend it. Yeah, go watch our competitors. You'll find out how quickly they suck. This is the show that you wish your favorite show was like. All right? Thank you.

It is your one-stop shop. Okay, so for folks who may not know, this is now the beginning of our Wednesday rotation, which we're still working through some segment ideas. Keep firing them off. LukeThomasNews at gmail.com. But, BC, let's start with a few topics to discuss today. First, Conor continues, Conor McGregor that is, his war with Dana and has now tried to schedule a charity exhibition fight with Dustin Poirier. So he took to social media, as I'm sure we all saw.

We have some footage of it, I believe we'll put up here in just a minute or two. And he eventually just hit up Poirier and said, hey, man, you want to do something for charity? He told him he admired his Good Life Foundation. He would have one as well. They would do it in Ireland, Dustin Seam Game. And then he said he was going to take the conversations offline to progress them. All right. What the hell is going on here bc uh this is

connor upset at the machine upset at dana and really trying to now book his own territory specifically in that chain of uh twitter events he was saying you know let's do it separate from the ufc and look you know if they wanted to do here's here's the deal about the boxing thing right if connor wants to fight floyd again okay we talked about that if he wants to fight manny which he does look dude you're gonna get sent to hell you want to box poirier if there's somehow you could pull that off yeah cool i'd be into it how about you get back in the octagon bro and i know there's people from our debate on monday they're like oh bc you know you're supporting the evil empire here and uh don't you understand what what dana's like i do bro that's business have you guys ever worked anywhere before your boss doesn't always set it to you straight right Dana's like? I do, bro. That's business. Have you guys ever worked anywhere before?

Your boss doesn't always set it to you straight, right? There's a game within the game. There's a language. I'm not saying Dana's clean. I was just saying Connor kind of went over the line, and this is with the DM showing, bro code, all that, whatever. But this is an extension of that. He's basically saying, F you guys.

I'll start trying to book my own territory. The problem is, look, these guys are under contract to the UFC. You want to go grapple on Chael Sonnen's submission underground or something? Whatever. If you can pull it off, that's fine. Hey, Conor, how about you get in the cage and fight Dustin Poirier in a rematch? That would mean a lot and would actually give you a justified path back to the lightweight title and the Habib rematch that you covet,

or if Habib retires, you know, the damn title itself. And this is certainly not coming from a Conor hater. I love me some Conor. You know that, Luke, okay? But this is all just a big charade and a party. There's money in Saudi. I'm sure Conor can fight if he really wanted to. I know he had big plans for this year.

COVID derailed them dana's not perfect but go back to the negotiation table and see what you can figure out bro come on enough of this what about let me play devil's advocate what about connor's claim that he's trying to get fights and they're putting them on the shelf well look as we saw from that here's the whole deal about him sharing those dms luke it didn't make him look good either right he wanted a diego sanchez fight that didn't make any sense to anybody i'm not going to sit here and pretend that dana didn't potentially bait and switch or say something publicly that wasn't true again it's the freaking

game i mean like it's what it is this is a different this isn't like your typical office even though in your typical office a lot of weird shit goes down too just so you know uh but this is what it is luke i want to see him back come back bro okay make it happen stop doing this i'm going to show you how you know what my brand we already know what you're how big your brand we already know how big you are that's why you get paid more than everybody else but you know you got to come plug back into the matrix once in a while and if you want to fight if you want to be a real fighter fight bro, bro. Okay. That's my statement right there. That's BC, the fan and journalists coming together to tell you that right there. I did pop though, by the way, Luke, when he responded to that Ariel and DC show clip and

was like, Hey DC, you fat boy. And kind of went down that road. Between Jan Blachowicz and Conor McGregor, poor DC has been getting fat shamed on social media every which way to Tuesday, bro. Well, he is thick with about four C's ever since he beat Vulcan. He just never went back. Right. You know, yeah, that's true. Here's the thing for me that it's like, I just don't listen.

If you look at any standard UFC contract, and again, there may be examples that we're not aware of. But every time I've seen one, this clause has been consistent. And it was one of the reasons why some of us were skeptical that a Mayweather-Connor fight could have ever happened, before it did, obviously, because the UFC has put in a provision or a clause that says, if you want to do pro wrestling, jujitsu matches, like pro ones, obviously, not training, boxing, kickboxing, whatever. Understand something. We promote MMA, but we are your sole promoter, period. Right?

And so the UFC doesn't seem to care if you want to go do, you know, fight to win pro, the jiu-jitsu thing with a gi on, or even like ADCC if you can get invited. They don't seem to care about that. But if you're going to be throwing them hands, they want to make sure that they get approval for it. And it's been very hard to get. You'll recall that Anderson Silva could not get approval to fight Roy Jones Jr.

six, seven, eight years ago, however long it was. So to me, it's like, guys, we know you can't stage an exhibition bout because even those are covered in that contract provision. BC, why don't they learn the lesson the way it should be learned, which is it's better to ask for forgiveness than for permission. If they had gone silently behind the scenes and said, I'm going to show up to ATT or you come to Ireland, you couldn't do it as big as normal, but you record sparring sessions.

You record even a smoker fight, right? Oh, it's just training. We're not fighting. It's not an exhibition. It's just training. Have a bunch of videographers record it a bunch of you know interviews on the outside save it up and then say if you want to see it we're going to stream it at noon on saturday or whatever the hell buy the pay-per-view then how could you stop it these guys keep setting up scenarios where they

have to go hat in hand to the ufc who's going to say no rather than doing it in a way where if you define it as an exhibition ahead of time you're labeling it in a way that precludes you from doing it if you do it after the fact and say no no this is just training this is two old foes putting down the you know the the sabers and and learning from one another Why can't they just do that? I mean, look, I could break down exactly what you're saying, and could they pull it off if they announce? But you've got to actually announce something early enough to get everyone's attention, Luke, and I think in that short time,

UFC could step in legally and try to stop it. The whole larger point is this. I don't believe Conor actually is going to do these exhibitions. I think it's more of a larger public negotiation. I don't doubt that Dana would prefer Conor come back, you know, maybe next year when we can get more people into a stadium and make it financially worth it. I also believe, and maybe you guys disagree with me,

and everyone out there seemed to disagree with me on Monday, and that's fine, that if Conor really, really, really, really wanted to fight right now and just went to Dana and was like, I just need it. I just need to get back. Let's figure it out. They'd figure it out, Luke. There's a lot of freaking money in the Middle East, right? Why are we going to Fight Island and Abu Dhabi?

There's a reason. Very quickly, there's that DC tweet. So I'm not doubting that connor wants to fight and that dana wanted connor to fight on the terms that made best sense for the ufc i'm not doubting all that but how do you think this development plays into it that just recently happened overnight with uh with habib's manager ali abdelaziz coming public and saying uh dana and company came to him what just a couple days ago and said what would your guys thoughts after Gaethje Nurmagomedov if Habib wins that Habib and Conor would resuscitate the ultimate fighter put it on ESPN and lead to their rematch next year for what could be

Habib's retirement fight now according to Ali Habib was like absolutely not this guy's a piece of shit I don't want to you know you you get near shit you start to smell like shit you know all that great stuff right there luke but does that show you is there any way we can read really deep into that and see that dana is trying whatever he can to protect connor's brand so he can get to that habib fight and may not actually want habib or connor to come back before that in any sort of competitive fight which had really kind of been my working mission statement from the beginning like they're in an interesting spot coming off that cowboy fight quarantine or not because the payday for Khabib Conor too is so ridiculously massive for the company that you know a loss would ruin it so do you is that part of this in your eyes the back and forth between Conor and Dana? It's a great question.

You know, like the only break the glass in case of emergency, and let's put him there behind that until, you know, you really have a need to pull him out there. That's one theory. I think that's a great one. I couldn't really argue with it. And I know it contradicts what I just said. Sorry, just real quick.

I know it contradicts what I just said about the situation. I'm just asking you if you think this is what's going on. I think you can't discount that. The other thing to think about is, likec if i had to ask you not counting that interview he did with okamoto dana white after connor chucked the dolly at the bus not counting that is this the worst that connor's relationship has ever been with dana i kind of wonder if it is and i don't know that either but you know for them to have this kind of disagreement and this kind of, you're lying, that's the dirtiest thing you could do. Remember, they say stuff euphemistically to do business all the time.

Conor never says no, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I know that there's been times, especially around that Mayweather fight, where they were butting heads. But for the purposes of public appearances, they were just doing you know, doing the businessman thing, which is fine. It all makes sense. Now they can barely hang on to it. You're lying. Dirtiest thing you could do. Maybe this arrest in Corsica, maybe there's something more to it.

I don't think so. It seemed like there wasn't a whole lot to it in the end. But it does feel like, to me, between that where it's like, okay, we want to make sure we don't lose this. And also, they seem to not be getting along i wonder how much that plays a role as well yeah it's very interesting i mean what what else could connor do to soil it more come out and say they're eskimo bros i mean they're at a rough spot right now in this point but um there's gonna be controversy okay does dana and ufc underpay guys and do a lot of shit yes okay does he lie publicly probably yes I think we catch him in that a lot but you know UFC has done a lot to to help and

protect Conor I mean Luke you've seen that Conor McGregor documentary right that followed his rise I mean are other fighters getting the kind of treatment where you didn't see it Luke is that what you're saying I've not seen it no okay well there's this moment when josie aldo pulls out of the fight the when it was originally scheduled and before they kind of announced mendes as the replacement that like you know dana and the fortitas are going over connor's house that he's renting in vegas and just hanging out and strategizing and drinking whiskey and shooting the shit you know and you've seen the famous pictures of them partying and laughing and, you know, like Conor got a certain level of treatment that nobody else did.

Now, that's also because he was able to draw on a level that nobody else did. But can we look back to the bus incident? I can't stress this enough. What Conor did and, you know, he hurt Ray Borg and he, you know, he almost effed up Rose. I mean, there's a lot of other people involved. Dana did not slap his wrist once, Luke. And in fact, as a reward, put him into a title fight

in the biggest fight in the promotion's history. They have done a lot to sort of support and protect him. That whole early retirement thing from UFC 200, yeah, he got pulled, but then we made UFC 202, and it did the biggest pay-per-view numbers ever to that point, I believe. So, you know, from Dana's perspective, Conor's retiring left and right. He's a wild card. He's in the headlines constantly for bad things.

It's not like we are talking about an angel here. So if Dana has to play certain level of tricks, look, Dana plays a lot of dirty tricks with a lot of people. I'm just saying here, Conor's not an angel in this. And a lot of people coming at me on Twitter, like know oh what an absolute dirt hole no like come on bro like yeah i mean look accusing dana of lying makes it sound personal but i don't know how you do that job without it i mean it doesn't mean you forgive the don kings and the bob arums and the dana whites for their transgressions but on some level you know that's what the job entails that's why people

are like oh brian stan should be the next president of the UFC. Well, from a business standpoint, I'm sure he'd do a great job. But, like, that public-facing part of it, getting sideways with fighters, having to put your interest out there in front of them, he's not – he is absolutely not the right guy for that, even as smart and capable of a leader and proven as a leader as he is. You need someone else who doesn't mind getting in the dirt a little bit. So you're right.

I don't think Conor is some kind of of you know uh above reproach here either i just feel like something is broken here i don't know if irreparable i don't think that's the case but something in the spokes is not working correctly in the wheel and it's causing these other things that we see and it's hard to diagnose from the outside looking in but i tend to think there's more of it i don't i just here's the thing we see i just don't think that whatever is broken is is so broken that they can't find some kind of situation the only thing that bugs or to get connor back in the only thing that bugs me is and this tells you a lot about the modern ufc and we'll move on after this it's just it tells you a lot that the contender series is firing on all cylinders

which is great but they can't get the biggest star in the sport back in the octagon on a timely fashion right i mean that just seems to me so odd so i mean and so telling that like you have this crown jewel that wants to do something. Okay, you guys can't see eye to eye on that. All right, fine. But there must be some kind of way you could come to a more, let's say, fast conclusion to those negotiations. Meanwhile, they're just pumping out content on the cheaper end of things. And that's a good end.

One is not the substitute of the other. It just sort of tells you what the priorities of the company are at the current moment. Yeah, look, you would have thought, by the way, an 8 Diaz trilogy as a time filler could have been perfect this fall, early winter, especially if he didn't Saudi. But just to close, it's not irreparable because Conor's going to need them eventually. Right? Unless he's done fighting, unless he's done, he's going to need them. So it's not irreparable.

So, well, you know, we got more got more come on connor let's roll on yeah we're going to do a big deep dive into connor after we get some of these news pieces so stick around for that um okay it takes us to our second bit of big news here from the uh well the beginning of the week really john jones's warpath bc so he's just out there with the ak-47 if you know anything about the ak-47 bc and i'm sure you don't, you can put dirt all in the barrel and it will still fire, unlike the M16A2 service rifle. But the key about it is you can do no matter what.

It just sprays the block, just gets through all the dirt. The only thing I know, Luke, is about this Beretta putting holes in your sweater. That's the only thing I know about. Very good. So he's taking shots at Izzy, which we'll get to in a minute, but he's going after Jan, saying, what if I go get my belt back yon telling him to go be boring somewhere else dude i thought we were all in on a move towards heavyweight bc again can you make sense of this for the rest of us please so here's what's very interesting ufc has a very very important decision to make about john jones next fight right he gave up the 205 title it was

for that move to heavyweight he wants to make big money there are certainly big money matchups uh you know there's a lot of them at heavyweight you can make I mean even bring him back Brock there's a lot of crazy things you could do to cash in on that but I thought it was weird after Blahovich's win that all three major parties Jan, John, and Dana seem to all be in on the idea that if John wants to come back to 205 and fight Jan Blahowitz, hey, let's do it. That would make absolutely no sense to me, Luke.

You would gain nothing by doing that. You'd essentially cut the legs out of Blahowitz and the future of the division. You know, if you wanted to have done the Dom Reyes rematch before he lost this, you would understand that. It could have been Bill does John john's goodbye dom gets a second chance it makes absolutely no sense for me under any circumstance for john to come back and fight yan what i want to kind of spin back on you and also give you the chance to sort of get in john's psyche right now short of

heavyweight is it a lot better and is it time right now for UFC to go John Izzy at 205, billing it essentially as, look, John, when you go up to heavyweight, you're going to commit. You're going to do a lot of squats. You're going to try to get those tiny calves big for once. You know, you and your brother's going to go in the weight room and get into that full heavyweight body. But until you get there, why don't you do one more at 205? And, oh, by the the way Israel Adesanya is right on the verge of global bust out worldwide stardom let's give him this one-off non-title

super fight and if he can win it dude he's the face of our franchise we may need we may be able to tell Conor to pound Sam for another six months because we may have this guy right here that seems like the smartest role right now unless you're just going to say all right John Jones Stipe right now I love the idea it was funny that John was reacting this week to the yawn tweets but also Daniel Cormier being like why would you say you're going to go to heavyweight and then as soon as Reyes loses you don't mind going back to 205 it's because you were ducking Dom Reyes you know I don't know how much I believe in that theory but it pissed john off because he was talking about you know he defended himself saying essentially that you know i've been solely focused on the move to heavyweight blah blah blah

but you're right it's the it was the language that they used was weird around that i didn't quite understand being dana and john like why would you say i mean the best part about gsp leaving the division was that he got lucky in that Hendricks win. I don't care what anybody says. I thought Hendricks won that one. Clean's a strong word, but he looked to me to be the victor. Certainly didn't take nearly as much abuse. And it was a perfect time to just leave, let everyone remember you had the W,

let the division regrow, right? Let nature heal, so to speak, right, BC? And to go back would just be bizarre for all the reasons you mentioned plus it would damage the division whether if he won well excuse me if he lost it wouldn't be as damaging but i like your izzy idea because izzy had said look let me defend my title a few times izzy himself has said he counts the gas limb win as his first real title fight so then he would have three title defenses by Izzy's own logic in that particular case. That's a few. The Cannoneer fight is interesting, but I don't think he's got much of a chance against a guy like Adesanya. And the interesting part about the fight with John and Adesanya is

Adesanya has an 80-inch reach. I think on the feet, to the extent that Izzy can keep it there, I think he torches Jon Jones. However, that is even what Jon Jones is not saying what he was going to do. If they fought, he is talking about ripping him limb from limb, taking him down, wrestling him, making him his bitch, and very sundry other threats that are related to the wrestling game. Got to tell you, though, if you look at Jon's takedown attempts and his success rate over the last few fights, Anthony Smith, Tiago Santos, and then then let's see the reyes fight i'm forgetting one as

well not especially high not especially high i've said this before folks need to wake up to it what's keeping john in these fights is he has a brilliant fight iq it cannot be denied he's got uh just some of the best defense i've ever seen. And I mean that sincerely. Super, super crisp defense. And his offense is still good, but it's badly waned from what it used to be at its peak. That, to me, that Adesanya versus Jones fight, hella competitive. All right, I want to ask you two important questions about this. I want to put you on trial here, Luke, okay?

You are City Cock Boxing's number one fan, all right? City Cock Sucking. Look, they're both 6'4", okay? Let's say we gave Izzy time. You know, we billed it as a one-off, but let's say we gave him a little bit of time to, you know, get his body where he wanted it. Let's not forget, I don't know if you know this,

but DC and Ariel actually do a show together now and dc said on monday somewhat controversial statement but he said i think is he so good right now he's the best 205 pounder in the entire world he's ufc's best light heavyweight and he's never competed in that division somewhat controversial take but it fuels into this question some odds makers did come out with early odds and they had Jones as a slight favorite. Seriously, 205, straight up, who you got? Jones, Adesanya. Man, there's no way to divorce from recency bias in terms of how good Izzy looked.

Granted, he didn't get tested in the wrestling department at all, so it's almost irrelevant. But honestly, I might go Izzy looked. Granted, he didn't get tested in the wrestling department at all, so it's almost irrelevant. But honestly, I might go Izzy. And I wouldn't have said that a year ago. For sure, I wouldn't have said that a year ago. And could I imagine a world where I'm like, I think Izzy wins. And then John goes in there and clubs him over with a knee tap and completely ground and pounds him into sand.

Sure. I might go. What about you? Where are you on this whole debate? You know know recency bias is very strong in this moment let's not forget that john jones is coming off some some very close performances in which he you know did was far from dominant and spectacular he was he was cagey and he and he did what he had to do to pull it off i would like his is his chances if he could keep it a chess match. If his supernatural sort of striking ability, the ability to own distance, the slights, all that stuff that you do in Dissected, if that's real,

I want to see that against Bones. I think he could pull off a decision win here. They're both 6'4". John has a four-inch longer reach. Obviously, he's going to have a potential wrestling advantage and the size and power advantage. Luke, how bad would this be? When you do

this, let's say UFC did this, you're taking a gamble, right? You're rolling the dice that Stylebender can become an absolute global, worldwide, pay-per-view, one million every time out star by either beating Jones or looking really good in a close loss what would be the damage if it was a wide loss or a knockout loss is it

is it worth the squeeze is this the reason why we never saw GSP Silva maybe although here's the thing let's let's sort of imagine two worlds right so Adesanya loses you could say okay first fight at 205 in the UFC obviously he's fought as high as heavyweight in kickboxing and boxing but you could say well you know first time 205 all by the way the guy who was the consensus number one top of the bound bound okay you know whatever so you're asking about the other way what if he ends up losing that is a little bit you're viciously KO'd that's a little bit harder to think, square for a move to heavyweight, but I still don't think it ruins everything.

It would derail a lot of the hype, and it would make his path at heavyweight a little bit longer. But in some senses, that might be better, right? Rather than just jumping to the front with Francis, what if they made you fight, you know, somebody that DC fought, like a Derek Lewisis or someone in that top five top six top seven orbit and then another and then another not only does it rebuild you if you can win and i suspect you could win those but um it's actually kind of fair you know rather than

just jumping right to the front of the line and poor francis gets you know his chance taken away from him i don't think that they will do that but it certainly seems like it's a possibility so i don't know that i think it's it's not it's not great it's not great i don't know that i believe that it's cataclysmic bc what about you you know i mean obviously if it's a you know one punch type deal that looks bad i don't think he would get one punched i think you know like you said it would be more of a ground and pound it would be more of a thing but there are many ways this works out great for the ufc so i'm gonna add a little bit more uh you know cherry on top of this sunday for you luke this hot sunday right you know what i'm saying

talking about those three girls from saved by the bell yes yes yes okay luke um is dana smarter than we think is dana thinking you know what let's make this super fight really important john go back in there and take your belt back from jan we get a short-term payday out of that and then we do it at 205 champ versus champ unbeaten guy who has next versus the goat who still has the old belt and if adesanya wins he's not just the face of this sport he's the two division champion brother i mean you know this is this is promoting promotion 101 luke i'll learn you up anytime you want okay you can talk me into hey we got some time to kill and by the way we can make a killer fight and jones ought to sign you okay all right i'm you can sell me on it i'll buy that and i'll buy it from probably more than it's worth but you know we're gonna put another hurdle in there by beating yan and

then he has to fight izzy and someone gets injured along the way and the fight gets delayed it's like the ultimate fighter it's like why are we gonna put a fight on ice for nine months that we want to see now fuck all that i don't want to see that okay that's fair that's fair oh we have a clip of adesanya saying he's gonna to spank John Jones. Let's see it. Your favorite, Luke. A little pro-wrestling there. A little Big E. Who are these two gentlemen? That is Big E, the man standing from the New Day.

Probably the best tag team of this era and he's about to break loose and become an absolute single stud and that's the old Dean Ambrose who he's spanking the ass of. Now, John Moxley in AEW. I know you don't care, but shout out to that. I've got my glasses on, but this looks suspiciously like room service diaries. Yeah.

Okay, well, with that in mind, I guess we'll follow that story. Let's move to topic three if we can here, BC. Bellator 247 is this weekend, and there's a lot to unpack here. It's the UFC. Excuse here. It's the UFC. Excuse me. It's actually tomorrow, Luke. All right. It is Bellator's debut on CBS Sports Network.

It is tomorrow. They're calling it Bellator 247, also known as Bellator Milan. Now, BC, I know you've been following the story all morning. Paul Daly was supposed to headline Semtex, but I don't think that's the case anymore. What can you tell the viewers about what's happened? Yeah, welterweight main event was scheduled. Paul Daly against Derek Anderson, who is moving up from lightweight.

We know him. He had beaten Patrycki Pitbull twice. This is going to be an interesting matchup, largely because Paul Daly was looking for this to be a launching pad back into a welterweight title bout, maybe in a rematch with MVP, if Lima gives up the belt when he moves up to face Musashi. Now we're not going to have a fight at all. Paul Daly weighing in 2.6 pounds over that 170-pound limit, 1.6 over the plus one you get in a non-title bout. He was rushed to a hospital afterwards on a stretcher.

Then he put out an Instagram video saying, look, I didn't receive any medical attention. I'm fine. I can still make this fight happen. And for reasons that we don't know up to this point, that fight has stayed canceled. And our new main event will be women's flyweights, Kate Jackson versus Denise Kielholtz. Luke, that's not the same Kate Jackson, by the way,

from Charlie's Angels and Scarecrow and Mrs. King. But sorry, Miss Jackson. She's for real. She's going to be in that main event tough break luke because this is a big announcement card for a new era of belcher way of bellator if we're being serious here moving to cbs sports network going on thursdays moving forward which is a very strategic and interesting move this card from milan will be in the afternoon but we're going to start seeing this every th night. October 15th, of course, is that loaded card when Chris Cyborg comes back to defender title against Arlene Buenco.

And then we also have Douglas Lima, Gegard Mousasi. Come on, pour it on me for the middleweight belt. So a lot of good stuff to look forward to. Tough break on this initial card, Luke. Now, didn't Semtex, I think you alluded to it, but didn't Semtex, Paul Daly, take to Instagram and say, hey, I wasn't administered any care at the hospital. I'm back in the hotel. I've just eaten.

I'm ready to go. Fight's not canceled. There seems to be a miscommunication from what Daly is saying on Instagram and what Bellator is, well, frankly, announcing to the press at this point. What is the situation? That's all we know up to this point as of press time. This has been unfolding this morning. Shout out to the warlock, G gareth a davis for being on top of that over there in europe but uh that's our situation certainly some interesting fights though on this card luke

are you woke to this middleweight norbert novenal jr uh i don't know if i'm pronouncing that correctly he's going to be in there against laid zerhuni do you know norbert's data uh well hold on a second let me just make a we'll get to that in just a second because i do think it's a good uh fight and no venue is his name he trains with uh michael venn and page speaking of paul daily out of london shoot fighters here's the deal it sucks to lose your main event especially with somebody that the fans at least on this side of the car i mean the the the bout is and the event is taking place in milan so it's not like the end of the world for a north american audience it's not really catered to them exactly

even if it's obviously airing on a north american uh television station but the the i'll just say this it sucks to lose the daily versus anderson fight but you're right that cyborg fight is kind of like the official you know all systems go systems go launch, right? A name that fans know. She's defending her belt. This was something of a soft opening, I feel like, to get fans ready to go, put them in the mind frame. Let's start October the right kind of a way. If I can, before we get to the Noveni fight, let me talk about this main event with Kielholtz and Jackson, now that it is obviously promoted to that slot.

Denise Kielholtz is an exciting fighter. She was on the Dutch national judo team judo black belt obviously she is a I believe a world uh a Muay Thai world champion Kate Jackson has a really interesting story BC I was like why is her name familiar where do I where do I recall that from she fought on the I think season 20 of the ultimate or uh no the season with um tatiana suarez on the ultimate fighter and if you look at her record she's got losses to suarez uh valerie letourneau and i believe somebody else i gotta look it up here exactly but she's very good i was looking at some tape on her yeah elena mcfarlane who by the way is the champion in that division not bad she's really talented she has wins over anastasia anastasia Yankova. She has wins over UFC vet Ashley Yoder.

She had won two on the Ultimate Fighter before losing, ultimately, to Tatiana Suarez. So, by the way, doesn't play games on the feet. Goes right to the ground. What's interesting is you're going to get sort of this judo, athletic, hip-toss style in Kielholz, I suspect, against the more folk-style wrist ride, you know, jiu-jitsu sweep style in Kate Jackson could be actually a pretty exciting fight on the ground, even if Kielholtz, your Bellator kickboxing women's flatweight champion. Absolutely. Looking forward to this one right there.

And how about Novenyi, the son of the Hungarian legend, is that correct, Luke? Yeah, that's right. The Olympic wrestler, but, you know, I was peeping his wiki there. Played a Russian henchman in Arnold Schwarzenegger's Red Heat. Remember that one with Jim Belushi? Yes, yes, I do, yes. Big shout-out to that old schoolness right there. A lot of young names going to get a close-up here.

Sorry for Paul Daly being off. I am interested, by the way, if Daly can get back on track and get back in that MVP rematch because their rivals over there in europe uh michael venom page that fight the first time around in the welterweight grand prix certainly didn't live up to the expectations that we got ourselves fired up for with two action guys it was very tentative both waiting for the other to make a mistake and it really never happened but uh if you go a little bit deeper down on this card luke i don't know if you remember uh last year a have you seen this shit star do you know 19 year old kickboxing star jade durant of france are you are you woke to her can we play the video do you remember this

little callback when she made her bellator kickboxing debut kind of looked a little bit like the ref was going to jump in maybe we can maybe we can cue this up correctly and uh run it back right there but um jade made her presence known on this show. Ref kind of stepped in, and she gave it a wow. Hold that. Hold that indeed. She's a world Muay Thai champion, just 19, going to get an Adam weight bout, excuse me,

on Thursday against Monica Chachakova. Someone to look out for here, Luke. Yeah. Again, Bellator, to me, they're putting on some of the younger names, some names that might be familiar to some of their European audiences. It's a soft opening,

to be clear. By the way, as I mentioned, Noveni training with London Shoot Fighters has the almost exact same style as MVP. He has that super bladed stance, kind of hops the whole time while showing you his side. Kind of one of those guys you want to pay attention to. Undefeated in the amateurs, undefeated in the pros.

Long way to go before we see what he's up to, but certainly a prospect to keep your eye on. Look, quickly on the Thursday night move to CBS Sports Network. Yeah, let's get into that. I've been banging that drum for a long time saying, know not every fight needs to be saturday night i know we see some friday ones once in a while but you know we're always as fight journalists and promoters looking out we don't want to go up against college football or whatever have you on a saturday night i like this on a thursday night it sort of makes it bellator night if you will in your combat sports game i'm a little bit i got mixed feelings tell me if uh you think i got something going on about this on the one hand let's talk about the good i have always been one of these guys that's like

to your point do i really want to spend every saturday parked in my case in front of the computer in many people's cases in front of the tv you know just constantly spending my saturdays doing this if i don't necessarily have to it gets a little old and you know the middle of your week is just constant anticipation and waiting and waiting and waiting. Hey, it's nice to break it up sometimes. That Weidman versus Munoz fight, which is one of my favorite fights from Chris Weidman, where he hit him with that slashing elbow, that was a Wednesday night. I think Stipe Miocic had a fight that was a Wednesday night as well. I like it when they break it up in the middle of the week.

It's kind of fun. So for me, personally, I am all, I'm just ready for it completely. On the other hand, at least in the short run, BC, the NFL is on Thursdays. That is going to be a hard thing to go up against. Granted, different channels, I get the whole thing. I'm just saying the reason why promoters go on Saturday more often is you're generally going to get better ratings. Bellator making a bit of a calculated call to say we might dial back that big Saturday night anticipation, but we'll have a home and we'll be uninterrupted.

But there is the NFL football component there. So I'm a little bit mixed on it. It's not all year, Luke. Okay, we'll see what happens there. I'm not discounting that. That's legitimate competition, believe me. But, you know, anyone want to make a Monday night series? I'd be down for that.

Oh, there's football that night, too. Yeah, what about Tuesday night? Oh, wait. How about Tuesday morning? Anybody free at that point? Let's do that. Let's breakfast with Bellator. I can be down for that. Oh, there's football that night, too. Yeah, what about Tuesday night? Oh, wait. How about Tuesday morning? Anybody free at that point? Let's do that. Let's breakfast with Bellator?

I can do that, Luke. Okay. Still, nevertheless, it's going to be interesting to see where they go. One last note on this. I made a list, BC. Let's see if I got them all right. All the places that Bellator has had a television home. Ready? ESPN Deportes.

Fox Sportsnet National. MTV2. Epix with an X, Spike, which turned into Paramount, which then went simultaneously with DAZN, and now CBS Sportsnet. Do you realize a couple of things? One, Bellator was actually with Spike slash Paramount longer than UFC was. I don't think a lot of folks realize that. They had a longer run on that network than UFC ever did. Two, you know, I'm really hoping that this fit in the Viacom CBS family and with CBS Sports in particular really –

listen, it wasn't a good fit for what Paramount ultimately became, right? So they had to move them away. On the other hand, they've kind of, under Bjorn Rebny, they changed into Scott. They went from tournaments to no tournaments. Now they've got kickboxing. Their core mission, their core identity has changed, and with it, they've had a lot of different broadcast partners.

It's going to be good, I think, and I want to find them in a place where they have a marriage with a production partner that's lasting and that you remember them for that marriage you remember spike and ufc together you know it's going to be interesting to see if cbs and uh which you know label that pays me but it'll be interesting to see if cbs sports and bellator can forge the same kind of shared identity for sure and also the prelim is going to be airing exclusively on cbssports.com great little website right there if you are not a regular visitor luke quick trivia question

uh do you remember bjorn season one of bellator who was the announced team on that john annick was the play-by-play come on a second and your color was was, you know, I don't remember. Who was it? I believe it was Glory color analyst Joseph Valtellini, if I'm correct. Oh, Bazooka Joe, who, by the way, has a tremendous YouTube channel. He's a great commentator. He's a great commentator. Hey, he's great with Todd Grisham, a friend of the program.

Shout out to there. All right. Shout out to old Big Todd. Buff Todd is what we're going to call him. Todd had a short run in UFC, but his call of Gaethje Johnson, this is Justin's ultimate highlight. I think it's going to live forever.

I think it was great, all right? Primo. Primo is what it is. Okay. With that in mind, BC, let's circle. Oh, you know what? No, we have to do a new segment that we're going to debut, BC.

A new segment called, I don't know if we have any imaging for it. I don't think we do just yet. Dead Wrongs. No, no, no. Dead Wrong. Like the song from Biggie after he died. Dead Wrong.

This is where you and I are going to revisit things that we totally botched on Monday. Yes, BC, we're going to hold our own feet to the fire. The listeners are not going to let us get away with just saying false, fake news. So this is where we come to correct it. All right, first. Yeah, so why don't you stand by and stand back for a second, all right? Thank you. I'm not a white supremacist.

I don't need to. Now, we have two of these we have to acknowledge. I think we have the video ready. Do we not, Jay? Or Corey, whoever is in my ear? Do we have the video ready. Do we not, Jay? Or Corey, whoever is in my ear? Do we have the video ready? I'm not hearing anything. A yes or a no would suffice.

Speak on it. Speak on it, Maneech, please. This is somebody asking Adesanya about his nipple. Yeah, so we came out, Luke, and said we didn't believe anyone actually asked Adesanya about his nipple after UFC, what was it, 253 over the weekend? Wait, Jose, let me hear this. Corey, you do not have the video? All right. Well, hey, guys.

We definitely sent it yesterday. That's okay. Let's give correction where it's due, BC. Let's give correction where it's due, BC. Let's give it. Jose Youngs from MMA Fighting asked Adesanya at the post-fight presser about it. Adesanya out there saying, why are they looking at my titties? Which was not much of an answer. He deflected. Yeah, it was a little bit of a deflect.

Subsequently, I believe Adesanya was on Ariel's show. And he said, you know, he didn't want to comment on it because he didn't know what gyno was, and once he did research, he said, Wikipedia says gyno happens in both pecs, not one, so it couldn't be gyno, and he has gotten subsequent medical

tests to get it looked at, and Ariel did buckle down and say, hey, you know, are you on steroids? Have you taken steroids? And he laughed at it and said no. So that's the truth. We didn't have all the information, of course, when we did Monday's show. But shout out to Jose Young. He's taking one for the team here.

And I hope he's still credentialed next time. Yeah, and I'll give credit where it's due. I'll give credit where it's due. Ariel Askew as well deserves a bit of a nod there. But by the way, like, it definitely, I mean, I don't know what it is. I'm not a doctor. But can you get gyno unilaterally from PED use? Yes, you can.

Now, again, who the hell knows? Because what he actually said in the Ariel interview is it's been slowly happening over time. And it just sort of culminated in this. He actually got a medical screening the day of that interview he did with Ariel. So we'll see what happens there. And as we indicated before, there's all kinds of reasons why it could happen. I'm just sort of pointing out that it happened in one is not evidence that it was not necessarily

something a little bit more on the nefarious side. I want to go in with the rough sex excuse, right? Like titty twister gone bad, something like that, right? People would have backed right off. Like, okay, bro, you're a freak. That's cool. Totally cool. You know, do whatever goes on in your house.

That's fine, bro. Yeah, I banged everyone's mother who was a hater and it you know moviepoopshoot.com and this is the result all right you want to take us to our second dead wrong bc yeah i'm gonna blame jay for this jay is uh currently not in our ear hole shout out to maniche for for taking that role this week but on monday when we played the outrageous bob barker uh crocodile video in which some old white guy got uh almost had his shoulder ripped off uh jay with very little research jumped in to say no guys you're wrong bob barker's actually dead so we did the you know please get all your old people spayed and neutered sorry uh to the barker family the long microphone

uh all those dropped lawsuits you had had a great run, Bob. Sorry about all that. Thank you. No, he turns out he's still alive. Look, it turns out he's that old bastard's 96, bro. Jay, what are you doing to us, Jay? All right. Do we have the video?

Can we throw to the Bob video, please? Yeah. Do we have the Bob video? We don't have that either. Oh, wow. All right. Hey, guys, tune into Wednesdays. You're going to get a lot of me wearing wrestling T-shirts. All right. Yeah, we don't have the video. They're saying they're going to have a video of that. I guess. What was the video? Bob Barker was in the hospital recently, and Adam Sandler did what with him?

It was actually five years ago, but it was hilarious. Bob was in the hospital when he was 91. Adam Sandler, not that one, although I'll watch this one over and over again. Thank you, Corey. This is the Bob Barker wannabe. Sandler, I don't know if, I hope everybody saw this one that I'm referencing. Sandler, five years ago, went into Bob's hotel room, and they filmed, Luke, a new fight between them and Sandler ripped a prosthetic leg off the guy in the bed

next to him and started beating him. There were bedpans being thrown. It was classic. Classic television. Thank you. Alright. Very good. Well, that was a bit of a dud for the first time we did that, BC. I don't know if that worked for you. Yeah, I think Dead Wrong is dead on arrival, Luke, okay? We're going to keep experimenting.

Hopefully we have, you know, donks for dongs eventually, Luke, where we just, yeah. Well, we have to. But here's the thing. I want to keep the segment because we have to have one where we acknowledge the errors that have happened. Yes. You know, I'm not sure who to blame for this one. I'm going to blame Jay because it's convenient. But, yeah, we're supposed to have those assets.

All right. What are you going to do? All right. Well, let's wrap on this one for the wednesday show we started off the program today bc talking about connor and what was uh the situation with dustin poirier let's put that aside for just a second but let's keep talking about connor i really want to discuss his future and where you think things might be headed because i know you were very pessimistic on monday's show but you at least would i think would agree there are a series of plausible

scenarios about which direction things can go and i don't just mean in 2020 frankly even 2021 let's say the next five years i don't think he has 10 years left as a prize fighter but maybe five if he wanted them which is obviously a big if as well. What to you is the most likely scenario with the following caveat? The one thing I was thinking about with him and why, like we had alluded to it earlier, why were things with him and Conor, excuse me, Dana, so broken? Part of it is that his method of success from, because he fought three times in 2015 and three times in 2016, B.C.

I mean, you were getting Conor almost every quarter out there competing. And Ronda Rousey was still out there as well. I mean, those were the heydays for the UFC. But he came along at a time where he knew how to manipulate the existing systems. That being the media ecosystem. That being how pay-per-view worked and ratings and blah, blah, blah. He was the ultimate company man because he would take on fights on short notice luke and take chances which always gets you ahead in ufc but he was also equally so

well aware of from a negotiation standpoint of what he brought to the table he was really the ultimate businessman which is why he's the pay-per-view record holder okay but he did that for a certain kind of business arrangement that is no longer in place this is my question to you in this new espn plus era where they go exclusively through them they can sell a lot less they get guaranteed money plus gravy on top they have numerous other existing contracts for overseas uh broadcast that is just guaranteed revenue coming in. UFC's got more guaranteed revenue in that sense than they ever have in the history of their company.

Frankly, I think part of what is happening here is maybe they're fatigued with Conor, maybe they want to preserve him for Khabib. Can he be the same businessman for his own success in a model where what he used before doesn't really work as well in this new paradigm. That's a very good question to start this off, Luke, because that leads me to believe, which even without the business model change, this could have been the direction we would go anyway at this point.

Conor is still only 32. Let's establish that. But two fights in four years, fresh off a point at the end of 2016 when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez in his lightweight debut where you literally could not put a ceiling on what was possible for him. When he would talk trash about going up and taking Tyron Woodley's belt, you know, your knee jerk is like, oh, come on, he'd get wrestled to death. But Pardew's like, dude, I got to see it, right? Fight Floyd? I got to see it, right?

There was a level of superheroism that we'd rarely seen in this sport because of the business change it's more likely though mixed with where his personality seems to be luke that he would be exclusively be a clout chaser he would exclusively be a guy who goes after the biggest fight available at every single turn maybe only once a year maybe more more like Floyd Mayweather's welterweight run until he did sign that very large deal with Showtime in 2013 and went on that run of fighting twice a year for three straight years. I think that's more likely, Luke, because how do you offset the fact that you won't make as much by staying busy?

Well, you make sure when you do come back that it's the largest event possible. And within that grounds, think luke he's only going to be in title fights when those title fights are convenient in that if it's a rematch with habib and there's a storyline and he can set pay-per-view records well then he's a title fighter again but outside of that luke i think we have all the makings you know for for a slow exit with, which is a couple big bangs here and there. But I think that's really maybe, and now we saw the DM, so I can counteract that, but that's really maybe one of the biggest problems of this COVID thing for UFC as a fight fan. Conor was possibly coming off that cowboy win looking to have a legitimate fight season

and fight on a regular basis for the first time in four years. And to get your response on this, I want to take you back to that Conor fight, because I think it's important, Luke. There's two ways you can look at it, or maybe you can blend it into both. But that was either the perfect, absolute get-well fight anybody could have ever gotten in a sport that never gives you stay-busies-and-get-well fights, of a washed cowboy who never delivers in the big moment can be starched quickly and connor took perfect advantage of it and all of us you know

who were jumping up and down thinking wow he could really be back we can make big fights it was all fool's gold or luke you can go back and re-watch those 40 something seconds and see a pretty dialed in sharp guy and you can go back during that fight week and see a guy who was actually pretty damn humble and seemed really happy to be back and seemed like he actually did. Diego Sanchez, uh, DM slides,

not withstanding, he actually did want to get back and plug in and climb the ladder and, and be the guy again, not just the guy who parachutes in for the big fights, but the guy again. So I want to ask you this, Luke. Are you more apt to believe it was all fool's gold and he was going to go the Diego-type route anyway,

or did you see something, and can you pair it with the Habib loss? All right? It's always going to be a bad matchup for Carter versus Habib, always. He could lose that way 10 out of 10 times. Yet I think you'd agree with me. He was coming off two years off, and he wanted to kind of say without saying during Cowboy Fight Week that there was a lot of extracurricular stuff going in the build to the Habib fight.

I think his actions publicly, press conferences, et cetera, bus window, et cetera, show you that. That, yeah, he was in shape, but he wasn't mentally where he needed to be there may have been some some fun and games going on outside the scenes that that didn't help him be the same wired guy i feel like whether it was fooled goal or not against cowboy that we actually saw a dialed back in full speed ahead guy and he could have done that to even better fighters than cowboy but i think the quarantine sadly may have broken that up luke what was there how do you read this whole situation who was connor in february when he or january whatever when he destroyed uh when

he destroyed cowboy and you know do you give any credence to the idea that that wasn't really him against habib how much you know are you going to believe in all these different hot plates I'm presenting to you? I mean, who is he? Who is he not? It's tautological, but he is who he is. Here's what I mean by that. Let's say Paulo Costa fought Israel Adesanya next month. Do I think the second fight would, at a bare minimum, look differently than the first one?

He still might lose, but would it look like the first one no i don't think that it would i think it would look very different he would try something different and maybe calamitously but i don't you know he certainly would learn from this one and make some kind of adjustments that he's capable of making adesanya of course would make some too but i am of the belief that like if connor fought khabib again would i favor khhabib to win yes yes I would do I think that Conor could make a stronger account of himself I absolutely do Conor's in this weird position where his critics say he can do nothing and his supporters say he walks on water so it makes getting an accurate read of his actual abilities kind of hard and then to your point you take the two years

off well you know there was the stupid ass boxing match but you know two years off and then in mma and then you know maybe he was training properly maybe he wasn't and got you know god only knows um i take that seriously i i fully believe that that is real. I think he actually is a very, very good fighter with a couple of really difficult shortcomings to get over. I don't think his gas tank is good, and I don't think it's ever going to be good. A little bit like Tyron Woodley in that regard. Was it good at 202, though?

Fair counter. Was it good at 202? It was good enough. That's the thing. It's not fatal. It's not fatal in that sense. But it's never going to be something where it's like, okay, this camp, I can go five rounds, and I'll be breathing through my nose by the 24th minute.

He's not like that. I don't think he's built for that kind of a thing. I think the second thing I'd say is, beyond just that being a known weakness, the ground game, I actually think he's got a good ground game. I don't think he's got a great one, but people kind of say that it's worse than it is. It's really not true. But what he did mostly against Khabib was like, oh, I shut down X, I shut down Y. Khabib was conservative in the ground game early.

And secondly, there's three levels to jiu-jitsu. There is survive, there's defense, and then there's offense. It was a lot of the survive and defense. There was no real guard play from him. There was no real sweeping. There was no real separation he was able to create with various kinds of butterfly hook lifts or whatever. And so to me, it's like, I don't think that's a fight he can win,

but do I think he can be more than what he has been? I absolutely believe that that is true. And I think you got a glimpse of that against, yeah, maybe Cerrone was just worn the fuck down by the time they fought. But I honestly think Khabib not being in the equation, we still don't know enough about Justin's limits. We know some, but not this new version. So it's a little harder to make a sense of things. But absent Khabib being there, do I think Conor could be champion again? Yes, I do. I'm not predicting that will happen or that he's my number one leader to get there. But do I see that as a

plausible scenario, BC? I absolutely do. I mean, here's what I really just can't wrap my head around. I understand that the COVID situation situation it fucked everyone's life up not just in this country in south america in europe in asia everywhere everyone has taken a bite of the shit sandwich on this one some bigger than others but it's not been great for anybody so ufc notwithstanding and i get that they have really re-prioritized their business around efficiency sake you know just the ability to cross the finish line make the events i i get that they have really reprioritized their business around efficiency sake you know just the ability to cross the finish line make the events i i get all of it and maybe bc we didn't talk about this either maybe that money they got from abu dhabi to bring

their shows to fight island maybe that site fee they got maybe it was a shitload and they're just like we don't need connor the same way that we did. On the other hand, I just can't quite figure out, unless you are totally cynical about Conor, how you haven't put him in a Jorge Masvidal fight, how you haven't found a way to do a Diaz fight. I've talked to Diaz's people. They're ready and willing to do that fight. That is not some hard thing to get them to cross the finish line. Or one of these other fights he's asking for. Dude, to me, everyone's like, why was he asking

for Diego? Because he's desperate. He had asked for all these other guys and Anderson Silva and all these other ones, and none of them came to fruition. BC, we're asking about his future. His future is hard to understand,

but as long as he can't get along with ufc it's going to be limited no matter what so is it more likely that his future if habib's true to his word saying one you know i'm not fighting connor again and two i'm done in april right of next year that's my final fight does connor's future begin when that division reopens then it doesn't have to like i don't recommend him boxing manny pacquiao and i'm pretty sure you don't recommend it either but like tell me which makes more sense jorge versus connor or jorge versus colby now i'm not saying either fight is bad well i mean both but aren't here's the thing bc wouldn't you agree they're different fights not just different people of course but i mean they

ultimately solve different problems yeah no no they do um i think it does come down to a certain degree of until that habib rematch is off the table for Dana, I just don't see him wanting to do anything but set that up. I mean, he would have given Conor the ability to fill in had somebody gotten injured, but to Conor's point, and maybe credit, you know, he's nobody's fill-in. He's not going to be the backup for anybody. He's not going to be a late replacement. That's fine.

I'm not necessarily against that. I kind of think he should have come back already and fought diaz i really mean that but the spirit of this question yeah uh you can make a lot of money off off the masvidal fight right now if you're ufc trying to push connor but the fact that they don't want to part of that equation is this you know stadiums once we can open the football stadium and get 20 30 40 000 in there you know 60 000 that could change a lot of things but i think until that fight is off the table because habib connor too is is really the only fight that i think you can get mayweather numbers on not four million but you can get mayweather

numbers on if you do it right if you could revitalize the hatred between them that's the true absolute uh we don't have to take cut corners and bring in the retired boxer. That's the two active guys who hate each other that are two of the best in the game. That is the one as a promoter that you can't let die. So until that dies, maybe we don't see him come back on that type of basis. But it sucks. He should have been back two or three times this year, and we would have found out a lot of bottom Luke. We could have scratched off some of these grudge matches.

We could have done a lot of things. I do tend to believe there is a lot left in that tank, though, if he's dialed in. And I think a lot of those little signs that I talked about, the week of the cowboy fight, and also when you look back at that Habib fight, it just didn't seem like him. There were no starch on the punches. Mentally, he was just so all over the place luke that that's not an excuse for the loss he went head to head in the biggest fight of all time

and he came up empty right he didn't have it he got knocked down by a wrestler uh but i don't think that was him so to speak and it kind of is a tough situation now when we look back over the last four years okay connor cashed in he put he put worldwide fame and in and gluttony of wealth above the the sort of you know foundational thing of i want to be great you know and i'm not i'm not here to damn that right people are in this game for different reasons this game will take a lot from you uh he says he has generational wealth and an all-time brand and has a whiskey line because of it and all that great stuff but luke how damaging was that to his fighter legacy when you consider he was walking on water at madison square garden in 2016 when he you know when he took apart eddie alvarez with that six punch combination or whatever at that point you're like this guy is going to be in the goat table

and he's going to compete with the silvers and GSPs for that. If he keeps this up and keeps climbing up and wait, and it's not that we didn't see limitations there. We saw him lose to Nate, all that. But do you think there was a little bit of selling your fighter legacy soul for the fame and the control that he ended up getting over his career that really no one else has because of it.

There's two kinds of changes to people who get a little fame and a little celebrity in this world and one is that it changes them internally while the rest of the world doesn't and it puts them at odds with it or they uh become something through fame and popularity and then hold on to it too long where now the rest of the world changed around you and you didn't and that puts you at odds with it it's hard to stay current with the world right it's hard i mean you know we're 240 something you know white dads like we don't know what's cool anymore and we have you gotta let that shit go we still have value to society bc but i'm being serious like it's hard to shirt i'm wearing i have no idea what's cool anymore i couldn't i mean i listen i see what's trending on youtube videos and i'm like holy crap i don't

even know who these people are anymore. And when you're 21, you don't ever think that way. You don't ever think you're going to age out. And so he's not aged out in that sense. But what I mean to say is, to go back to the original point, in these COVID times, which I do think really was a game changer over there. I know you're talking about 205. Give me just a second. What people really want, and why are we saying the UFC isc is killing it yes they're putting on some big fights but in

general it's because they're just consistent man they're just a consistent presence in your life they're reliable they're there they're visible you know and i think in these covet times with so much uncertainty and the titan's gonna play because they bunch of their players got coveted the last couple of days and blah blah blah You just feel like the world is changing around you and slipping. And the best thing to be right now is consistent. Connor at 205 was like, okay, I'm playing with house money. Remember at that post-fight presser with his glasses on like me, he was like, I want shares in the company. He already knew he was going to ask for that when he beat Eddie Alvarez.

He knew that was the plan, and he did it. And a bunch of us were like, I don't think that's the worst idea in the world. It was an amazing way to manipulate things. And part of that new era was, okay, I took every Tom, Dick and Harry fight I had to on the way up here on schedules that were not accommodating, had the knee injury heading into the Mendez fight and blah, blah, blah. I'm not doing that shit anymore. I'm going to, I'm going to pick my shots. I'm going to be very careful. If I want to sit out, I'll sit out. If I want to take a Mayweather fight, I will. That style of just on the bench when I feel like it,

I don't think that works right now. That, to me, is the issue. So you're saying, did he play it wrong from that moment? Well, in the world in which he was playing it, no. No, I don't think he necessarily was misplaying it. It was frustrating for you and I, but was he really damaging his stock per se? Maybe it went on a little long, a little bit too far.

He played it. But honestly, I don't think that's the real thing. I think the world has changed around us and he hasn't adapted yet. And until he does, I don't know. I honestly don't know what to say about him. There's a romantic notion of, you know, what could his fighter legacy have capped out at if he didn't walk away in 2016? But there's also the, I mean, you know,

tell me if I'm wrong here, there's also the reality of frickin' Habib Nurmagomedov. If Conor had stayed active, let's say he took six months off for the birth of his son to open 2017, right? You're still gonna have to see Habib, right? You know what I mean? So who would he have fought in 17 and 18 in your eyes, Luke? Would he have lost to Habib, done the trilogy with Nate,

done the rematch with Habib? I mean, we could be in some ways in the same spot anyway, correct? Right, but here's the thing. To your point, if he had stuck around in those years, who would he have fought? Well, there was no shortage of names you could have lined up, but given his status and given what he was trying to do and let's be clear about it mayweather said this and i think it's true i don't say it as a slight i'd say it because no one else was even

eligible to do it he was borrowing the mayweather game plan like i'm so elevated i'm gonna have my own promotions company i'm gonna be a partner with the networks and blah, blah, blah. He was trying to do that. Of course, he went his own way with the alcohol sales, and God bless him for it. But I don't begrudge him not taking those fights. Again, I think my one real issue was he stayed way too long out overall, and then the L with the fight against um uh mayweather wasn't great the other thing i'd say is you want to borrow the mayweather game plan this isn't boxing right here's what i

mean to say mayweather had such an advantage over his opponents and was so far ahead of them technically that he could take time off he also bc as you well know did he not have multiple retirements yes he did and he came back and he would still win fights but he was very selective i think not very selective he was a little bit more selective in the last two chapters of his career in terms of who he picked but here's the deal that game caught up with him too but he still had such a gap that it might have narrowed but not narrowed enough to matter my donna got pretty close with the corkscrew punches, but not really. You can't really do that in modern MMA.

Modern MMA is changing like that. And he wasn't, and Conor wasn't DJ or Jon Jones where he had that type of game. Conor was almost winning fights you didn't think he could have, which was almost like old Muhammad Ali, if there's any comparison between the two there. So you're right. It's not the type of built in foundation where taking time off will ever help you. That's right.

So but the last point on this piece, and I'll put you back to you here in just a second, is, you know, he was thinking promotionally as a businessman, how do I exert muscle for maximum gain? And then meanwhile, the game just kind of moved along. And by the time he wanted to go back to MMA, it was a little bit, not too little too late, but it was a little too late for that particular moment against Habib.

Still, he is out there training. I don't know how well anyone's guess. We both, I think, share this view. It's not the end of the world. He still has more left in the tank. So I'll pitch it back to you in this sense, BC. Let's say he really has enough to get back out there and compete in UFC in 2020, 2021, and so forth. We talk about how much losing, how bad a fight with Pacquiao might go.

But he's already having trouble negotiating with UFC to get what he wants. Does part of you think that maybe the UFC wants this Pacquiao fight to happen because he would lose so badly it would drain his stock and he would be forced to do not whatever they wanted, but it would significantly limit his options? I like that back-end conspiracy theory right there because you always have to think Dana's where he is, not because he's a jerk, because he's freaking smart, right?

So you always got to be one step ahead, but no. I think the damage to the brand isn't worth it. So here's the deal. Let me come back. Is Conor smarter than we think? Does he have no plans to box back? Yeah, and this is all a ruse to get the price and situation that he wants in the UFC also in play, Luke.

I'm going to hit you with a quick rapid fire. I need a yes or no, no caveats here about Conor, where he's been and where he's going. Luke, are you ready? Right now, is he one of the 10 best fighters in the world? Yes or no? Pound for pound? Yes. No.

Will he ever reach the level, critically, not commercially, that he was against Eddie Alvarez at 205 again? No. That's a pretty high fucking bar, though. That is pretty freaking high, yeah. Will he ever beat a top 15 pound-for-pound fighter again? Yes. Okay. And if

yes or no aside, if you had the handicap the next year, your best guess, where's he going? What's it going to look like? I kind of tend to think he does fight Pacquiao. I don't know if that's the most likely scenario, but I do think he's trying. I mean, here's the thing, BC bc i'm trying to wrestle with and maybe

you can help me imagine for me just a second we're talking about his future right it's really what it's all about we're drawing lessons from his past about what it all means can you imagine if he sits out the rest of 2020 and 2021 and decides to come back when at that point it's really too late we're talking about the game shifting but you can imagine how much it'll shift in the next year like what would be the story there like what would people say would they blame connor would they blame dana i mean on some level you can blame who you want it's a loss for us all it's a loss for us all if this guy sits out long enough where we begin to ask questions not what he could have been but why did we waste our time not embracing the moment that we had win or

lose just to see what was there that seems like such a calamitous waste yeah and right now he's trending to be more brock lesnar or ronda rousey in history where it's a little bit more about the impact he had than what he accomplished where there was a time when he was trending to be, you know, with GSP and Anderson Silva. So, you know, history will blame him. But if this is the end, Luke, if it really is where it's done with him being a real fighter and then we just see a couple of different cash-ins before he walks away or boxes, you know, some ill-advised opportunities there, or maybe it goes to the Jake Paul business. Who knows?

It will have been, Luke, one of the more uh you can only lament right where we were in 2016 to where we are now from that regard of a of a great fighter and what he could have been or the potential or maybe you're a connor hater from day one and it's like it's always been smoke and mirrors he got lucky that uh mendes took the fight last minute. He got lucky that Aldo walked into one punch. I mean, look, you know, he got lucky he wasn't exposed more. It's very interesting. I like deep diving it with you, but there's no way to really handicap it, Luke. You know what the big difference is between Mayweather and Conor? There's a lot of differences.

You know what the big one is, though? Skin color? One's a lot of differences. You know what the big one is, though? Skin color? One's black. No. Mayweather bought out his contract from top rank. That's the difference. I want you to imagine a world where after UFC 205, Conor's a free agent.

And not that he signs with Bellator or one, I don't mean that. He stays with UFC. But he does these one-fight deals where he's in total control, total command. If he wants to take a detour and go fight Adrian Broner or whatever, he could. That's interesting. What does that look like?

Now, that's something I haven't even thought of. And just so people have full reference, Floyd was about to become a breakout star. Bob Arum in top rank was his promoter back in, like, 06. They're like, you know, 07, we want you to fight your toughest fight to date. Antonio Margarito will offer you $8 million. Floyd was like, dude, I could make $20 million. I want to fight De La Hoya. Bob was like, no, you can't.

For $750,000, Floyd bought out that deal and then started making $20 million every single fight. So he was right. Is there a world in which Conor can piecemeal, to your point, one championship, you know, PFL, you know, whatever suitor. And I haven't even thought about a Broner fight. You want to talk about a guy in Broner who has a fading brand who could who needs. That's why I wanted to fight Amir Khan, who needs somebody who's flawed but is still famous to sort of.

That's why I've always wanted to see Broner against Floyd, by the way way and i say don't ever count that out right student versus teacher that's you know you were there right that you were you at that fight in dc when he was like floyd needs to see me after he beat ashley theophane yes i was completely there yeah it's like that's like tv that night uh that's an interesting build toward that can we do that in showtime pay-per-view luke but don't you think it's interesting it's like what fights would he have taken if he was on a one fight deal and had the control over his destiny that floyd had i mean what is the lesson there because the answer is who knows maybe he fought pacquiao maybe he fought canelo well let's map it out luke you want it you want him to fight eddie alvarez in one in a rematch you want to do that here's what i'm saying

you can't understand the conor mcgregor story and this this particular chapter of it and certainly not the next one without understanding and i'm not trying to beat a dead horse but it just really is a relevant factor bc the nature of ufc contracts the nature of the mma industry how much the fighters are at the mercy of their promoters because it's not just ufc it's all of them, and how much that narrows their options and what it means for how they define their future, Floyd had essentially free, not totally, but essentially free reign.

Conor has to constantly go back to the parents to figure out a way to work with them, and it changes the entire dynamic. I mean, is there a world world luke where that is realistic where he says f you dana i will box and fight mma on my own terms are there enough names out there for us to care yes yes absolutely sure you're gonna connor mvp and bellator connor alvarez two and one um connor douglas you could do you could do um rory and pfl no he couldn't do that you couldn't do that you could have him box or kickbox for sure you know which would be a waste but it would just sort of tell you like this is where we're at on

this whole thing luke you had mentioned paulo costa and i did want to just follow up real quick did you see the video he put out where he was very angry about adesanya humping him even though paula had some you know fairly uh homophobic comments in the build-up himself as well but that he sort of teased that there's an injury or that there's something that would explain his performance and then a lot of people were coming back and saying look he didn't throw one right hand in that fight luke has your love of dissecting Adesanya and me making him number three pound for pound in the world

right now, are we missing the fact that Costa was hurt and shouldn't have taken the fight? No. He might have been hurt. Lots of guys show up to fight hurt. You show up, you get judged accordingly. Again, I will add to that. I will add to that, will add to that bc i am perfectly

willing to admit a second fight could go very differently yes but you get you get judged how you get judged and that's the end of it i mean this guy right here kane you know that guy i'm one of the worst wrestlers of all time uh kane velasquez uh did that in on fox in the first jds fight showed up with a knee injury got knocked out out, came back and won back the title, though. I was wondering. I thought Kane was supposed to be a good wrestler and then just kind of fizzled out. Okay, so in-ring, he's good. In-ring, he's better than he should be.

But here's the problem here. It looks now in hindsight as if Vince McMahon and company only threw money at him to avoid him going to AEW right when they were rising up the competitor. And WWE, it seemed like all they did was appease to Saudi Arabia, put him in there against Brock Lesnar, which actually had a storyline, right? They started to tell the story pretty well for the rematch. And then they went to Saudi and Brock beat him by Kimura in like under a minute, which

tells no story at all. And then they pretty much cut Cain Velasquez once the quarantine hit. So, um, yeah, the problem here is Cain can't talk at all. And Luke, you know, Vince McMahon's a body guy.

Cain showed up for that with like love handles and stuff, dude, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta juice bro. All right. You gotta, you gotta,

you gotta be willing to jump in the gyno pool. Okay. And, uh, you know, if you want to, if you want to win over VKM, all right? It's just the way it works.

Yeah, well, you know what? I understand it. Okay, BC. Well, we're still working out some of the kinks. We'll be back on Friday with another show. Dark Knight, brother. We'll get you ready for Home vs. Aldana. What do you want to do about the Dark Knight? You want to do a bit on that on Friday?

Yeah, this Friday. That'll be our first sort of re-watch and reaction. I will be watching this film. I may have to buy it. I'm not sure. But I will watch it for the first time. This is the second in the new Batman trilogy, correct? With your director friend there? Alright, I did see the

first one. I'm ready. I'm going to be watching it. We are ready. WebScream has told me it's the greatest movie of all time. Well, that's a little much. It's certainly better than the first Batman. Excuse me. It's better than any of the other Batmans.

The third of the new Christopher Nolan films with Bane is better than the first one, but not better than Heath Ledger. Heath Ledger is amazing in this movie. All right. I'm expecting Rocco Soffredi here. If I show up and it's Joe Benavidez below the belt there, then... I don't know how many people will be gagging on phallic objects, so maybe you're going to be a little bit disappointed in that regard. But to be clear, to be clear, we want you guys to...

To be clear, I'm sure Joe Jitsu's packing heat for his size. I'm not trying to, you know... Shout out to the Olivies. I'm very happy for them. Thank you. Here's what I'm saying. For folks who are watching right now, between now and Friday, we want you to also watch The Dark Knight, and then together we're going to discuss it. We want your feedback as well.

So your homework assignment between now and 11 a.m. on Friday, go watch The Dark Knight. I'm not sure where it is. I'm sure you can get it on YouTube for just a couple of bucks if you don't already own it. Watch that and then discuss it with us. If you have any questions for us about The Dark Knight, about anything else, LukeThomasNews at gmail.com.

Well, BC, we've got a lot of things to still work out. We've got a lot of kinks in the old production schedule. We're going to get it done. If you want to follow us and subscribe, there you have it right there. We're on Instagram. We're on Twitter. We're on YouTube. We're in a bunch of places, BC.

Any final parting messages for our loyal audience? We're going to be all over you, in your face hole, in your ear hole. We're going to work this thing out. Monday's got a lot of bells and whistles. We're going to find those same ones for Wednesday and Thursday. Please email Luke. Be a part of the process. Let's build this arc together, if you will, Noah Thomas.

And we could jump in and sail away from all the other boring fight talk shows because this is your new home right here. MK. All day. Every day. There you have it. Alright, big thanks to Showtime. Big thanks to Malka. If you want to try Showtime, Showtime.com right now. You can try it for 30 days free. If you like it, keep it. If not, go away. You want to get this free, not free swag, but you want to get this

cool swag right here. Store.show.com. What you got, BC? This Saturday, Showtime regular. Going to be re-airing the Charlo Brother double pay-per-view that you and I were a part of. You heard us break down the fights. Some very good ones on that six-fight double card. Be sure to check that out on Showtime. Hey, why don't you check it out for free?

30 days. And while you're there, go to the app. Go to the folder. Strikeforce Morning Combat Classics. Luke, me, Mauro Ranallo, Scott Coker. Reliving the greatest fights in Strikeforce history. app go to the folder strike force morning combat classics luke me more ronaldo scott coker relive in the greatest fights in strike force history inside stories i do want to sell this properly scott coker with some inside stories never to be heard before good stuff indeed he takes a shot at vadim finkelstein which you will want to hear trust me uh okay vadami yes yes vadami that's

right uh with that in mind that is it for us today we are back on Friday at 11 my live chat is tomorrow at what someone mentioning my name I can't hear something this is the worst okay all right with that in mind

that was awkward that was super awkward terrible show all right with that in mind I'm Luke Thomas that's Brian Campbell. Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. Yeah! Are you in? Woo-hoo! This is our time.

The world's changed. And you are right in the center of it I don't know what's ahead but all bets are off