MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - McGregor vs. Volkanovski? | Weekend Storylines | Sterling vs. Cejudo | Ep. 294

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

On Episode 294 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian look ahead to a packed weekend of fights. The boys start off by discussing the biggest storylines from UFC Fight Night: Font vs. Vera, Shakur Stevenson vs. Oscar Valdez and Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano. Next up the guys break down Dana White's comments about a potential Alexander Volkanovski vs. Conor McGregor fight. The boys also discuss Aljamain Sterling vs. Henry Cejudo. They close out the main topics with a PFL preview and some quick hitters. (6:50) - Weekend Storylines (49:40) - Volkanovski vs. McGregor (64:30) - Aljamain Sterling vs. Henry Cejudo (71:30) - PFL Preview (74:20) - Quick Hitters (86:20) - Truth or Trivia 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:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a Wednesday edition of Morning Combat, and we intended to talk about many things today, including BC, the fact that it's my daughter's third birthday. Happy birthday, feliz cumpleaños, to my daughter, Violeta. But we have business to attend to. Hello, everyone. I'm one half of the Morning Combat hosting duo. My name is Luke Thomas, joined on the other side of the screen by the Viceroy of Connecticut, my friend and yours. He's very chatty this morning. Very chatty.

It's Brian Campbell. What's up, BC? Sorry, Luke. Apparently I made a bunch of our employees uncomfortable on this morning's pre-Zoom call. But I'm here to provide the same compliment to our viewers as well for the next two hours when we've got a fantastic show on this thump day luke in fact we're gonna put you in that chair luke okay i don't mean the electric chair but it might as well be the mk equivalent when you sit down and play a little truth or trivia brother oh shit truth or trivia we'll do that today are we doing fan subs as well

or not yes we are okay fan subs as well so we? Yes, we are. Okay. Fan subs as well. So we have a busy, busy Wednesday show for you with a slate of weekend fights that are a couple of decent. There's actually a couple of good fights, but mostly on the boxing side. The MMA this weekend. Yo, Mother Effer, it's a great weekend for boxing main events. Great. Okay.

Yeah. MMA, good main event, actually. I will not hate on the main event. The main event is legit. But everything else is not that money. All right, we'll talk about it just the same. Would you go as far as saying Basura, Luke? It's trash, you know.

It's very disrespectful to call it trash, but let's put it this way. There's not much star power on these cards. Not much star power. All right, so thumbs up on the video. If you're watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe if you haven't. If you're listening on podcasts, thank you just the same. Give us a nice review on whatever podcast platform you use. BC, of course, you mentioned, or I mentioned we're doing fan subs.

Best way to get those in, morningcombat at gmail.com. Those are also for Fridays Dead Wrong. Also, if you just need to reach the show, showtime.com is the label that pays. You can go to showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. In BC, you're for once not wearing MK gear,

but if you want to, you can get some, morningcombat.store. In fact, if you want to come and get some, now would be a great time. Our fantastic merch maven, RJ Dinklehopper, told me today, Luke, that we're running a special, a promo right now. It's called Live 10. You want 10% off all the great shit we got at MorningCombat.store? Why don't you do that?

Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and get 10% off there using our code LIVE10? Luke, the one thing I'll always say, disagree with the designs all you want. Can you wear all of it to your kid's soccer game? Probably not. But the quality fantastic okay fan it is nice quality yeah it is nice quality and we got some stuff coming up for you know some big milestones in the year so be on the lookout for

that um all right bc if you are ready i am ready to get one more thing luke yes it's a it's a big week for comedy even beyond the shit I say, but I really enjoyed your appearance on Brendan Schaub's Thick Boy Nation pod. I think he's right. You are the face of Showtime, and I'm happy to be along on this journey with you. It's like, I don't know how true. I mean, it's a very generous thing to say, but I don't know how true that is in part because I'm not on Showtime.

It's like, if you watch Showtime, you'd actually never see me. So I don't know how true that is. But you know what? It was a nice thing to say, and I think a special comes out tomorrow. So be on the lookout for that. All right. B-Sizzle, you ready to get this show going? Yeah, I'm ready to get this party started, Luke, okay?

All right. It's my party, all right? Let's do it, okay? And you'll cry if you want to. It's a great weekend for the box, Luke. I can't wait to get inside that box, you know? I mean, same goals I had as a teenager, Luke, only I was unsuccessful then, right?

I know. And then you wonder why everyone was uncomfortable on the morning call. It's like, I can't wait to get inside that box. What did I say? What did I say? You are a walking HR violation. Great sport, Luke, okay?

It's the best sport, maybe. All right. Let's start with topic number one, if we can. Let's talk about it, Luke, please. Okay. VC, topic number one. We start with the UFC this weekend. Now, as I mentioned, the card itself, again, calling it good

or bad, it is true that we don't know what will happen with the fights. But it is also quite true that whatever ends up happening eventually, there's very little star power on the card. And a lot of these guys are coming off contender series, or like their one fight past contender series. But not in the main event. The main event is pretty great, actually. In fact, I love it.

Rob Font at Bantamweight taking on Marlon Vera. And both of these guys, BC, have a lot going for them. Both of them, I would say Rob Font getting his last win over Garbrandt was the big one. But then, you know, face planting Frankie Edgar with a front kick, if you're Chito Vera, ain't too bad either. Both of these guys are coming off of wins over some of the bigger names in that division. Size this one up for me. When you think about what these two are really going for, is it that top three placement? Is it to prove that they're the next guy in line? What is it? Yeah, it's for absolute legitimacy and to prove that they're within that top five, that

they're in striking distance of a title shot. And Rob Font got pretty damn close with that win streak you mentioned, got brought back down to earth by the great Jose Aldo. And to some degree, Marlon Vera did the same three fights ago when he also lost to Aldo. The difference is that Vera has won two straight. You mentioned it. Front kicking the answer to the question of who's one of the greatest fighters in history. And that's Frankie Edgar. He set him down, Luke.

Now they're going to fight each other. And look, you know, I mean, I can go overboard on telling you this card ain't deep at all. We're in a little bit of a season of weak-ass fight night cards. But I'll say this. We're about a week away from a fantastic pay-per-view May 7th in Phoenix. And at least UFC's keeping the show on the road and putting these fights out. And this main event, it is must-see, Luke. And I think it's for legitimacy above all else.

They're both battle-tested. They both won and lost at a very high level. Which one, though, at a key point in both of their careers, is going in the right direction? They're going to have to go through each other to get there. And, Luke, when you look at these betting odds, they really reflect how good this fight is just a few days out when we have Marlon Vera plus 110 underdog, minus 130 Rob Font the favorite. Do you agree with that setup entering this one

a little bit yeah um yeah probably a because the odds are so close i agree with that and i could see even though font is coming off that loss to aldo which was thorough the winner garbrandt was equally thorough in the positive direction aldo is an all-time great so it's not like you can't it's not like you can ignore the aldo fight in fact that's part of it but you know font's ability and we'll talk more about this on friday but font's ability to sit behind the jab font's ability to move font's striking defense i mean he did go the distance with john lineker both these guys i think actually went the distance with john lineker so he's durable he's tough, actually went the distance with John Lineker. So he's durable. He's tough.

And he's very, very fundamentally sound. Chito Vera, a little bit more of a wide-open style. A little more Muay Thai-ish in that way. A little more leg-kick heavy. Whereas Font is box-heavy. And Font might be... I have to look at the numbers, actually. I don't have them in front of me.

In fact, I'll pull them up. But I'd be curious to see who has the higher output. I would imagine it's actually, in terms of strikes landed per minute, I'm going to to guess i'm going to guess it's actually rob font and let's see strikes landed per minute yeah it is by a significant margin 5.64 for rob font just 4.08 which is still high for marlon vera dude he gets busy behind that thing but i think he you're looking at the rankings to bc you've got font sitting at five you've got vera sitting at eight for vera this is a much bigger fight than i would say for font font beat garbrandt

then tasted the aldo level and had to come back down to earth as a bit as you indicated for vera he got his biggest i think profile fight in terms of not so much quality per se although he's a quality fighter as well but the the the biggest limelight has been from the O'Malley fight, which he won, but that didn't offer quite the same level of bona fides that beating Rob Font would, and it would arguably push him into the top five. And just remember, who's in that top four space, BC? Sterling is your champion, then it's Jan, then it's Dillashaw, then it's Aldo, then it's Sandhagen.

All four guys who on the right night could probably beat maybe the other guy that's a little debatable but they're all pretty close you enter just south of that territory just south of that top four fray that would be new territory for Marlon Vera and I would argue the biggest win of his career by far yeah no no question it'd be three wins in a row it'd be the the biggest win of his career. He is ranked number eight coming in. Font ranked number fifth. It's essentially Vera's chance to take Font's spot in the rankings and really welcome all killers from here on out, whether it's

the number six ranked Marab Davilashili. Look, how am I saying that? Right or wrong? Because I can't. So I always thought it was Davalashvili, but then they apparently say their V's like W's, so it would be DeWallish wheelie. There ain't no chance in hell it's DeWallish wheelie, Luke. I'm just saying that's how they say it.

I don't know, but that's how they say it on the broadcast. I don't know. I mean, it wouldn't be hanging out with Luke until you send me an audio file of your wife attempting to pronounce a name, Luke. No, I just know people are stupid, and they think they're going to dead wrong me, so I want to get a native speaker saying some words just to be on the safe side.

It's a preemptive strike, right? I like it. I like it. Protect yourself at all times, BC. That's what I say. But obviously Rob Funk coming off that big loss is still in the No. 5 spot with Aldo moving up to 3. So no shortage of stakes.

Luke, do you believe either man, and obviously we have to wait to see who wins, who, who appears to have the upper hand. Do you believe either, either man are a legitimate threat to this world title in the sports deepest division? Not saying a win here gets them, you know, it gets them decently close, but we're not saying a win here gets them next. There's a lot of crowded names here. You see Dillashaw doing a lot of interviews. God, Henry Cejudo could be parachuting in all we know next. But do you think the winner here could win the damn title? I don't know if I believe in either of these guys yet on that level. That's right.

I mean, part of what they could achieve here is not just a rankings move or some of the other things we've indicated, but it's a question of, like, could they inspire you as a future title hopeful, which is what your question is. I'll say this. Font beating Vera, it's not like Vera is a poor fighter. He's in the main event for a reason.

He's very, very good, but because he lacks that sort of major, I mean, the Edgar win is nice, but we know Edgar is close to the end of his run. It wouldn't represent, I don't know what you could learn from that, but I'll say it the other way. This is sort of like a good part for Chito Vera. You know, Aldo couldn't put away font, right? That one went the full distance if memory serves.

I believe that's correct. And so, yeah, it was a decision. So it's not like Chito Vera has to go in there and finish him, but I'll say this, if Chito Vera can put it on Rob Font in a way where he can clearly show you that there's a distance between me and this other guy, finishing him I think would be very difficult. But if he did that, like Vera to me has an opportunity here. Not so much Rob Font, at least from what we can tell. But for sure on the Chito side, Rob Font we know to be quality. We know how he measures up so far against the very best he's close but no cigar if Chito can give us something like what those other guys can do

yes you're playing a little MMA math when you do that but dude I'm just pointing out nobody beats Rob Font who isn't very good and even the ones who are very good don't beat him easily what if you saw something like Chito Vera go in there I'm just going to imagine a scenario where Chito goes in there and just kind of beats him up.

That would provide you maybe title aspirations are still a little bit far away, but that would completely shift, I think, how a lot of folks think about Vera, who is good, maybe not great. You go in there and you beat the shit out of Rob Font. Dude, you're a very good fighter at that point. Yeah, I got two quick questions on this topic. One, you mentioned that this Rob Font wins since he's ranked fifth. If Chito gets a win here on Saturday, it could be the biggest win of his career.

But don't you think long-term that win over Sugar Sean O'Malley to slow his hype, even with the injury, although I don't think the injury was the main reason for that defeat. Luke, that may end up being his best win when all is said and done and he retires one day. Possible. It's possible. But again, we still don't know the full upside of Sugar Sean O'Malley we know again is Sean O'Malley talented yes of course he's obviously very very good but we don't have enough of a measuring stick to say exactly how good he is with Rob Font dude we have a pretty good idea about how good Rob Font is and he's really really good he's a very excellent technically well-trained and at this point very experienced. He has seen a lot of what this division has to offer,

and I would argue in ways that even Chito Vera has not. So this is my point. I don't know what will happen on Saturday, but if Vera can go in there and be like, I'm just going to mug this guy, that would be a real wake-up call about how far his potential, he's raised his own potential and how far he's come. And, again, would help you reimagine what would actually be possible for him to win in a UFC cage. Beating Rob Font is very difficult to do. Again, look at Rob Font's losses. He has the loss to Aldo.

He has the loss to Asuncao, which was back in 2018. I would favor Font to beat Asuncao now. Pedro Munoz, he's a tough one, and Pedro got him with the guillotine choke. And then John Lineker, who he went the distance with. Now, that's not an unimpeachable resume, but since the Asuncao loss, he beat Pettis, the current Bantamweight champion, who we know to be very good, Ricky Simone, Marlon Maraich, and Cody Garbant. Dude, I know that those wins are not unimpeachable.

You can always nitpick a few things here or there. Those are solid wins, man. Those are really good wins. And he TKO'd Marlon as well. But critical question number two in this pack of questions that have now become a trio. Number two, Luke, if Rob Font loses yet another put-his-head-above-water check where he's really at moment,

is he destined to become the neil magny of this division i think neil accepts a little bit more risk with the matchmaking which isn't to say that rob's had an easy time but i think rob is definitely looking a little bit more focused at a purposeful path towards ascension whereas i think neil just has this you know gunslinger mentality and uh they're a little bit different. So I don't know if the analogy works so well for me. It was a reach, Luke. It was a reach. OK, but my third. But I'll say this. I'll say this. Like it would firmly entrench him in the back half of the top 10 for sure. Indeed. Finally, Luke Chido Vera, who I love, by the way, is a great interview. His Ecuadorian heritage, is that close enough to Colombian

where you have welcomed him under the wings of whatever he does from here on out? I got his back. It's one of the three Bolivarian states, which is why the Ecuadorian, Colombian, and Venezuelan flag looks alike. But despite how, I would actually say Colombians have more in common with Venezuelans. They're a little bit more alike culturally than the other way around.

You actually see a lot. I mean, obviously, now there's been a humanitarian crisis, but my point being is if you go to Colombia, you see Venezuelans everywhere. Not just poor and destitute ones, but there's a lot of them. I don't recall ever meeting anyone from Ecuador in all my travels there. Take that for what it's worth. Anec travels there. So take that for what it's worth.

Anecdotal, but take that for what it's worth. The lady who cuts my hair is from Ecuador, Luke, okay? What part? Do you know? No. It's just one big old country. It's all the same. Right near the beach, your boy.

Probably close to the equator, I'm going to guess, Luke. Probably close. Probably close to the equator, yes. That's a fair assessment, PC. All right. Also on this on this card again the rest of the card not that great but there are some interesting fights orlovsky is back dude orlovsky is off another unbelievable win streak listen to this his last loss didn't come until tom aspinall which was in february of 2010 and before that was jairzino rosenstreich which was 2019. Since then, he's beaten Felipe Lins, Tanner Bosser, Chase Sherman, Carlos Felipe, and then Jared Vandera.

This weekend, he takes on Jake Collier, who is a little heavier set. This guy used to compete at middleweight and now is heavyweight. He's up and down. He has won and lost alternately all the way dating back to 2014. It comes off of a win over Chase Sherman. High expectations for this one.

I can't imagine that you do, but Arlovsky has proven to be a very, very durable guy. Dude, UFC loves doing this. When they have a shitty-esque fight night card, they're like, do we have heavyweights on here? They have to be in the co-main event. Look, no. Is this another winnable fight for Arlovsky

in this, I want to say his twilight, but this is like his twilight after the twilight. Look, no. Is this another winnable fight for Arlovsky in this, I want to say his twilight, but this is like his twilight after the twilight, Luke. Yes, it is. So that's interesting, but I have much more focus on some potential bangers, Luke, including Touchy Feely against Joe Anderson Brito, but maybe more specifically, Luke,

this, um, Darren the Damage, or the Danger, whatever he calls him, whatever his weird chest hat says, Elkins, against Tristan Connolly, who's that guy, Luke, that gassed out me. Isn't that the guy that gassed out Michelle Podeta? Like a couple divisions higher, or am I the wrong man? I think it is. I don't know.

This is a featherweight battle. There's too many for me to remember. Yeah. You know, I can look that up. But there's a couple okay fights is my point up and down this card Luke does do any of those move you as does uh Christophe Jotko against Gerald Mearshardt that's that's interesting at least nah not really I would say a couple things I would point to the ones that stand out to me Andre Feely he gave Bryce Mitchell actually a pretty tough fight a

much tougher fight than Edson Barboza now Now, Bryce Mitchell won that one cleanly, but if you go back and you watch, Feely definitely had a couple of moments where he was giving him some trouble, and then he takes on a guy off the contender series who had a loss, I think, in his UFC debut, Joey Anderson-Brito. That's an interesting fight.

A couple other ones to pay attention to, this dude, Johan Lainessi, I'm not sure how you pronounce his name correctly, undefeated out of Canada, but the other one, undefeated out of Vale Tudo, Japan, Tetsuro Taira, I'm not sure how you pronounce his name correctly undefeated out of canada but the other one undefeated out of valetudo japan tetsuro i'm gonna say tyra i'm not sure how you pronounce it tara uh he's undefeated again prospect out of the flyweight out of japan kind of like a good looking dude to see how far he can go because what he's shown so far has been pretty interesting but other than that i don't really have a ton of interest in this car to be

perfectly honest with you. Yeah, Luke, Tristan Connolly gassed out Michelle Podeta and beat him in that fight, which was a low point in 2019 for Pereira. But since then, he's coming off a loss to Pat Sabatino. Now he's down to featherweight, so that should be an interesting brawl. But yeah, Luke, this is really a... It's thin. I mean, it's kind of like when you walk into Cumberland Far and you're hoping dude you're fucking hoping they got those grill the grillers the

roller you know you you're hoping and then all they have luke is our hot dogs you're like you know i mean it's i'll take it right you know it's like it's not good for me but i'll take it yeah that's about how i feel i mean there's the main event is great and everything after that is you know i mean the main event couple gems pretty good lu after that is a couple gems. I mean, the main event's pretty good, Luke. We're pretty good. But can we put this UFC thing behind us and all you MMA-only fans can tune out now? Because, Luke, this boxing weekend is studly. It's like me.

There's two big main events. We'll go in order. First main event, Shakur Stevenson taking on Oscar Valdez. Second main event, Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano. Let's start with Stevenson versus Valdez second main event Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano let's start with Stevenson versus Valdez BC set the table because if you are a boxing fan they are super excited about this one Shakur Stevenson who may be the future of the sport I don't think it's all that crazy to say he could be could be taking on another hammer in Valdez odds are close but people favor Stevenson set the table for MMA fans who are these guys and why does this fight matter?

Two undefeated fighters, both champions at 130 pounds, looking to unify titles. First time, by the way, this division will have a unified championship bout since Manny Pacquiao was last year in 2009. So that tells you the distance. Here's why this really matters. Everything you said about Shakur Stevenson was true. Silver medalist at the 2016 Olympic games, you know, maybe had a little hiccups here outside the ring and here or there had a couple of performances that were a little, you know, calm, but when he stepped up in class and put his nose to the grindstone,

Luke, he's special. In fact, don't forget three fights ago. I said, look, this guy's going to end up being the pound for pound King. Look,

he's on his way to doing that. I also think he's on his way of rising in weight, a former champion at one 26. Now a champion at 130. Southpaw, boxer, is really, I think, the only fighter now, deserving of Mayweather praise and comparison. And that's crazy. And I am talking more about pretty boy Floyd Mayweather, the younger version of him than the welterweight Money May. But the point is, we don't compare anybody to Floyd Mayweather for a reason. But he's got the slickness, the toughness, not a big power puncher, but just a genius in there. And Luke, he's facing such a style contrast that could be perfect in terms of entertainment.

Could be. And that's Oscar Valdez, who we remember won a title at 126. Stevenson became as mandatory there. And Team Stevenson has said all along that Oscar Valdez has been ducking him. And that's why he moved up to 130. But look, he did move up to 130 and take on the badass at 130, Miguel Burchell. And he hammered him. He knocked him the hell out in the knockout of the year. Since then, though, there's the footage from that Robeson-Consezal fight in which Oscar Valdez drank the tea that popped him for drugs. The fight still went on controversially. Valdez won a close but disputed decision. So his stock last year was at an all-time high after the win over Burchell, but kind of came back down to life. He is trained by Eddie Reynoso, the manager and trader of Canelo Alvarez. And Luke, he is a former brawler who has really

figured out how to become a full-time boxer puncher. So the ground is set for this because, you know, Stevenson's still claiming that Valdez's team tried to duck him for this fight, that they were trying to get Emmanuel Navarrete in the ring for a title fight. We're going to have it. It's going to be in Las Vegas. The best news for boxing fans as it relates to that other great fight is that top rank in ESPN and DAZN, which is handling the women's fight, have agreed to stagger their main events so they're not on at the same time. This is one of those, like, rare wins for us in the boxing game.

But here's ultimately, beyond just the fact that it's unbeaten champion versus unbeaten champion in two names that the hardcores know that are on the verge of breaking through here's why this fight really matters it's because of stevenson's upside luke this is his toughest test to date by far but when he stepped up and won a world title last fight at 130 against jamel herring the the fighting marine i mean dude he he destroyed him there has been a few times in history where matchups like this have happened and this is where the Floyd Mayweather comparison comes in do you remember and by the way this is what this could be a pay-per-view fight this really could it wouldn't sell a ton but it's such a great fight it could be a pay-per-view fight and it's not which is great

but you know what was Floyd Mayweather versus Diego Corrales back in the day what was it 2000 that's big you're saying big names now. Okay, when they fought, it was considered the toughest challenge by far on Floyd's resume. The experts were split, but a lot of them were picking Diego Corrales by knockout because at that point, at that weight class, which I think was 130, dead wrong me, it could have been featherweight,

but the point is they met at a huge early point where we were like, okay, if Floyd is for real for real dude he's got to be corrales and luke i mean he pissed on diego corrales he knocked him down five times until finally corrales's corner stepped in and through the towel and we were like oh shit pretty boy floyd is not just who we thought he was. He's way better. Luke, the styles match up here where it's not that Valdez is some scrub. It's not that he's slow. It's not that he's a brawler only. But I think Stevenson is so good that even with these odds being close

and even with the high stakes and everything that we love about it, I'm not convinced that Shakur's not going to go in there and do what Floyd did to Corrales, or even what Floyd did to Arturo Gatti in their pay-per-view fight, which they tried to play up to be this big, even fight, and Floyd just, just urinal-caked him. I cannot wait for this fight for that main reason, Luke. Above the style contrast, above everything else.

If Shakur is even better than we think he is, and I'm already calling him a future pound-for-pound king, so how much better could he be? He may go out there and make this not competitive. And if he does, Luke, you're looking at the next big thing in our sport. I don't know if he ever gets there commercially. That's his own battle. But critically, you're looking at a special young fighter on the rise this is the right test at the right time and luke jake hager me all you want i'm mcgregor at the mayweather way and i am rock hard with emotion about this fight

i have a phoner and i think you should too luke you should adopt my life principles and my teachings and get dialed in with your own fight erection and get ready for this on Saturday it's weird that we're here talking about our mutual fighter erections I don't know if that's good for business or not you know it's not like I said I have a fight erection for the other fight then we would have some HR issues I think this is acceptable for me to speak like this on a fight this good Luke okay all right a couple couple of questions one what has eddie reynoso done in terms of fighter development for valdez and two can you give us a sense i mean you're comparing him to mayweather but sort in a sense but stevenson seems to be far more offensive

so from a style matchup you indicated why it could get interesting can you drill down a little bit more and specifically speak to reynoso's handiwork with valdez okay reynoso has made valdez better there's no question the valdez at 126 while still an unbeaten champion we started to see his ceiling he went in there against scott quigg it's a great fight revisit it valdez got his broad jaw broken early and just fought through it luke he he was way too... That's fucking insane. I've seen it in MMA, but that's always insane. It's insane. I mean, he's tough as shit.

And Luke, he gutted through and he won that fight. But I think at that point we were like, okay, we know who Oscar Valdez is. We know his ceiling. It's why he was such a big underdog coming into that Miguel Burchell fight, moving up in weight, known as a brawler who doesn't have monster power. I think what Eddie Reynoso and Team Canelo has done is really help him sharpen his skills.

Because, Luke, he didn't go out there guns blazing recklessly to put away Burchell, but he was hurting him with controlled poise, you know, darting in and out with combinations and landing pinpoint sharp punches. And, yes, Burchell was weight-drained. I mean, he's had a problem making weight here despite his long reign. And now Burchelt looks like he's on his way out of the sport. To be fair, he's going down the wrong road, but Valdez is sharper than he's ever been. And it's brought back the boxer in him because look after that quick fight, Valdez was openly considering like, Hey man, I may have to change. I may have to become more

of a boxer. And by the way, he's got the amateur pedigree from Nogales, Mexico, on the border there. He is absolutely legit. But he loves the brawl. He's a Mexican at heart, Luke. I mean, there's no shame there. But I think, you know, Reynoso and company has made him sharper. So it's not as if, you know, Shakur's going to come in there right off the start and commit surgery on him and just pick him apart. There's potential for hairy moments, which is why you love this fight. But don't forget why I make that distinction between

pretty boy Floyd in the lower weight classes and Mayweather at welterweight. Yeah, I mean, he made big money at welterweight and beyond, but he was defensive, pot-shotting slickster. People forget younger Mayweather went after it. Even though he's a pure boxer at heart, combination punching, offensive surging, when he had somebody hurt, he got them out of there before his hand injuries, of course. There's a lot of that in young Shakur, even though he's not considered a puncher as well, Luke, because he's so damn sharp himself. So it's certainly going to be up to Valdez to offset what will be a fairly firm hand and foot speed disadvantage between the two of them because Shakur Stevenson is a 10 out of 10 in those areas.

But, you know, can Valdez land big counter shots and try to discipline Shakur? Because if he doesn't, Luke, that's where this long term could become a surgical dissection. Only again, we don't have like evidence of Valdez succumbing to this. He fought, he's fought through everything. Is Shakur Stevenson that great where he can create that divide? That's what you want to see, Luke. But as it, at its core, Oscar Valdez is not the same boxer technically that Shakur Stevenson is, and he doesn't have the same speed, even though he brings bigger power. So take all of those mathematical equations and figure out for yourself what you expect to see either way um it's

either going to be the best showcase possible for shakur or it's going to be a great fight and i know either way i'm going to be entertained i can't wait now let me use something eddie hearns said about that fight as a bridge between this main event and the one on the zone eddie hearns said something that I thought, you know, he's got his own fights to promote, but I don't know that he's wrong, which is, he was complimentary of the fight itself between Valdez and Stevenson. Eddie Hearn was like, yeah, it's a great fight.

It's a legit fight. Those guys are awesome. But more people are talking about Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano. Do you agree, even though he is promoting Taylor versus Serrano, so of course he's going to say that, I don't know that he's wrong, BC.

Is he right? It's tough to tell. So I did a really fun interview this morning, half hour, with some great Irish blokes, Luke, and it turns out they actually watch our show. So it was great to talk to them, and it was Joseph Conroy. It was, it was off the ball. Oh, off the balls. Yeah. Those guys are awesome. Love those guys. You

know, and they were telling me that Taylor and Serrano showed up on the Today Show in Manhattan. I mean, that's pretty damn big, Luke. So if you're, if you're looking at this from the lens of, of what it is and why we should put it up there, Taylor versus Serrano. One versus two, pound for pound on the women's side, and because of that, because there's two all-time greats here in the same division at the same time, we're looking at legitimately the best women's fight of all time on paper.

I'm not kidding. Layla Ali versus who? Christy Martin? That was a draw. There's been other matchups of great women, female fighters, but we don't have a long history of anything more than a few female fighters who were draws or like Ann Wolf who were destructive, but they didn't always face each other. There wasn't a large group of them. This is the fight that could kickstart a new era of women's boxing.

That is just, you know, getting it closer to how MMA treats women's fighters and in the, in the parody there. So is it bigger in that sense than Stevenson versus Valdez? For sure. But you ask the hardcore fans which one they're more excited about. I think you have to go to this top-ranked bout in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Yeah, that's right. And they're not equivalent, right? On the one side, we're saying the women's side could be the very best women's boxing fight of all time.

And certainly Valdez versus Stevenson is a very good main event, but no one is making a claim about its status among all-time male main events. So they're not equivalent. They just happen to be taking place on the same weekend. I want to make one point to you, BC, and I'll see what you think about it. Just real quickly, you mentioned they were going to be in the Today Show. Eddie Hearn is a capable promoter. We should maybe give Jake Paul a little bit of credit.

Not just for blowing up Amanda Serrano's profile which he is I mean no no critic could deny that he did that he absolutely did but dude he's kind of putting the full court press on this fight as well and I think it's getting a lot more attention than it otherwise would still would get a lot but honestly his involvement it is making a difference for the better. 100%. We should say it out loud. Look, Amanda Serrano, until Jake Paul came around, was almost, despite being the most decorated fighter in women's boxing history, titles in five divisions. Luke, you already know, she'd win a title at 118.

She won a title as high as 140. And she would bounce around in the same calendar year because she wasn't getting the promotional opportunities, the money, or the exposure. Straight up. It's where women's boxing was. You know, her style is fun to watch. She can talk a little bit, but, like, it just wasn't connecting. There wasn't money in the game for female boxing, you know, really, until the Olympics kicked in allowing female.

And then you saw Clarissa Shields, two-time gold medalist, Katie Taylor becoming a global star. They asked me this this morning on the show, and I thought it was a great question. It's like, you know, what are Jake Paul's true intentions here? He's using his huge audience. In fact, it's an audience, as we already know, which is not boxing, you know, not a boxing background. And he's giving light. I think it's the same thing with Jake when you ask the question about what he's doing with UFC fighter pay and making that a front page story. Whether his intentions to be this Robin Hood of

boxing are pure and true or not, just like whether his intentions to expose MMA fighter pay is more just to try to get those UFC guys in the ring with him or not. It's great. It's great for the sport. It's great for the fighters. Serrano was fighting on off TV undercards, Luke. You know what I'm saying? Like she was fighting wherever they'd havecards, Luke. You know what I'm saying? Like she was fighting wherever they'd have her. Now she's on co-main event pay-per-views with Jake, making the biggest money of her career. And now she's going to headline Madison Square Garden in the main event this Saturday

and the biggest women's fight in history and a fight that actually deserves all of this hyperbole we're talking about. Yeah. Shout out to Jake Paul. Shout out to Eddie Hearnul shout out to eddie hearn for for from the beginning making the pursuit of promoting katie taylor a a uh a priority to be fair this fight i mean they on the today show this fight freaking matters that's great to see

but look before we fully transition into there one thing to close on the stevenson fight um part of why i can make that storyline that I'm, I don't know, is this Shakur's coming out party on the level of Floyd versus Corrales. Because Luke, are you firm that you know exactly who Oscar Valdez is? And I say that because he blew away Burchell in such a

jump out of his skin, jump through the TV set, holy crap, get up to that next level of elite. But dude, then he popped for the, for the, for the, you know, the tainted supplement in the tea. And then he had a very human performance amid all that stress against can say, Sal, you got to curse Stevenson in the pre-fight buildup saying, don't cheat this time. I think if it's you and me, Luke, we're like, Hey, Oscar, if there was ever a time to drink the tea, drink for this fight do you think there's any sort of aberration in there that that maybe

he was on the gear and that valdez fight was the i mean the burchell fight was the full bloom of that i mean was it just a bad night at the office against can say so how do you gauge his stock coming into this very important do i not recall recall distinctly? Maybe I don't. In fact, matter of factly, I don't. But I feel like I remember after Valdez beat Conce Sao, they put a microphone in his face and they asked him if all the outside pressure was getting to him. Because, dude, the boxing media was raining down on him

for what were apparent or perceived misdeeds related to doping and perhaps other stuff as well. And I think he even admitted it did get to him. I think he admitted, like, ugh, this was a lot. I had a lot going on. So I tend to think that that probably played a role. Also, Konsei Sao had a good game plan early in that fight anyway. So there was a little bit of both.

But the thing about it is, it's like, dude, first of all, if you believe that Valdez was on something for the Conce South fight, I got news for you. That ain't the only fight, again, if he was on it for. Probably if he was on it for the Conce South fight, he's still on it now. And also, you can reap benefits even when you get off of PEDs for the transformation that it can cause long term. I mean, there's a lot of things you can sort of use to evaluate that. Again, you know my view on this.

I think that drugs are rampant in sports, and we all have this pretend ideology where we can clearly sort the good from the bad. You cannot. So the point I'll say is if I was Stevenson's team, I would count on the guy who showed up against Burchell, to be quite honest with you. But the point is it doesn't really matter, dude. Burchell and Stevenson, it doesn't matter. Burchell and Stevenson, they don't fight alike.

They don't fight at all alike. And I feel like Stevenson is going to, over time, if he can withstand any sort of offensive forward-moving pressure from Valdez, is going to probably, probably late eat him alive. Just not the same kind of fight. I keep making these comparisons of fights. How about Floyd Canelo as a comparison? Because Valdez is coming in with Team Canelo. But Canelo was drained. Canelo was drained kind of fight. I keep making these comparisons of fights. How about Floyd Canelo as a comparison? Because, you know, Valdez is coming in with Team Canelo. But Canelo was drained.

Canelo was drained for that fight. I know. It was a different circumstance, but look, the reason why the odds are close is because Valdez is great, and this could be a great fight. I'm just giving you a potential scenario of Shakur. Either way, you have to watch this Saturday night ESPN. But Luke, look, the women's fight is the bigger story. I mean,

Luke, you've been covering both of these combat sports for a bunch of years as well. You remember when women's boxing was not televised. No one even freaking talked. If it was talked about, it was because, hey, remember when Christy Martin used to be on pay-per-views in the 90s because of Don King? Like, we didn't talk about that shit. Are you as just like joyfully surprised as I am that we're actually here? This is fight week and this is going to be a main event at new york's madison square garden like not even the theater

luke the damn right the damn arena i mean like yeah damn it's great because you know i've had my complaints about women's boxing in part because it's mismanaged which is not the fault of the women boxers in part because um you know they haven't been promoted as well as they should have been which i think deters recruiting longterm the kind of talent that could make women's boxing dynamic. I also think that the gloves are too big. But I'll say this. I'll say this as a general rule. These two are, if anything, the exception to that. They deserve where they're at.

Frankly, they deserve a lot more than where they're at, to be quite candid with you. But I'm so delighted to see high-level women's boxing showcased in a way that I can guarantee for the fans entertainment, and I can guarantee big stakes. You have two fighters. One a little bit more so than the other is high-volume output Serrano. There's more high volume. Both, by the way, in their own right, can be devastating punchers. I feel like Serrano is a fucking amazing body technician.

And I would say that Katie Taylor of the two of them is a little bit more of the sharpshooter slash sniper of the two of them. A little bit more clever, I think I would say, over Amanda Serrano. So you have a great fight on your hands. And BC, you know this as well as I do. Listen, Laila Ali was probably the first time a women's boxer came around. I was like, okay, this is like, this is like this is i'm not gonna say on par with the men's game but you know very very respectable in all the ways you would respect a prize fighter um who was the mismatch christy martin dude you know we joke like okay for example ovechkin is like killing it here in dc and he may catch gretzky for all time damn goals are you

serious is he that he might he might he might he might it's possible it's within the realm of possibility if he can stay healthy so he could become the NHL's leading all-time goal scorer what's kind of funny is if you listen to fans around here they're totally wrong but they'll say shit like oh yeah Gretzky was playing farmers and plumbers Ovechkin's playing real athletes and you hear this from Jordan versus LeBron oh Jordan played plumbers but dude like you look at some of the people that Christy Martin was boxing, bro, she was boxing fucking plumbers and shit. I mean, that's just really what it was.

That's not what you have here at all. And I would also add, BC, we grew up in the era of the Mia St. Johns, where it was like, oh, here's this boxer who's also in Playboy. And that was kind of the connection that you made, which I'm not hating on. I'm just pointing out, Taylor and Serrano, whoever you like, motherfucker, they are all business.

They are all business, all action. They want all the smoke, and they have done everything you could possibly ask of them as prize fighters to put themselves in this position. And this is the fight everybody wants. This is as legit as any male fight you would ever find. It is, I won't say perfect, because no fight is, but there are so many good, legitimate sporting reasons to love this contest. It is not a sideshow.

It is the show. It's for Taylor's, Taylor is the Undisputed Champion at 135, so it's for all four of her titles. Serrano's held the title here in the past, I believe. I know she's the unified champion at 130. She's, like I said, held titles from 118 to 140 in five different weight classes. But, Luke, it's weird because I think that, you know, I've said it before.

It's a fail to some degree that this fight is not the first official step up for women's boxing to move full time into 12 rounds as opposed to 10 the smaller gloves you mentioned and also three minute rounds as opposed to two there are some women's fights depending on the sanctioning body that get that male treatment or i don't even want to call it male treatment i want to call it what it should be normal treatment this fight's not i know there's a little bit of controversy because serrano brought it up at the first press conference and Taylor's like, you know, you should have brought that up back when we were negotiating. I'm not changing

that for you. And Luke, style-wise, I think it's smarter for Taylor to stick with the two-minute rounds. But, that may just ramp up the excitement that we see. Because at their core, right, Taylor's like 20-0, but she only has six KOs. And to be fair, the reason why Clarissa Shields has barely any KOs, it's hard in two-minute rounds to get knockouts.

It robs the top female fighters of potentially getting that. But Taylor is sharp, but she's a pressure fighter. Combinations, constant movement in front of you. And even though Serrano can do it all, Luke, she's clearly the puncher. I mean, she's got 21 career knockouts in two minute rounds, dude, like on top of this fight mattering on top of this fight being the perfect extension of what allowing women in the Olympic games have seemed to done to the pro game by injecting it with, with legitimacy and, and, you know, all of that, this could also be a great freaking fight,

just like, to be fair, Katie Taylor's two fights with Delphine Pursun were. Both were just 10-round, wire-to-wire, absolute wars. It's hard to imagine this fight not being that. It really is, dude, because Taylor's relentless, and if Serrano looks to dig in and establish herself as the bigger puncher, we're going to get some magic here, Luke. Some absolute, I mean, MSG, dude, come on. Come on, Luke.

You know, get hyped for these ladies, dude. Here's the one warning to fans. You know, Serrano has some of the most volume I've ever seen a fighter have. She might actually have more volume than Taylor, which is why of the two I said Taylor was a bit of a sharpshooter, relatively speaking. You're right about the style, but Serrano is just, you know, I mean, 40 jabs a round and shit. Like something crazy that she's attempting anyway, some absurd numbers.

So the point I'm trying to make is some of these rounds might be really hard to score, really hard to score. I could see several rounds pass where you're like could go either way and it's going to be interesting to see if the irish i'm sure they will but like how much the irish show up versus how much the puerto rican show up in new york if you don't know new york city these are two of the biggest immigrant populations or you know native at this point but you know you get the idea so the some of the the demographics that they draw from two very spirited rock ribbed fight communities boy it's going to be insane in there but i do think man unless someone really kind of not implodes but one's going to have to really

stick it to the other because i think they're both so well suited with such volume and attack it's going to get it's going to be a little bit like who was it not the same kind of fight because there are different body types but do you remember how hard some of those rounds were to score for like fulton figueroa you're like i'm not sure who won that one. I really don't know. It's going to be like that. I'm with you. And then what's the best case scenario for the sport here that they fight a couple of times to be fair. And it, you know, it should be at this level, but we'll see what happens.

Storyline wise though, couldn't get any better. And again, I give so much respect to Eddie Hearn, to Zone, Jake Paul, everyone involved in this to make this happen at this level. It's what they deserve. And you can't underestimate Luke, what this fight could be for the future if it's great. I mean, look, dude, it's not apples to apples, but Cyborg versus Gina Carano

really did a lot to kick the door down. And it's not apples to apples because women's boxing has a foothold right now in the boxing game, arguably the deepest foothold it's had ever. You want to talk about becoming legitimate, which is what women's MMA became after that Cyborg-Corano fight through Strikeforce with Rousey and Tate into the UFC and the expansion. Dude, women's boxing

deserves to be there. The problem is they don't have the depth. Division to division, you know, after the top four, five, six, pound for pound, it gets dropped off from there. But fights like this could create new generations of fighters and fight fans to the women's game, and that's great. Luke, quickly, because I'm blown away by this Ovechkin news, and our

intrepid producer Mikey Mormyle is letting us know that Ovechkin currently is third all-time. He's 21 goals away from second place. Which he will pass that. He will pass that. And he's 115. He has over 50 goals in the season. So he will reach number two no matter what.

Here's why it's crazy. And I used to be a much bigger NHL fan. Now I'm a negative NHL fan. Except for if you're at somebody's house and they've got it on TV. And then it becomes awesome again, Luke. And maybe because of weed, too, it could be awesome again. But you get my point. Here's the deal.

I'm guessing. I looked up Ovechkin. I'm like, okay, what is he? I know he's been around forever. What is he, like 42, 44? Dude, he's 36. And here's why this is crazy, dude, because I watched the crap out of Gretzky in the 80s.

Gretzky came in at a free-flowing time in the NHL I mean he scored like 92 freaking goals in like his third year Luke like 92 goals dude Ovechkin came in if correct me if I'm wrong during the the left wing lock era where the leader in goal scores for the season would be like 48 right I know he's had a couple years of 60 plus goals, but he's only 36. Dude, he may actually do this. Yeah, he might actually do it. And again, to be 36 and he has over 50 on the season. Now he is out right now.

He had a bit of, I think, a chest or a shoulder injury. So he's going to sit out until the playoffs start. But, you know, I don't know. He only has the one cup and everyone's going to say what they're going to say. But dude, you watch this motherfucker play. He is a fucking refrigerator out there on skates blinding people and then his little spot off to the side when they're on the goal he is just uh just fucking he's a machine there's a there's a he had there's a quote that he gave one time and someone turned it into a local

blog where they cover the the capitals russian machine does i think it's russian machine don't break um you know dude he's a fucking russian machine he's unbelievable i once i was in the russia house years ago this is years ago before the war and all this is like the the aughts and ovechkin was there within you know with some dime piece around his arm he still played 200 fewer games than gretzky up to this point luke uh gretzky's a total point total no one's touching that gretzky up to this point, Luke. Gretzky's total point total, no one's touching that. Gretzky's total points, and by the way, we're probably losing viewers at the bunches here. I know.

He has over 2,800 career points, Gretzky. Second is Jager with 1,900, Luke. That's insane, okay? Yeah, he's not going to catch that, but the goal is be on the lookout. It might happen. Alright, let's talk about topic number two. This one was kind of interesting.

We've all seen Volkanovski make the media rounds. He stopped by Morning Combat, among a lot of other places. He did talk to TMZ. Folks are asking him what could be next, what might be next, what should be next. Now, we all know McGregor is coming back at some point, maybe July, maybe a little bit later, hard to say. But here's what Volkanovsky said about potentially facing McGregor. Of course, he wants that fight. He says,

quote, the question comes up a lot. He's another champ in my division that I haven't taken out. I've taken out everyone else, so it makes sense on top of the circus and the money, I want to take out all the legends of this division. Conor McGregor held the belt in my division. I want that

GOAT status. take out all the champions you're effing saying something bc i'm a little bit confused about all of this one is there any chance mcgregor goes to 145 no i don't have to fight volkanovsky zero zero and here's the other part about this bc this is why like i don't understand this i get volkanovsky calling this fight i get i get why anybody would want to fight McGregor. Fair enough. But if you're Team McGregor and you're looking at the list of most attractive options for what you want, comeback, doability, big money, blah, blah, blah, wouldn't Volkanovski be at the bottom of the list, especially if you're at 155,

where Volkanovski would beat him, but it wouldn't really mean the same thing because it's not at 140. I just don't understand the appeal of this matchup. Let me act like you're Barbara here and clean you up, although I'll charge you far less. Here's the deal. Volkanovski has teased in the past an eventual move to lightweight. He's talking about 155 here. He knows, we all know, Conor's never making 45 again. That was a

different lifetime ago. But, would Conor want this fight or should he want this fight? In theory, no, but you have to understand Conor has a outsized opinion of his striking ability against the offensive output of others. He probably looks at Volkanovski as a smaller fighter who's a point fighter in his mind, right? You know, maybe not seeing the full facts here, who he could line up and knock out. Do I think this fight happens? No. But here's why I like this talk. I know not everyone's going to agree with me here. A couple

points why. One, it's a brilliant move by Volkanovsky, right? If he ever got this fight, he becomes, you know, a next level pay-per-view star. Okay? Like, you get the rub from McGregor, it means a lot. Adding that name on his list, if he gets a victory there, would obviously mean a lot. But UFC is at such a critical crossroads with the idea of how much does McGregor have left? How many paydays do we have left in him? How long can we keep this thing moving, knowing that the more elite names we put him against, the more likely he is to probably catch an L I've said for a while Luke I think it's interesting the idea and it's not just

McGregor I've said this about old Anderson Silva I used to want Conor McGregor versus Anderson Silva after both showed interest in that I think the way you bridge that gap with Conor's age star power fading as his game is fading faster is by putting him in fights like this against smaller guys who want the smoke because it's a boom for whoever wins it meaning if the smaller guy wins it that's like a you know that's a tent pole in their in their career resume and for the and for the UFC look I don't think you would hold, you can tell me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you hold these type of losses against either fighter when they sort of meet in the middle of weight. It's sort of a reach for both of them to make a fun, sort of random, attractive pay-per-view main event.

Maybe I'm using Volkanovski's interest to fuel my argument that if Cejudo really wants Conor and he's talking shit, find a way to meet him in the middle. It's a fun one. It's to me, Luke, it's no freaking different than putting a BMF belt on the line because Jorge versus Nate was such a great idea, right? Let's put him in MMSG in the main event. Let's put a fake belt on the line. I like once in a while breaking the glass and doing these type of fun fights. I don't think it holds people back in terms of their wins and loss streaks and how critical we have to be. And if I'm a fan, which I am, don't you kind of want to see Conor against every big name possible because he's been such a unique sort of draw and offering in this sports history, whether it's Volkanovski or it's anyone else

who wants to move up and meet him, whether it was faber who almost became connor's ufc 196 opponent when uh when rda pulled out don't you see any kind of value in this from a promotional slash entertainment standpoint or are you just like no no no uh you didn't make the case at all for why fans should like it you made the case for why a promoter might want to make it you did do that okay the case is that it's interesting as shit luke you're not into here's the deal i know we're all in our head going oh it's volkanovski and mcgregor's stock is plummeting but luke when you meet in the middle at a higher weight sometimes different things happen has has volkanovski met with the type of first round one punch power that kind of can bring it lightweight i don't know luke um

i'm just i would like to tell you you sold me on it but you didn't like i just didn't hear much there to tell me that this is a fight that i need to see which isn't to say that if they made it wouldn't have that again you made up your your case for why the promotion could want to make it and what the value could be if they did, to me is quite real and quite fair. But I just don't know what, like, if I shopped this to the fans and I had it, it's not just one fight. So I've got McGregor who could fight Masvidal.

I've got McGregor who could, again, we're all talking in theory, in theory, Diaz for the third time or whatever. I just don't know how you're going to convince any common fan to accept this one over any of the other more substantive alternatives with much bigger names. Okay, here's an alternative. I just don't get it.

Here's an alternative. Conor going up to Welterweight and fighting Usman for the history of the first attempt at a free. That fight is stupid, too. I don't like that fight, either. Come on, fuck him up. You got a smaller guy moving up, Luke. I know maybe Volkanovski isn't the perfect choice for this argument because his pay-per-view brand is decent but not great, right? He's still kind of trying to make that in his 30s.

He's trying to become the biggest star he can. This would be a way to do that. But you're telling me you're not intrigued by the idea of what would that fight look like? No, I think... Also, maybe this colors my opinion, so this is part of it. I think Volkanovski beats him without, I'm not going to say a whole lot of trouble, but I would absolutely not bet on McGregor to win that contest.

No chance. Okay, maybe here's a more important question. And again, whether it's Volkanovski or anyone else smaller moving up for a fun sort of crossroads fight like this, do you think it would, like how much of a loss would it be if McGregor goes in there against Cejudo and gets out pointed in a fun fight Volkanovski and gets submitted is that a monster I mean I think that I'm trying to make the case that that's less damaging than making him versus Jorge and if he gets knocked out right or making him versus

any ranked lightweight and he gets beat see i it's complicated too because to answer that question if let's let's say let's imagine a scenario i mean by the way you know connor could go in there put one straight left on him and close the show but this is what you have to ask yourself if you're connor you go in there and you beat volkanovsky who the casual fan does not know we all know who he is but the casual fan does not know what does it get you it doesn't get you shit right but you go in there and you lose to that guy dude you are you have i won't say ruin the brand but you have done some fucking damage to it now i disagree on both cases both cases lou you you hold it you think let me let me ask let me let me pitch the question back to you, and then you answer it.

You think that if you're Team McGregor, you look at this scenario, and you say, of all the possibilities, beating Volkanovski materially does us the biggest benefit. Are you there? No, I'm not there. I'm not there, okay? But for you to say that Volkanovski gets nothing from this is, is no, no, no. Volkanovski gets plenty from it.

Connor winning gets nothing. I disagree on that. I think because of Connor stance, I think he can pin it as, Oh, I think I'm the greatest featherweight of all time, but okay. The current featherweight King who thinks he's great is going to move up

and fight me. It would be the same thing if he fought Holloway at lightweight, in my opinion, Luke and a rematch, it'd be like, you know, one of the all time greats wants to move up and meet me I showed you what I can do

you could argue with the critics care about it I don't know I still think that's a great win for Conor it's not that Volkanovski would be moving up four weight classes here okay but you just said the damage if Volkanovski lost to Conor I don't think there's a ton of damage

there Luke it would revive maybe I misspoke but both waysanovski lost to Conor. I don't think there's a ton of damage there, Luke. No, but both ways. Maybe I misspoke, but both ways I'm talking about Conor. Both ways. If he wins, again, you and I might be like, holy shit, did he beat Volkanovski even in 155? That's impressive. I don't know if the casual fans would see it that way. And number two.

Dude, he's undefeated in the UFC. He's virtually undefeated, meaning Volkanovski. That would revive Conor's brand, dude. Dude, what drives casual fan interest is star power and almost star power alone, of which Volkanovski has very little. That's the only thing he lacks in the fight game, quite honestly. He has such a complete game. He's super smart. He has a great team.

He has a country behind him. I get all that. Dude, I get all that. What I'm trying to say is if you're McGregor and you're weighing your options, especially longevity, why would you risk it against a guy who beating for the casual audience which again i'm going to go back and say you and i and people listening might be like well who gives a fuck about them i don't give a fuck about them but they are the biggest portion of the audience they are much greater in number than we are if you lose to a guy like that i don't i don't think it sends a

great message and if you beat him i just don't understand what the fan base, who doesn't know who this guy is or how good he is, why they're supposed to react with great acclaim. To me, you get much more out of beating somebody else who might have much more visibility to the largest portion of the family. The great acclaim is that if you're a casual fan who doesn't know how great Volkanovski is, and you watch him beat the guy that you know,

then he becomes a star on that level in theory. Now look, just for the record, I'm not sitting here trying to argue that this fight needs to happen or would be top 10 in Conor's choices. I'm just saying a way to extend Conor's brand as a viable pay-per-view main event, if they decided to say,

okay, why are we going to feed him to Usman? Why are we even going to feed him to Oliveira, right? What if we just did fun matchups like this? Again, Volkanovski might not be the guy, but what if somebody else was? Look, you're telling me you wouldn't freaking care about Henry Cejudo versus Conor McGregor at 151 pounds. You're telling me you wouldn't care about that at all. Get the hell out of here.

This is a very boxing thing you're trying here. It's like rather than giving the fights that people want let's go and manipulate this little thing and let's get horse hair gloves instead of regular padding i was like dude no no just give them dude the diaz fight i agree with that the usman fight is fucking stupid but the masvidal fight potentially or something along those lines something someone who has a who is a a worthy b side in terms of raising the level of potential pay-per-view buys i think that's the only direction connor's looking dude if you're looking at he goes in there and dismantles him which could be very

possible it would just be a terrible outcome for a lot of different folks except for volkanovsky or except for the ufc if they felt he had long-term potential to become something. But, Luke, quickly, if you're going to make Conor against Jorge or Nate 3 or any of those, to me it's the same idea. You're either a title contender or you're not. But if

you are not and you are still a brand, we typically say, okay, what other washy name can we put you against? Why not try to close that gap a little of the declining star? Just like I wouldn't want it now, but a year and a half ago, Conor comeback fight against Frankie Edgar could have been fun, right? Luke, that's in that same category to me. Admit, Conor McGregor versus Frankie Edgar made sense at UFC 200

when Conor was there watching Aldo and Edgar go at it. But now, I mean, not that you're saying it now. Not now. Okay, how about when he came back against Cowboy? If that was Frankie Edgar, Luke, that would have been a bigger deal. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich.

McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Maybe. Maybe. I can't say for certain, but maybe. But I don't think there'd be a huge difference. It'd be like a monster difference. Thank you for hearing my TED Talk. We'll go back to the rankings and number one fight i do have some breaking news i do have some breaking news if you'd like to weigh in very quickly bc one championship according to espn's mark ramundi

has signed a multi-year u.s and canada broadcast rights deal with amazon prime the promotion will announce wednesday the agreement calls for 12 live one cards to air on Prime Video annually. Your reaction? 12 cards. So once a month, we're getting a live one championship fight on Amazon Prime. As a Prime subscriber,

this is great for me. I don't know what it will actually do for ones. One's got a bit of an issue because they, again, I go back to it. The people who run that organization, you couldn't trust a single thing that they say ever in their lives but the product that they put out does have a lot of redeeming aspects um and they're trying to break into the u.s market and they tried with that that the bleacher report app thing that went

fucking nowhere they had a couple shows on tnt that just didn't hit the mark certainly it's a boon for amazon and as a prime subscriber i actually like it i'll watch it i just don't know if this is the kind of market penetration that they're looking for well you could argue did they did they try for bigger networks and and you know and more terrestrial tv networks and this is what they settled for or are they looking to to the future, which we're already in the future of streaming? It already is now. The future is now. And they went with a big player, probably for decent money. I mean, it's just look either way.

They need to be available in the U.S. live at a click's notice. This gets them there. So that's cool. But Luke, to mend the fence, to mend the fences in that gap between you and one management and the lack of trust which you know can't say i don't don't disagree with you here but luke what if chakri came back with season two of the apprentice one championship edition and he offered you a spot in the reality show luke and you went representing mk bro unlike the joe rogan show right you went representing mk would you do that for us luke would you do it i'd rather get shot in the face

with liquid ebola that go on that show dude you could visit singapore bro come on you and singapore's cool yeah singapore's cool but like i'd rather go under you know different circumstances okay all right you're like i'd rather go see out the sex trade business right that's what you do okay that's where your head is at i was actually just looking to see monuments and shit but all right uh let's talk about this aljamain sterling who is he going to fight this is actually a bit of a broader conversation because there's also this like bc do you remember that brief twitter push called the rally for Mark Hunt to get him a title shot by people just hashtagging it thinking like, again,

people who think that like hashtagging shit equals activism. It doesn't. But the point I'm trying to make is you're seeing something a little similar with trying to get Aldo a title shot. Although his case is a little bit stronger. Here's the only point though, Sterling and Cejudo have gone back and forth on social media. Cejudo tweeted, I'm coming back for these tomato cans, and I'm going to right the wrong Aljo lame.

That's not funny. You the number one contender, bitch. Aljo responds, if he wants to lose one of those C's, I'll gladly demote him. Let me know when you're serious, champ. Wink emoji. BC, of all the possibilities, you've got uh aldo you've got suhudo you've got uh tj dillashaw give me who should be sterling's next opponent and give it

to me based on all the criteria get the fans interested actually mean something you could do something with it who's the best choice tj dillashaw former champion didn't lose his belt dealt with usada an injury got sent to hell by suhudo in a different weight class but he's back looked really good in that comeback victory there um against cory sanhagen luke yeah this is the fight to make. And I'm ready for Cejudo to come back. I'm glad he re-entered the pool. I think there is a number of fun potential big matchups for him to use his name and sort of his critical pound for pound standing despite being out of the sport for a while. I like the idea of the past of Volkanovski. I could see why Dana didn't. If Cejudo wants to

get in line, I'm okay with that. If you told me Aljo's going to fight Dillashaw next, and then the winner fights Cejudo, look, I'm going to be sitting here. How could you be a fan and not get excited about Henry Cejudo announcing himself back into the mix for the title in the sports deepest division? It's a win for all of us, but not next. Luke, again, I know TJ just did an interview with brett and i caught parts of it did he did he update his timeline on a comeback yet because that affects

my my um my analysis here i did not i don't know i did not see that either so i can't say i apologize provided tj's healthy that's the fight to make luke and oh by the way dude and look again it's gonna sound like, once again, the media is shitting on Aljo. How many more of these shocking performances do we need from him to wake up? But imagine if TJ won the belt back and then fought Henry Cejudo. That'd get me out of my chair, Luke,

okay? That'd be big. Or, I gotta say this, what if Sterling goes in there and just chokes out TJ Dillashaw from the back, which, we know he's got ridiculous back control and he's an insanely strong grappler. Dude, that would set up a big fight too. I know what you mean. Dillashaw beating Sterling and then fighting Cejudo would be bigger

because he'd be the rematch and blah, blah, blah. Fair enough. I mean, of all the reasons, you're absolutely right. I just got to point out, Sterling winning is hardly some travesty either. At this point, fans are slowly coming around on him. They're starting to really realize he's pretty good. More than pretty good. He's great.

Luke, let me ask you something. Let me ask you this. If you'll allow me to slide in your DMs here. I know Davala Shilly at six is coming on, but Jose Aldo's in a prime spot right now. What if the UFC says, hey, Henry, hey, cringe, nobody calls their number around here, right? Nobody calls their shots unless around here right nobody calls their

shots unless you're connor or brock or ronda or darren till or hamza but no but nobody calls their shots luke okay um what if we did henry cejudo versus jose aldo in a number one contenders bout i mean get i'll just take all my money yeah yes and and and mcgregor's the referee no just kidding yes luke yes yes dude i dude that fight would be absolutely fucking awesome that would be incredible and for suhudo you know you want to come back you want to be in this bantamweight division obviously we know he was the king of it when he left, but that fight would be as legitimate a win as any other one he has on this fucking Bantamweight resume. In fact, it might be his best Bantamweight win to date if he actually got that one in terms of quality of opposition. I need to go back and review his resume, but it would be on par with one of his better wins anyway.

So yeah, dude, and then plus Aldo, you would imagine, could actually beat him. It's a super competitive fight. I love it. That would be great. Could that be a pay-per-view main event without having to put an interim title on it just to try to make it acceptable for it to be one? Or would it have to be a pay-per-view co-main? Okay, at a bare minimum, if they made it, it would have to be five rounds.

Bare minimum. I don't know if you could i don't think you could do it without a belt i really don't and i don't think it could be the main event either but that's that's about as good as a co-main event ever gets that give me phantom weight sex please i need it all luke luke are you more excited about canelo sending ali abdelaziz to hell on Twitter in a Canelo, I'm sorry, a Conor versus Jeremy Stephens-like way? Or are you more excited about Ioana saying, give me five rounds for this Whaley rematch? You want me to go all five? I'll go all five.

I worry about her, to be honest. And I mean that sincerely, dude. Like that, dude. Dude, she got turned into a different color person when that fight was over and all the swelling went down. That was a real bad situation. She's taking time off, so that's about the best thing you could do. But I just wonder. Listen, we'll have to see.

We'll have to see. My only point being is she gave, I i thought everything she had in that fight and i wonder i just wonder what she's going to look like afterwards in terms of what she can do in terms of taking punishment and everything else five rounds does scare me a little bit for her candidly a little bit no doesn't it scare you no yeah i think this fight should be three rounds which it is scheduled at right now and i think they should just let them savagely fight each other until the one of them falls luke it's gonna be great yeah i agree i mean i know i i appreciate her toughness i appreciate her willingness to like gas pedal to the floor with what time she has left but i also understand the ufc being like uh let's see how you do with

three rounds first also this opponent is a tough as shit so let's let's worry about that at a different time i'm really excited about combat sports right now look this is great you got a phone the question is do you have pants on all right yes uh by the way i don't know what mikey morewell saying there you can read that for me all right we go to now pfl bc pfl god they have the worst names for this pfl 22 number two regular season. That's the name of this fucking event, but okay. It's a pretty decent card.

On it, you got Bruno Cappelloza, who is just an absolute force, taking on Stuart Austin. Co-main event, I like a lot. Brendan Lachnan taking on Ryoji Kudo. And then you have a couple of other decent ones along the way. Lance Palmer taking on Chris Wade is a big one also Bubba Jenkins taking on Kyle Bokniak you see I won't belabor the point here what on this card other than what I've mentioned or perhaps that stands out to you the

most yeah I mean it's I don't like this card as much as some of the others but I do love me some Bruno Capoloza from Brazil I've followed his entire run to the PFL heavyweight title last year. And Luke, each fight, I think he showed me more and more in terms of how legit he is from his toughness to his gas tank, to his ability to strike. I mean, look, I'm, I knew nothing about him, this guy before last season. And now I'm wondering like, is he a rising heavyweight on the global scene and not just the PFL scene he looked that good last year so i know dick squat about stewart austin but you know i'll i'll what is that tonight this card yeah i think it's i think it's tonight or something let me look that up it is if only we had a cage that would

that was smart enough to tell us when the fight was luke that'd be great it's tomorrow it's tomorrow tomorrow okay so the weigh-ins will be today i don't hate their weeknight uh way of doing things and you know yeah you got a good mix lance palmer had a bad season last year luke after being a champion i want to see him turn it around dennis goitsov made a nice run in the heavyweight bracket last year before coming up short but you're gonna put bubba jenkins and shaman maraish on this prelim card luke and boston salmon wow luke i may i may tune into this uh boston salmon's on the car yeah but here the one that stands out to me is uh ryoji kudo taking on brendan locked in brendan locked in was the one who went for the takedown on contender series

and famously was cut for it um kudo a good guy i think out of shuto japan and then uh bubba jenkins man i thought he was kind of left for dead on the side of the road, metaphorically speaking, and he did lose to Chris Wade in his last fight. But he had a decent run in PFL, beating both Lance Palmer and Bobby Moffitt. Here he takes on all-action Kyle Bokniak. You've got to love that one. Shaman Marais, as you indicated, is also on this card. There's a few spots. Klitsen Abreu is pretty decent.

There's a few fights on this card that are respectable, but there's nothing that's really like amazing crown jewel type. It's just a few fights that are respectable. Luke, Mr. and Mrs. Salmon were pretty bold in naming their son after a city. I know that you love Washington, D.C. more than anything, and that's why you've got that ink on you, but you wouldn't want your parents to have named you Washington. So if you had to be named after a city, Luke, which one would you have picked?

Paradise City. I don't know. Well, the grass is green, Luke, and the girls are pretty. Let's do some quick hitters here very quickly, BC. Your reaction, Ben Rothwell, I think it was on MMA Hour, he announced this. He has signed with BKFC. You like it, you hate it.

Yeah, I mean, look, although they've made some nice changes and being acquired by Triller, by the way, I'm interested to see if that does anything to be a KFC's product and outreach. But, Luke, truth or not truth, it's still the last stop on the combat sports food chain. You know what I mean? It's south of the border on the I-95 drive down to Florida, Luke. You can get some shitty trinkets and some gross food and a night's sleep.

But, yeah, I guess, you know, I don't – I mean, he's more – he's a handsy heavyweight, but he's also a ground guy. So I don't know how this is going to work, Luke. He's a big old hairy lug, though, so good luck. I know. Everyone's like, oh, this is great for Rothwell's style, and that's true. I think it can be. But remember, he stopped Josh Barnett with a 10-finger guillotine.

He's got real skills on the mat as well. I'll just say, listen, a guy's trying to out there make money with what he has built in his career. I remember when he was the IFL champion and he was fighting Roy Nelson for their belt. I remember all that very distinctly. He's been in the game a long time, and he's entitled to, if he's still got a name, to get some big checks. But, like, candidly, do I worry about his...

And all these guys who have these long careers and they finish off in BKFC, do I worry about their brain health? Yes, I do. I worry about their brain health and what kind of injury that they have sustained because we just don't know a lot about how to detect we don't have hardly any measurement at all to detect cte and anybody who's alive so you know he's his own man you should create a cte

breathalyzer which all fighters have to take on their way into the ring or octagon and the number is put up over the big screen that seems a little bit much but i mean you could probably do a back row yeah you're right you could probably do a back room with the doctor where no one finds out you know unless your number's too high and then we force you to retire and then you end up you know boxing over the border or something i mean look the look the end game of combat sports is primarily sad that's why we try to focus on the early and mid game. Yes, thank you. Scott Coker, BC, the president of Bellator, says he might be open to open scoring for Bellator events.

Where are you on open scoring? And I'll tell you, I have to say this. I'm not the biggest proponent of open scoring. I don't hate it. I don't love it. I think both sides make a lot of claims about what it will do for MMA or what its value is, and all of it's pretty questionable. But I will say, if you are Bellator doing something a little bit different than UFC, even if it's open scoring, which let's be clear about this, that would have to be the commission doing that.

Bellator couldn't force them to do it. They could ask the commission to do it, and the commission could then agree. But let's assume that they got that in play. Would it be enough of a product differentiation to create a little separation from themselves and UFC? Probably a little bit, but to me it would only be acknowledging like hardcore fan demand. I don't know what it would really mean other than it would be a little bit different. I know. It's like we're trying to put it in there to curb bad decisions, right?

And sort of tell somebody... let me actually back up a step on that because you're raising something interesting there are two schools of thought on open scoring one is that you need it to fix bad judging or at least you know there were some fights that would be bad and then folk the fighters to get better information and you could avoid the kind of bad outcome that sometimes happens with judging that's one argument that it would in some ways meaningfully improve outcomes away from bad judging. The other argument, though, is that it has nothing to do with judging.

It is something that, however, fighters are owed. It's not about fixing any problem. It's about giving fighters information that they should actually have as a matter of principle. So there's two different schools of thought there. Okay, I disagree, and it's selfish, and it's from a fan point of view, but here's the deal. The suspense of not knowing who won in any combat sport.

Look, the combat sports are set up, right? There used to not be a limit on rounds in boxing, right, like 100 years ago. They were set up to where you go in there, and whoever gets the knockout wins. Okay, that was a little inhumane when we're boxing 40 rounds with minimally pad gloves and you got two tough guys. So you began to get an evolution in what you're putting in rounds and breaks and commissions and all that. To me, though, the heart of the matter is still

you go in there in boxing or MMA to get the finish. If you don't, you leave it in the subjective hands of who that state's commission hired for that fight. As a fan, I still love the suspense of not knowing along with the fighters and everybody else who won until the moment. And any type of argument of, well, what about a fighter who is really down on the cards, but they think they're up? Shouldn't they know they have to fight harder? I mean, look, here's a wake-up call. UFC already has win bonuses and that built into the contract and finished bonuses to try to amp up this. I would not want the flip side of it, which is

fighter A has a bigger lead than they thought. So they just play it safe the rest of the way and take a guy down or whatever. No, I don't want that. I'd rather play off of not actually knowing and every fighter knowing that you never can rest on your laurels. You always have to keep going. And I think from a viewing experience at the end of the day, I would favor that.

In terms of fighters' rights, should they know? I mean, they've never really known before. Would I be against any promotion going for the, you know, we want this as our identity to try this out? Sure it out maybe i'll maybe in the long run luke i'll be a fan that comes around and goes no it's better this way but i kind of need to be shown that it's better that way so if bellator wants to be the one that does it then we'll see the pluses and

minuses and we'll add it up as it happens but if you're asking me as a fan no i want the suspense all right francis francis francis francis says that he will only sign with the ufc if and only if it's a it's a non-starter it's an absolute must no negotiation otherwise if the fury fight is in the contract, does the UFC bend or not? It's a loaded question, Luke. It's a real loaded question. I think they tell him to pound sand. People think that the UFC wants this money. Dude, they're fucking drowning in money.

Yeah, I think you're right here at all. And we do have to remember that argument we made last show. As much as I love Francis's upside and think at at heavyweight he could do this for a while he is 35 coming off a serious knee injury is that the guy that you're going to make concessions to knowing that you're going to open the door to more of this or do you want to hold firm and say no when you're under contract to us until you unionize and make us change it we get to decide if you're going to do that other shit on the side that's going to get in the way and bring you moreize and make us change it, we get to decide if you're going to do that other shit on the side that's going to get in the way and bring you more money and attention.

But I think, I'll say this, I think Francis is right to put this the way he's putting it. Even if it's not serious and it's just a leveraging point, it's super smart. We'll start this conversation when you realize you're going to pay me. You're going to pay me one way or the other. The other sort of school of thought, though, there, BC, is UFC could not pay as much on the fight end

and then let him have the Tyson Fury fight, collect some of that, and so he would get more in the end than he ordinarily would with a fight contract, but UFC wouldn't be on the hook for paying it as much because he would just get a huge financial windfall from the potential Tyson Fury boxing fight. There's that option as well. I agree with you and you said something very poignant on Monday which was about

when I brought up Disney and if you think about it who does Dana White actually answer to Luke? Who does number two walk for? Luke he still answers I guess to his bosses at Endeavor and certainly to Disney slash ESPN because Luke, what is the percentage that their annual TV contract means to their, to, to the overall UFC?

Like it's what, it's gotta be like 75%, right? I mean, they're not actually, it's a little bit less, but pretty close. I mean, if you just do the math, they, they made over a billion last year and I think in revenue but in uh yes that's right in revenue and 750 million of it comes from the espn deal annually so that's still a boss he has to respect unless disney is coming down the pipe and saying do you realize how we can market this baddest man on the planet on you know unbeaten boxing champion against battle tested MMA champion. The rules are, are split. We're going to find the middle ground unless they are making that campaign,

then no chance in hell, Luke. And maybe I'm over, maybe I'm even over estimating the control Disney would have in even that scenario. Can they get Dana out of Tai Chi palace with a, with a commission saying no, apparently they can Luke, but that may be as far as they can go. BC, Dan Hardy, who is going to be having a boxing match with Diego Sanchez on the undercard of the, who is it, Ricky Hatton, and who does he have the exhibition against? Marco Antonio Barrera.

Barrera, yeah, it's Barrera. No, no. But here's the key. Dan Hardy says he's making more for boxing Diego than he made in all of his ufc paychecks combined are you serious dude yeah good which is which by the way is like entirely believable there's not no part about that that is surprising at all do i like this for dan hardy if it's about what about the locker room bonuses everybody yeah what about them

well bring john nash in here and i'll really tell you about that but luke um is it about if it's about dan hardy you know buying that vacation home having having the money to do it after a long you know a career spent at a high level before he walked away okay go do it at your risk i love you dan hardy by the way fantastic analyst and personality and he likes very beautiful women, Luke. I don't want Diego Sanchez a part of this, though. I mean, come on. I mean, how many more times? How many more Eagle FCs, BKFCs?

How many more times are we going to sanction Diego Sanchez? Have we not seen enough to know we've seen too much? Do we not love this man enough to make him stop? The only place Diego Sanchez should be fighting, and you can laugh at this or turn your face at this, is the parking lot of the Lava Shack. And even then, Luke, he shouldn't be fighting there. But that's, you want to talk about the last stop on the combat food chain drive? I thought

it was BKFC. No, it's the fucking Lava Shack. Unless he's fighting there, Luke, because he's got issues, stop the madness, okay? In fact, Luke, to save Diego's brain, I think you should box Hardy, okay? No, fuck that. Dude, I'm old and pathetic, and I'm not a boxer. And no, Jesus, no.

But I'll say this, dude. I do worry about all the – I mean, I don't want to ever deny a guy a payday, but just candidly, candidly speaking, do I worry about all the damage Diego has taken? I don't think people really recognize how much of it there is. There's a shit ton that he's absorbed. And I don't know if he saved his money. I doubt that he has. So it's just a tough situation.

It's a really tough situation. Hey, Luke, our producer, Mikey, wants us to consider on open scoring, what if we showed just one of the judges' scores to the fighters? And I want to add, what if we showed the scores to only the fighters is there any sort of middle ground on open scoring that could work but the thing is like dude if you're gonna do open scoring then just do it right this whole shit like oh well i mean i understand the point of the question which i think is a fair one but i just mean to answer it in this way which is you know we're gonna trickle out a little bit

of information what does that you're you're giving me more incomplete information. It doesn't really tell me a whole lot. Especially if, like, one judge has it 30-27 one way, another one has it 30-27 the other way. It doesn't really provide a very meaningful experience. What you have to see is what the judges are saying. What have they assessed to this point? So either you're going to do that or you're not going to do this.

The sort of sleight of hand where you go halfway. I don't know. It doesn't really work for me. Doesn't really work for me. And last but not least, Paul Daly is going to fight someone named Wendell Giacomo at Bellator 281. So there you go. All right. Well, there's that, Luke.

All right. Time for, I guess we're doing what? Trivia now? So I just want to say, I told you over text this morning, dude, do you have any idea how excited I was when I woke up to seeing Chuck D of Public Enemy following me on Twitter? I mean, like, Luke, it was fucking like, you know, full circle, full bloom, 12-year-old me with a cassette deck

just going fired up until I realized he follows 97,000 people, Luke. Which means he probably didn't even follow me. It was probably some publicist, right? I did have Nick Diaz follow me on Instagram this morning. I did see that. That's not bad. Now, he follows 4,000 people on Instagram, so it's not that exclusive a club. Well, that could mean he actually wanted to follow you and wants your—

or maybe wants to fight you, Luke. That could be cool, too. Here we go, Luke. Every Wednesday we waste time in the second half of the show, usually around a segment built upon getting Luke to answer questions he doesn't want to. This week we call it Truth or Trivia. All right, Truth or Trivia. This is going to be terrible. I have a feeling.

All right, folks, here's the premise. I have five personal questions that Luke will not want to answer publicly. In order to avoid those, each question is preceded by a trivia question. It's simple, Luke. Get the trivia question right. Avoid the personal one. Here we go. Number one. You vaping piece of shit.

Stipe Miocic Luke is widely considered the most decorated heavyweight in UFC history thanks in large part to his total number of title defenses and victories in fact Stipe leads all UFC heavyweights with the most victories in title bouts with six

two other UFC heavyweights have won at least five different title bouts in the octagon. Name them. The only heavyweights with at least five wins in title bouts. Stipe has

six. He's in first place. Who is tied for second with five each? And they put a 30 second clock on the screen damn okay well one is one of these is easy one is randy couture that one's correct very easy oh that second one is tough well you just think about who the champions were oh fuck balls i'm gonna i'll give you i'll give you a bonus 20 seconds here okay after this this buzzer hits okay so it's not Lesnar. It's not Josh Barnett.

It's not Rico Rodriguez. Tim Sylvia. Oh, you got it, Luke. Correct. Tim Sylvia. A multi-time champion, five overall. Well done, Luke. I thought you were going to say Kane.

I thought I got you there. No. How many did he have? Because he had a bunch of losses in title fights too. Right, but how you get ahead in this category of most wins in title fights is by losing your title and coming back, Luke. Right, that's right. Now, were you counting for Couture?

Were you counting any of his light heavyweight wins? Because those are also title fight wins, and he also was a heavyweight. I got this from the ufc record page which they update themselves and i hit the menu to click heavyweights only okay luke all right there you go well you avoided a very personal question there here we go number two luke despite other ufc pay-per-view cards producing more total buys including a larger attendance and a larger live gate most mma fans will look back the fondest at 2009's UFC 100 card, an early celebration of where the fight promotion became.

It emanated from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. It produced 1.6 million pay-per-view buys. Most people call it the greatest, grandest show in the promotion's 29-year history. Luke, you already know Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, too, was your main event for the Undisputed Heavyweight title. There were four other victorious fighters, though, on the pay-per-view main card beyond Lesnar. And here's your hint.

Two of them were welterweights. Two of them were middleweights. Who are the four victorious UFC 100 main card fighters? I can name two more easily. One is Dan Henderson. One is St. Pierre, right? Yes. Who did they beat?

Just for shits, Luke. Henderson beat Bisping. St. Pierre beat Tiago Alves. Yes. All right. So I have one more welterweight, and I have one more middleweight, you said, right? Yes, I did.

Is John Fitch one of the other welterweights? Correct. He defeated Paulo Tiago, Luke. Yes. And there's a middleweight, huh? Yep. He was, yeah, yeah. I give you enough hints.

F you. Okay, hold on. There's another middleweight on that card. 14 seconds, Luke. Oh, fuck. 2009. Who was it? I'm just going to say, I don't think it was, but no, it couldn't have been Anderson Silva. Was it Demi and gonna say i don't think it was but no it couldn't have been anderson silva

uh was it demi and maya i don't know incorrect luke it was a ufc debuting yoshihiro ahiyama who defeated alan belcher in a close oh that was actually a good fight too yeah it was it was luke all right luke it's time for some truth you old bitch luke by the way that was a tough question that was hard well you swept like four of the five last time we did this i had to amp it up a little bit luke due to the slow but steady legalization and decriminalization of marijuana across the u.s more fighters have been able to dial m for milligrams and openly flaunt their love of weed than ever before without stigma or penalty in fact you're vaping right now you dirt hole so why don't we have some fun luke and force you to name your first team all tobacco squad for the

sport of mma what that means is name the five fighters five only who you believe likely ingested the most amount of thc in the past 30 days well you call them all tobacco they wouldn't be all tobacco right in this i call it all tobacco but in this case i mean thc here weed i mean which five fighters have had the most thc in the last 30 days yes all right well nick and nate diaz would be your top two okay okay um oh that's a tough one uh top five weed heads um i guess we can't say rosenthal right because he's not a fighter or nate newton luke yeah uh we can't say archuleta because he's not a ufc guy right or is it mma is it all i said mma in general so i'll go archuleta i'll go archuleta he does his family does own acres of fields look yes god bless him god bless him i'll say uh oh you know what it's jake shields it's basically like

team scrap pack i like jake shields jake shields i see him every every time we've been i've ever like i've been to like a uh any kind of every time i even look at like what's happening at high rollers, boy, Jake Shields is always there like beating fuckers up and those competitions and everything else. Well, they just hand out jars full of those gimmicks, Luke.

And you can just talk to Jake Shields. I talked to Jake Shields for like an hour at the last one. And they just kept bringing us the free, the pre-rolls. I was like, dude, this is like here, BC,

hold my laptop. I got to talk to Jake Shields. Yeah. Let me say this. If you guys are ever in Vegas and they have an event, you should go to High Rollers. It's a fucking great time. But so those are my four. I got to give one more.

There's got to be a woman who's like just outrageous with the marijuana. I thought you were going O'Malley here, Luke. No. Oh, how did I not say O'Malley? Yes. Great call. Shit. Yes.

That's a much better. I was going to go Jessica I because she's also there a lot. But yeah, I needed a female on the all weed team, Luke. And you're going you're going I. I'll go to go Jessica Ai because she's also there a lot. Yeah, I needed a female on the all-weed team, Luke, and you're going Ai? I'll go Jessica Ai. I think she gets busy with the marijuana, like your boy. Mikey Mormile is saying we should go Kevin Holland in this team here. But he's too sober.

That fucker's out fighting crime. How much weed could he have in his system if he's out there just beating up people with fucking handguns? I doubt that. I doubt that. All right, Luke. All right. Here we go.

Trivia question number three, Luke. From Mirko Filipovic to Mursad Bektik, the group of European nations formerly known as Yugoslavia has produced numerous MMA talent, including those born abroad like Alexander Rakic and Stipe Miocic. And for all you history buffs out there, Yugoslavia first came into existence in 1918 following World War I. And with the exception of a four-year run beginning in 1941

when the government was in exile amid the invasion of the Axis powers at World War II, Yugoslavia remained intact until 1992. Luke, you know, you fancy yourself a man of the world here. Currently, there are seven independent nations which make up the former Yugoslavia. Name five of them, Luke. Oh, I can't. I can't. This is a weak point for

me. This is a weak point for me. I cannot. I won't even attempt. Dude, I thought you would sweep all seven because you're a total world politics nerd. No, this is parts of Eastern European geography are weak points for me. They're absolute weak points. So I will not attempt. I will take the L here.

No, you can't take the L and go zero. You've got to try, Luke, okay? No, I don't. No, no, no. I'm going to take the L. You literally cannot name one former Yugoslavian nation. I probably could name a few, but because I know for a fact I cannot even get close to five, I'm not going to. Because you can't win, you won't play?

I mean, are you serious? Yes. Dude, you throw this on me with no prep whatsoever. I don't know a lot about former Yugoslavia. I'm admitting I don't. And I'll take the l i gotta answer now an embarrassing question so what is your bias against eastern european it started with women now it's continuing to this nation the answer luke was bosnia herzegovina croatia kosovo montenegro north macedonia serbia i would have fucked this all up

there was a couple of those I would have gotten but no I would have fucked this all up yeah I didn't know I didn't know wow wow Luke I love this this is exposing you

alright it's time for some truth here Luke this is what you do you know Luke everyone loves a good redemption or reunion story which probably explains why our MK pregame preview video with Ariel Hawane

which we filmed in Tampa ahead of Paul Woodley too, had double the traffic of any other pregame preview we filmed. So imagine a dark, yet oddly realistic scenario in which my liver gives out at the exact moment in which the fungus on my cauliflower toes turns to gangrene at the exact moment that Anthony Smith assaults me during an MK live show, telling me to quote, keep his fucking name out of my mouth at the exact moment that Showtime decides to retroactively fire me for the risen incident, Luke. Okay. And your boy BC croaks right there in front of your eyes on live streaming TV, like Jack Ruby sticking a gun in Oswald's gut.

Okay, Luke? I'm sure you'd be sad for a few weeks. You'd probably send flowers to my family. I'm sure Malka would put together a clips highlight reel of my greatest moments. But Luke, at some point, Showtime execs are going to come to you and, you know, say, hey, I know you're grieving, but you might be secretly relieved. How would you want this show to go on?

Luke, we still believe MK can take over the world. And we've got an idea for the only man who really could slide into BC's chair and take this brand to an even higher level. That man, Luke, you guessed it, Low Road Helwani. So my awkward question for you is this. After one year's time of ariel replacing me in the mk chair going three days a week as we do now how high would the subscriber base on youtube

grow given your combined star power reputations within this combat sports brand. We're at what? 109,000 right now in, in 12 months, the reunionized Ariel and Luke show. How far does it go? Um, far, uh, uh,

the thing is with his access to all the fighters that he gets and the kind of interviews he pulls, it would be 3 or 4x what we probably do together. Wow. Look, you should consider either offing me outright or trying to take some of my misdeeds and make them more public, Luke. Yeah, dude, I got an emergency. Can you hold on for one second? Can you tap dance for like 30? I have an emergency. Of course I can dude i got an emergency can you hold on for one second can you tap dance for like

30 i haven't i have an emergency of course i can't i have an emergency put the screen on him i'll be right back i gotta deal with this well i mean you know did we expect luke to come out and outright brick yugoslavia no and did we expect the awkwardness of that uh of that you know your your wife dies and your old one slides back in you you know, to make the MK grand brand grow more. Did we expect Luke to walk away awkwardly? No, but we're in the midst of an awkward segment. And sometimes that happens at the end of the day, but yeah, I mean, I don't know, is his neighbor mowing his lawn is, is, is, is it's the two key slide in and pull the plugs. We got, we got some questions here though, though, to fill. Hold on, dude. All right, Mikey wants to know,

who would be my dream guest to fill in for Luke? If it's a guest or is this a long-term, you know, if Luke dies, if Luke's fungus explodes in his feet and he dies, you know, how many clicks could BC and somebody else do? I think that's a fair question. But, Luke, are you okay? Yeah, yeah, dude. I mean, it's just one fucking thing thing after the other i don't know what the problem is with everyone in this world yeah i golly man yeah um all right so you're you know you you're saying 300 000 is your

guess after one year 300 000 youtube i mean that's mean, that's a lot. That's a lot. Maybe not that much, but two, three X for sure. Okay. Something to think about for the future, Luke. Let's go to question number four. Are you ready? Yes.

Okay. Okay. Luke, there's a great website out there for music. I live and die by it. It's called allmusic.com. And based on their

profile here, they are calling cannibal corpse quote one of the most influential and contentious death metal bands of all time formed in 1990 with a furious musical assault marked by blast beats throaty vocals and highland highly violent lyrics end quote luke despite a consistent amount of controversy over the years for your favorite band, it has released 16 albums under the record label Metal Blade going back 21 years. Oh my God. Luke, five of those 16 albums have recorded at least a four-star rating by AllMusic.com on their five-star scale within that specific genre.

Name all four of the albums over the 16s in the career of Cannibal Corpse that have been rated four stars or higher by allmusic.com. Ooh, that is a... I don't know what the answer is, so I'm just going to have to guess. Ooh, man. Name four of the five total.

Sorry, there's five total. One, two, three, four, five. Name four of the five total that are ranked four stars or higher. Is kill on there? Luke, that would be incorrect here. Fuck. Is a skeletal domain uh that would also be incorrect maybe you're listening to the wrong cannibal corpse albums um

god what were the ones that critics highly reviewed i i mean it's all it's all bullshit to me luke but you're the one who can carve through it, right? Dude, I have no fucking idea which ones they highly rate. I can tell you which ones I like. All right, here we go. All right, fuck. 1991's Butchered at Birth. Okay, that's one of the famous ones, yes.

1994 is The Bleeding. Eating Back to Life. Vile from 96. Gore Obsessed from 2002 and their last big critically claimed one was 2012's torture luke everything else is shit apparently yeah that's interesting okay all right what's my question then i would have never gotten that yugoslavian metal fan you are all right luke here's your truth moment i don't want a multiple answer i don't want three or four or two i want one what is the single moment of your professional career that has been the most validating personally and why which single moment yes um um let's go inside the actor's studio here luke let's find out you know i've had a few ones that

were you know what i will tell you that um you know most validating just sort of depends on what you want it to mean i will say um i think the first time i i said i i so i remember okay you know what it led to so much so i'm going to mention this one the very first ever professional mma event in washington dc was in may of 2007 and i conned my way into calling that fight along with a guy by the name of Charlie Neal, who had done a lot of HBCU sports coverage and some other local coverage as well as an announcer. And, you know, it was one of these crazy events back in that time when they were popping up all over the place. So I really, I love the fact that I was part of the first ever professional MMA event in DC. I think that's like a little feather in my cap that I'm very proud of. And the guy who was the ring announcer on that card was a guy who now, his name is JP, and he hosts, one of my four hosts, the Junkies here in Washington, D.C.

These guys have been on the air for 20 years. They're a fucking institution. He was one of the guys on that, which got me into doing his show and then the show for a time called Big Owen Dukes. I did it for a while. And then I remember the program director called me into his office one day and I was just like a guest on their shows because this is when UFC was starting to heat up post Ultimate Fighter, but no one knew anything about it. And I knew at least a little bit about it. I was working at Bloody Elbow at the time.

And then he invited me into his office and he said, hey, we'd like to give you a show, a radio show. And this was still when radio was kind of hot. I mean, it's still hot, but in 2007, 2008, radio was still a very, very important means of media communication and to an extent, glamorous industry. And I just was over the moon about that. I didn't expect it. I wasn't asking for one.

I wasn't even thinking about it. And then he just did it. And it was only a weekend show. It wasn't a big deal. But it opened so many doors for me. And I learned so much from the job. And it was so fulfilling to do that work. I've had bigger moments, getting on TV, getting this gig. We're bigger. We're definitely bigger. But in terms of sentimental value, that was up there also when we did the SB Nation consensus um USA Today MMA rankings and we had our rankings in every USA Today in every hotel room in every print edition every month that was pretty big too I like I was pretty proud of that all right Luke that was a good answer you didn't you didn't uh yeah you did it thank you I'm proud of

you is that the promotion that you called the Brendan shop fighting? So it's funny you mentioned that I was working at that radio station at the time that I was doing that, but that was called UWC. I was a terrible commentator. I mean, if you listen to me do it, I would, it's probably unbearable to hear. I was not good at it, but yes, I was, I think it was shops like second or third pro fight. He felt like the local guy who was a big tough wrestler from Mason, and Schaub fucked him up completely.

I would like someday to get footage of that fight and your call and do like a behind the scenes with you and Schaub, Luke. Yeah, we should. I'd love to do that with him because I actually remember seeing him. I'd done some homework on him. I remember seeing him, and then the first time I ever – when he was in good shape, he was a formidable athlete, and then when he walked by i was like you're brendan job and we got to talking there's actually a picture of us talking for the first time and um and he

went in there and made short work of this dude it was like it was like it was nothing so all right luke let's make you uncomfortable one final time luke you know the questions escalate in difficulty let's see if you get this this is your last one one. Luke, in 22 trips to the Octagon, your arch nemesis John Jones has won 20 times with only, of course, the DQ loss to Matt Hamill and the no contest with DC in their 2017 rematch as the lone blemishes. Of those 20 UFC wins,

five have come by submission. Not only do I want you to name all five luke but i'll give you a hint three of the five came in the calendar year of 2011 who are the five ufc fighters john jones has submitted leoto machito ryan bader um let me think here So let's go through these. Jake O'Brien, did he submit? No, I don't think so, right? He didn't submit Matt Yushanko or Vera. Shogun, are we counting people?

No, that was a TKO. So then we had the two Gustafson fights. That wouldn't count. Two Cormier fights. That wouldn't count. Two Cormier fights. Those don't count. Smith, Reyes, Santos don't count. Now, when you say five, are all five of those in UFC? Yes.

Okay. Bonner, no. Guzman, no. Shit, dude, who the fuck am I forgetting here? Luke, you have run out of time. Do you want to make a final guess hereke you have run out of time do you want to make a final guess here you have run out of time can you get i can you give me one hint um one all right you said jake o'brien and then you said no he was one of them so that's three can you get the other two he didn't submit oh he did submit vitor, didn't he? Yes. That's four.

Who is the fifth one he submitted? I think you got it wrong, Luke. All right. You had a good effort. It was a good fight, Luke. We were looking for Quentin Rampage Jackson, 2011. Rampage from the back. He choked him from the back.

Yes. I was there. I was in Denver at the Pepsi Center. All right, Luke. Your final uncomfortable question. Maybe this is the last time this segment appears. I think it's died a slow death in front of our eyes, Luke. No, I actually like this segment. I'm sorry, I had an emergency.

It's fucking, I can't get a break. I can't get a break. Luke, with the exception of myself, who serves as a bit of a hybrid friend, co-host, and competitor in this space at different times, depending on the time of the day, which three active media members or media personalities in the greater combat sports space

do you feel really are your biggest competitors in what you do in terms of their success and how it motivates you to be better at your own craft? I don't pay attention to a single thing anyone else does. I don't believe that for a half fucking second at all. You don't check the comments either, right,ke no i checked i always tell you the truth about it i always check them on occasion i do not check them every episode i check them on occasion so that that is definitely the reality there um dude i don't i don't pay attention to what the competitors do but to answer the question in good faith in the way in which you're asking it,

I think the three biggest names are the names where they're doing something similar to us or maybe they're a little bit ahead of us in a certain way, in the same kind of space. Obviously, Ariel, you've got to put him number one. I'd probably put Brett Okamoto in there as well. He's great. Dude, Brett, everything Ioana said about his looks aside,

Brett's fucking good at what he does. Dude, I think you want to bang Brett more than Ioana does. He's a very handsome man, you know. I was once his editor. Who would bang Brett Okamoto first, BC or his wife? I'd go BC. Dude, I love Brett. In all fairness, I wouldn't bang him, but I do love him.

He's a great guy. Bro, how many beers deep was this when he congratulated us at the mma awards 75 yeah yeah i mean you know he he was on the verge of throwing up within the next hour probably um there's a lot of good ones but like relative to what we're doing those two for sure and then it's a little bit less clear because you have some foreign language ones that do some pretty interesting stuff. Who that's actually the third one is kind of I mean, I guess I might say. Damn, I don't know about the third one, to be honest with you, because they're all like Kevin. I always up there, but you don't really do the same thing we do.

No. And then they don't have to do the same thing you do. They could just, in a sense, be people that you look at as competitors in the spirit. Like, I thought you were going to pick Chael, to be fair. He does TV. He does his own. Yeah, he does a lot of similar stuff too. But again, dude, I don't think of him in that way. Yeah. I want to keep it somebody who, like, wasn't a former fighter.

Wasn't a former fighter. Okay, how about Submission Radio? Dude, they get big numbers and they're fucking good at it. They do. They get big numbers and they're they're pretty good up there they're pretty good up there no doubt about it um i'll go oh that's man it's tough you know what you know who i'll say i'll say chris mannix chris mannix um he's got he's boxing it's not mma but he's got the sports illustrated gig where he does boxing and nba i've always kind of wanted to not nba per se but dabble a little bit outside plus in the boxing side he's got the zone gig and he has like a podcast on top of it like chris manix has done a lot of good work

as well so okay i'll say those i'll say ariel okamoto manix is that is that a fair list i feel like that's a very fair list i'm hey mike bone i'm sorry okay i'm sorry list? I feel like it's a fair list. That's a very fair list. Hey, Mike Bone, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. See, that's the thing. There's a lot of guys who do great stuff, but I'm just trying to think about more on the on-camera space. Although he does on-camera work as well. No, he's great. Oscar Willis, great. Al Shadi, a lot

of great guys in this sport. There's tons of great ones. Danny Segura is our guy. Shaq is our guy. A lot of good ones. Alright, Luke. thank you for playing my bullshit reindeer games we got one more for you morningcombat at gmail.com

is the home of our producers if you want to email in Wednesday fan subs Friday dead wrongs but today Luke we look deep we turn the camera

back on our viewers into their souls to see whether they can fit in a shmedium MK shirt this one's called fan subs we've got mail yes to see whether they can fit in a shmedium MK shirt. This one's called fans.

We've got mail. Yes. Mail listeners. Yeah. This is Jay. He says, I've got no message for you, but this guy sent these in last minute last Wednesday. I guess he's talking about himself.

What do we got here? We haven't been that thin since we were teens. Yes, yes, yes. That's Snoop Dogg level thin. Thank you for how high. That was great. And this is what? Oh, blow that up.

Blow that up. There we go. Cheech and Chong's Chronicles of Brief History of Weed. Thank you. We got one more I'll take that right there yes that's pretty good that's pretty good half you love half baked I love half baked but I think you love half baked even more than me like you love yeah

I think it's the greatest comedy movie of my lifetime I'm not saying it's pretty better it's good pound for pound than comedy classics but in my sense of humor yeah it's the greatest movie it's the funniest movie of my lifetime. I'm not saying it's better pound for pound than comedy classics, but in my sense of humor, yeah, it's the funniest movie of all time. All right, this one's from Julian. Hey, boys, each time Luke puffs on that vape, I remember him saying that he was going to quit. I laughed then, and I continue to laugh.

As a longtime fan, Luke, may all of your carcinogen gains not be loyal. I know. I keep attempting to, but I haven't really tried that hard. I'm pathetic. So yes, guilty as charged. All right.

Tom says, Hey, thanks to Luke and BC for sharing their favorite movies on a recent episode of MK. I went back and watched this nineties classic on their recommendation. Cheers from Dublin. It's Tom C. Yes.

Yes. Dude, that might be the best fan sub I've ever seen. Washed and washed and washed her. I mean, it could not be more perfect. Two pathetic zeros who somehow have managed to fucking find their way into something interesting. That truly is the story of this brand. Unbelievable.

Thank you very much. Also, we have Brandon here who says, hi, Luke and Brian. Here's a photo of me repping the drug rug this weekend at my local motocross race up here in Montana. Thanks for your awesome content. I look forward to it. I haven't missed an episode. Oh, shit.

Oh, dude, that's badass, right? Dude, that is both perfectly dub T and also fucking awesome at the same time. That is one hell of a shot. Dude, I love that one. That is great. Luke, I was told the other day that they're actually called not drug rugs or Mexican hoodies. They're called Baja hoodies because they started in the Baja section of Mexico there below California.

Do you believe that, Luke? I mean, they're ugly. They're beautiful. Thank you. This one's from Sam. He says, say the line. Say the line. Upper bound limit. I like that he took the average Joe art of you, Luke. That's beautiful right

there. You got one coming. You have one that he's making for you as well. He's going to make it awesome. Trust me. You'll be happy with it, I'm sure. We may have to make posters that we put out next to the web stream. Did you not take math classes in high school where they talked about the upper bound limit? No. I mean, I did take math classes, but I went to – Did you take calculus in high school?

I did. Pre-cal. Yeah, I took all that shit. Did you take calculus or did you take pre-cal? Because they ain't the same. I think both. I think both. Yeah yeah i think senior year i took calculus i mean i you know that was 26 years ago luke okay at this point all right i mean my kids are going to be in high school next year i'm old as shit dude yeah you are old as fuck uh jason says what's up bc and lt jay from boston here just one for you this is how your bellator recap should have been shown to the viewers bc please hide the satchel and them chicken legs mk is a family show i mean we both

just look i just look terrible all the time yeah i mean look i do have uh you know very underdeveloped muscularly uh thin legs but you know that happens in life if you're a piece of shit, right? You know what I mean? Fat face, skinny legs. There you go. It's BC. Thank you very much. That was funny. Tommy says, Hey, Lug and BC. It's Tommy from Australia. I think you may also be in the

1.5% of MMA fans. Oh, he might be in that percent of MMA fans who enjoy our boxing coverage. I saw the doctored photo that Luke posted on Instagram of the nosebleed views you guys had for Spence Ugas. Fortunately, I was able to source the original version of what was on your screens. Can we zoom in? I didn't see this yet. That would be Ioana's IG account.

I've been there before. Go over go over to luke's side of it please luke are those vapes that actually is my vape in the picture that's the best part about it on the table that is fucking awesome that's great that is great stuff they know us better than we know ourselves. Truly, that is. A more accurate statement has never been uttered on this show, ever. All right. Jonah's here with a Bellator meme. Luke, let's see if this is any good. Bellator fans waiting for it.

Dude, I was like, when is this fuck? And everyone was like, dude, don't worry. Cyborg's going to blow her out in a round. I'm like when is this fuck and everyone was like dude don't worry Cyborg's gonna blow her out and around I'm like no Todd says these are the additional photos of Carla Esparza's bachelorette party and they're disturbing he says let's see what we got here would you show up to this bachelor party in your drug rug that would be the only fitting move and i like how you have the splash goggles like you just won the world series and you're getting

champagne sprayed in your face oh god i would have definitely gone to that party there's no question wow luke wow all right uh jp is here my boy jay that my long lost french canadian cousin um he says i may be a week late here but i feel it's a moment in time we'll never forget bc and those shorts luke is out and sharon is in bc makes her feel right at home and renames the show Basic Combat. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, dude, that is. I mean, BC sat down for our post-fight show. He's like, who wants to go to Arby's?

We have the meats are you telling me i look like hope solo luke where you go with this i mean come on bro oh boy okay let's get out of there are you punching relatives at a cookout all right okay uh danger mouse is back luke you know he always gives us good stuff uh he's back with a trio of tv and film related memes hey bc i've sent you to the mandalorian to help you shill those athletic greens this is the way luke okay this is i do love athletic greens uh you've made a few references to the classic film pulp fiction in the last few shows so i've taken the opportunity to add luke

to a couple of scenes once showing his love of coffee that's right luke that's dead that's dead on right there it is pretty fair yes yes and finally a change of character for luke and a shout out to sylvester tress tress the lone and a chat whose comment gave me the idea. Alright, Sylvester inspired this, Luke. I mean, it's a little much. I don't know that I'm pointing a gun at the head of the fans, but yes, that is. I mean, if you're going to dead wrong me

and I've been dead wrong before, I will be dead wronged again. You've got to be accurate. That's the deal. That's the deal. Morningcombat at gmail.com. Thank you to all our posters here. Hey, Bill and Jenna, you still alive in the RV? Reach out to me. I'm doing a wellness check on you.com. Thank you. All our posters here. Hey, Bill and Jenny, you still alive in the RV? Reach out to me. I'm doing a wellness check on you right now.

Thank you very much. I love our people. Web scream. Congrats again on your beautiful son. He continues to to grow. Look, we've just got a weird group of I want to say followers. But Luke, we're on this journey with them. Acolytes.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, can we run up that meme of me doing Heaven's Gate? Did you ever see that picture they made of me, Luke? With the gear on that they wore with the Nikes and shit? Yeah, yeah. And the tracksuit or whatever? We are.

We are brainwashing a new generation. It is MKUltra. Thank you to our team. Remember to go to our merch house morningcombat.store you can get 10 off today using the code live 10 that's morningcombat.store great merch hats mugs all that great shit okay um 30 days free of showtime please the label that pays us um just a heads up folks we're gonna be filming some really fun stuff over the next few weeks we won't stop can't stop won't stop so support us here at Showtime get your 30 days free

boxing bellator all that and then some Luke we're coming on again okay that's the thing we don't stop Luke we don't rest on our laurels at all I don't even know what laurels are bro let's see about this so as you mentioned all the stuff there

morningcombat at gmail.com for fridays dead wrong we'll have some more content coming for you tomorrow I got a little video coming your way oh we got big interviews should we say the names or wait we should wait let's wait let's wait let's wait let's wait because we don't know if they're going to happen because you know how it goes so let's just see how it goes

but then you're right we have some of that coming as well so we got some fun stuff headed your way you can follow us on social there uh and that's it bc i still have a fire i have to put out so i probably yeah any any of you haters that think we've peaked we haven't we haven't we're also going to be we haven't said anything about us but we're going to be probably in studio not this weekend but the following so um we got some stuff coming your way for that as well. Fun, fun shows. All right, BC for Brian Campbell, for Malka, for CBS sports, for Showtime. I'm Luke Thomas. Thank you guys so much for watching more content coming your way tomorrow. And then of course on Friday,

until then, may all of your gains be loyal.