MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - McGregor's Excuses | Jermell Charlo vs. Brian Castano | UFC Fight Night | Bellator 262

Episode Date: July 16, 2021

On Episode 180 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell preview a big weekend in combat sports. Jermell Charlo looks to unify the junior middleweight titles vs. Brian Castano. What can we expect in this matchup? Conor McGregor came out and said he entered the trilogy with stress fractures in his leg... Is this just another one of Conor's excuses? UFC Fight Night is Saturday with an exciting lightweight matchup between Islam Makhachev and Thiago Moises. Miesha Tate also is coming out of retirement to face Marion Reneau. Luke Rockhold also spoke about his lack of opponents for his comeback... Who would make sense here? The guys preview the Bellator 262 card. Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder has been rescheduled for October 9th. What was the reason for this? Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah. TikTok, you don't stop. This is Morning Combat, and we want to sex you up. My name is Brian Campbell, the BDC with the BDE or some combination of letters there. CBS Sports Showtime, the labels that used to pay me until they heard that intro. It is Friday, July 16th, 2021, and I know why you're here, because of my co-host. He's bearded. He's burly.

His name is Luke Thomas. And he might be a bitch. Some days, anyway. Some days. What's up, BC? How you doing, man? Yo, it's Friday. Our listeners ain't got shit to do, so why don't they hang out with us?

It's the Orange Background, No J Friday, the show that sets the stage for the weekend, Luke, and you better believe that we'll have big-time full previews coming your way of Jermell Charlo's return on Showtime Championship Boxing for all four world titles, a very sneaky good UFC fight night card this weekend, also Bellator back tonight on Showtime, Boxing for all four world titles. A very sneaky good UFC fight night card this week, and also Bellator back tonight on Showtime. So a lot to get into there. But, Luke, I'm doing fantastic. I'm still recovering from a week in Vegas. Like, it's a thing, Luke.

It's a damn thing, bro. People who, I mean, we can't cry about our jobs, but I got to tell you, to be as the physical condition that you and I are in, which is on death's door, let's just be honest about that, to then have to fly across the country and work in 117-degree weather and then fly back, you know, and then get dengue fever along the way, it's not that easy, bro. It's hard on the body.

And, you know, just to recover mentally and physically from the excesses that that city produces, Luke, even when you're doing good and you're not doing the bad stuff, there's still a lot of bad stuff knocking at your door there, okay, Luke? I got to tell you, if I didn't get COVID there, and I don't think that I did, boy, that Moderna vaccine, that MFR, that thing works. I'm pumped for that thing. Check the science on that, Biatch.

All right, Luke, it is Morning Comment, the best show in combat sports today. So why don't you, if you're out there, hit the like, hit the subscribe. I believe we just reached the 93,000 YouTube subscriber threshold number. The race to 100K

does continue. Follow us on the social channels below for the show, for luke myself as well uh just again you know thank you to everybody who was there at the live show last friday who's been buying our shit on the merch site morning combat dot store you want to be in this one right here you want to you want to put this over your uh under built chest uh you know check check it out right there, okay? Okay?

You want to be like Bill and Jen in the RV, go to our old store, store.show.com, and check out that. But we got great merch. We want to see you dressed in it. International shipping is here, so morningcombat.store, as I said, your place to go there. If you want to try Showtime, I mean, why the frick wouldn't you? 30 days, $3.99, I think that's a pretty good deal.

Return of Bellator tonight. Your undisputed super welterweight matchup on Saturday night. Charlo Castaño and Luke, we are just a couple weeks away here from all things Pitbull McKee at Bellator. What is that, 263 maybe? Yeah, three. Three from the Forum in Englewood Saturday night, July 31st there's only one place to watch that

and that is on Showtime, so get your 30 days free now, look before we get into the good stuff here, you got any weekend plans, you know, what's happening in your life? so all the museums are open again, which I'm very happy about because I wanted to take my daughter, but the one thing that they're still doing

from the pandemic era is timed entry. It's free, but you have to get your passes online. And so, as you can imagine, every museum for this month and the next month are completely booked up. There are no openings. So I'm going to take my daughter to La Piscina, which for you gringos is the pool. She loves the pool. We're going to do some swimming lessons and probably do some shopping later. And that's about it.

What about you, man? Are you talking about you're going to bring her swimming lessons and probably do some shopping later. And that's about it. What about you, man? Are you talking about you're going to bring her to the splash pad, Luke? That term that you struggled with on Wednesday's show? Yeah, I just didn't know what those things were called, that park. I will do that. No, but the actual pool as well. We're going to do some swimming lessons on Saturday and Sunday. My wife is leaving in the next 48 hours for her annual work trip. So, Luke, I will be Mr. Mom for seven days to two teenagers,

three cats, and two dogs. So this should be wild, Luke. So how many 40 ounces are you going to drink in front of your sons? Wow, wow, that is disparaging. We'll be playing a lot of Fortnite, Luke, I'll tell you that much. The real key here is normally if I'm manning the controls without the wife, we just eat out, bro. But I'm trying to keep this liver clean. So

it's going to get interesting when I attempt to... We got a new stove six months ago, Luke. Damned if I've ever turned it on. You know what I'm saying? Do you use Uber Eats? Yes. Sometimes. That's a game changer in this part of the

world. Let me tell you. Also in passing here, Luke, our staff really let it be known how upset Sometimes, yeah. That's a game changer in this part of the world, let me tell you. Okay, all right. Also in passing here, Luke, our staff really let it be known how upset they were this past week in Vegas when I continued to unveil what they call an Irish exit when we go out for dinner or drinks and then suddenly BC's gone. But, Luke, I take umbrage with that, not only because I'm only an eighth Irish, but an Irish exit is where you just leave without telling people people i'd like to introduce the lithuanian exit that's just me deciding it's my time to leave before you're ready to right is there anything wrong with that hey we're all out

having a good time but you know it's it's it it's half past bc's washed i gotta go upstairs and uh you know and seek out something so um, you know, mostly my pillow. But the truth is, dude, you do the Irish exit. You just dip, and you don't say anything, and then we're just like, wow, I think BC went to the bathroom and collapsed there and died. No, it turns out he went back to your room. Say it to my face. I'll tell you when I'm gone.

But, Luke, when I'm gone, we out, bro. Okay? We out of here. All right. I know that. Let's get into the topics at hand, the weekend preview. A look back at the news of the past couple days, and Luke, we cannot avoid it. Our top story this Friday is a man who owns the headlines.

We thought we were done from our UFC 264 hangover on all things McGregor, Pauly Way 3. No, Luke, we back in it. Conor McGregor took to the interwebs yesterday post-surgery, put out a roughly six-minute, almost Helwani-like selfie video there, breaking down his emotions, his physical health after that, and he would go late last night onto posting even more pictures that will tell us a lot. I want to start first on the video, Luke, and what you can see our producers are titling Conor McGregor's excuses. Here's a direct quote that I want to get your reaction to before we get into those pictures from Conor.

The leg is better than ever, McGregor said. I was injured going into the fight. People are asking me when was the leg broke? At what point did the leg break? dana white ask the ufc ask dr davidson the head doctor of the ufc they knew i had a stress factor in my leg going into that cage there was debate about pulling the thing out because i was sparring without shin pads and i would kick the knee a few times so i had multiple stress factors in the shin above the ankle, and then I have trouble with the ankle anyway throughout the years of fucking fighting all the time. And I also was wrapping me ankle every training session, end quote. Luke, nobody, nobody I used to say loses better than McGregor because he sort of sums up what went wrong in such instantaneous fashion

and is usually willing to put the blame on himself and take the L. It seems from your response to me and from the response of the world, this is going into new territory. Do you make a, do you buy it? What McGregor's saying about the predisclosed injuries and how much of a factor did that play into how that fight played out the third time? I mean, look, the producers make these titles on the screen. And I don't have, you know, Conor McGregor's excuses.

Folks, some folks who might be Conor fans maybe get mad at that. I'm not even one of these guys who necessarily believes that the excuse is always somehow impermissible. I mean, guys, you know, I made a point on the live chat yesterday, BC. Joe Warren, when he fought Patricio Pitbull 10 or 11 years ago, he was hospitalized for food poisoning up until the day of the fight itself. You could even argue that maybe the fight shouldn't have taken place, and he won. And McGregor's been on that side of the equation too. He had some kind of knee injury, a pretty severe one, prior to the Chad Mendes fight.

Still took it and won anyway. These guys persevere. But sometimes they don't. You know, Ryan Hall said he broke his hand on the very first punch of the fight against Ilya Teporia. It's hard to believe that that didn't play any role. I guess my point here is, BC, there is some conflicting evidence about to what extent he had an actual shin injury and not an actual ankle injury before. I guess we'll get more information. But where I come down on this is I just don't understand exactly what the big deal is. I mean, I hope Conor gets well.

I don't mean in that sense. I guess what I'm saying is he's looking at these issues and demanding from the public, or at least asking the public to consider that the circumstances that he has suffered are somehow unusual. And the leg break itself is relatively rare, even with MMA. But like, dude, opponents who have an annoying one-track style judges who get it wrong injuries that can affect you prior to a camp in the middle of a fight that's the game man like that's how this all works like you mean to tell me on that win streak

Poirier was on his hip always felt good I sincerely doubt that and a lot of other ones and sometimes guys had catastrophic and traumatic injuries and sometimes they didn't. Listen, I'm perfectly willing to believe BC that the injury he had prior to camp and then suffered in the fight absolutely affected the outcome in some kind of way. Fair enough. This is the least conclusive fight of the three. What I don't understand is why we're, why this is a big deal. This is just the fight game. I don't understand why he deserves special exemption for it. Well, I'll get into in a second why it could be or should be a big deal.

Look, is this him making excuses a little bit more, I don't want to say recklessly, but shamelessly than the past? I mean, it's one thing for him to say, okay, I lost to Nate the first time. Good on Nate. He beat me, but I realized the problem. You know, I ate steak the whole time. I didn't cut weight properly. Okay. I get it. That's fair. You're still saying you lost, but you're, you know, this seems a little bit more to me like Conor is putting the entire

loss in the way the fight broke down on a preexisting injury. So does that clear him? Well, no, because I have a lot of questions coming off of that. If you have this bad of an injury coming in, look, I completely respect the idea. And Conor's always been like this. Like, the show must go on. And he's the show. He knows he's the show. Look, he's been injured in the past, too. You said the game's the game.

I mean, let's bring Omar out here to tell us that. We know it. And some guys will just pull out because they don't want to fight if they're not 100%, and that's fine. Conor's always been opportunistic, advantageous, and took advantage and fought guys even if he was hurt. And I certainly respect that if that's the stance he's going to take. I think, though, when you take that stance, two things become real. One, you can't just lean on excuses after. And two, if you were this badly hurt, and I want to throw to the pictures in a second

to really illustrate what he's trying to illustrate, and you're admitting that you had fractures in your shin bone and that you were sparring without pads on your legs, well, I guess in effort to try to harden up your bones to be able to check kicks and all that, why the frick would you come out? Okay, you have made this decision to fight her to that the show must go on that you're going to make the millions anyway that you're the show stopper right you're not no one's stopping this show you are the damn show look again i respect that why the frick would you come out with a style in which you are leading with your injured limb

and leaning completely upon it so look this may sound like a flip-flop for me because I was, you know, surprisingly to a lot of people, pro-McGregor earlier this week. Here's what I was pro-McGregor on earlier this week, just to recap quickly. Pro on the idea that I think his brand did recover. You know, you can argue with me you don't think so. You can argue with me 10-8 round. No, it wasn't a 10-8 round, bro, okay?

I'm wondering if two of those three judges, Luke, were on the wrong side of the cage and didn't see that Conor was actually landing from underneath and it was a little bit more competitive than they thought. Who cares at the end of the day? Did he look like he was on pace to potentially lose that? Probably. That's not my point. My point is, I think he revived the brand and I think in some ways he did that by willingly becoming a dirty, despicable heel to try to, you know, produce interest for the fourth fight. I also think he showed by fighting so freaking desperate and just grimy that, you know, there's still some fight left in him. So I was good

saying that. And I know a lot of people thought, BC, what the hell are you talking about? You're some dirtbag casual trying to promote Conor's brand so that you keep making more money. No, that's not it. But Luke, I am going to come at him with this, bro. If you fight injured, you can't necessarily just lean on that as your built-in excuse after. If you suffer a freak injury in a fight and you lost because of that, okay. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't really consider this, Luke, a loss. It's a loss, but, like, he didn't lose because Poirier beat him.

He lost because his ankle cracked, okay? If people disagree, that's fine. But I don't think you can go into a fight going okay i got that i got that injury excuse if i need to pull it and then he pulled it anyway no no so luke my bigger question to you is this why the frick would the ufc and the doctors approve him did he fudge his records to the nevada state athletic commission filling out these medical questionnaires is there going to be further investigation on that? Should there be?

Because I'm not here to tell you he defrauded the public and people that bought the pay-per-view and only got one round of action should sue him. Nothing like that. I'm just saying, like, what is the responsibility of an injured fighter? If you say yes to the fight and go in there injured like Kane did against JDS in the first one,

if you lose, you do have to sit on the L, correct? You do. Listen, if you make the walk, then you lose you do have to sit on the L correct you do listen if you make the walk then you not only assume the risk you assume the consequences therein and yeah listen again I'm very I don't think the position I'm arguing is really all that out there he does deserve a degree of leniency about the result by virtue of what happened. There's no denying. I mean, someone pointed out to me the other day, I forget who it was, it was like, dude, look at the first round between Chandler and Oliveira. That was one-way traffic, and then at the end, what happened?

The whole thing flipped on a dime, no doubt about it. Now, I tend to think that the kind of constitution that Dustin Poirier has shown would mean it would take a long time to put his lights out at this stage of his career, but okay, you get the idea. I'm perfectly on board with that. I just don't understand. He wants that injury consideration to wipe away everything. If he was just looking for a degree of understanding, I think that'd be fine. It's more than that. It seems like they want the entire, not like officially on the record books, but they want the injury to mean or signify that everything you saw deserves to be thrown out in some kind of way, other than where he was winning.

He's always looking for these exemptions where we can discount that. TKO losses from submissions don't count. That kind of a thing. To answer your question, dude, there are inconsistencies here. I mean, I don't think that this merits any kind of license revocation or anything like that. But there does need to be clarification. The pre-fight questionnaire, which is a binding document, asks you if you specifically had any kind of bone or stress or any kind of fracturing issues. If you don't acknowledge that and you did have them, that is essentially perjuring yourself.

Again, I'm not talking about revoking Conor's license. But I'm pointing out, out like there is conflicting evidence were you actually injured in that way or were you not in where you were and then disguising it who actually knew there should be some transparency about this process because one way or the other bc the information doesn't match up yeah and i and i don't again, like you said, if you decide to make that walk and not only can you not really lean on it, you know, I would, I wouldn't disclose it either. And here's the thing, Luke, if he had just like the way that the injury happened, we were sort of debating on Monday show, you know, we couldn't really tell exactly where it happened. It happened

somewhere in there. I think there's a built-in excuse in there that you got hurt. I think he's doubling down to try to repair his own name and only making it worse I mean each can we throw these photos that he's posting here because now this shows me that that I Feel like he was coming in with that built-in excuse knowing he can lean on it if he did Is there any way we can blow up these photos or not? No? Anyway Luke the the full photos are a bit obscured, but if you go to the there we go there we go yeah maniche get on that bro get that shit bro yeah get it here's the other part about his injury like again dude i'm i'm certain that he had an issue in camp which which fighter doesn't you know like

there's no look right there though luke luke look right there what the hell is that that's that's a hold on but there's a hold on but like and again i don't know to what listen i don't know to what extent this is evidence but there was a doctor who is an orthopedic surgeon who had posted looking at a picture of conor mcgregor in one of these photos had posted a doctor inside of the picture itself looking at his mri and he zoomed in on it and if you look at the contents of the mri it's actually not about the shin at all it's about the ankle so like obviously he had some kind of injury along the way. I don't, I don't think anyone's really challenging that. It's just, if you didn't disclose it, why not? Um, how severe was it actually? What was the real medical diagnosis? There's just a lot of missing information here that either side wants to take

their word on. And I think it would be clarifying to get more. Can we show quickly the second tweet? And then I want to ask Luke a question off of that. All right, here's the second tweet, Luke. See the one in the upper right-hand corner? They're actually looking at an MRI there, and another doctor zoomed in on that. So these pictures from Conor are showing continually that there was an injury, that he was rehabbing it.

Here that he's even getting x-rays. So Luke, I want to pin this now, because we've already done the court of public opinion on McGregor's decision-making. What about the UFCs? You have to believe they fully knew well about this, that they sat down in the war room with Conor and Dana and the matchmakers, and he said, you know, no, Dana, I can foy. I can keep going on with this. And they decided that's a yes.

Is there any responsibility on the UFC Luke from the idea of presenting a product in which you're charging a large amount of money for knowing okay if it doesn't go that way and Conor hurts himself early well we'll just run it back you know we'll just do it again when he recovers and get a second dose of a of a cash in is there any responsibility on them for having let this fight go on in your eyes if well again if what McGregor says is true and they knew then yeah there's a lot of questions that have to be asked I guess I'm of two minds of this I mean the answer to your question is quite obviously yes there they need to have better internal standards about this more to that point um the UFC's defense it's not

like they haven't lost main events at the last minute before. I mean, they really have. So, like, how much of this was Conor insisting he could go on even though the UFC knew, right? They could know that he had some kind of issue, but then he may have presented it as something he could overcome, in which case they were like, well, okay, whatever, and maybe he passed the medical. Again, there's just a lot of missing information about this. I would say, though, that if what you're asking is the UFC knew this guy was basically incapable of fighting and defending himself and then let it go on otherwise, yeah, that would be a problem. I just think to get to that point, we need a lot more information than we have right now. We need Bob Bennett. We need the Nevada State Athletic Commission to speak up.

Bob Bennett is just a worthless person. He is, I mean... Wow, that's hard. That's hard, Luke. That's aggressive right there. I'm not saying I'm the biggest Bob Bennett fan, but that's aggressive okay but the commission dude he is such an he just abdicates all responsibility this guy they are serving the promoter interest by making whatever was disclosed in pay however fractional and and uh insufficient as it was in terms of the total picture it was at least something and that's they are supposed to be the firewall for that they have then gone and advocated and changed the laws on behalf of the promoter to create more secrecy less transparency and that's the same with all pre-fight medical questionnaires and no it is

not a HIPAA violation on any of that stuff at least for the most part anyway I'm just trying to point out like dude their commitment to transparency on what the public should have an interest in knowing is abysmal. And the reason, Luke, is because of what the UFC does to that local economy by constantly putting blockbusters in there. It's the same reason in 2012 why Floyd Mayweather was allowed to delay his jail sentence by a full month to fit in the Miguel Cotto pay-per-view because the local and state government got involved

and were like, like no this is too this is too much money for our economy we gotta give this guy you know some extra time i mean it's all ridiculous i think though i'm gonna need a statement soon from bob benton company to figure it all that out um it's wild luke so if this did a reported as ufc 264 reported 1.3 domestic pay-per-view buys which even without the international ones added on, still shows you Conor's brand is strong. People were into this fight. It was very well promoted.

What do you think had he pulled out or had the UFC encouraged him or forced him to pull out? What would RDA versus Poirier have done? 10%. 200,000, Luke? Yeah, if that. Something like that. like that something like that i mean it'd be a very good fight actually it wouldn't have been a bad fight um but yeah there would have been not even nearly as much money uh brought in it was 100 million dollars i mean listen there's a lot of pressure on these people to like why doesn't connor pull out listen it's hard to

be conor mcgregor you got a lot riding on your shoulders you got a lot of people counting on big money for you. Of course, big money for himself as well. He has a lot of personal interest. There is a lot of pressure for him to continue. So he's going to make every possible effort. But then to your point earlier, okay, you know that, but there has to be some kind of accommodation for that, you would think anyway, in the fight itself. And then he came out just like throwing them almost in a blitzing kind of way. He had double the output from a volume striking standpoint in the third fight than he did in the second fight in terms of the first round.

So it's like, even if you want to grant him all of these factors of clemency, BC, there are still unanswered questions no matter which way you turn here. And they don't all, you know, find Conor to be in the right. Well, this evidence does though answer some more questions i mean it explains why connor fought so rabid which again was something that i

praised from the idea that do i think he's past his proud of course but i i do think he can still win big fights i do think he showed even in that one round that he he would be credible against almost anybody now would you favor him to win that That's another topic. But now I'm realizing, Luke, he fought that rabid because he realized he had limited time before the injury would eventually happen again. Again, my problem is in that mix between do we praise him for carrying on the show anyway and being that tough,

or should we rip him for basically being an idiot, Luke, and leading with the injured limb and sparring without padding, I guess from the idea of strengthening up the legs for that. I mean, it's all wild, Luke. I just think at the end of the day, from all the facts that we have now, it's extra damning. Look, people are like, hey, MK, how are you not even talking about that McGregor responded to Poirier's tweet with a picture of his daughter and put a disparaging comment on there.

Like, yeah, that's all despicable shit. I think it's all in the grounds of trying to promote another fight. But I think when you add all the evidence that we do know together, it's overwhelmingly damning toward Conor. Yeah, it doesn't really matter one way or the other. Did he really post a picture like that? So you don't know about this, Luke? This happened Wednesday or late Tuesday. So Dustin put up a picture, I think you don't know about this luke this happened uh wednesday or late

tuesday so dustin put up a picture i i think of his of his wife and kid and connor responded maybe don't want to misquote here with responded with gonzo g-o-n-e-z-o and then deleted it quickly after so people took that as a direct like you know i'll kill your daughter too you know what i mean that type of thing which i mean gonzo like you know that's why i'm trying i'm trying to figure out the interpretation in in real time i mean it certainly feels like it's disparaging i mean the fact that he deleted it right but um yeah you know well i mean look it's it so real quick and you touched on this in um in your live chat on thursday i I always encourage people to check that out, even though it's very, very late on B.C. But, you know, that we all have limits on what should be acceptable behavior and trash talk.

I've always said when it goes to the level of like religion and nationalities to the point of where Connor and Habib, I was getting fearful that like, you know, arenas were going to get attacked and shit. Like just as you know, because people are pretty serious about stuff like that. Um, you made a good point on Thursday where corporately, if the trash talks going in a direction that is really bad, Brad, bad for the brand. And you brought up the idea of what if it was, you know, anti, what if it was homophobic comments, stuff like that? Where do you think that official line is not just on what dana will tolerate but what the fight game in general should tolerate um the fight game basically means what the community should tolerate and which means that the community should have uh a conversation

and a debate about it about about where the line is. And uncomfortably for me, I would imagine there's going to be a lot of people who are a lot more okay with, again, we're not talking about any kind of legal action or anything like that, but just in terms of what is an appropriate way to converse in society, there's going to be people probably in the community who have a lot more lenient attitudes towards things we should allow folks to say. I think from a corporate standpoint and a personal standpoint, you have to have your own line in the sand and then an understanding of what you could reasonably forgive corporations for looking the other way on.

I can only advocate for what I think is the right answer. I don't know that I have the answer for the community. The only thing I would say is the only way to really keep the order in this kind of way is for outside forces to pressure to the inside, like getting folks on the inside to like be reviled enough by what something says that that's, that's almost impossible to do. There's just not enough. Because like, look, I don't want to soften this up too much. You know, it's a debate you and I had quickly on Monday where it's like, it's still the fight game at the end of the day it's still if two guys in a bar or in a school yard or two kids are going to go fight like

usually right before the fists are thrown some pretty whack shit is said but it's it's meant to spice up the fight in a lot of ways but that would that mean i would tolerate racial comment no i don't want that shit in there you know what i mean so i guess there has to be a line a lot of ways but that would that mean i would tolerate racial coming no i don't want that shit in there you know what i mean so i guess there has to be a line a lot of our fans even were like bringing in the wife tweeting at the picture of the daughter that's too far that's some pretty i'm i'm uncomfortable i'm uncomfortable when connor does that i'm uncomfortable i'm uncomfortable when fighters make it racial or when they you know they go on some kind of awful tirade about somebody that is you know it seems like they're attacking their not not who they've become as a person but like identities that they can't shed um i get uncomfortable with that personally that's

just where i'm at yeah i mean there's rules there's no rules of engagement here but there is we we know when it's gone too far it It's close. It's getting pretty close, even for guys like me who want to keep some tough guy, you know, foundational standard in there that, no, it's the freaking fight game, man. We should be allowed to, you know, yeah. But it's close. It's getting close, Luke. All right. That's Connor wrapping up there.

Topic two, Luke, Showtime Championship Boxing this Saturday, San Antonio, 9 p.m. Eastern is the triple header, and the main event is a great one. Jermell Charlo, your WBA, IBF, WBC champion at 154 pounds, takes on unbeaten WBO champion Brian Castagno to crown the first undisputed super welterweight champion of this current four-belt era, which really goes back the last 20 plus or so years. Luke, the winner will become just the sixth male fighter. And I read the reason I put that asterisk on the male is it's happened a bunch of times in the female game the last few years.

And no disrespect to the great fighters, Clarissa Shields, Cecilia Bracus, a couple others who have done it. But Luke, on the highest level in the women's game, you see a lot of times some vacant titles thrown onto fights to jazz them up so people aren't winning the belts per se by defeating somebody a lot of these titles are just getting added in but Luke for the purpose of this uh this fight matters stakes wise you and I hosted yesterday's press conference today 2 p.m eastern on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel we will also be hosting the weigh-in, so check that out as well. Luke, we know the storylines, we know the stakes. In terms of the fights,

the fighters, their contrasting styles, what are you looking for in terms of how this fight might be decided Saturday night? I think real estate is the way I've been thinking about this. For folks who don't know, this is sort of a basic way to understand this. Castaño has half the number of fights, pro fights anyway,

but has much more volume per round, a significant amount of volume, and doesn't necessarily have to fight on the inside, although you see inevitably through the rounds that he's winning, fights get pushed back and then often end up getting along the ropes and he's the one doing a lot of the pushing. But it would be unfair to say he can't do mid-range boxing. He can do mid-range boxing at high volume as well. All of this is to say, BC,

I actually think it should look a little bit like his brother's fight against Montiel last week. Or not last week, I'm sorry. But in the previous Charlo fight between the two. Which is, I think that you just need to expect some level of just let it play out where that dynamic comes to life. Castaño offering tons of volume, lots of body work, whatnot, and Charlo maybe being a bit of a slow starter, actually. I didn't think he was necessarily a fast starter, by the way, even against Rosario, but when he begins to get going, it has a dramatic effect.

That's sort of what I'm expecting here. I think the real key for Charlo is, one, he can't let the volume, like there is some level of volume and intensity I do think he should match. And more importantly about the real estate, I actually think it's got to be very, very much kept in the center as much as possible, even if it's very, very short-range boxing, BC. Because if he's getting pressed against the ropes, I do think that he can still win that way. He can find openings.

The Charlo brothers have very athletic, clever counter-punching when they need it. However, I think the best kind of work will be in the middle because if he's getting pressed against the ropes, he might get smothered a bit, and I think that actually will hurt him. It's when he can take steps and angle out and turn and have that space to move in the middle of the ring, BC, that I think he'll have his best success. But I think it's going to take time, dude. Castaño is a tough customer, man. This fight is legit. I think this one is almost certain to go the distance. And in any case, BC, if it's going to get stopped, I think it's going to be much, much

later. Well, here's the deal. If it does go the distance, and Castaño's brief history at the elite level has shown you that he's durable, he's got incredible stamina. So it is is you know despite jamel charlo's big time punching power is a great chance to go the distance that's when things get really interesting luke from a punch output standard and i think that's how this fight is going to be won or lost but i think your comment about real estate is going to inform the punch

output so let me say it like this if you don't know who brian castanio is it comes from argentina he's unbeaten with one draw the one draw might have been his best performance against Arislandi Lara, the former champion a few years back, where he got inside on Lara, made it a war, and it was really a flip the coin at the end of the day who you thought won. Castaño can fight with two fists, get inside on you. He's still responsible enough defensively, though. He's not some reckless brawler, but when he gets inside, he pins you there, and he attempts almost three times as many punches as Charlo, according to CompuBox, and lands more than double. In fact, Luke, he lands more than double power shots per round than Charlo lands overall punches, and what's a power shot?

Basically anything other than a jab. So what's going to happen here is this. Early on, if Jermel Charlo, who is such a fast, explosive, powerful counterpoucher, but can fall a little bit too much in love with waiting for the perfect counter shot opportunity, if he's not using his jab, Luke, like his brother Jermall did against Montiel, like Jermall did against Sergei Derevyanchenko last fall in their pay-per-view to keep Castaño honest in the first half of this fight, he could be in for some trouble. Not just because Castaño goes to the body so well that look, think about it. If you go to the body on somebody, especially

somebody with faster feet than you and Charlo does have faster feet, you're going to slow them down and slowly immobilize them and keep them at your distance. But even more than that, Luke, judges love aggression and activity. The only black mark on Jermell Charlo's resume is that disputed decision loss to Tony Harrison. Did he win it back by knockout the next year in the rematch? Yes. But in both fights, Jermell simply didn't throw enough punches. He's almost too selective, too efficient. And if Castaño is not disciplined early with that jab, and if he's allowed to get inside, you're not only talking about him potentially wearing Charlo down to the body, you're talking about maybe doubling the output. And that's what the judges are going to look at afterwards. It's probably going to be a debate if it goes the distance between

Charlo's harder shots and Castaño's overall aggression and output. And Luke, more often than not, unless those shots are damning from Charlo, meaning they move Castaño, they visibly hurt him, you're going to find many judges that prefer action, aggression, and the guy being the ring general and taking the fight to somebody. So I think the way that Charlo wins or loses this is how much he relies on his jab. And Luke, you know, you know, both Charles, they can box as well as they can punch. I might have to see Jermell the boxer early so that he can become Jermell the puncher later in this one. I think it's a great analysis. And I also think BC behind that jab getting a lit, I mean, yes,

you could be a slow starter in the sense of overall volume and strategy in what you're really figuring out what works for you and whatnot. But I think part of the way he can keep Castano honest is again, matching a little bit of that volume. Don't go in that too far at your comfort zone, but not getting too far behind either maintaining a a certain degree of intensity. And also make him feel the jab hard early. Make him feel something early to get him to start as slow as he possibly can as well. Again, it requires maybe a little bit more intensity than I think he's a little bit comfortable with early on, but I do think

that would pay dividends to the extent Castaño can't get in a rhythm and warm and going, or to the extent you can delay that. That's all the time he needs to begin to make all the reads he has and begin to deliver the things you've talked about. Again, the tape is clear. These guys can find openings, heavy shots very quickly, and in tiny, tiny little spaces. They need a little bit of time to get there, but when they do, it's a thudding shot. To your point about the judges too, BC, you're right, dude. I think he has to knock him down in this fight or visibly wobble him a couple of times through the rounds because not only will you win those rounds when that happens, you know as well as I do, it kind of influences thinking afterward about what those shots mean when they land that

maybe it wasn't necessarily doing before. It sets a big tone for the judges. You're right, that's definitely on the table as well. And you make a great point about Charlo's need to land some big shots early because I'm saying it like it's an Achilles heel, saying Charlo doesn't throw enough punches. But Luke, when the punches that he does throw are landing, it disarms his opponent. He keeps them at a distance because he's giving them reason

not to get inside on him because he's tagging them. So if he does that, Luke Luke that strategy of not throwing enough and being so selective isn't as much of a of a hindrance but he's got to hurt Castaño and make him realize that this is a different level of fighter that he's in there against and it's a very good fight if you're a casual or an MMA fan who's like I like when BC you know recommends good fights look both Charlo brothers are right on the outside looking in on this top 10 pound for pound. They are on the verge of figuring out if they can become great.

If Jermell Charlo wins this fight, it's a big feather in his cap in that direction. So looking forward to that. Also, Luke, big-time puncher and swag master himself, Roley Romero in that co-main event there against Dig It Yigit there from England. So good piece of business on Saturday night. Do you have a prediction at all in terms of how this Charlo Castagno fight plays out?

I think Charlo could stop him. I think that's possible. I don't think he will. I'm going to say 116-112-ish territory for Charlo. Yeah, I got the same score range. I'm predicting basically like a majority decision where you will see one scorecard even and then maybe two close but solid in favor of Charlo.

It's going to be a close fight. It's going to be competitive. If Charlo can get him out of there, though, that's a big-time statement moving forward. Luke, it's not the only fights this weekend. Las Vegas is the site of the apex for Saturday night's UFC fight night. We got into the storylines on Wednesday, and there's plenty to like about this sort of in-between fight night card coming off such a big pay-per-view, but in the main event, lightweights.

Islam Makachev, Tiago Moises. We talked about that this is almost a, not a showcase fight, because Moises is a tough out here, but it's a prop-up fight for Islam Makachev in a five-round distance. Habib there talking him up in interviews all week, Luke. This is a big deal for that brand, meaning could Islam Makachev be, you know, get a little bit of that runoff from the Shmesh factory now that Habib's gone and be the fighter of the moment from the great caucus region we'll have to figure that out what type of

you know style and sort of hurdle could Moises present against him I'm not sure to be honest with you I think this is a tough fight for him candidly again I'm with you Tiago Moises with you. I think this is a tough fight for him, candidly. Again, I'm with you. Tiago Moises is not a chump. He's a good fighter. He's talented. He's well-rounded.

He's experienced. But I'm struggling to come up with what I can determine, at least pre-fight, and fights are crazy. We'll see how it goes. But pre-fight, I don't really know what you can point to here to say that Moises has the clear upper hand. Probably some forms of guard work, maybe. That's really about it as far as I can tell. I mean, listen, there's a lot of ways you could point to this being a bad fight for him. The two that I would point to is, one, on top, Makachev's submission in wrestling game is going to be, I think, pretty lights out. I think he does heavy passing. I think he is heavy on top.

He has excellent ground and pound. I mean, he's a force to be reckoned with there. More to that point, he has 93, no, excuse me, his takedown percentage. So his ability to accurately secure the takedown per attempt is 68%. Now that may sound to some folks like, oh, shouldn't it be higher? No. Most fighters, including elite ones, are around 50%, and lower. Khabib's lifetime, I think, is 48, 47. 68 is extremely high. That is really, that's, for a guy this experienced in the UFC, that's almost unheard of high. Unbelievable. And once he gets going, he is hard to beat there. He has endless cardio. This is only a three, no, this is a five-round contest, so that could get interesting a little bit later, I suppose. But if you see, here's the other sort of stat point. Strikes landed per

minute for Tiago Moises, 2.85. Strikes absorbed per minute, 3.88. Now some of that can be thrown out due to outlier fights that may not represent the worst of what he has to show there. But what I would say, BC, is it's just a reality. Listen to this for Islam Makachev. Strikes landed per minute. A little bit modest, I would say, in just two. Strikes absorbed.77. They're not laying a glove on this guy. So you look at the takedown percentage.

You look at his ability to control. You see the unique styles he has with grappling, with wrestling. How well prepared, how experienced he is. And then you see that Moises has the takedown issues taken defense issues excuse me along with he takes a lot of damage relative to Makachev I I just don't know what the path to victory is here for him Moises 26 years old from Brazil on a three fight win streak Luke over the past year getting a submission of Michael Johnson decision wins over Bobby Green and Alexander Hernandez but a big step up in weight for Makachev. Can you give me sort of a casual breakdown

for anybody who's like, I kind of know Makachev. He's got the kind of, he's Habib's boy. What's the difference in sort of the foundational fighting style between a Habib and what Islam Makachev is forming here? Islam has a lot of the same abilities. He can do a lot of the same

things to be sure but just as a you know a certain kind of uh his own grappling style he's much bigger on foot sweeps so he has a lot more takedowns from sort of a standing ish kind of more judo inspired position um I think he goes for a little bit more passing on top he's not quite as ground and pound intensive but he's very good on control positions um I don't know that he's as strong but he's a little bit lankier I don't know that he's as strong, but he's a little bit lankier than Habib, which I think gives him access to different kinds of submissions from different positions. So, you know, there's a lot of similarities, but I don't think he has the same kind of torrential ground and pound that Habib does. I don't think he's quite as strong, but I

think he's got a bit of a different body type, and I think he is better in certain places standing in terms of grappling contexts than Habib. He also think has slightly crisper stand up overall as well as kickboxing to me it looks a little bit better than the sort of mechanical style of Habib's. Makachev eight and one since his UFC debut in 2015 but he's won seven in a row including that submission of Drew Dover he's been on fire look I need a I'm ready to be a star now performance out of him. We've talked about in the matchmaking here, you can argue that they've set him up to do that, even though this is a tough fight,

but maybe not tough enough, Luke, from that standpoint. This could be a big one, marketing-wise, for him to be taken very seriously. I'll say this one thing to add. Everyone's like, oh, he's the next Habib. I don't think that he is. Habib's a pretty special guy to me, but I do this one thing to add. It's like everyone's like, oh, he's the next Habib. Well, you know what? I don't think that he is. Habib's a pretty special guy to me, but I do think he's very talented.

I do think he can go really far. He might even be champion. I don't think that's crazy. But what's kind of funny here is BC is if he gets a win, while a monster wind a win that that marketing is like the next coming of Habib whether it's true or fair or not it will work in his favor with a big win and could really boost his fortunes I was going to counter you and say it almost doesn't matter if his style isn't the exact same or again nobody's the next Habib this was a special all-time great a guy who let's really be honest honest, you could make that hipster debate.

That is the greatest fighter we've ever seen in the cage. He was that dominant, even if he didn't get a chance to fight everyone you would have wanted him to due to injuries or bad luck. But, Luke, coming in, our friends at William Hill have Makachev minus 650 as the favorite, plus 475 for Tiago Moises. So it shows you what the public expects to happen, but you've got to prove that. Five rounds, we'll see Saturday night.

Luke, you know my interest is centered upon the comeback of the great Misha Tate. Don't call her Takedown Tate, Luke. I don't even know if you can call her Cupcake anymore. We'll see what she comes in as. But we have not seen Misha Tate since, what, UFC 205 against Raquel Pennington when she retired following that defeat in 2000 and, what, 16? Luke, that's a long-ass time ago. Misha's back against 42-year-old Marion Reneau.

Very close on the William Hill odds here. Minus 130, Tate, your favorite. Reneau plus 110. Luke, we know what Tate brings. Great wrestler. Scrappy as all heck never out of a fight till it's over do you think we'll see the the misha of old or or an old misha how do you sort of handicap based on you know she's in great shape she's saying all the right things in the interviews she's one tough mama literally what are your expectations for the Misha we see come Saturday night?

I think, listen, I think anybody who says, oh, here's how she's going to look, who is not in the extreme couture camp, as obviously they would know, they're not telling you the truth. They don't know. They don't know. My guess is, BC, when I think about the end of her career, at least what we thought was the end of her career, back around the time of finding Raquel Pennington,

I remember when she retired, it was like, wait a second, you're still young, Misha, and two fights ago, you were the champion, and now you're out. It did feel premature, but you know how it goes. It's like when you're ready, you're ready, and everyone's timeline is going to be different. And she stayed in the industry and went to work for one championship, and she's like, okay, well, you know, maybe that was just her path. But, you know, having looked back on it, obviously she came back. There was still something left to prove. Her exit was kind of premature. I've not talked to anyone in Extreme Couture about this fight, so I don't

know how she's going to look. My hunch is, BC, I think she's going to look a little rusty, to be sure. And her overall numbers in her career show that she's not a dominant force in the sense of uh every time she goes for a takedown she gets it she's dominant in the sense of attrition like over the course of time she's able to get her will imposed but it takes takes labor to get there i think you're gonna see that i think renault has been on an epic decline but how old is mary renault mary renault was born in 1977 yeah let me dead wrong myself luke she's actually 44 and she's entering on a four fight losing skid all by decision and she's going to retire win or lose here right right so this is my point

it's like this is actually a pretty good comeback fight for me she taped dude the ufc does not do and again this is not a true tune-up a true tune-up is when you get a pro versus like a club level fighter. Okay, that's not Marion Reneau. Fair enough. But in the sense of you're getting someone who's literally on their way out. Literally, this is their last fight. 44 years of age, four fight losing streak, has some well-rounded abilities. But if you are who you used to be in any kind of serious way, it's a hill you can climb.

So I'm expecting a decision win with a couple of hiccups along the way, but I think in the end, something you could build off of, and I think that's what she's trying to do. Not be champion in the first fight, have a landing place upon which to then climb to further heights.

Yeah, this is the right opponent. I do agree that we should temper our expectations. She's not going to probably come out there and get a dominant finish in the first four minutes, but I don't want to see her calling out Amanda Nunes afterwards, though, either. If she wants to call out Caraway to get that ATV back and use the microphone space and that, that's perfectly fine with me, Luke. But she did say publicly this week that she's hoping that

Juliana Pena defeats Amanda Nunes. Maybe looking to get opportunistic there to sneak in and try to win that title. We both know, Luke, that as long as she wins and as long as she doesn't look awful, she's going to get a big fight. It's going to be interesting to see how big that is. You know, would she go right to the top? We know Pena's up next for Nunes. Luke, would you say that there is a fighter who's like next in line? Like, you know, Irene Aldana just had a hell of a good win against Kunitskaya despite missing weight,

where we're like, you know, maybe she's a sneaky challenger there. We've got GDR and Holly Holmes still lingering, still wanting rematches for the title. I mean, is it possible that Tate could win here and go right to the top? Is it possible, Luke? I'll say this. I'm expecting, I have modest expectations, which I think is fair to all the parties involved. I still think Tate will win. What I will say is, if Tate does this bit where,

when Dominic Cruz came back from that long injury and just absolutely smoked Takeo Mizugaki. Remember that? You were like, whoa, he looked awesome. I think if she has one of those, absolutely anything is possible. I just don't know how likely something like that is. Aspen Ladd at number three, Luke, will be back next week's card, the Sanhagen Dillashaw card. She's coming off a lengthy injury and surgery and recovery,

but she's also in that Bantamweight mix again in terms of people that aren't directly coming off of a loss. So it will be interesting. Luke, look, I'm cheering for Tate. I'm cheering for her. She's a big name. She's always been great in terms of being a personality and, you know, a brand in the sport.

You've done radio work with her in the past. Luke, you've got nothing bad to say about her. I know you don't. No, she's great. She's a pro. Yeah, respect the brand, Luke, okay? Shout out to that. All right, Luke, you got nothing bad to say about her. I know you don't. No, she's great. She's a pro. Yeah, respect the brand, Luke, okay? Shout out to that. All right, Luke, very important fight here for one Jeremy Stevens

also on this main card. A lightweight bout at 35, Luke. Oh, how the tables turn quickly in this game. It was just three years ago that Jeremy Stevens won three in a row, including beating Josh Emmett, and we were talking about this late career resurgence, quasi title contender.

Unfortunately for the little heathen, he is 0-4 with one no contest in his last five since that fight. He's going in there against Matus Gamrot, who, Luke, I'll be honest, I don't know a damn thing about. All the fight week stories being written from Steven's interviews involve how he's in the best shape of his career he's revived all that stuff what are your expectations here for uh I'll say beloved banger I've always loved me some Jeremy Stephens Luke you know what he's there he's that guy that enters your keg party he's not going to pay the cover charge he's going right for the keg he's probably going to try to steal your girl and you just got to deal with it Luke because he's got heavy hands okay that's who that guy is yeah I think it's a bit of a you know I don't have I don't know there's a grand narrative to this I think partly it's the guys who are available they owed fights to partly it's a bit

of like let's see what we really have in Gamrot um and let's see what's sort of left of Stevens given his lengthy career at this point but I don't read much more to in that should be a good fight I mean these two guys are actually going to throw down but i don't know there's like a big gamrot from poland luke 30 years old 18 and one record he's nicknamed the gamer the gamer gamrot luke okay he's a good fighter all right his only defeat a split decision loss uh in his ufc debut two fights back to gar Graham long name that begins with K Kuteladze, Luke did I get that? Who cares? I mean at this

point, besides his family and probably the people of his nation, who cares, right? Is that insensitive? Alright Luke, as we look up and down this card, I have to tell you I'm fired up, friend of the program, Billy Q Billy Quarantillo is back in a featherweight bout against Gabriel Benitez which fight uh

is of note to you as you look up and down this card that's catching your fancy uh I don't love this card as much as you but I guess the return of Adolfo Vieira is always worth paying attention to we'll have to see how he looks remember he had that brutal last fight and uh he had a messed up eye as a consequence and also Khalid Taha shouts to Beirut, Lebanon. Although I think he's out of Germany now. But Lebanese fighter, you know, I'm always going to cheer those folks. So there you go. Luke, do you consider Daniel Rodriguez must see? He bangs, bro.

Yes, he does. He's actually quite good. He's always worth paying attention to. He'll be taking on Preston Parsons in the ESPN Plus. And also Monserrat Conejo. Her last name is Rabbit. That's interesting.ons in the ESPN Plus. And also, Monserrat Conejo, her last name is Rabbit. That's interesting. She has the neck tats.

She's got all the horror tats, BC. What do you think about those? I have not seen neck tats on a female fighter like that. Have you? I don't know who you're talking about. And they're long, too. They're from here down to the collarbone. They're huge.

Imagine if Austin Vanderford became single luke yeah he's got the the eye on his throat i'll say this about the throat tattoos i don't think that on the women i don't think that like uh i i can take or leave them i'm it depends on the person and the tat like anything else but it's the people who there's a whole subgenre bc you don't know this people who got like all into tattoos and all of the tattoos are like horror related. Like one of that, that dude who came to like Last Friday's show, but she's got all of those. Damien from Stockton, California, who I love, by the way. You can tell he's a sweet guy.

He said I motivated him to get the three needles. Look, I don't want to do a gang hand sign. There's a hand sign I did that people are upset about. I don't want to do any bad hand signs. Three needles, bro. But yet, luke he does have the scariest tattoos in north america there's no question luke you should see her tattoos they're pretty scary all right all right there it is all right luke let's carry on here luke rockhold in the news uh the former ufc middleweight champion uh here's a direct quote he wants a big fight and he's not

getting one so he says give me the fucking dance partner to prove that or not. Whatever. I don't care. I'm going to go there and I'm going to do what I do. Let me prove myself right and let people try to prove me fucking wrong. But someone's got to step up and fucking do it. But I ain't going to take anything that doesn't excite me. I'm not just going to step up and fight somebody that doesn't excite me or doesn't excite my fans. There's no point. I've been doing that. I've been a Strikeforce champ. I've been UFC world champ. I don't need to come back and fight some bum that doesn't

fucking get me excited. I'd rather just not come back. If you want to fight me, give me something that excites me, brother. Give me something that excites my fans, my people, and all of us. Otherwise, fuck off and let me go because i ain't gonna do that end quote luke rockhold luke i'd love to see what excites that guy if you're if you know what i'm talking about right no no no i mean i do but i'm gonna say i don't

all right uh luke does he have a – we've been in this debate before, that UFC doesn't always know how to promote their aging ex-champions who still have a big name. They put them in there as fodder for the next guys coming up, and you can argue that's typical promotional strategy. Some guys like Anderson Silva, I thought that was disrespectful. Does Luke Rockhold have a point here? If you're not going to give me something big

or fun then let me the frick go get get me out of here i can go i can take my twilight elsewhere all right yeah i don't begrudge him the view that he doesn't want to fight any old fighter i think if you've done what he's done you've been a weight class champion in strike force and in ufc you know that's not something you necessarily want to do. I totally get that. I also just sort of understand beyond what his preferences are, just where the market is. I don't think the market on...

Is there a ton of demand for Luke Rockhold to be in these enormous bouts of... Not enormous bouts of consequence, but it's hard to know exactly what he wants and who he thinks would be a suitable opponent and who wouldn't be. So we're kind of weighing in on that. But I'll just say this.

Is there a ton of demand to have him back? I'd be happy to welcome him back. Certainly, I would enjoy seeing it. I don't know that I see a ton of demand out there. I think the UFC probably recognizes that as well. And they just want to see what they've got in him. I completely get his perspective that I'm not into this to do that anymore. I did all that.

I'm older than that now. Fair enough. But as long as there's an impasse, only one side of that equation can win. And that's the UFC side. I mean, he's basically saying, I don't want to climb any ladders. You know, we've heard him say, I think I could be a great kryptonite to, you know, Adesanya or Jon Jones. I mean, he said both of those in the past. He's not going to get either of those fights, Luke, without earning it.

Now, would he get a quicker path? Let's say he wanted to buckle down and get back in the middleweight title picture. He'd get a quicker path than most because of his brand. But, Luke, he's got a lot going against him, and it's not just having lost three of four all by knockout, but it's the fact that he turns 37 in October. So you know what his statement to me is really saying if you don't have some like big time curiosity fight against

another old name for me or you don't have basically a title shot for me like let me go to bellator or let me go somewhere like i mean look look i say bellator because it would make the most sense they have a lot of these light heavyweight ish you know to a middleweight ish names lingering meaning you know you could put him in there and in the light heavyweight world grand prix right and it would be it would be a footnote be interesting i'd love to see him against romero heck i'd love to see him against anderson silva luke you know all that shit but um anthony johnson he's still under contract so luke i i almost wish when fighters get to this point, because think about it, it's expensive for UFC to promote aging fighters who, like, no longer have it on the same level. Do you remember that contract that Overeem had, Luke? Now, I know he lingered at a pretty high

level for a long time, but he made, like, stupid money every time out, like, $500,000, like, more than main eventers. So, since it's not always cost-effective for them, and if the aging star in question doesn't want to be fodder, shouldn't there be some kind of understanding where they can both just part ways, Luke? Am I not understanding how contracts and possession work? I mean, if they don't want to be there and the promotion doesn't want to give them what they want,

can't we just say goodbye? And also, like, would the promotion... No, I'm asking you that question. I'm asking you a question. Yeah, and I'm answering it. I'm answering by also adding on to that. And would the promotion really No, I'm asking you that question. I'm asking you a question. Yeah, and I'm answering it. I'm answering it by also adding on to that. And would the promotion really suffer without the services of Luke Rockhold?

They've been without the services of Luke Rockhold the last however long. This doesn't say he has no value. It's just to say that he could bring a lot more value to someone else, and it wouldn't really hurt the UFC's bottom line. These are case-by-case things. I don't really know how you solve it,

but I agree with you. It's like, dude, if Luke Rockhold got let go, he could be a great signing for PFL he could be a great signing for Bellator there's a lot of couples I think more than a few out he could do some boxing too who knows you know uh potentially anyway so there's a lot of different ways he could go and I agree if the UFC is not going to give him something that's more in line with his vision Scott Coker who used to work with him I'm sure would be more than happy to I mean I'm sure he's been tearing it up on you know Grindr or Tinder or whatever, Luke, but I want to see him back in the cage at the end of the day.

Look, he's probably a big jerk. We probably think, oh, Luke Rockhold's cool, bro. He'd hang out with us. We can crack jokes. He's probably the worst. He's probably the worst, Hank. You say that, and I said this before. This was like six years ago. He's a little bit of a different guy then maybe, but I hung out with him as a strong word. I spent about an hour or two chatting him up at the bar for the MMA awards, and he was actually great.

He was actually very friendly and very funny. He doesn't come off that way necessarily on social media these days, but at the time, I enjoyed hanging out with him. True or false, do you believe he would flirt with your wife in front of you uh oh he would yo he fucking would bro there's no question yeah just to show you what time it is luke thomas just to let you remember the name, okay? Okay. He may even go as far as an indecent proposal option. It could be in play, Luke.

Okay, can we move to the next topic? You guys have the same first name. Wow, I just wanted to see how uncomfortable you would get there, Luke. That's interesting. Alright, Luke, speaking of Bellator, tonight on Showtime, 9pm Eastern is the main card. Luke, where do the undercard stream at?

YouTube. YouTube, all right, on the Bellator and Showtime YouTube channels. It's Bellator 262, and look, card, you know, killer up and down, not really sure. Really good main event, though. Women's flyweight title on the line is Juliana Velasquez of Brazil, fresh off winning that 125 belt in a five-round decision over a very decorated and defending champion, Alimale McFarlane.

Going in there, Luke, against a very interesting out and former kickboxing world champion both with Glory and Bellator, Denise Kielholtz, who's coming in on a four-fight win streak, all four via stoppage, including two via submission, which was a bit surprising in the moment luke the big narrative for key holds coming in is you know she's sort of figured out now she got a past in judo a past in kickboxing she's sort of figuring out how to be a mixed martial artist and it's working well for her styles wise what can we expect in this matchup

against the the newly crowned champ yeah both have a background in judo and if you notice anything about rousey and uh and uh kayla harrison style kayla a little bit less so these days but you know rousey was like get right to work and certainly i think kill holtz brought a lot of that both from judo and her competitive kickboxing career to me i'm gonna say velasquez is the more well-rounded of the two i think both are going to be good and strong in the clinch i'd say kill holielholtz is a little bit quicker, a little bit more explosive, the more sophisticated striker of the two. But I'll say this about Velazquez. Again, I think she's overall more well-rounded in MMA. She's beaten better fighters. And I'd also say

that she's a really devastating puncher and striker generally. But when she lands on folks, she doesn't necessarily have the one hit or quitter, but she has the kind of punch that alters the judgment going forward of the opponent, where they're much more reserved and much less likely to do anything else. So what I think you might see is, how does that play out? The speed and explosion, maybe some of the combination work of Kielholtz against a little bit more patient, but when it lands, it lands with more authority in Velazquez. You did see an armbar there. I also think that Velasquez can probably go longer

and maintain more competitive poise in mixed martial arts. And what I really wonder, MSBC, is about the grappling. Takedowns, who can get on top, who can get the back. Both have good takedowns, obviously, from judo, though certain kinds. Kielholtz, a little bit more head toss. I think a little bit more wrestling from Velasquez. But on the mat, who could get on top and then maintain top position

while avoiding submission threats? I think Velasquez has a real path to victory that particular way. So Kielholtz, dynamic athlete, no doubt about it. Experienced competitor, a lot of the same strengths. But I think she has a few more weaknesses than velasquez in mixed martial arts but how they match up it i'll say this you know i'll give bellator praise when it's due and i want one and they're not this is a good fight i like

this i'm excited about what happens in this main event yeah we got to find out if juliana velasquez is like as you know dominant and defiant as she was against McFarlane what I mean is when when the script is in Velasquez's direction when she can control distance and fight on the outside and come in and out with that accurate left cross look I mean she's dynamic she's accurate she's powerful she's put a lot of you know lesser opponents away on the ladder up just by standing at range and taking them the hell out of there but yet if you look closely at the tape you know she's competent on the ground but i don't think her takedown defense is all that elite and i think that can be a potential opening for keel holds who doesn't you know do the the aggressive wrestling double leg but certainly can take people

down with with uh judo trips and is very comfortable in the clinch she's the smaller fighter keel holds she's certainly gonna have to land some shots to get some respect early but i think the more chaos she can create uh that's gonna you know increase her chances here of trying to get this to the ground trying to work her submission game because you just can't stand on the outside of velasquez's left hand it's gonna be a long night for you and she's punishing with that she's a very good striker so it's gonna be interesting i that be a long night for you. And she's punishing with that. She's a very good striker. So it's going to be interesting. Definitely a good main event.

Luke, that co-main event is going to be a heavyweight banger when Tyrell Fortune just one loss under the Bellator banner. That was a knockout loss to Timothy Johnson, looking to climb the ladder, taking on a guy I love, meathead Matt Mitrione. This is 43-year-old Matt Mitrione who's, what is he, something like 0-4 with a no contest in his last five. Luke, I don't know if you caught the Bellator Media Day interview. I saw that. He got sideways with a reporter, yeah.

Some guy named Kevin got loaded up, and he's like, Yo, Mitrione, what's up? You're 0-5 lately. Mitrione just gave it to him, Luke. Well, the question sucked. He was like like you're oh and five in your last two fights I'm like okay you're gonna you're gonna roll to a guy that's your a your first question is hey why are you losing okay you know listen you you call down the thunder don't be surprised when you get what you get um but okay to your point he does he didn't

like the line of questioning why would you you know i can understand that yeah i'll say this man 31 versus however old how's mitri on 44 at this point 43 43 yeah listen man if there's any division that's accommodating of age you know this just as well as i do in mixed martial arts it's heavyweight so certainly you can understand guys can be late 30s sometimes early 40s and do well but even even then, 43 is a little bit older than what you can see. You can see 40, 41, sometimes 42. 43 is when you're starting to edge into that territory where there's not a lot that's left for you at that point. I think Tyrell Fortune has developed pretty well for the most part, but he is athletic. He does hit hard. He's 31 years of age. And both of these guys have losses to Timothy Johnson,

so they've got some work to do. But at 31 years of age, Fortune's got a lot more time to get there. To be a 31 in a heavyweight BC, frankly, you've got plenty of time to get better if you can stay healthy and avoid a lot of damage. I just feel like Mitrione... Here's the reality about Mitrione, man. I like Matt Mitrione a lot.

I ran into him one time at a Vegas airport, and we had a long conversation, and he was as friendly as could be. I really enjoy him, and I think he's taken his career a lot further than a lot of people in his position ordinarily would have been able to. He got some big wins when he needed them. He got better when he needed them. He was good at media. He went to Bellator at the right time.

He played the hand that he was dealt very, very well. But like all things, they begin to come to an end. I don the hand that he was dealt very very well but like all things they begin to come to an end I I don't know that he can't win this I think that he probably could but um you know I don't think I don't think the end of high level fighting is too far from him no I agree with you he's gonna have to kind of make this a war because you know fortune's got his advantage on the ground and even if they if they go to war on the feet fortune's becoming a big puncher i think he's got title you know shots on the belt or level in his future meaning uh fortune he's he's shown us some good stuff seems to have rebounded well from that loss to uh to johnson but uh i love mad matron because he's always been a

fun interview great storyteller um you know luke he was a teammate of drew breeze at purdue there before going to the nfl. He's an interesting guy. He marches to the beat of his own drum. He is who he is. He understands that. I think Matt Mitrione's a great guy. It's just 43 and the competitive streak he's been on, it adds up to some worrisome factors about how long he can do this.

Yeah, absolutely. To close, Luke, on the news cycle this week, we've got a date. Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, part three was supposed to, of course, be next Saturday, July 24th. Unfortunately, Tyson Fury, who got one dose of the vaccine, did not go back for the second, reportedly caught COVID, as did up to 10 people in his extended team and sparring partners. So, Luke, we have an official date now reported by ESPN's Mike Coppinger, October 9th and confirmed by Top Rank at T-Mobile Arena in Vegas. So, you know, good news that we got a date. It's going to be a big event. I hope you and I are going to be there.

I hope we can do another, you know, I'd love to have a desk there. I'd love to do some big shit, do another live show, all that good stuff. But, Luke, the same day that this was announced, did you see this picture that's floating around now? To be fair, I don't know what date this was taken, but it was put up yesterday, Maniche. Can you show this? Fury, the champ who supposedly has COVID,

ran into this local bloke in the Las Vegas casino. He's got the open shirt and the white pants. Luke, he's ready for a good timeout. I bring this up, Luke, because this is boxing, so bullshit happens. And when Teofimo Lopez had COVID and pulled out of his trailer fight, there was a lot of talk from people about, was that more to do with lack of ticket sales? I've heard the same rumblings here. Were they not moving tickets for this Fury Wilder one like they wanted to? Are they hoping that the travel ban will be lifted and all of England can come in October?

I don't know, Luke. I'm not saying it for sure. But that's potentially damning evidence, no? Doesn't look good. Doesn't look good. And then the ticket sales, as you indicated, for Fury Wilder 3 were

from the Sports Business Journal reportedly horrible. And you had said something, we had talked about this previously, where's Wilder 3, from the Sports Business Journal, reportedly horrible. And you had said something. We had talked about this previously. Like, where's Wilder to complain? He hasn't, you know? He hasn't. He hasn't at all. We're talking about the guy who complains about everything.

He hasn't said a peep. That's unusual for him, you know? I mean, look, if that's the case, it's like, what do we want? Well, we want transparency and honesty, right? But, you know, I don't know. If that's the case, it's like, what do we want? Well, we want transparency and honesty, right? But, you know, I don't want fake culture. Honestly, if they came out and be like, listen, we're just going to put this in October because we want the British Fight fans to be there

and we regret jumping the gun on this, you know, I can understand. I mean, the fight was made in haste after the Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of essentially Deontay Wilder. So they put it together pretty quickly, which is great. the same time it's like yeah i don't i don't know if they're using covet as a cover maybe maybe not you know you need a lot of evidence or something to make those claims it does look a little dubious but if they're still going to fight

and we have a chance of going i guess selfishly i would say yay for October no like joking or not even joking just speculation aside this fight's massive you know even if it's not the fight we kind of wanted now which was Fury Joshua for all the belts I think this is a very very interesting narrative

with an angry Wilder coming back new trainer a lot of time off I mean look when he lost to Fury in the rematch, that was pre-COVID in 2020. At that point, we were like, okay, you're going to do the third fight because it's contractually obligated, but, man, that's going to look exactly the same, you know, four or five months from now. Dude, now we're going to be like a year and a half after that.

So Wilder Luke, for a man who had many excuses after the second fight, he's going to be in a position we want him to be in, where there's going to be no excuses. He'll have had a year and a half to completely reform whatever he can in his game and his mentality and his preparation for this fight. I'm excited. I'm excited about Usyk Joshua, which I think they're aiming for September. So let's do it.

Heavyweight boxing is big. It matters. Also, Luke, a little note came to me that for Pacquiao Spence, which is August 21st, the opening line came out, and it says a 4-1 favorite, and so much money is coming in on Manny that it's already down to 2-1 favorite. Where do you sort of stand? We're a month out from that.

Like, is this a bad idea for Pacquiao? Or like the Thurman fight, is he going to go in there and surprise us and either win or be super competitive and make this, you know, the thriller that it has the potential to be, even though Manny's, what, 42 and hasn't fought in two years, bro?

I don't know. I tend to think he'll make it competitive. I'm not, I don't buy any of that. I don't think he'll win. I think spence is too good but um you know late chapter pacquiao has been all full of surprises i don't know why that would stop now yeah really full of surprises both ways the the performance against horn came at a time where you know he was busy in the senate, and I don't think he really trained and prepared on a level he needed to

for that ex-school teacher who walked him down, Luke. And, yeah, whatever. That's boxing. That's it for the week. Luke, speaking of winners, you love us, right, people? Morning Combat, you want to see us winners? Well, we are finalists in the sports category of the People's Choice Podcast Awards. Luke, I don't know how we got there, but I'm happy to be there.

Our bosses are hoping we win it. So, hey, how about this? We appreciate all what our listeners do for us. We hope they enjoy our show enough to nominate us to advance to the final round. So, as you can see on the screen there, go to podcastawards.com slash app slash sign up. Toggle down to the sports category we've included a link to the at the top of our episode description on youtube as well if you want to click it right there luke you do have to like sign up you don't have to give your credit card you don't you know there's no like you know you can't pay for your you know bill this weekend

so sign up here we're not doing that right now for you but uh but uh you know it'll take you a second and you can support this show moving forward so it costs you nothing thank you that's right thank you what do we win if we win your words luke what do we win we win nothing but we win respect okay and that's what i'm in this game for at the end of the day well that money right mostly money yeah you greedy bastard uh luke we don't always get it right in our intentions or the things we say into a microphone over 12 plus hours of live shows per week so luckily we have a segment where our listeners reach out and tell us what we said wrong and we will sit spread eagle on that l it's called dead wrong dead wrong the email address in question is morningcombat at gmail.com for your Wednesday fan submissions, for your dead wrong,

for whatever you got here. Number one, Luke, let's talk baseball strikeouts. From Greg and Michael, they say, Luke, you and BC were dead wrong during dead wrong on July 2nd. At the 1 hour and 12 minute mark of episode 175 when Luke said, it always gets weird at the ballpark when the pitcher gets the third K and they have

to put it backwards. BC agreed with you. Yeah, this is weird. It's clear neither of your fathers loved you enough to teach you how to fill out a scorebook in baseball when you were a child. That might be true for Luke, by the way. Per MLB scoring rules, in the scorebook, a strikeout is denoted by the letter K.

A third strike call on which the batter doesn't swing is denoted. Is that the word in question here? Denoted, yeah. Denoted. Denoted, denoted, with a backward K. Now, Luke, this is a l that i'll i'll take and in fact luke if you don't know my past but i was a very i don't understand it how did we get it wrong what did we say that was wrong we were talking about uh somebody's initials and i was like at least their initials aren't kkk you know that'd be horrible and you were like yeah

you ever go to a baseball game and they have what i'm talking about is dude in the outfield in the stadiums i don't have to do it anymore when we were a kid they were manually changed the scoreboard and they would keep a tally of the strikeouts and so when they got the first strikeout you'd see 1k then they got a second strikeout to be on the k next to it and then when they got the third rather than having the three k's it'd be forward forward then backward and then they would keep it backward even if there was a fourth or fifth K along the way. Okay. Maybe you have seen that done to avoid a KKK for a pre-internet screenshot.

I did. Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. I've definitely seen that multiple times. Okay. But what this guy is saying, which is true, that when you're scoring, and I've done a shit ton of scoring baseball as a kid at ballparks, and also, Luke, I was my high school baseball team scorekeeper. What he's saying is if you strike out looking, it's a K backwards.

It's a backward K, because that's like a little footnote in there that you caught somebody looking. So I've been to Mets games as a kid when Doc Gooden, Dr. K was pitching, and people would hang the giant Ks. I actually went to a... Luke, I saw David Wells. To your insult at the beginning of this whole question, like my dad or my parents,

do you think for two seconds they ever showed me how to play any sport? Any sport, to any extent that I know it, is entirely either self-taught or through a camp or through whatever. But you think there was moments in the backyard where like, this is a baseball, this counts as an out. Never happened, dude. Never. Luke Thomas, self-taught, self-reliant, self-employed. Yes, that's the history of you. Luke, I was saying I once went to a 1997 Yankees-A's day game.

And in fact, Luke, you know the 90s counter on this show? Can you put it up real quick, Maniche, please? This picture, Luke, was taken at that game in the centerfield bleachers at Yankee Stadium where I'm wearing my Wallflower shirt because I went to the concert the night before when Wallflowers and Counting Crows double-billed. And David Wells struck out, I believe, 17 A's that day. And they put up, instead of K's, they put up beer mugs,

pictures of beer mugs. And, Luke, that day, what year was this? That's 97. I was a freshman in college. I drank warm peach tree on the way to the stadium and got loaded at, like, you know, 11 a.m. Great, great memories. All right, shout-out to Bogo and Coondog that at that that day on the trip as well alex walkuski

shout out to you too you were there too bro all right luke uh backwards k we got it bro number two uh luke this is from ethan and adam they're saying hey there everyone huge fan i've been they always preempt it with like something nice like love you guys but i'm about to shit on you i love you guys but uh fuck your life okay I've been watching your show since it premiered, and lately Brian has been all over the place, which is why we love him. So here is my entry. At one hour and one minute of Wednesday's July 7th episode,

he said that Michelle Rivera is 21-0 with 23 KOs, the boxing lightweight prospect who fought on Showtime. Not quite sure how that works, but we love you anyways, Brian. We love you too, Luke, but you're dead wrong. Yes, I was too excited in the moment. So here's what I try to do on this show, Luke. I know that people don't want to hear me talk about boxing, but it's part of my show.

It's part of my passion. So sometimes I shoot in a bunch of facts really fast to try to jam them in before people lose interest. I've done that my whole life. If I'm talking to you about something that I'm excited about, but I know you don't care. In fact, Luke, right now you're probably doing it to me. When you and I are in public, I talk to you like, I'll go

on for like four minutes and I'll be impassioned and they'll look over and you're not fucking listening at all, bro. At all. And you do that a lot during the show too so um i tried to jam in he's actually 21 and oh and he's 23 years old but nobody really cares anyway look okay so yeah i'm dead wrong or maybe he had a few fights where he got like multiple ko's in the fight or something yeah that's right like like you ever notice that even at the uh woodley jake paul

press conference where our showtime brethren were like he's a five-time ufc world champion tyron woodley no he made you know what four or five title defenses you're not a five-time champion don't you hate luke when champions say that john jones says that all the time i'm a 10-time ufc champ no bro you made title defenses you didn't regain the belt well in john's case Luke, he has been stripped enough that that might actually be true. I actually don't mind it at all, candidly. So you don't mind that people confuse publicly title defenses with heavy? Like Randy Couture, what is he, like a three- or four-time heavyweight champion? That's legit, Luke.

He had been stripped of the title. He lost it and regained it. I mean, here's the thing, though. It's like, I know what you mean, where there are these moments where you lose it and then get it back and like how difficult that is. That's true. At the same time, technically speaking, you don't have ownership of the title

once the fight starts for whatever the title defense may be. It's up for grabs at that point. The status is not in any way always conferred through the fight itself. So in that sense, that's why they call it. Because there was a time when Matt Hughes would win all these fights, they sent him a new belt every time.

And so he would refer to himself as a nine-time world champion. I get that in the display case at home, you get nine belts, it's fine. But Luke, if any boxing fan hears Tyron Woodley is a five-time UFC champion, you're like, holy shit, he won and lost the title four frickin' times? Like, no, bro, that's wrong.

It's like, Luke, when people say Diego Sanchez is UFC Hall of Famer because his fight was put in the Hall of Fame. Don't we have standards in life anymore? I think you're being pedantic. All right, number three here, Luke, from Daniel and adam in the friday live episode at the 10 minute mark bc says the line pour some sugar on me in the name of love luke's response while on par with the era of butt rock was incorrect it isn't a bon jovi song as luke said it is most definitely a deaf leopard song now look i don't remember you saying Bon Jovi in real time,

but yeah, you're dead freaking wrong. Yeah, pour some sugar on me. Another one of these terrible ass songs that I had to tolerate at frat parties so that women would come over. Well, Luke, that was your choice to go the Greek frat route and do some embarrassing initiation. Your ass would be on the dance floor too, motherfucker. You think that's not got Brian Campbell written all over it? I would have been at the frat party,

you know, probably getting slapped by a girl because that's usually my track record. You would have been grinding on the fucking fire extinguisher in the corner when pour some sugar on me came on. But I wouldn't have been wearing the t-shirt. I wouldn't have had to go through the weird like skull and bones initiation. I wouldn't have had to go through the weird, like, Skull & Bones initiation. I wouldn't have had to sell my soul to be part of some organized white gang of losers, Luke, okay? They weren't all white. That's fair. That's fair. Did your frat get, like, the branded tats, too, Luke? You got, like, a big branded letter on your arm or something?

No, those are the black fraternities. That's a very different kind of thing. That seems extreme. That's extreme love for the frat. Yeah, dude. Well, those are like, I still see some of my fraternity brothers now and again, but the black fraternities seem like those are like lifelong

relationships and organizations. They feel like they're much more involved in the totality of their adult lives. So, yeah, man, they make serious commitments to to it i'm not getting branded for those fuckers that i partied with i mean they're nice dudes i'm friends with them but like nah bitch i'm not i'm not taking off fucking hot iron to the flesh for you did your frat have the shack fu osp like hand sign that you can do as a form of celebration in real life no again, again, that's the Q-dogs who do that.

I don't think we had anything like that. Oh, we did have a secret handshake, though. We did have those. I know it. I'll teach it to you if you want to know it. You're the one who introduced the tip-to-tip concept on this show, and yet now you're pasting it onto my fraternity from 20 years ago doesn't

work that way bucko i'm gonna create a cool fraternity luke involving mk so there's gonna be no dude you're gonna be the president of lambda lambda lambda it's okay it's all right the nerds won in the end luke hair pie right they won in the end uh luke our final dead wrong from ryan austin and ethan at one hour and 16 minutes of episode 179, Brian says that Obi-Wan and Anakin fought on Kashyyyk, the homeworld of the Wookiees, where in fact that battle took place on Mustafar. No, you said Mustafar.

Well, here's the deal. Where Obi-Wan let his best friend burn to death. There's been multiple references. I did correctly say Mustafar on the room service diaries, but I made a second reference on the episode the other day where I think I did, and I think it was one of the situations, Luke, where I'm trying to talk fast

because I know I've lost your interest, so I jammed in Kashyyyk. But yes, that's the Wookiee. That's where they killed all the Wookiees, and yeah, all right, all right. Go to the Mustafar system. Yes, yes. Big L for Anakin there. Can Wookiees and yeah all right all right go to the Mustafa system yes yes big L for Anakin even say Kashyyyk no no but but dude freaking uh Chewie man so I mean he's loyal as fuck right Chewie is the fucking boss bro hey Chewie let's go beat these motherfuckers up

Chewie's like why don't ask questions chewy do you think chewy caught like secondhand tail from hanging around with han all those years you think he was 100 do you think he was only into wookiee women or do you think he would he had no problem with with regular that fucking dirt bag he would take his pants off for anybody are you kidding he didn't wear pants bro exactly that's chewbacca he just shows up to parties with no pants. Yo, he probably had a... Like, if Chewbacca was an adult film star, Luke, you know what label he'd be under. Dude, I'm going to take Chewbacca to the liquor store

and be like, yo, Chewbacca, we're just going to take what we want. He goes in there and just takes all the rail shit, and he just walks out, and I look at the clerk, and I'm like, what the fuck you going to do about it? Nothing. Yeah, like that scene in Teen Wolf when Michael J. Fox's eyes turn red, Luke. And that old bastard's just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, bro.

Sure, bro. All right. Hey, Luke, that's our show for this week. Hey, we hit 90 minutes. You do have to respect the fact that when BC hosts, it's very efficient. It's very humorous and entertaining. Luke, in fact, some of our viewers have gone to the extreme of saying that maybe I should have been hosting since the beginning. Yes, there are a lot of people who dm you whose opinions i don't

respect that's true luke what do you what are your thoughts on on starting rival fraternities what do you mean that you know you start your own mk fraternity i start my almost like a nwo red and black versus you know red versus black versus the original uh white um i don't have time for your fuck fuck games and our frats would you know war against each other in some ways too luke and then we would end it with like some type of academic decathlon to decide the winner and which frat is is is more boss is more the first of all they're not frats their fraternity is number one and no i've already done my i got it out of my system you're just now realizing you were the perfect candidate

and you skipped it because of your myopia earlier in life okay if you're so if you're so pro-frat luke you're not accepting my challenge to like a billy madison inspired academic decathlon where we compete against each other in multiple events which test our mental and physical of what's left of us in our old wash state and best fraternity wins so you're trying to set up content we've already shot in a way that we didn't actually shoot it so i'm going to shoot this down and be like no genius that's not at all what i'm trying to do in real time with no prep how genius is that transition? I admit, I admit the shoe horn was smoother than I thought it was going to be,

but no, I'm not doing that shit. Okay. Okay. You just continue to be an old bitch. Yes. Yes. Uh,

yeah. So that's it for today's show. Luke, enjoy the fights this weekend, 2 PM Eastern today on the Showtime sports YouTube channel. We'll be hosting the Charlo Castano weigh in. So check in with us as we check in on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel. We'll be hosting the Charlo Castano weigh-in, so check in with us as we check in on the fighters, see if everyone made weight

ahead of the big undisputed dance. That's all I got for this week. For our great friends at CBS Sports and Showtime and Malka putting on this show, Maniche on the ones and twos, Gaff, Sally, Al Wenling, Mikey, all the good folks who help us put this together.

Thank you. If you want to buy our merch, you, of course, know where to go, morningcombat.store. Luke, do you have any updates on that shit? Are we getting more merch? What's happening? I have no idea.

All right. Luke has emotionally pulled out of that, similar to what he did physically during most of his frat weekends. Yeah. All right. I wish my parties had gone that well. Follow us below.

Luke, what was your lame guy? Phi Lambda dog. What was it? My fraternity? Yeah. I was Sigma Pi of the Alpha Eta chapter. Two come loudly? Something like that?

I don't know. You're so dumb. You're so dumb. You just have the daddest jokes out here. It's not Cormier Holloway. It's you, you old fuck. Alright. Also, Bellator tonight at 9pm Eastern on Showtime. Do not

miss that. Enjoy the fights. We'll be back next week with some bangers ahead of all things Dillashaw, Sanhagen. Luke, I got some big interviews lined up coming up in the hopper. Big BKFC week next week, Luke. I hope you're getting fired up for who the hell's fighting?

PVZ and Ostovich. Yeah, the rematch, Luke. Sweet. All right. Luke, do you have a message for the people? Nothing? Don't drink and drive this weekend. Get an Uber. Yeah, that's a fair request.

My name is Brian Campbell. That's Luke Thomas. This was the best show in combat sports today. Better than your other favorite shows. I know you watch that shit. I know you're still watching that shit. You're not having fun. You don't enjoy that.

That's wimpy bullshit. They're not edgy. You don't enjoy that. That's wimpy bullshit. They're not edgy. They don't take chances. What the fuck's wrong with you? If I shit my pants, I'm mailing my pants to you. Can you close the show, please? All right.

I'll close it with two more words. We out.