MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Naoya Inoue KOs Paul Butler | Dream Cornermen | Disturbing Foods | BC's Live Chat Ep. 2

Episode Date: December 13, 2022

Brian Campbell is back for Episode 2 of the BC live chat! Brian breaks down Naoya Inoue's knockout win over Paul Butler and answers all the questions you submitted. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

yeah oh yeah that's me right here let's do this it's tuesday it's december 13th 2022 and we're back with the bc live chat a live chat what are we calling this thing i don't know it's a it's a one-man party and it's your boy bc the brian campbell one half of your morning combat duo but look the fact that we're even doing this a second time is a shout out to you, the fan. Thank you for pumping the comments, the social medias and all that and saying, look, you know, I kind of I kind of didn't hate it. So let me get BC is AG one cup and let's get rolling. Welcome back to the BC live chat. This is the second time we're going to do this.

Hopefully this will be a weekly biweekly, what does that even mean? Twice a month-ish. I don't know. We'll see where this goes. But I'm back at it today. Cold and snowy here in Connecticut. But let's keep the spirits high and warm and let's get after it today. Before I get into your questions, and thank you very much for sending them in today, a quick tease for Wednesday's Morning Combat episode of this week. Yes, tomorrow, one day from today, we're going to do a special start time of 2 p.m. Eastern, Wednesday, tomorrow, Morning Combat.

And the reason why this is important is we are going to open the show with the type of big announcement that you just can't miss. So no teases, no clues, no nothing, but just know this MK viewer, the voraciousness of your fandom, which some could, you know, characterize as being, you know, potentially dangerous in the long run or, or, or, or rabid, but I love you for it. The fact that you guys go to bat for us to win awards left and right is the

reason that an announcement like the one you're going to hear tomorrow is going to take place, literally cause and effect in that type of scenario. So thank you very much for getting our back and check that out Wednesday, 2 PM Eastern, but the BC live chat, it's going to change, evolve, grow. As, as things go on, as, but the BC live chat, it's going to change, evolve, grow as things go on, as long as the traffic's there, as long as you guys are still saying, hey, BC, I like this weirdness. I like this sort of solo journey to fill in my MK off day. Well, I'm here for you in that regard. So I want to kick off before we get into your questions with sort of my three topics of the moment to kick off to get myself warmed up here.

So topic number one to open today's BC Live chat is what went down this morning in Tokyo, Japan. I set my Inoue alarm about 5.30ish to wake up to check out the pound for pound best boxer on the planet, according to your boy BC at CBS Sports and many others around the world and that's the japanese monster naioa inoue who in his home country this morning unified all four world titles at bantamweight 118 pounds by stopping paul butler in the 10th round to become the first undisputed bantamweight champion of this four belt era also Inoue becoming the first Japanese undisputed champion the first outer rim I mean there's a lot of firsts in history here but spoiler alert if you're not you know if you haven't come to this journey up to this point with the monster everything he does and touches is both violent and seemingly historic this is a 29 year old fighter

undefeated insane monster power but the complete perfect, well-rounded skillset to literally be where he is right now. My pound for pound King at the moment, uh, you know, he won his first world title and his six pro fight, won his second world title in his eighth became a three division champion in his 11th. Now he's the undisputed champion in his third weight class and has already announced that this will have been his last fight at 118 pounds. So he can try to tackle a fourth division moving forward at 122, which as you already know, features names like Stephen Fulton Jr., Brandon Figueroa, who recently moved up to 126, but has always thrown out there the idea

of maybe coming back down for one more, maybe a Fulton rematch. But if Inouye now enters that stratosphere, obviously the question will be, can he carry his power up there with him? He has carried his power up there with him each step of the way to get to this point. But let's focus on this morning's fight quickly and really what we learned. We didn't learn anything new compared to what we already know, that Inouye is is that dude that he's an absolute well-rounded badass and if you're wondering has he ever been tested has he ever looked human one time it was 2019's fight of the year against Nonito Donair it was the final of the

world boxing super series uh tournament at 118 pounds it was a unification fight you already know what happened Donair broke Inoue's face, pushed him to the limit. Inoue won a decision despite the broken orbital bone, fought through it, showed his boxing acumen, showed his toughness. It was the fight of the year. It was arguably the best fight this sport has seen since Pacquiao Marquez four in 2014. I mean, it was really, I'm sorry, 2012. It was really that great. But what has he done since then? How about like five straight wins by early knockout, four straight wins, whatever, what have you? I got it all in front of me right here.

Rematching Donair earlier this year in another unification fight, knocking him out in the second round and showing you that that was largely an aberration the last time around, Donair overachieving. But since that point, this guy Inoue does what this guy Inoue does, which is absolutely steamroll people. He's now 24-0 with 21 KOs.

And this fight against Paul Butler here, which is the fifth consecutive knockout since that first Donair fight, nobody expected this to be close on paper. Butler won a vacant title in April of this year against a guy you never heard of, and then was elevated to full title ship when the whole John Real Casimiro thing fell apart and him losing his belt. But I'll give Paul Butler of England credit, the babyface assassin. He's willing to take this fight, willing to go out of his way to go into Inoue's backyard.

And you know me, whether it's Australia or, in this case, Japan, I love the early morning, odd weekday fights, the whole breakfast at Wimbledon experience. Paul Butler is, I give him that respect, but that respect stops in my mind when he stepped through the ropes, which means here's a guy who was as big as a 100 to one favorite. Most lines had him 80 to one. I'm sorry, underdog. Most lines had him an 80 to one underdog,

or I mean, it was just basically telling you that he had no chance to come in. And the problem I have with Paul Butler Harris, you know, he fought like he had no chance of coming in. He fought 100% to survive, not to thrive, not to throw more than one punch at a time. And you saw the monster a new way. Instead of getting frustrated by that, in the first half of the fight focus solely on the body was landing just sick beautiful combinations and which is sort of teasing upstairs and going back downstairs showing you the full arsenal but what I love about Nui in this case is he didn't get frustrated didn't do anything stupid but he did try to slowly lure Butler out he did the Roy Jones

thing with his arms behind the back and landed the punch he did nollie shuffle he was switching stance he was doing anything to try to bring Paul Butler's guard down to land that big right hand. Finally, in round 10, he cornered him against the ropes and just unleashed. And, you know, I thought the announced team who was calling it remotely on ESPN plus, it was Tim Bradley and Joe Testor. They did a nice job on this. Nice job calling out Butler for what he wasn't doing, but nice job just picking up on, uh,

on little things here and there. And, you know, a lot of the shots that Inouye was landing against Butler's guard, he was blocking, but you get a puncher that throws that hard, that lands like that. Those punches are still going to accumulate, meaning he's hitting the guard, but the guard's slamming against his face. I love that Inouye got off script, got off character a little bit to try to pull Butler out. And then in that 10th round, as I mentioned, cornered him and just unleashed with a sick four or five punch combination,

lightning speed, all accuracy, not only dropped Butler. It didn't look like Butler was going to try to beat the 10 count. The referee got close to 10, saw the guy wasn't going to get up and just waved it off. So I guess it officially goes down as a TKO, but that's a straight clean knockout in my opinion. Disappointing. Like I said, the performance from Butler, but the fact that Inoue showed so much patience and creativity to track down the stoppage and still get it shows you exactly

who the hell he is. Right now, he's the best fighter in the world. And that was a spot that Canelo held for a while with me. And I even held it through the B-ball loss, giving him the benefit of the doubt for his daring of late to be great. I think the human performance in the third fight against Gennady Golovkin from Canelo took him off of that peg. Some people like Terrence Crawford in the spot who fought this weekend. Some people like Spence.

To me, they're two and three right there. You could have Fury or Alexander Usyk if you wanted to, and a hipster pick for number one overall. No one's going to knock on your door with a pitchfork or anything. But Inouye right now at 29 is the best fighter in the world. And to me, how you show that is first and foremost, are you a true double threat? He is.

He showed in that first Donair fight when, I don't want to say his power got taken away because it didn't. It's just that Donair stood in there and took shots that most guys don't. Nonino Donair at that point as an aging 30-year-old, late 30s legend, overachieved, as I mentioned. But what we got to see there was the toughness of Inoue, the ability to box when he really has to. He could do absolutely everything. But he also has that sick, ridiculous explosive power where when he lands clean with that right hand, people go away. They go away quickly. They go away violently.

Butler probably would have went away violently in the first three rounds had he attempted to try to throw more than a single jab or a single right counter. Hey, I don't know if you just wanted to say, look, I'm a historical footnote. I tried to go in there and lose by decision and just be happy with that. I mean, to be fair here, Paul Butler as a champion, you know, I said he won the vacant crown and got elevated. He never fought outside of the UK before this and had never beaten anybody of note. And his two losses coming in were both on the title level, including one against Emmanuel Rodriguez, a guy that Inoue blew away in two

rounds. So, you know, barring an injury or something bad happening here, this was going to be all Inoue all the time. But the fact that he, you know, pick through the crap, cut through it and still was able to give you exactly what you want. It's the best fight in the world. And the idea of him going up to a fourth weight class where there's again, going to be legitimate questions. Can this guy who started out at what?

108 pounds carry all the way up to one 22. You may think, Oh, that's just a 12 pound difference. I've seen guys in the UFC go to from welterweight to middleweight. Yeah. In boxing though, when you get in the smaller weight classes, those four or five, six pound gaps become much larger.

Him moving up to 122 with guys, the size of, as I mentioned, Brandon Figueroa or Luis Neri or a lot of these guys that you've seen of late and the, in the Stephen Fulton sweepstakes, this is going to be musty TV. If he can get himself to that point. And the only if here is what is the current status of his contract in terms of promotional and network agreement. We know he's co-promoted now by top rank along with his original Japanese promoter.

But how long is that deal? Is ESPN in for the long run? Can they work with a showtime, which has the influx right now of top 122 pound names, except for, of course, and be remiss if I didn't mention the other title holder in the division, who's got two of the belts and that's Muradjan Akhtamaliev, who, uh, you know, beat Danny Roman a couple of years ago in that absolute thriller that could have gone either way and went the distance. Um, maybe a new way goes in that direction if we can't cross streams.

But either way, Inoue just blew away the competition again and got me really excited about what his future in Inoue class can look like. I mean, Inoue's beaten, God, everybody they could have put in front of him in these three-way classes. But in his fourth weight division with questions until he proves it, if his power carries at that same level, will he have to box more? The idea of him going up against an absolute complete fighter and Stephen Fulton Jr., who was in my top 10 pound for pound after the Roman win, fell out because so many other people are parachuting in and out.

But, you know, at this point, this is rare to talk pound for pound quickly. I don't know. Most people don't care about it. I think the people that are wrong when they say it means nothing, we don't care about it. It is something, it's the only currency we have to compare or debate fighters in separate weight classes in terms of who would mythically beat each other. I mean, it's the only real thing we've got. And the whole idea that you have to do it, that I think sometimes certain pound for pound voters miss is, you know, to me, the to me, the tie-breaking question when you're

ranking people is always, you know, how would they be in a mythical matchup if weight didn't matter? If the same advantages and disadvantages that they hold in their own weight class paired against somebody else, keeping their own same advantages and disadvantages that they hold in their own weight class together in this mythical weight class, who would win? I mean, right now, you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody in that sort of mythical matchup who could, who can give a new way that kind of trouble, but he's going to find legitimate stiff trouble at one 22. And it's going to be amazing to see him try to continue to make history. So fun little, you know, start to our, uh,

combat week with a little Tuesday morning surprise, but it is a new way all day, every day, like morning combat here, MK. So, uh, shout out to the Japanese monster. My second topic to start before we get into your questions is a little

pickup from something I mentioned on Monday's morning combat. It's something I seem to be the only person, you know, playing the high hat here with the souped up tempo. Who's on a roll yet. It's time to go solo right fall in on the concrete real fast is your boy bc saying hey ufc you're very successful maybe this wasn't the best year you've ever had but you know

from a hardcore fan standpoint this year was great didn't finish with a bang but we debate a lot what's the crossover pay-per-view fight to make next? What's the break glass, take this superstar, match him with this superstar, and do it? As much as people may not love this idea, I want to just clarify a little bit more why I'm banging the drum so hard for Conor McGregor versus Paddy Pimblitt in 2023,

preferably in a European stadium, you know, Croke Park, Wembley. I mean, whatever you, whatever you're willing to do. And by the way, I'd like the UFC to be willing to step up more to the idea of the stadium level. We saw Rousey home in front of a record crowd in, in Australia that time, you know, and, and sort of that makeshift stadium.

We've seen what St. Pierre shields was it in Toronto and the big ass dome that did so much i'd love to see the ufc break in raider stadium in vegas allegiance stadium you know i mean break in something like wembley arena or in dallas jerry world and do a monster event well patty versus connor is that but you get a lot of people grunting or groaning saying you know right now i'm not high on both of those guys. You know, I mean, they're in different trajectories, different places. Here's why though, I think it actually does make the most sense. First and foremost, it's going to do monster business, no matter what you think or who you are. Two personalities like that. One kind of looking

like a clone of the other in some ways, or a Connor 2.0, but it's, it's not the same as Luke Thomas pointed out on a Monday show. People are going to jump out of their shoes and tune in for that. But because Patty Pimblitt looks so human in this fight with Jared Gordon and may have gotten a gift decision. And because the bad PR at the moment is so heavy because, you know, I hated his reaction in the cage at the press conference to the idea that he may have lost. You know, I hated Patty coming out and saying, no, I was definitely up up two and two two to oh so i was cruising in that third round i mean you you can never do that in this game especially in a fight like this that's this close but you know you sprinkle on top of the aerial situation right now is conor mcgregor has only had seemingly bad headlines since the third uh

poirier fight in the injury now you may be able to to make Conor McGregor a baby face right now. And I know you're all BC with your pro wrestling bullshit. Okay. Do I have pro wrestling bullshit that I spew a lot in the wrong spot? Probably. Yeah. I used to be a major fan and journalist to that, but the whole idea of this wrestling mindset that I think it matters when I talk about MMA is, is really only from a promotional pay-per-view sense. And, you know,

Connor was the villain in the second and third Poirier fights. And right now he's in a spot where he's playing the villain very well. And, and he always looks like he's on some form of drugs, juice or the recreational kind. And, you know, it's,

it's just, he's all over the place. You match this right now. You may be able to get him coming back as sort of this conquering hero against this clone of his that people really don't like. And even more importantly than that is I'd favor Conor to win at this point. Bigger, more experience. I think it's a no-lose situation right now to put Paddy in that fight.

He just showed you Paddy Plumbin, and no one's going to act here like one loss derails a career. I'm not coming at you with that boxing mindset, but I think in boxing, we hang on way too much. You know what I mean? One loss on the rise, we think, oh, they're a bust. We know what we have here. No, we don't. Let's give fighters a chance to grow and lose and take chances and fight the best. We don't want to encourage a lifestyle in which people are purposely trying to

match themselves soft, but this Jared Gordon fight, that didn't look like he won. So the worst thing in my opinion that can happen to the Patty Pimble arc. And the reason why that's important is because the UFC obviously realized that they have somebody who could be the face of this giant UF, uh, Europe expansion and to take advantage of the giant crowds they're doing in London and, you know, really the fervent nature of Ireland and the UK just being so fertile and so rabid for combat sports is, you know, the worst thing that can happen,

in my opinion, to that arc and slowing that brand is to lose to somebody like Jared Gordon, to take a setback against a guy who's not equally marketable, who's probably not meant long-term to do big things. And all that does is kind of expose Patty. Does this idea though, lean more into the idea that the UFC would be cashing him out? Yes and no. But here's why, if you do believe this is a bit of a cash out, it makes the most sense. And it's the point I just said, he can't lose here. If he goes in there against a more experienced star, who's,

you know, had more experience in bigger weight classes, like Connor as the, you know, conquering pay-per-view hero coming back with all the questions. And should he lose people are going to call him a bust after that or hold it against him. No,

they'll have lost to one of the greatest fighters in history and probably be part of one of the biggest fights pay-per-view and marketing wise in the last few years. But if he wins, he may fix any issues that he had in that Gordon fight, or maybe allowed to sort of like leap ahead due to the double down in fandom that being in a fight, this would be in the confidence. It would give him that. Look, he may never be title ready. Meaning if, if,

if the UFC decides his ultimate cash out is keep putting in fights, he might be able to win style wise to get him closer to that title and just give him that one chance for all we know of what we know about him right now. He may never not, he may never be good enough to win that title. He's particularly in light, you know,

a weight class that is known for being deep and dangerous. There's no lose in him fighting to Conor and losing, in my opinion, brand-wise. There's only a double, triple, quadruple gain should he go out there and win or go out there and fight great and lose. Either way, from a promotional standpoint, what's the best thing you could do? Have Conor come back, win spectacularly in front of a giant crowd and be hailed like a hero doing it. Even that, even if Patty went in there and got stopped and lost in a fun, aggressive fight, I think that would only propel him to bigger opportunities. And it would take a little bit of the pressure off that this

rising prospect who's trying to talk his way into big fights and into your living room needs to be perfect every step to live up to that you advance him right now to that connor pay-per-view level and you get a lot of trash talk in the build and you get a lot of people going man who do i cheer for here i think that's a that's a way to sort of heal in and almost skip some of these immediate sort of step-ups that he's going to have to take and win and look good doing so to get closer to that title. We always say in this sport,

Dustin Poirier had that choice to open, what, 2020, was it? Do I go in the lane of the title, or do I go chase Conor for a rematch in a trilogy and, you know, life-changing money and sort of an immortal stamp of popularity all time. You fight Conor McGregor three times, including twice in major paper. Just look at what happened to Nate Diaz. You almost become immortal.

And even though I don't think Poirier's brand has reached the solo level that Nate Diaz's did from the two fights with McGregor, because Nate Diaz also had the Diaz brother stamp on him, he's, to some degree though, Po you know, a made man for life. And, you know, a lot of that is the history and the buildup and the fights he took and the way he fights, but he was also part of the last two biggest pay-per-views we've seen. I don't think the UFC can lose right now for Conor versus Paddy,

and I think from an actual fight breakdown standpoint, I don't think we really know who would win that. There's so many questions about what Connor's going to look like, how his body's going to react to injury. What's he going to have left? Can he pass a drug test? All that might be time right now to just make the biggest, most fun fight you possibly can because Patty Pimblitt may never actually get there on his own.

He might not. It doesn't always happen. That fight on Saturday was a red flag of a large degree. It could just be an aberration. It could be a bad night at the office. It could be a bad training camp. It could be just a conflux of sort of poor luck in the moment to produce just a bad night out, but we forget it next time when he goes in there and blows somebody away. That's possible. But what if it's not? And what if you can make the biggest fight right now when people have legitimate doubts, making Conor McGregor a babyface in the process?

Again, it's pro wrestling logic. It also works in pay-per-view sales, which is why Dana has been so successful, somewhat taking the McMahon game plan and how they promote. So I know people don't want to hear that. But at the end of the day, folks, it's true. Final point before we get to your questions is this. Number three, NBA breaking news that I got in my phone this morning is this, and I like this move is that the, uh, NBA has decided to change their, uh, award naming schemes to honor, you know, heroes of the past,

changing the name of the MVP trophy and naming it after Michael Jordan, uh, changing the defensive player of the year award to be the hockey Milajuan one, the world Chamberlain trophy will be for rookie of the year. The John Havlicek trophy will now be sixth man of the year award to be the Hakeem Olajuwon one. The Wilt Chamberlain trophy will be for rookie of the year. The John Havlicek trophy will now be sixth man of the year. And the George Mikan trophy will be for most improved player. Although I don't necessarily get the correlation there on improved since, you know, Mikan came into the league at an early stage out of DePaul and absolutely dominated wearing the number 99 winning a three Pete for the Minneapolis

Lakers, but it's good to honor the past just the same. So while on that thread, I know that the NBA did this a couple of years ago. They changed, you know, the Bill Russell NBA finals MVP. They named the almost like a humanitarian social justice award after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which is a strong move, but I can't believe I'm saying this as a longtime Celtics fan. Who's sort of been like a known outed Kobe hater in the Lakers versus Celtics rivalry,

even though I probably shouldn't because I've always respected Kobe's metal. And, you know, like Steven Jackson and myself, he's a class of 96 dude. And I've been following him from high school to that point. But most before the, this change in the recent changes, every award dated back to NBA for the most part, really dated back to NBA's early history of, uh, you know, the late forties, fifties, sixties, in terms of, you know, who these things were named after, even though Jerry West is still alive and still a major part of the NBA and in a senior patriarch role. And, you know, he was as good a executive for years as he was an all-time great player.

He's long been the logo. And I think it's always worked from that, you know, that silhouette and sort of the representation that if there's one player that represents who the NBA is, back in the day, it certainly was Jerry West. Perseverance, talent, leadership, all that stuff. But here's the thing about Kobe Bryant. RIP, first of all.

Hashtag girl dad, like Luke Thomas. Shout out. People have a hero worship thing with him that sometimes I don't always fully understand. But if I'm going to force myself to, the whole Black Mamba thing is a mindset. And I get it. And it is something special.

And it is something unique. He's as Joe Rogan would probably say in a lead into a major UFC pay-per-view video package. He's extraordinary among extraordinary men from a work ethic, just, you know, perseverance level come back from injury. I mean, there there's been almost nobody ever like Kobe. And it's like Kobe didn't end up winning more championships or MVPs than Michael Jordan, but he came close. And of course, you know, he was looked at as a Michael Jordan clone for a long time and obviously developed his own legacy and reputation.

But mixed with the idea that him dying so young was a major blow to the basketball universe in general and exactly what he did represent. And we got to learn that the more Kobe, a famously private person seemed to like open the curtain a little bit at the end of his career. He did the documentary with Showtime. He, you know, he did some things that even a guy like me who never liked him had to go. Yeah, dude, that guy's, he's all about this. That guy is all in. And I think that it is an inspiring lesson for all of us.

I think the ultimate honor here is Kobe Bryant has the new silhouette. And I think it's time you upgrade and it's in line with, with Michael Jordan becoming the new MVP and all that. And for me to say that, that's a lot. But hey, Kobe, I think you earned it. I think you deserve that. Let's see if the NBA takes me up. What's going to happen first, that or the women's heavyweight division in the UFC?

I don't know. I don't know. All right, what I do know here, folks, is I love you, and this is about you. So we kind of broke down. We got some questions left over from last week. We've been acquiring questions overnight on that community tab on our Morning Combat YouTube page. You've been sending in from all angles. Shout out to my great and trusty producer, Mikey Moromile of CBS Sports. We've got them broken down into different categories.

MMA, boxing, music, miscellaneous, life, whatever you got there. I'm going to bounce around a little bit, take your questions. Let's get this thing rolling for BC live chat to episode two. Thank you. All right. From MMA master, let's kick off in the world of mixed martial arts here. BC, if you fought Luke, I think this means Luke Thomas in a cage. Who would be your dream corner? All right. I love Luke Thomas. I love a fight in Luke Thomas when it, when it, when it means, when it makes sense to in a show sense, right. I love competing against Luke Thomas.

I don't want to fight Luke Thomas though. At the end, there's a big dude. He's got some fight experience. It's maybe got, you know, maybe got some emotional trauma that, you know, he would probably take out on your boy, BC. But if I had to entertain this discussion, my dream corner, I think I'm going to own Mike Thomas Brown as the trainer. Mike Brown, ATT.

Luke and I just got to see him recently. He was in the room when we interviewed Danny Sabatello, who, of course, he's his lead trainer. And I can't wait to get him on the RSD couch one day. I've always loved Mike Thomas Brown as a fighter. He was the, the, the, that dude at the end of the video game and the WEC when Uriah Faber became this crossover surfboard looking star. And, you know, he ran into Mike Brown twice and got handled. And, you know, Mike Brown did eventually graduate. Mike Brown got handled like by Jose Aldo because everybody did back then, but he did go onto the UFC and he had an abbreviated end to his career because of injury.

And, you know, he's not a self promoter, so he's not out here, you know, sharing his highlight reels and reminding people that he was once a bad-ass, but I have so much respect for that guy. And I think he's become a better coach than he was a fighter. And, you know, and I kind of got into that through always hearing you'll want to talk. And, you know, and I kind of got into that through always hearing you want to talk about Mikey, Mikey Brown, who I'm most, who the heck's Mikey Brown guy? I'm like, yeah. Oh shit.

MTB. That's who they got in their corner. So I'm going to get Mike Thomas Brown. I'm going to get, uh, probably Latore Gonzalez. I think that's her name. You know, coach Latore in the corner. Cause you do need one hype person.

You do need one person to say, oh, you're doing great, BC. You know, I'm not going to get drunk Okamoto like Oscar Willis accidentally had. But, you know, I'll get, I got Mike Brown for strategy. I got LaTorre for, you know, guidance. Make sure everything's okay. I got the UFC appointed cut, man. Hopefully Don House, because the boxing guy, shout out to Don House, once trained Bermane Stiverne to the heavyweight title before Deontay Wilder

won a decision over him after breaking his hand. But who's going to be my third person? It's very interesting. I guess it's not going to be James Krause, right? You know, my best chance is to start up that podcast idea I had where him and I would come together as a new spinoff. MKDUO would call it Parleys and Punani. It'd be fantastic, right? Probably not going to be him, though.

My third person would be. No, not Josh Fabia. Please stop that. Stop that. You know, my third person will probably be Freddie Roach because I would like to have, uh, you know, Freddie Roach has crossed over a little bit, bring out, you know, the boxing guy, I'll bring a little box with me. He's done some MMA fights. He certainly can adapt the striking there. And, you know, if I'm going to get in there with Luke Thomas, I'm going to have to live and die by the jab. It's the only thing I got. The only

fights background I ever have was doing some boxing training and some sparring for a year in 2004 and, you know, getting mixed up a little bit and you know i fought the lennox lewis big man style there okay i worked behind that jab so i'm gonna need freddie roach to sit down with me watch uh gsp uh cost check two as many times as we can and figure out how to close luke thomas's eye in this mythical fight okay but you know he's eventually gonna shoot? Nothing a double leg couldn't figure out. And, you know, then he'll probably jajuts me or sit on me or crop dust me and, you know. I mean, I don't know.

Like, I do want, we all wonder. You know, there's that 90s lyric, you know, I'm not a coward, I've just never been tested, but I'd like to think if I was, I would pass by the mighty, mighty boss tones. And, you know, I've certainly been tested by life a hell of a lot, but I think we all wonder, you know, if I'm in the mall. And, you know, I've certainly been tested by life a hell of a lot. But I think we all wonder, you know, if I'm in the mall

and somebody, you know, makes a disrespectful comment, pushes my wife, and I'm, oh, it's on right there. We're fighting right now, you know. You know, how would we handle ourselves? Would we tap quickly or would we find out that, you know, deep inside we were fighting against having to use or sharpen a tool within us that actually was good enough all along so you know what that luke thomas if we're getting into this fight i ain't tapping all right i'm choosing nap i'm choosing violence first of all when i wake up

but i ain't tapping i'm going full nogara brother okay if you're gonna if you're gonna if you're gonna submit me you're taking my arm home with're going to, if you're going to submit me, you're taking my arm home with you after a commercial. Okay. And we're going to go by UFC one rule. So I can definitely hack me you in the ball bag. A lot of times, Mikey, do you have a question for me? You reached out to me recently in this live chat. What do you got for me here? Hit me up on a follow-up here. Michael more mile. This is from Dylan Hager. Dude, Dylan Hager is a great,

first of all, I love all our MK fans and viewers, but some of you guys come with me. A lot of you guys are Luke Thomas day one P ones, right? Guy like Dylan Hager comes with me from my podcast past. I appreciate that. Who wins three on three half court. Oh, I love this basketball team. MK versus team SOC. So the MK team is Luke Thomas, Chuck Mendenhall and AB that's Aaron Bronstad. Wow. So BC, not in this game. I'm just finding out, uh, the team SOC is my former podcast partners over there at CBS sports, Adam Silverstein, the Greek Nick Costos and Rafe Bartholomew. So team SOC could be hurting here. Um, but the saving grace is Rafe can play. As Bill Simmons once famously said, he is a stretch four.

Rafe Bartholomew grew up in Manhattan, played New York City high school basketball with Smush Parker, played AAU, is a 6'4", lefty, ginger stretch who can nail some shots, still active playing today. Adam Silverstein could probably be a car wreck. Shout out to my former editor there.

And Nick Costas is a very handsome man, but I don't know if he's got ball game. Now, the question comes down to this on the other. You know what? Team SOC is going to be just fine with Rafe winning this game. What am I talking about? Luke's big. Luke's lateral movement is definitely suspect at this point. And, you know, he hasn't played consistently.

Here's the deal. I'm not a great athlete, but I played basketball every single year from age 10, sixth grade until this year, this year was the first year I took off. And I was very nervous and hesitant to do that. My travel schedule is crazy to commit in the weekly game that I play in. You gotta be in decent shape. I mean, they are old guys, but they'll run you off the court. If you're, if you're huffing and puffing with a bad liver. So I took the year off, but you know, even washed, I've been playing recent enough. I play my son every other day in the driveway. I mean, I'll still put something on you. I don't think Luke's doing much down there. Do they have somebody

that can guard him? Ray's going to have to use that height and reach. I think he can do that. Chuck Minnell, I love this man, but I don't believe he has basketball game. All right. And you know, Brownstetter said he was a high school athlete. I mean, what high school was that? You know, Hamilton, Ontario. I don't know. I don't know. I need to see that to believe it. I'm taking Team S.O.C. Let's keep the questions hot, fast and ready and rolling. Let's go over to the sport of boxing for the next one. Let's go over to a fellow by the name of Grizz. Hey, BC, was wondering if there was ever a boxer who you were not a fan of initially,

but eventually came around to really enjoying them, whether that be based on fight style, ring persona, et cetera. That's a decent question here, Grizz. One that I don't sort of have a knee jerk reaction. So let's sort of quickly talk this out together. I mean, there's certainly been boxers along the way that, you know, like MMA fighters, I've doubted and been out on really doubting them.

Abner Morris is one of them. He first came up and, you know, was in that Showtime tournament at Bantamweight. And God, Russell Moore, the referee, God bless you. When Morris fought Agbeko and hit him in the balls, I don't know, 46 times. And Morris was like, you know, I didn't see any of them. I really didn't see any of them. Jim Gray's, you know, Jim Gray's like, no, no, no Russell, really, really Russell. How, you know, the 46 bag touches, how do you, you know, and he's like, you know, I can't call it. I didn't see Jim. Okay. You know, I was, I was down on Morris and it's, what's crazy. And this happens to me a lot is I fully came around on Abner Morris

right before he got one punched by Johnny Gonzalez, right? Or, or, or knocked down and then knocked out in the first round of their fight. So that's always been a rollercoaster Rocky relationship. But in the beginning, I thought Abner Morris was a bit of a weight bully. I thought he was a little bit dirty. I thought he was a lot of things I've come to know. And, you know, I don't say this because she's my showtime colleague, but I've always really liked the guy. It's always been a great, honest interview. He's a very good fighter. And I think, you know, his legacy will be a name fighter, a multi-division champion.

Maybe he lost the biggest steps when he did step up. The two big fights with Leo Santa Cruz, the first one being a legitimate fight of the year contender, the second one being, you know, really sneaky and sleepy as a damn good one. He always made big fights and sold out and went after it. But when he needed to box, he could. that was a guy that I really took me a while. Same thing with Timothy Bradley jr. Who just got elected into the hall of fame and has been having this like back and forth where tank Davis quote tweeted the hall of fame announcement was like, man, Tim Bradley can't fight at all. And, uh, you know, his shit, no, he's not shit. Um,

but what it took me and Tim Bradley didley did respond to that by the way uh through some podcast and was just like you know i don't i don't go on the internet so i didn't know about this but uh you know tank why don't you try to beat everybody i beat in my career and then we can talk meaning you know i beat pacquiao although disputed i beat marquez and tim's best and biggest win he beat provodnikov and maybe the greatest action fight a lot of us have ever seen and uh you know gervonta's still adding names on there so separate from that debate tim bradley's a guy who got by more on will than you know i mean i don't want to say more than skill because he was a skilled boxer but he was a tweener without power a tweener meaning not pure enough to be a full-time pure boxer and doesn't hit hard enough to be a full-time slugger

yet is kind of both at the same time. And you know, that happens at times. Shane Mosley is a hall of famer. Who's kind of a tweener never used his jab, really big power puncher. But when he had the box, think of the first De La Hoya fight in the year 2000, one of my favorite fights of all time, boy, did he make adjustments and show that? But Tim Bradley was a guy early on who I was just like, man, you know, I, I, I respect the hustle, but he can't fight. He can't punch. He can't whatever. And I think we all turned on him a little when it wasn't his fault, when he got the decision against Pacquiao in their first fight in 2012, you know, disputed to say the least, but the, the man that he showed himself to be and beating Provodnikov

and going life or death, and then coming back a couple months later and beating Marquez on pay-per-view when Marquez was pound-for-pound rank coming off the not one punch knockout at Pacquiao. I mean, that guy stepped up, shown the IQ, the boxing skills, the adaptability. The guy's an all-time great. So I was so happy to see a guy like him who I was wondering if he might be borderline in getting in. Got in. I mean, the names, the multi-division champion reign. I mean, Tim Bradley, fantastic. Keep it rolling here.

I'm really trying hard not to linger. And you know I'm a lingerer, a lingerer. Not so much in your private space. My anxiety sometimes leads me to believe I should exit conversations, surprisingly, earlier than later so I don't wear on my welcome. I know I talk fast and abundantly, but I'm trying to keep this shit moving for your benefit out there. Because, look, I am you. Meaning when I'm not working, I got the headphones in at the supermarket listening to podcasts I love or whatever. And, you know, let's keep the shit rolling. Let's go over to music here. You know, BC is a big, big fan of really good music, whether you agree or not from matt r who taps first luke listening to uh maha

vishnu uh love supreme or bc listening to any cannibal corpse album so the love supreme record that he's referencing i got it right over here um is uh it's a co-album between carlos santana and john mclaughlin of the mahu vishnu orchestra and i Santana and John McLaughlin of the Mahou Vishnu Orchestra. And A Love Supreme is a cover of the great Coltrane song, and they put their own spin on it. And it's that perfect marriage between rock from Santana, but more Latin-influenced rock with a constant tease of jazz, and the full-on jazz fusion experimental side of McLaughlin. It's a gorgeous, amazing album. But the famous joke is when Luke got in my orange Subaru Crosstrek, aka the Indigo Girlmobile, the Lilith Fest tour guide,

I had Mahavishnu Orchestra, and it was one of the more extreme violin-based tracks, yon hammers jamming out on keyboards, weird sounds coming out, Billy Cobham just hammering shit out on drums. Luke's like, what the fuck is this absolute bullshit? But on the flip side, there's very rare music that I'm just like, get that away from me. It's not that I don't think there's nothing, you know, like could I find a redeeming value in there if I really wanted to? Yes.

But that barrier, that wall that I have to get over metal death metal gross metal with people screaming angry largely unintelligible words tends to fit that description um i can definitely understand the um well rave bug sliding in here of course rave bugs taking luke thomas to the hole you better believe of course i'll take him to billy ho we'll get to you know you can be bernard king in here we're getting two and we out of here but um as much as luke was all over me for that if forced to listen i do believe because john mclaughlin's one of the most incredible experimental true to his own self and style players i do believe especially mixed with carl santana when they're trading licks on a love supreme where is this record um i do believe Luke could hear Jimmy.

He could figure it out. He could go, you know what? That's redeemable. But BC here in George Cannibal, George Corpse Grinder, who I'm sure does great charity outside the ring, the cage, the stage. That's great. But, you know, sings about peeing blood in the meantime. I think I'm going to actually tap earlier on there because it's not that

there's no musicianship there or originality or whatever. I don't know. It's just that wall is so aggressive to get over that. You know what you got that, that George cannibal corpse can fuck off. I'm sorry. That's just what it is. You know what I mean? If tied down to a chair,

I think we can get Luke around on a lot of good music music i really do think we could okay i do let's keep this uh the show rolling just the same let's go back into mma for a second um from the taz 96 hey bc the rock is making a film about mark kerr the smashing machine's life can you think of any other mma mma biopics that should be made and the actor that should play said MMA figure? I think we've debated a question like this in the past on like a DM from Donk. But the idea here is somebody that's had such a compelling life in and out of the ring that a movie would make sense. So Marker, yes, although we did all see that great documentary that, that, you know, really filled in what his crazy life was, you know, going to different MMA tournaments, post-wrestling and being so outwardly and actively on the juice and live in such a crazy lifestyle that produced, you know, rough mental health days and all that.

Yeah. I don't, you know, I mean, Mark Kerr is one of the most compelling figures in the sports history in that regard. I'm all in on a, on a, the rock biopic, but yeah, it's gotta be people like that. John Jones is creating right now. One of the most craziest in and outside the cage walks of an elite athlete we've never, we've ever seen. I mean, point blank, this point that I've been making in columns or, you know, for multiple places for a while. And Dana White's kind of been saying it too, without saying it is john jones still to this

day is equally the greatest fighter that ever stepped foot in the sport and competed and the biggest like story of what if you know what i mean and at the same time you know i mean it's like here's the church here's the steeple open you know you know that bit right open it up and see all the people and um who's going to play him? I don't know. I mean, isn't Michael Jai White getting a little older here? Michael B. Jordan probably could play anybody at this point. I mean, dude, Creed III, do you see those commercials in the theater? I can't wait.

I can't wait to get to that, okay? And the IMAX with the 3D glasses on it and the eighth row. Believe that, brother. Mikey Mormont, you're right. Sliding in here with francis and gano you mentioned glover to share as well mikey would be great stories in terms of their journey to the us so i'd say francis and gano probably even above john jones has the most made for you know tv or movie perfect crossover life story of just like damn but let's not forget about ian heinish who

went to a european or or afric prison, wherever it was there in the Mediterranean era of the crime life he lived before. I mean, certainly, I said, John, you got to stand by John Jones on that. I mean, GSP is such a compelling personal figure, but sort of lacks that crazy controversy outside. I wonder if Ronda Rousey gets that treatment eventually, because that is one of the mythical careers. Brock Lesnar. Oh, God. Brock Lesnar biopic. Okay.

Ngannou won. Brock Lesnar, too. Jon Jones, three. There's your answer. Let's not malinger anymore. Is this Eric Raskin sliding in live right here? All my friends come out to play here. This is great.

Notice Raskin would never join this chat live after 8 p.m. Eastern because he'd already be in sleep at that point. But we know about that. What's the Statue of uh rask asked i'm being pissed off about mark walbert playing mickey ward without red hair by the way shout out to our fave ginger ginger rave reminding me about this live chat um yeah i get your point and mickey ward is eric raskin's favorite uh boxer of all time and should be if you're a longtime box fan, one of your favorites. And shout out to Rask, one half of the Showtime Boxing Podcast,

Raskin and Mulvaney. And really, I said this before, I'll say it again, Rask, my idol coming into this game. I wanted to be, my whole career, I wanted to be like Eric Rask. I really mean that. Not the small genitalia or low libido, but more just the, man, that guy can, that guy's, you know, he's profound. He's profound right there. Not the small genitalia or low libido, but more and more just the man. That guy can that guy's, you know, it's profound.

He's profound right there. I have no problem with Mark Wahlberg. I didn't like love the fighter, but, you know, there's some strong acting performances. Amy Adams, incredible. Oh, who played Dickie Eglin? The dude from, you know, the Christian Bale was was all in and tremendous on there. You know, the hair differences. My biggest problem with the fighter was that they considered that Shane Neary fight,

which really is one of Mickey Ward's best gritty wins on the road in Europe for that WBU title or whatever that sort of fifth unrecognized belt is. You know, they treated that as the culmination of his career and get better idols. Good Lord. And really that was, you know know it was a big win it was a secondary sort of you know regional-ish title but no mention you know nothing on the god he fights which really define him especially that first one i mean come on really so that's really my issue with their those statute of limitations rask but thanks for joining just the same uh back to the world of mma right here from lore dash con lore con has mma officially become more popular than boxing if not do you expect it

to and when um yeah on a whole this is nothing new don't have to go back to the uh joe rogan and lou de bella famed sports center debate about about whether MMA or boxing is better from about 15 years ago that, you know, holds up hilariously to this day. On the whole, like, you know, people always ask me the same time. You're a boxing guy, BC. So, you know, I'll always tell you that when the two sports are at their best, and I think even John Anik will still tell you, that used to be his, we used to share this sentiment together that you know when there's two sports are at their apex and the best the best fight you could possibly get boxing is the better even more popular meaning you know when mayweather comes out a few years ago for the biggest fights possible it's going to sell more going to bring across more casual fans than the mma but the day-to-day week-to-week not only is the mma a

better more rewarding product across the board led by the UFC who are just incredible at promotion and matchmaking and all that um the secondary leagues are also you know growing and and worth your time but um it's definitely that consistency and I think overall with with from the Fox deal now to the ESPN deal UFC has has gone beyond mainstream I mean you know extreme mainstream in so many ways you know big four sport I don't know I mean is it bigger than NASCAR and NHL you know maybe it is maybe it is too I haven't thought about that or updated that in my mind in a while but you know MMA is more popular on a consistent basis and I think regularly across the board but

big event because of the history and the royalty of boxing. And, you know, there's so many X or closet or, or angry boxing fans out there who want to become great fans. Again, they just don't want to deal with the bullshit, but, but love when they get lured in every five years to a big fight, there's still more of them than probably will ever watch MMA. I mean, that's, that's a bold statement, right? They could probably factually prove me wrong, but I think the sentiment might be true. In the crossover sense, more people will tell you probably that they love boxing and they love to be a part of a big fight building,

get excited, than will ever watch a non-Conor versus Habib MMA fight. With that consistency with MMA across the board, mixed with ESPN and other in your face constantly. Yeah. Success. Congratulations. The UFC, they've done that. I mean, they've completely done that. Boxing is just last 15, 20 years sort of lingering ups and downs, ups and downs and a good spot now, in my opinion, last couple of years have been fantastic, but you know, I'm so addicted at this point that even if it's 2012 or 2014 all over again,

two of the worst recent memory years in boxing, or if it's the every other year thing, like it was for the last 10, 12 years, um, I'm still going to be here saying ridiculous things into a microphone telling you that it's the best sport ever. Cause it is. Okay. There you go. Let's keep this thing rolling. Uh, let's get weird. Let's go down into miscellaneous here and F around a little bit. All right. Uh, from wake up top three MK moments. Um, yeah, that's pretty easy in my regard because when I think MK moments, I think monumental stuff that I instantly won't forget that I instantly think of like, you know, close my eyes and what is morning combat it's like three images first come up okay um one is that first live show we did summer of 2020 connor poirier 3 in the mgm uh park mgm sports book there and we did the shoeys and we had a small car but man they're so p1 mk level loving and

crazy and rabid i love you guys for being there And when we did that close and the send off and Luke did the Marines chair and I had the shoe polish hair on. Yes. And we just, that was, uh, and the fans going nuts. That was special. That felt really special. It was like our fans kissing and embracing us physically mouth open, tongue ready. Uh, I mean, I drank out of that guy's shoe with a hole in it. Jaime is his name, Jamie Jaime, whatever. I know we talked about it in the past But if that guy's still watching

Please, I'd love to have you Mail that shoe and we put it on the shelf In the Jersey City studio Which is the grossest, weirdest request ever But it's still fucking awesome Because that was the number one moment in my opinion Number two was winning the first Last December

MMA programming World MMA Awards with the doc cameras there. You know, that was that was that was super special. And to hear what made it really super special was the ovation. We've said this before, but the ovation we got in the rows behind us of the our media brethren, the Okamoto's Ray Mundy, you know, Mike Bone, Sean, I'll shot you that, those guys, those dudes, right. J J C the pink suit guy, those guys, um, the love that in pure joy and love that they showed almost as if like, yeah, one of us got it. Thank you. Um, that, you know, that, that's to me that those guys coming up to us afterwards and just being like, I just want to let you guys know that like you were in this and I'm,

and I'm, and I wanted you to, like, I'm happy for you guys. Like this is a breath of fresh air. That moment to me is more better currency than any award, any amount of subscribers, any, anything, you know what I mean? Cause that that's, that's your, that's your contemporaries. You know what I mean? Yeah. The Uriah Hall interview was, was awesome as well. The one with Luke by the horse,

but don't sleep on the one I did with him ahead of his last UFC fight, where he was just like, Oh, I know you got, I don't know. It was almost like, I don't know if I'm going to do this interview. Same thing all over again.

Great stuff right there. The third one of the, uh, MKs, my favorite greatest moments. Um, I got a feeling it's going to be what happens after uh tomorrow's announcement wednesday 2 p.m eastern special time for tomorrow's morning combat episode

and our big announcement i feel like that's going to be number three i really do but uh you know number three could be uh when i when i did that spit take last week in bellator that was god i tried hard to prevent that from happening but uh it turned out pretty good apparently this wawa fight reaction from yesterday is people's favorite moment that ever happened on this show. No, I got it. The real third best moment,

MK history. When Jake von Amsterdam came into character that first time on set and Luke was just befuddled, like in Jake, just, I mean, you want to talk about in the Jake knew about five minutes before that I was going to force him to do that. I mean, he just, he had the material ready.

He just became Jake von Amsterdam. That was something, you know, damn, damn. All right. Let's keep this a great train moment. I'll Corey W by the way, BC Al Bundy had his four touchdowns in one game. What's your crowning athletic achievement? I mean, are you guys going to be surprised to hear that? Although I had the passion of a great athlete, you know, I didn't have the work ethic early on. I started playing sports kind of late. Like I would say, like basketball's my sport. I didn't start playing until like sixth grade. People already had like fundamentals and skills by that point. So I, I was that Brian Scalabrini equivalent

for a long time at many levels but what have i done wise i didn't make my high school varsity team so my son chris shout out just made his the freshman basketball team at his high school and it yeah it was one of those like like you know score you know like score one for the family lineage right like you guys have to understand like in my factory town shout out to Naugatuck Connecticut like youth sports was everything like our middle school basketball rec leagues had coaches wearing like suits to the game and getting into screaming matches with parents and referees and this tiny ass basement gym at the YMCA and people throwing things in the car. I mean, it was just like insanely intense.

And, you know, the rivalry we have in my high school with Ansoni every Thanksgiving for 122 straight years or whatever the hell it was like that. My wife and kids like, why do you care about your alma mater playing some grimy town down the road? It's like, unless you live that, you know, and you guys, wherever you come from, probably have something that compares or maybe just your local pro soccer fandom is the equivalent here but like i don't know man we just cared about that shit i mean this you know how many times i heard that my uncle tony shout out caught the touchdown and two-point conversion in the 1970 game

against ansonia to force a tie and win the league championship and my cousin mark scoring one in garbage time in 88 against. And so, I mean like this is a thing, right? It matters. You know, cousin Connor won an MVL title. The only time they beat in Sonya there in like a 15 year stretch. So my kid making the freshman team, it was like F you back to all of my failed athletic achievements. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I'm sure you guys can relate as a hovering parent. I ran a mile in five fifty six. I'm pretty part of that. When I was twenty seven years old, the morning of my sister's wedding, when I got in great shape that couple of years, I had a half court shot in a rec basketball game. All right. Maybe it was a deep three, but, you know, beat the buzzer at halftime. That was pretty cool. You know, I mean, I made a couple. Oh, and the ESPN basketball league in the playoffs. Now there's an a league and a B league. I think I've said this before. The a league is like, you know, D one walk-ons and like X all conference D two shooting guards,

you know, like, you know, I play pickup with those guys and you know, I'm, I'm like, uh, Kurt Rambis or David Wood or insert, you know, Andrew to Clark in those leagues, but in the B league, man, I can suddenly step up and F around and, you know, almost seriously get a triple double. I had a 20.20 rebound game in, in, in a playoff win. And why that matters is that I was on the bad news bears for about 10 years of ESPN basketball teams. We always lost.

We always got hammered out. And most of the games ended to be fair with me getting into a fight with the scorekeeper, almost physical because, um, you know, they had a mercy rule. If you beat by 30 or more in the instance, in the second half, the game's over. And, you know, I got extreme competitiveness as an issue. And, you know, some of those games, when we play the really good teams and get smoked, you know, we'd be fighting at the end to just not lose by 30 so we can keep the game going and you know there's times that we would get it down you know the 25 in the safe zone but like the scorekeeper be like yeah let's just run off the last couple minutes this game's blowout and i'd you know get in his face like no we earned this time we avoided getting mercy ruled and run off this court there's

something we can learn right here and i'm sure my run off this court. There's something we can learn right here. And I'm sure my teammates hated me for this. There's something we can learn right here that, uh, that we can use in the future that we can build character from this. Plus this is your job to be here and do this. This is my time right now on the court. I don't care about that scorecard. You know, and he got in my face and was like, yo bro, like what's wrong with you? You know, maybe you guys should work harder to not get mercy ruled next time. And, you know, I was willing to throw down for the art right there to let you know that for sure. Just so you know, I, bro, like, what's wrong with you? You know, maybe you guys should work harder to not get mercy ruled next time. And, you know, I was willing to throw down for the art right there to let you know that for sure. Just so you know, I really was.

And I had to be held back. But, you know, I have the attitude and competitiveness of an elite athlete. I don't think I was gifted with the body. And I certainly didn't have the work ethic back then. But, you know, if I could do it all over, I'd shoot about 500 three-pointers every single day. And I'd probably be nice out there, but instead I got to be that sweaty up and under power forward. All right, enough of this bullshit. Let's keep the show rolling here. Let's go back to, we got food as a category here. All right, let's go. This is from wow, Wow, Wow, Wow. Hey, BC, what was the most disturbing combination of fast food that you came up with while being under the influence? I think this would have happened in 2002. I saw Bob Dylan at the Bryce Jordan Center on the campus of Penn State. Wow, that was random, right? Nick, you were there. You were watching from Nogden.

You were there at that concert, by the way. And, you know, on the way home, I hit the sheets. You know what I mean? I don't mean I took a dump in the bed. I didn't do, like, some, like, R. Kelly, Cleveland Steamer, you know, hybrid crossover project. But I will tell you that I, you know, you go to Sheetz when you're, like, just blasted. And it's like wah-wah. It's like anything else, right? But it's go to Sheetz when you're like just blasted and it's like, wow, it's like anything else. Right. But it's extreme. Sheetz is fantastic. And you go up to the computer and you're like, OK, you know, and you're in your in your good intentions.

You're like, oh, I'm going to get a meatball grinder or I'm going to get a turkey and ham or whatever, you know. But then they're like, do you want to add, you know, three kinds of cheese? You're like, fucking A, right. Right. And then they're like, Oh, Hey, you want to get funky? Do you want to add an avocado? And you're like, you know, I didn't consider that coming in, but you know, I'm, I'm actually willing to do this. Then like, okay, how about hot meatballs on top? Okay. Let's get a little extreme, but your boy has had a good night out there. Okay. So, so, you know, so Bob out there playing the hits. Okay. Um, yeah, let's do this. And then suddenly you're getting, you know, scrambled eggs dropped on top. So I think a couple of times I've had that, but particularly that night,

I'll never forget. It was just a, it was a, you know, it was like every gross comfort food that, that could eventually hurt your liver, which, you know, I'm a, I want to say I'm a liver survivor, but I guess I'm still fighting and dying there right in front of your eyes, all in the same grinder roll. That's about as weird and gross as it gets. But, you know, it's like when I go back and change any part of this journey

and tone down some of the ridiculousness, no. Because that's how I got here. That's who I am. That's the, you know, the final equation plus this plus that to make me who I am today. So, you know, sometimes you got to break some eggs to get to the, to have success. And, you know, apparently my liver is the one that had to suffer all these years. Let's go over back to MMA. I love this question.

And I never have the right answer from Kimbo rampage. It's a real, you know, original name there. If you had to pick the UFC's next president to replace dana who would it be here's where it's really hard right dana might be among the best ever i've ever done this gig fight promotion yeah he's among the best ever i mean seriously like you know what what else can you say and i and i know that you know anytime someone gets in a war of words with dana and i do that sometimes in weird ways too but um they want to be like, you know, hey, cardio kickboxing instructor, if it wasn't for the Fertittas, you would, you know, yeah, yeah.

For the larger, for the money part of it and the larger financial decision-making, yeah, the Fertittas were, you know, none of us are here without them, right? But Dana also is pretty smart dude business-wise along the way, shrewd, right, in decision-making and and incredible at hyping and he doesn't have to hype as much anymore it seems like now he's just more like putting out fires or being in you know sort of steady wars with different fighters or entities but you know the the dana from 2006 2008 2013 i mean you know the dana like that promoted is as good or, you know, or better than Bob Arum, Don King, Vince McMahon, you know, PT Barnum. Right. I mean, like, so replacing that, it's not

just so whenever someone says who should replace it, it's like, I used to always just go chill sign. Right. And it's like, yeah, you want that personality. Chael would be amazing just from the public facing personality of like lying with a smile and, you know, controlling the narrative. But do you also have that other side of it, which is that intelligence and that shrewdness and decision-making and, and, you know, maverick and bullish ways, um, like DC, I think just from like a guy you'd love to trust who can represent the brand without being too Chandler-esque, if you get my drift there would also be good, but you know, you'd love to trust who can represent the brand without being too Chandler-esque, if you get my drift there, would also be good.

But, you know, you'd have to, first of all, you'd have to pair them. You know how, like, a lot of Lorenzo's success was, like, the other half of his brain, his brother Frank, who did the numbers. You're going to need a numbers guy. That's not going to be on camera. That's going to be, you know, behind the scenes. It's like, that's the one thing. Al Heyman and the PBC, so successful, right?

But I always wished Heyman had a public-facing guy, his own Dana White. You know, a lot of people thought, it could have been Lou DiBella. It would have been perfect. I do think you need that person that represents you that can talk to the media in that regard. But, you know, Al's going to Al in this regard.

But, you know, to replace Dana, you need to be a lot, you know? And you need to have somebody behind the scenes that can be the silent business guy, but you need to be that public face and have that. And I don't know if, if, you know, everybody's wired that way, you know, or if it's just natural, like, oh, funny fighter, he'll just slide in. But I do wonder if that successor can be somebody famous, or it's just got to be somebody from the business side who may also have a personality and that would help, but can just kind of step up and say, this is the direction we're going. All I know is if it's not somebody that's a charismatic face, I wonder what that

does immediately to the brand's power in any way. Because, you know, one thing about Dana is even though a lot of what he says isn't, doesn't feel like it's true in the moment or what that, or you can prove it wrong or whatever, he's vindictive and all that stuff is like, there is an integrity part of that, that he carries large. Like I never doubt that he can't get something done. I mean, look at what he did in the pandemic, you know, and the Tachi Powell stuff was an obvious, you know,

sort of aggressive misstep. And, you know, you can always argue that that $750 million that ESPN owed them, if UFC could make their amount of, you know, required dates was the true motivation. But either way, he makes stuff happen. And when he's in front, it's almost like before Vince McMahon got removed from WWE and whoever thought that would happen, right, short of death, there was always, you know, he would have like a slip or fall a couple years back in the gym and hurt himself and the company would have to put out a a you know a press release saying he's okay just so stock prices wouldn't dip like from that regard whatever follows dana has you know monster shoes to fill so i think damn they need to be charismatic and

believable and you know if i mean dan's not really trustworthy but you believe that he's going to get the job done and when he says he's going to do something and when in the standpoint of like you know getting into new countries and doing new things i believe it's going to happen i mean slapdick league separate thing zufa boxing separate thing in his own lane yeah i believe everything he says in terms of their business moving forward and what in his large goals the guy does have vision and he does have balls and there's a lot of those things that when he does one day retire and we're sort of putting together his legacy slash you know career eulogy like what did he all stand for what did it mean we're going to say a lot more nice things than we will oh yeah

by the way he also was a promoter car salesman guy too yeah i mean yeah he is you know he also you know it doesn't always take the truth straight on. Yeah, he's pretty damn awesome, though, at what he does just the same. And that's not me kissing his ass because, you know, I show up in some of those videos sometimes. But it's just respect of a guy who comes from boxing, which is broken and splintered. And here's a guy who figured out how to keep it all under one tent. And they're still there, fight or pay issues or not. Back to boxing here. Let's go from Patrick BC. Great question.

How do you see a fight between tank and Garcia? That's Ryan Garcia going. And the fact that these two are supposedly fighting, which is, you know, remember we're targeted for April 15th, I think is the hopeful date. If they both win their January tune-ups. Patrick says, how do you think that affects Teofimo Lopez, Shakur Stevenson, and Devin Haney's next step in their fighting careers? Um,

immediately, I don't think it affects them, but I do think the whole idea of like this fight doesn't get made. If Ryan Garcia doesn't continue to push on golden boy and his own and say, look, I know you want this to be a two network, like real pay-per-view, the old traditional way. It seemed like Steven Espinosa and Showtime the whole time were like, we don't really

see what DAZN brings to the table. Ryan can technically do this fight if he wants to. I've heard Steven say that publicly. And then it turned out that way, you know, DAZN is getting a certain level of control on the rights factor, but they're also playing Showtime's pay-per-view on their streaming site. So this doesn't happen unless Ryan Garcia pushes through. So what's the spinoff effect business-wise for the Four Princes or the Five Princes,

as we can now call them, these group of lightweight-ish guys who just look like stars in the future? Is this going to make it more likely that they could potentially fight each other? Yeah, I think it will. Because I've always said we did live through the Mayweather Pacquiao era, which did produce a lot of Floyd followers in the standpoint of like Floyd was so on top of his business. I think we saw a lot of business boxers come out of that era where like people were like trying to selectively do what Floyd did. But you can't really do a Floyd because nobody's as great a fighter and as great of a marketer as Floyd did put together but you know safe more safety let's stay in our own promotional lane and not try to do it but you know trends are cyclical and happen we all want people to go back to where fighters were in the 80s and early 90s where it was more about glory and six you know what you succeed in then

necessarily the money side of it but there's also a down part in that is if you look at all those guys nowadays as 40, 50 and 60 year old guys, you physically see and hear the damage they took on to try to be great. And was that always the best choice in their long-term career? So while it's cyclical though, so it doesn't have to come back and be as reckless as that but it can come back to a new generation all kind of join in arms without doing it publicly and saying we want to be a little bit different and we don't want to end our career without having proven by facing everybody in our time that we are truly the best i don't think all these guys are like a hundred percent all locked in on that, but I think the spirit of it is starting to permeate. And I do think Tank versus Ryan Garcia opens up those doors to start to believe, because we just saw now a superstar in Ryan with just one network and try to make these things happen if both networks aren't willing to share on a 50-50 level.

Sometimes they do when the fight's just big enough and we got to that point and it made sense. Other times fights don't happen because of that. But this is a great trend, and I hope this new generation wants the smoke like they seem to do. I mean, Devin Haney made a pretty awesome power move when his, the zone and Eddie Heard deal was up to go to ESPN. Yeah. He had a fight Cambosis twice and go on the road twice, but look at where he's at now. So, um, Lopez more likely to go the one 40 title route. Shakur has got a first established himself at 35 and Haney to his credit, I think is going to be looking for the biggest name. He can certainly wants Loma Chanko more than anything. So those guys can be tied up for a bit, but come

back around a year from now. I mean, I like Rolly Romero in this mix too. Not that he's on the same level of these guys, but sometimes you need sort of that perfect villain B side to face them, to continue to make these big fights happen. Uh, Patrick also said, how do you see the fight going? I mean, as we get closer and as we watch their tune up fights, we're obviously going to, that narrative is going to change and flow and grow. But right now I like Tank better, of course, because he's a better fighter overall. And I think his power is better because he's got better accuracy and setup and control, but you cannot overlook two factors, the length and reach, the height and reach difference, which is a lot. And the fact that Ryan Garcia, until somebody does get him, uh, he's going to go out there as a gunslinger, even if his chin's not always in the perfect placement and, and just let his shit go that he could catch it. I mean, he can catch anybody. He's that quick and, and, you know, speed equals power in this game. So, um, that's why you have to love that fight so much.

The risk both are taking, the fact that they're doing it in their mid-20s rather than at 33, 34, 35, and the fact that either guy can win at any time. Also, it helps they're bringing in two massive young fan bases that don't seem to cross over, that are separate from each other. God, I love that fight in so many ways.

I also love that as much as we can look at what they've accomplished and who they are pound for pound wise and go, okay, take definitely the better fighter. But you know, right, right guys. And people hate when I say right guy, but that's cool too. You know, um, right guy is, is, is a, I mean, is he the last of the American gauchos? I like to believe myself and, you know, Martine Bader from Showtime and PBC are, but yeah, yo, he's a, he's a gunslinger guy. You know, he's a, he's a pretty boy one, but he's going to go out there and when he loses,

it's going to be spectacularly. He's going to stand in that pocket and try to win that fight. Damn. Does your boy BC respect that? All right. We're, we're nearing the end here. I could go on forever. Damn. I'm having a good time with you guys. But trying to mix it up and get around the best I can here. Let me see what else here we got going on. Thank you very much. Let's go back to MMA.

Richie Z says, if you could have a Grand Prix-type tournament in any weight class, what would you choose? I think right now, without question, I'd choose light heavyweight because of the fact that like Prochaska might be the best light heavyweight. Might be. But yet we're not going to see him for a while. And will he ever be the same? And I thought and Kalayev was and I thought he actually won that fight, but he also didn't kick the damn TV screen in. And he now loses the chance to fight for the title because of it. The parody is crazy post John Jones and, you know,

respect to Jan Blachowicz for the performance over the weekend. Plus being the only guy to, you know, defend the title during this post John Jones era. But yeah, right now, God, it would be awesome to see that. That's when I'd want to see somebody like Jamal Hill, get the chance to prove it to us right there rather than necessarily the way the UFC are doing it now, but still Glover versus Jamal Hill is a badass matchup, so I can't wait. Separate from that, they're so deep at Bantamweight, the UFC. God, would I love to see a tournament there. I also want to say women's strawweight, and it's like, you don't need it. There's that group of four or five ones that have been here from the beginning, and they're all starting. Ioana's gone, but you got Rose and Whaley and

Andrade and all that. I mean, they're all going to fight each other in and out, and all the fights are great anyway. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy, consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. But just for the pomp and circumstance of it for women's strawweight,

which would be the only UFC division you could really populate that. But, you know, I don't think UFC is going to do that Grand Prix thing. I think Luke is right in that regard that they sort of look at that as things we used to do, things our competitors do now. All we do is make big time money and, you know, take a lot of money. Make big money, make big events, all that stuff. Keeping it going here. Let's head on down the line back to music.

Let's do this. Max M says, BC, if you were a fighter, what would be your walkout song? I've answered that many times. I do. I think right now I'm settling on, and even this may not pop you, but that's fine because I need something aggressive rock and roll riff. And I mean, is there a better opening riff than Mean Streets by Van Halen? When it's like, I mean, it's just going to, you know, it kicks the doors in. Right. And, uh, that's exactly what I'm looking for. Okay. I want to kick those doors

and get myself fired up to distract from the fact that I would be shitting my pants on that walk out there. Even if I was a successful trained professional, that's why I love when people are real. Meaning like Rashad Evans straight up, tell be raw and real in front of you and say, yeah, dude, I almost threw up or was nervous or questioning why I'm doing this before every big fight. It's human. It's natural. And while I do respect that some people have the ability to sort of just block that without necessarily being a sociopath or, or delay that, or, or just kind of hide it from themselves. The reality is, man, you know, we are humans. And when, even if you feel like it's in your DNA, Dana, to be a fighter,

you know, I would need something that would remind me to distract me from the reminder that I'm about to shit my pants. So that would be that also, you know, hopefully I didn't need the gas station on the way there and they shit the pants would be inevitable. Let's go back to food here. This is JP. I think it could be Nova Scotia's own Jay Paquette, who says family gone for the weekend and BC is home alone. What is your go-to no holds barred cheat meal and snacks? Please include a beverage of your choice. Pre-black liver, of course, JP, I would probably, like I said, so technically my doctor said, although he just retired and I got to get a new one, that he's okay if I have, you know, a cheap meal, one meal a week, meaning go back to beef, pork, fast food, whatever.

I try to limit it. I let my guard down at the wedding on Saturday because the, oh my God, the, what do you call that? That beef that's just so tender. Oh my God. And it mixed with the mashed potatoes. I mean, I ate three plates of it. It was incredible. But if the family's going away, you better believe I'm cashing this, uh, this, uh, get out of jail free card here or ruin your liver more card. Um, in my area, there's good

pizza cause I'm in Connecticut. So there's great pizza. Actually, there's great pizza, even in like mom and pop around the corner that you never heard of before. It's pretty great across the board. There's also some people that are trying to be great that are super great, but BC comes from a factory town and in my factory town, even though Portnoy and company gave them a shitty rating, but to be fair, we're now generations in and it's like the kids are cooking. Do they have the same fervor as the drunk old men who used to make the perfect pizza pie at my Nogatuck Connecticut hometown, Mike's pizza palace? Maybe not. But, um, in its prime when I wouldatuck, Connecticut hometown, Mike's Pizza Palace. Maybe not. But in its prime, when I would eat there, like, you know, BC, what went wrong with your body and your liver? Mike's Pizza

Palace largely went wrong. You know, it worked in tandem with the gas stations over the years. But this is pizza made by aggressively drunk Greek men who just put that Greek style. What is Greek style pizza, you may ask? Extra everything. The most sweetest candy tasting crust that's soaked in grease that you ever had, you know, cheese that's just flying up. Like this pizza is so good that, you know, when a, when a, when a proper lady goes to eat one, she's like, oh crap, she needs like an arm full of paper towels to mop down the grease. Okay. And I don't mean it's gross. And like, if I held it up, the grease would just siphon out because like, you know, the abundance of grease is not necessarily what makes it, that's just extreme, right? Like Luke says, it's just more Budweiser. It's not a

40 ounce, but in this regard, when the grease is tastes like sex, like it tastes like candy. Now, you know, like you can do some damn that sauce too. Oh God. I mean, it's just perfect. We don't have much of that style where I live only 40 minutes away from where I grew up in the nice town. Nowadays, the nice town thinks that, you know, they can make new Haven style thin crust with, you know, trendiness and it's cool and it's good, but there's a place ABC pizza around here that does it that old world. I'm about to kill you style. So, um, my cheat meal is I'm going to get a, I'm going to get a meatball pizza from there. And you know, you know, what's my favorite part of my favorite topping grease.

And if grease isn't your favorite topping, then, you know, you don't eat pizza on a crack addiction level. Like I have, you know what I mean? That's really the bottom line at the end of the day, you know, are you willing to put it all on the line consistently? You know, I'm the Donald Cerrone or Chris Lieben of pizza eating, you know greek pizza eating and it just man you know i mean if you said bc you have to be celibate your entire life no bc you don't you know you didn't have to do this most of your teen years you just did that because you had no game but no let's say you had to be celibate your whole life but you could eat this pizza until it killed you i mean look you know i mean I mean I treasure all my conquests but you know damn right damn oh my god all right um so that and you know the snacks would definitely be a bag of smart food

because you know when I'm at my fattest I'm trying to take down the biggest smart food bag they have in one sitting you know I mean that's great what's what am I drinking I don't know black cherry soda is that that illegal of me? That's probably going to be the best sauce to chase that with in that regard. All right. They're trying to get me to rap here, but I got a couple more for you. Let's go back to this music here. Michael M. says, BC, I love your taste in music. Thank you, brother. That means you got good taste, right? I share a strong connection with the Grateful Dead and any bands past and present whom have their origins in the space of artistry. Wow.

I believe he's saying artistry in like a jam sense, but it also might be in a merging of genres, which really what the Dead and the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, they did so perfectly is merge all those crazy genres together. He says, have you ever had a spiritual awakening while experiencing any of this style of music live where it shifted your perspective for all your days to come?

So if so, give a most memorable example. That's a great question. And I've had so many transforming concert moments. Sometimes it's just one note or it's one cover song or one encore that you didn't expect or they jammed one song into another or all those moments have been life-changing.

But I think his specific question is about a style of music I may not have loved or realized I loved. It's interesting because that would mean essentially that seeing the band live first. And so, you know, that's why I used to love to go to the festival so much. Went to Bonnaroo, went to Austin City Limits, because you have the chance to stumble upon so many acts you never would have. I don't know if I have an answer to this specific question, like at a concert. There's been many times in specific listens where it was transforming this, you know, the pandemic when I bought 600 records and turned my life

around in this category and went so deep and was like, holy shit, the 70s were badass. How did I only listen to Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones and, you know, insert five or six most famous rock and folk rock acts and not go deep into progressive rock and jazz fusion and psychedelic rock? And, you know, I mean just damn. Yeah. I mean, it's something, it takes sometimes listening to something with the right year. So I can give you like album recommendations right now. And it just could be like the wrong day, the wrong history.

You don't have the tongue, you know, you don't have the, the, the palette yet for it. You got to build to it. I mean, my, you know, I can give you a fusion records right now, but unless you took the journey to get there and the appreciation of jazz, sometimes it doesn't click. Sometimes it just does. But, um, I've had those awakening moments separate from concerts with the headphones on constantly in the last two years. And it's led me down some pretty cool roads. And, you know, I am sort of threatening to go down that road in this whole idea of progressive metal as well, which would be a nice sort of expansion and

merging of multiple worlds. But, um, my recent runs into, you know, God, just pure jazz fusion. Damn. I mean, it's been some of the most rewarding turns into, you know, Chicago and blood, sweat and tears and sort of the, you know, orchestral horn based rock and roll as well. Stuff I thought, you know, was the most sterile music you can ever hear in your life. Go put on the second Chicago album. Tell me that's not bad ass. You know what I mean? Or go put on the first blood, sweat and tears album with Al Cooper and all that weirdness.

Psychedelic music is man. It's great. I mean, this, this new genre of psychedelic folk, which is happening. My morning jacket is a big, you know,

to a certain degree of that sound, or at least our old sound was more like that. Nothing better than the merging of psychedelic and folk. I mean, that is just damn, but no, Luke Thomas will not, will not enjoy that or get on that.

That's for sure. Quickly back to the fight games to wrap up here. Giovanni M, what is your top three fantasy matchups in the current UFC roster? I'd like to see Pereira at 205 one day against Yeezy as Luke would stumble upon. Yeah, so I think seriously, Paddy Conner, as I talked about earlier,

it's sort of that like weird bat shit kind of, yeah, I got to see that right now for sure. I'm coming around quicker than I thought on Volkanovski versus Mahachev being like, I mean, like that fight could be, Mahachev could dominate that for all we know, right? Like it could be a moot point. That fight could also just be like

from a technical style, contrast adjustment, adapt, adaption type fight. It could be a, you know, the, the, the purest of the, of the chef's kiss of what this sport has to offer. And I'm kind of coming around on that. Like, man, this could be something really good, but you know, I want Jones and Ghanu just about as much as you do, you know, no question about it.

I want to TJ Dillashaw on some other matchups. That's why the injury retirement thing, or who knows if it sticks kind of, you know, cause even in aging TJ still has those flashes of brilliance where there's so many more of the current Bantamweight era that I'd like to see him against. That's not going to happen, but I'm intrigued on the idea of a late in his career, Brian Ortega moving up in weight to just try to make crazy fun matchups.

I'm also intrigued by that as well. But, yeah, I mean, I want Hamzat to be tested just as well as anybody does for the welterweight title. I mean, Adesanya against Prochazka is mind-blowing to me what that would look like. It really is. It really is. All right. Two to close here. Quick ones. Pain creation says, Hey BC, how long after getting into boxing, did you get into MMA? Did you take a while to come around to liking it as much as boxing? So my MMA journey has been

somewhat parallel with my boxing journey, but it's take different runs. So I got into boxing in the mid eighties, um, got serious into it in the early nineties, fell off in the late nineties and early two thousands, but yet was still kind of around it simultaneously. Watch the early UFCs on the pay-per-view black box with my dad, but did stop watching when it kind of started going off pay-per-view and you had to really seek it out. And I knew what was going on in the U.S. But that's really the area where I was the weakest on a day-to-day. It wasn't until I was at ESPN and Rampage versus Liddell happened that that was the first pay-per-view for MMA that I saw like, you know, the ESPN culture adjust to and go, okay, this is that weird other sport that we don't

talk about a lot but this fight this is gonna matter here there's personalities they're gonna bang all that that was a big part of that and and me getting back in and from that point on i was working in mma at espn various roles behind the scenes that you know from 08 until now you know daily news cycle yeah i've been all over but there's certainly in and outs you know i wasn't necessarily watching you know that stretch where like shamrock was. I've been all over, but there's certainly in and outs, you know, I wasn't necessarily watching, you know, that stretch where like shamrock was fighting Randy Couture. A lot of those fights I caught up on a few years later in terms of the gaps, you know, I mean, I'm the filthy casual in some regard, of course, you know,

I do. I know a wrist lock from a wristwatch as they would say in pro wrestling. I know some shit. Sometimes I, I play the fool for comedic purposes. Um, sometimes I do wonder, and I, you know, I do go to a therapist, but I've been trying to therapize myself my whole life. If, um, if I try to, if I try to subconsciously project, um, as being more country bumpkin than I am to lower your expectations. So then I come over the top and win you over. That's the thing I've been struggling with. Am I really just subconsciously doing that?

Like a bait and switch, you know, maybe I'd be a good promoter at the end of the day. All right, let's close up this week's with three recommendations to close here. These can change week by week. We used to do something like this on Fridays on morning combat, but went away with it,

went away from it. Today, I'm going to hit you with song, album and fight. bc's three recommendations to get us out the door here on this tuesday thank you very much for joining song it's a weird random one here but it always ends up coming back up in my uh title playlist here uh it's from a forgotten band that's no longer together from australia called the middle east they play a very indie folk style,

but they dabble in like ambient and experimental sounds at the same time. The song is called Blood and it comes off of 2009's The Recordings of the Middle East. Although this band did reunite a couple of years ago, they've not been active for a long time. I did see them on some cool South by Southwest YouTube streams back in the day and was like, holy crap, this song Blood starts slow and haunting and creepy, but just kicks into a hell of a jam late. They've got some weird instruments mixed into the regular flow as well. The song is Blood by the Middle East.

Put it on. I think you'll be entertained. My album recommendation for the week is a shocker here, okay? Shocker. Knew about this record my whole life. My dad used to play it on cassette. Everybody knows the hits in the MTV videos. But when I'm now getting into vinyl and adding something, Paul Simon's Graceland from 1986. Look, we know it as the record that Simon somewhat controversially mixed his sound

with that of more traditional South African music and rhythms. I wanted to not like it. I don't have a ton of 80s records, but I certainly am looking out and picking out the ones that fit more into my wheelhouse and that weren't of its era. This is not of its era. This is something so different for Paul Simon, the famous singer, songwriter, dipping a hard left turn into world music. But I expected this to be really commercial. Like, I love me some Steve Winwood, but I love his late 70s solo stuff that's more jazz influenced or progressive and different genres mixing

than I necessarily love his commercial run in the mid 80s. Although look, Back in the High Life is a great record, but it's heavy commercial and it's very of its time. There's a genius within that, but you get my point. Paul Simon's Graceland is from like another world and it holds up today. And I was really blown away going song by song, how brilliant across the board it is. And yeah,

he got criticized for not only breaking the, you know, the apartheid thing of the artists at the time of the American boycott against, you know, going there to perform or, or, or doing any business with there. And he broke that. He also got blamed for kind of stealing this music the south african street music um called m m bakanga i think it's pronounced either way dude it sold 60 million copies it's the won the grammy for album of the year but it actually holds up with the mix of pop rock and sort of world beat um there's some great

special guests on there from jazz legends like Alfonso Johnson, Randy Brecker, and Steve Gad to the Everly brothers and Linda Ronstadt on background vocals. Simon also produced and arranged it. So anytime guys are going to that next level in that regard, I can appreciate the art, but I'm shocked. It was that good. I've been really being serious here. I always knew the hits. The hits are great,

but when you hear the hits in the context now of the album diamonds on the soul of her shoes damn that's some brilliant shit we close with bc's final recommendation it would be fight if you're a boxing hardcore you know about this one but if you're casual filthy or have only come to the box of late because of mk go on the old youtube machine and hit this up from 2007 wembley arena in lond London for the WBO interim lightweight title. When criminally forgotten in recent years, all action star, Michael cat CDs from Australia, Greek background,

basically like the international Arturo Gotti, to be fair, when he went in there for his first meeting against England's Graham Earl. And, you know, this was expected to be a cat seat. It's when more or less, but Graham Earl showed on human inhumane ability to go in there and take big shots and just brawl back.

This fight went five rounds was one. It was a fight of the year contender. And it was the first in a four fight series in succession over 14 months in which Michael Katsidis went from international dude to top-billed boxing action star. This Graham Earl fight, the Sar Ammonsop fight, which is massively underrated because Sar ended up having a brain bleed and retired for a while afterwards. But that fight's a war. Then the Joel Casamaior and Juan Baby Bull Diaz fights,

which a lot of people remember because it was more on American television. Those four fights in a row, action-wise, you can put up against anybody. But what I love about this fight is Katsidis, who's a a maniac kind of met his match and earl who is raw and didn't have the skill but had the equal amount of heart earl knocked down twice in the first round he goes down again in the second the referee ignores the corner throwing in the towel to stop the fight because under the british board of boxing control you know your referee can just kick the towel out and be like no he, he's fine. As soon as he does that, Graham Earl comes alive,

ends up getting a knockdown on Cat CeeDees on a standing eight count. There's cuts. It's a standing brawl. Do not miss it. It's the first. Don't watch the rematch. That was unnecessary seven years later. 2007, Graham Earl, Michael Cat CeeDees.

All right, I gave you 90 minutes of rambling, and I don't know. We'll see if you like it. Let me know. Got more where this came from in the future if you're down. My name is Brian Campbell. That was the inside of my brain. Hopefully you connected with parts of that or at least were entertained by my rambling and fast-talking. Morning Combat is typically every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern on the YouTubes. Me, Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas, we win awards for this shit, whether we deserve it or not.

But tomorrow, Wednesday, December 14th, a special start time of 2 p.m. Eastern time. A regular Morning Combat episode with an irregular special announcement to open. I think you're going to like it. It's big. It's big. Guys, it's pretty big. That's what I wish you're going to like it. It's big. It's big. It's big guys. It's pretty big. I mean, you know what I mean? That's what, that's what I wish she said. I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty damn big guys.

All right. I mean, yeah, I've seen it. Pretty big, pretty big. So check that out. 2 PM Eastern tomorrow. Special thanks to Mikey more mile on the ones and twos for helping me present this to the people. It's my painting for the week. I haven't painted in a while, right? It's my painting for the week. Enjoy it. I mean, what do you see here? I don't know.

You may see yourself if you look close enough. You may see a portion of your own soul. But BC's got to go. Two more awards. We out.