MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨Naoya Inoue vs. Stephen Fulton Instant Reaction

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Brian Campbell has you covered with an instant reaction to Naoya Inoue vs. Stephen Fulton. Is there a new P4P king? BC breaks it all down. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher 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

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. Oh yeah, can you dig it? Some early Tuesday morning magic And the return of the BC live chat here on Morning Combat A big enough day already for your boy BC

Dressed like an absolute idiot here, but why? Because, you know, it's my 45th birthday So I can get down like this But even with the MK Hawaiian shirt here these images of myself Brian Campbell on this face one half of your award-winning MK duo I might as well switch them out for the monster Japan's Niowa Inoue because that's why we're here the instant reaction instant analysis buried within today's BC live chat Tuesday, July 25th, 2023, as we are moments removed, wow, from what went down in Japan

just now on ESPN Plus for the unified 122-pound championship. Pound for pound king, Niowa Inoue, moving up in weight, seeking a title in a fourth weight division and taking on undefeated unified king, Stephen Fulton Jr. We said this was, forget BC's birthday, this was boxing's birthday week this week when we're talking about Spence Crawford just four days from now,

when we're talking about how big of a combat sports week. But this appetizer that was Fulton Inouye was supposed to get us fired up, make the pound-for-pound debate more difficult. All it really did at the end of the day, holy crap, was continue to pave the road toward immortality for the 30-year-old Japanese monster Inoue, who scored a resounding, systematically dominant eighth-round TKO of Fulton to become not just a four fourth, uh, uh, four division champion, not just the new unified champion in a very good division of 122 pounds. But what else are you going to say? Uh, wow. Let me get my bearings.

Let me reset here. Your boy, BC, uh, midlife, the official hat of my midlife crisis is the Bob Marley One Love Hat. So shout out to everybody right there. Thank you for tuning in live here. I'm, of course, BC one half of the MK Morning Combat Duo. Damn near every day alongside Luke Thomas. But I'm adding this little splash of flavor here because I felt this was like a birthday gift to myself as a hardcore boxing fan to have this fight, to be able to roll out this live chat with you to have a little bit of fun and after we break down all things full in a new way answer your questions live hit us up there

on social media at morning combat in our live chat here on youtube if you can push away the normal misogyny and other bs that that some of those p1s deal with uh I gotta pause all the fun times in good nature. And while we're wearing this weird Hawaiian shirt and just say this, what we have here in Iowa Inouye is one of the all-time greats in real time and the peak of his absolute prime doing things that, I mean, Inouye already had sort of this Vasily Lomachenko-like career where he was daring to be great right off the bat as a pro, fighting for his first world title when he

had four or five pro fights, becoming, you know, two-division champ, then three-division, then undisputed Bantamweight king, and now doing this against one of the 10 or 12 best fighters in the world and Stephen Fulton Jr. and doing it, you know, dominantly, like I'm trying to rack my brain to remember a super fight-ish type of crossroad showdown like Fulton Inoue was, right? Not an easy fight to make under any circumstance. Both fighters had to D2BG had a dare to be great in such impressive ways to make this fight happen, right? A new way, moving up to a new division saying, no, I want that guy. I want the best in that division. And Fulton going to his team, his advisors,

Al Hayman PBC and saying, we're not going to do this. Like we normally would on Showtime. I'm going to go 7,000 miles in that direction, fight on ESPN. Why? Because I'm seeking greatness too. When you have a fight like this, where we kind of expected despite the odds and BC is going to bend the knee once again to Vegas, who knew better? I didn't know better. Vegas knew better. And why I didn't know better was the absolute respect that I have for Stephen Fulton Jr. And the fact that he can fight any style, any way, and is gritty just as much as he's a, you know, IQ genius inside the ring. When was the last time

you came into a big fight that was 50-50-ish and saw it break down as one-sided, as just full-on demolition of what Inoue just did? In modern history, obviously, Floyd Mayweather versus Diego Corrales comes to mind. To see a fighter where Floyd was in his early 20s going up against this killer in that division, yet just breaking down, dominating. Remember, he dropped Corrales five times and just completely bamboozled him. We've seen it in other rare occasions.

The Trinidad versus Winky Wright fight always jumps in my mind of a fight that I thought would be interesting and then was just once you know one way uh destruction but you're adding legitimate historic elements to what in a way did so a new way already had this sort of lomachenko like reputation to his legacy but now he's doing Manny Pacquiao shit. Now he's doing just weight is no obstacle. You understand that Inouye came in here with a five inch reach disadvantage. He came in here as the purportedly smaller man moving up to his fourth weight division.

He not only looked like a monster in there, physically thicker, much thicker than Fulton. He looked longer he looked incredible and the reason why it it baffles your eye to see that is because what he's able to do as a destroyer not just a slugger we've seen many sluggers come in and out and seen guys like Fulton break them down right you know rewire them What Inoue is able to do as a competent but not reckless and very fundamental destroyer, you've got a handful of guys in history that you can start comparing him to. Because he's not picking off titles like vacant title here or whatever.

He's going through these divisions. When he went to 118, he went into that world boxing super series tournament and how to fight the best of the best. He went out of his way to become undisputed champion. And now he goes out of his way to fight something like Fulton, but raises his game to a level where weight classes are not mattering. We had this legit question coming in, which is why question the Vegas odds as great as a new way is eventually

you're going to hit that weight ceiling. Even Pacquiao eventually hit a weight ceiling. 122 is just not a ceiling. That's going to do anything apparently to Niowa in a way, because his distribution system, his ability to get off fast, powerful, accurate fight,

changing shots against, again, one of the smartest boxers in the world and Fulton, who also has a backbone, but also just has that cagey Philadelphia brain inside of him, who's going to take big risks at the right time, is grimy, is grungy when he needs to, can do it all. He did nothing. He did absolutely nothing in this fight because he couldn't find any areas of success. It only took until round three before Inoue's violent up jab,

which he uses a weapon in ways that I've really only seen Gennady Golovkin do in sort of modern history of just like, you know, I don't know if you remember the Gennady Golovkin middleweight title unification bout against David Lemieux in Madison Square Garden, where he won the fight exclusively with his jab and knocked him out. The jab Inoue was putting out there early on was just breathtaking, mixed with the body attack. But it was the fact that he could dominate Fulton anywhere in the fight.

It's the fact that when Inouye got on his bike and chased, he could unleash four-punch combinations while moving forward, yet retain his defensive responsibility, land in places Fulton couldn't catch up with, and change the course of the fight repeatedly by landing so heavy. This is the smaller fighter moving up to the new weight class. Yet he looked like an absolute monster in between. And I know people can try to see this one-sided performance and potentially downgrade,

well, how good was Fulton really? Fulton's a great fighter. I know he doesn't have big knockout totals, but he does fight with balls. So get on the inside with you. He can hurt you. He was unable to discipline, unable to do anything to keep Inoue off of him.

And, you know, there were times that the announcers and Tim Bradley, again, one of my favorite analysts, I thought he did a great job calling this fight. Or they even said on the broadcast, like, wow, why is Fulton not moving? Why is he not using his feet? Why is he not doing anything but sort of standing at middle distance? And the answer that Tim gave was true because he couldn't. Because anywhere he went, Inouye would beat him to the spot,

would be faster with his feet, would be faster with his hands. It looked like he had double the length on Fulton, even though he didn't because of how quick, powerful, accurate, and right there he is. We really have not seen an offensive machine like Inoue in a long time, which is why these Pacquiao comparisons, even though they're not the same type of fighter, but it's just the dramatic rising in weight,

why this is becoming an apt comparison. Only, I think Inoue's showing more dangerous power. I mean, Pacquiao, especially in the smaller weight classes, was just an absolute handful. And speed equals power. And he had big power at the lower weight classes, but it was the speed and the swarm and the combinations that just overwhelmed people.

Inoue is carrying one punch power with him just every step of the way up that I'm not even sure even Pacquiao did. Sometimes for Pacquiao, it was, you know, the shots people didn't see coming, like the Ricky Hatton knockout. It was the, you know, the volume of shots that overwhelmed people.

Full and, I mean, Inouye's just going out there and changing fights with touches. But again, they're not reckless slugger touches. This was a calculated demolition of one of the smartest fighters in the entire sport. A humbling, like when it's the smaller fighter moving up in weight and doing that, it breaks all the rules.

It makes your eyes question what you're actually seeing. And that's why I said, let's not let any kind of narrative break out that, well, maybe Fulton was really that good. And that's why ultimately it was so easy. Or doesn't Fulton not have a huge knockout total? It doesn't have a huge knockout total, but he can't punch.

He has faced sluggers before. He has faced people like Brandon Figueroa, who's way bigger than Inoue and stood in the trenches and held his own. He's got a great shin, but Inoue just completely bamboozled him and is making me once again roll out the famous Larry Merchant line that he gave at the end of Pacquiao versus Cotto when Pacquiao just absolutely after four of the most fun amazing rounds that we've seen

since Hagler Hearns just completely dominated that fight and said you know we knew Pacquiao was great coming in but he's better than we thought he was Inoue is I mean is marginally better than we thought he was which is an absurd statement because Nia Inoue was already my pound for pound king coming in and you have to understand the dynamics in the placement of this fight now originally this fight was going to take place in May Inoue had a slight injury they pushed it off to the summer, but it's four days before and during the same week of Spence Crawford. The long awaited showdown,

the fight that's equally a commercial crossover blockbuster success that we expect and critically, you know, may decide the pound for pound king, may decide. I mean, if Terrence Crawford or Errol Spence goes in there and knocks out the other one, could they become pound for pound number one?

We could have a discussion about it. But again, how do you even compare that to what Inoue has done? Let me tell you about the CompuBox numbers real quick so you can get that out of the way here. 114 punches landed for Inoue to just 47 for Fulton. Fulton was never in this fight. Inoue landed nearly 39% of his power shots. And you know the old adage that I like to repeat a lot as the old timers often say,

if you can land 40% of your power shots in a fight, you've probably have won it. Inoue came close, but this wasn't even a fight. There was never a moment where Inoue, or where Fulton looked like he had done anything to gain respect to gain momentum there were a couple rounds there three four and five I saw a lot of people tweeting going to the same effect of like you know that was probably Fulton's best round he was most offensive he wasn't this whole fight he went after it yet yet it's another dominant round for a new

way and that's the power difference between them. But I was overwhelmed by that speed difference, first and foremost. You understand that Fulton, as I've laid out, if you haven't watched his journey to get here in his last three fights, I believe he went up against not two unbeatens, but three world-class guys and came out on top, is he really can't fight any style and make big adjustments and really do anything. He did nothing in this because, again, he couldn't. because if he did, he would have gotten himself into two way exchanges against a fighter who speed power. And I want to say length, a fighter with a four and a half inch reach disadvantage looked like he was

the longer, taller, bigger, thicker fighter in there, because he was everywhere at all times that he needed to be. And I mean, I'm baffled. So look, Vegas, they knew what they were, what they were talking about, the expectation that Inouye would rise and carry his power with him. I pushed back against that and ultimately even picked Fulton on the upset pick because you do end up hitting your ceiling. There comes a time where you finally meet your equal. It takes great opponents to bring out the deep inner

greatness in fighters that can only be brought out when it's forced out. And I thought, look, that would bring out the greatness in Fulton just the same. And we would have a 50-50-ish fight. And hey, maybe at the end of the day, Inouye's bigger punching would win out. But all that caginess, all that greatness that Fulton has showed, yeah, there's levels to this. And against this level, against the best fighter on the planet, against a guy who is in route to immortality, even the great cool boy Steph had nothing for him. Nothing. Nothing for him. I mean, people were trying to say, BC, like an MMA equivalency.

What is the Crawford Spence equivalent in mma and we were debating different things in volk you know versus islam not really i'm like is it more like dc versus jones maybe fulton versus a new way is really what volk islam was only it wasn't competitive in a disputed decision in the end it was a new way moving up to a fourth weight class after being the undisputed champion at the one before and beating all viable contenders and champions and now aiming directly at undisputed champion in a second division.

So they brought in Marlon Tupalis in the ring afterwards who had recently upset Muradjan Akhmadaliev to get the other two belts in this division. Topalas is not a world beater or a star or whatever, but the synergy is incredible there. They bring him there in the ring. They respect to each other. They say, look, let's do this in November. Terrence Crawford has a chance to beat Inouye to this historical significance, which is to become boxing's first four belt undisputed champion in two divisions, or at least men. I'm not sure if somebody on the female side has done that recently.

I say that passing, you know, sort of like that because in the women's side, there's been a lot of undisputed opportunities a lot of times because there's just vacant titles. They're combining them together. They're trying to bump up the importance of some of the fights. So we've seen a lot of unified and undisputed champions on the women's side lately, which I don't think is the exact correlation in terms of the depth and competition on the men's side. So when it happens on the men's side, it just does mean a little bit more. And even though

Crawford has a chance on Saturday of this week to beat Inoue to that, look at what Inoue's doing. He enters the fourth division, calls out the biggest dog in Fulton, demolishes him, and then instantly has the other unified champion ready for a fight that we're now talking about already being booked for November where he can become an undisputed champion in a second weight class. So the question is, is there a ceiling for Inoue? How much bigger? I see people saying like, you know, now he's 122 pounds. He's going to fight for the lightweight title soon, which is 135, which is just madness. And, you know, but to be fair, I think Inoue turned pro at 108. Pacquiao turned pro at 106.

Won his first world title, I believe at 112. And as we saw, won titles in a record eight divisions as high as 154 when he won that world title against margarito at the 150 pound catch weight a new way there's potential of a dramatic pacquiao like rise in weight if this continues he's only 30 which in the smaller weight classes does mean an earlier sort of you know expiration date if you will on the idea idea of, of, of the, the quick trigger and the speed and power. But there are unicorns and aliens who defy that Pacquiao being one of them Pacquiao fighting at a pound for pound level, literally into his early forties, when he beat Keith Thurman, can a new way do that? What can he do? I'm humbled. What can't he do i'm humbled what can't he do seriously i'm humbled so uh let's talk about

this fight let's talk about what we learned here and what happened uh you know it was after a lot of people said you only needed one round here to figure out what was really going on i say two rounds because the first round let's give fulton a chance to feel him out he was dealing with the speed of a new way but in round two fulton actually tried to come out and throw some punches. And it was Inoue just, the pressure, the counter pressure that Inoue would put on. And then by the way, the constant steady, sneaky body attack from Inoue

was forcing Fulton to be stationary. It was reducing the potential of him using his footwork to get outside and kind of make things happen. Along with the fact that wherever Fulton moved, Inouye could jump and meet him there. But really, it was after round two where you're starting to say to yourself, if Fulton cannot gain the respect of Inouye, like this fight's over, like we're not going to have a second half of this fight. Fulton started in rounds two and three coming up short on all of his offensive attempts which really shows you he was uh you know feeling the pressure of the potential of how quickly and powerfully the counter shots were coming when you're coming out and throwing combinations but you're coming up you

know six inches short it's showing that that you have an insane amount of respect for what might come back on the other side and that basically look i don't think it was more than you know it was any later than the beginning of round three where Fulton probably had to start saying to himself that there's going to come a point where I'm going to have to go for broke to try to win this. But by going for broke against a guy, this dynamic, dangerous, but yet also clinical, you know, I'm going to get clipped. I'm going to get caught. And I don't think Fulton ever truly went for broke. There were times in the middle rounds he tried to put on, like I said, rushes to start the round or higher levels of volume.

But everything he did was just met with such violent resistance and so quick. And, you know, again, we can say Fulton stood in front of him for too long. But, you know, if you're Fulton in these spots, you're trying to find anything. The focus of Inoue, the onslaught, I mean, it's just, it's, it's humbling. It's breathtaking, but we finally get into round eight and it felt like the end was near. You saw it finally happen. A ridiculous two punch combination, a big right hand, and then a looping left hook from new way drops full and

hard. It had seemed to slightly hit the back of the canvas on the way down. And it felt like the end was near. And it was as soon as Fulton regained his feet, a new way swarmed in high volume, punching referee, Hector Alfu waving off the fight at one 14 of round eight. They did not interview Fulton afterwards, but you saw like,

he didn't look dejected. He almost had a half smirk on his face. It was almost as if like, damn, you know what I mean? mean like like we cannot say enough you know if you're if you follow boxing or if you've been led to follow boxing by us here in morning combat but you come from an mma base that you know it's not like it is in the ufc with the control of matchmaking where you see a great fight and you're like okay well how about this guy now

fights this guy to be great right well it Well, it doesn't always happen. This fight under typical boxing politics shouldn't have happened. It was too hard to make, too impossible. It happened like that. You know, as Stephen Fulton basically said afterwards, he called up Al Hayman, he called up, you know, his matchmaker, Louis DeCubis Jr. and said, I want the Fulton fight, make it happen. They made it happen. I hope along with what Ryan Garcia did in jumping across the street to fight Gervonta Davis in April, which was actually, to be honest, even way harder to make than this fight ultimately was because they had to get disowned to basically agree to step back and let Showtime handle the pay-per-view. This fight is one of those that regardless of the result, we have to look back and praise both guys for being willing to take it. Inouye for being willing to jump into

the deep end against the baddest man in the new division but Fulton going out of his way to test himself and try to be great he loses nothing in my mind in this fight okay loses his world titles but to be fair Fulton was already outgrowing the division he was already ready to move up to 126 pounds and 126 in fact he was in negotiations with brandon figueroa whom he had that fight of the year and a couple years back to do a rematch at 126 when this fight happened so fulton was dominated it is the first loss of his career he did lose titles in this division and that he's going to be leaving but he's going to be leaving anyway and i want to restore his great name by reminding

people. He did not have to take this. He did, but you saw the humility on his face afterwards. He knows something special just stepped between those ropes and went right through him. Um, damn, damn, damn. Damn. You know, am I often lost for words? No, I usually have too many words for you. I usually have too many ways to break this down, but not really say anything. I've got plenty of white belt MMA takes,

but this is inside the box. This is, this is, you don't see this often, folks. You don't, you don't see this. You don't see this type of, I'm going to move up into weight, but almost be more dazzling and dynamic than I was before there. And you know, the glove gate thing where we hear a lot of people in the boxing that

know that hurt us breaking this down and said, look, the whole stacking thing was kind of overblown that that happens in Vegas too. And in other States like Texas, there was more of Fulton's team trying to get in potentially in a new way, his head and change it. That's fine. None of that seemed to matter in the end because a new way can do whatever he

wants to do. Because when have we seen a destroyer, this, this technically inclined for a guy who comes forward so explosively, the defense that he holds, the head movement, he's not there to be hit. He's not, which really made that first Donair fight. I mean, look, all this fight does, this Fulton destruction, all any of the success that Inoue has moving forward, all that does is further validate the Hall of Fame reputation of Nonito Donair, who, by the way, is fighting in yet another title fight this Saturday

on the Spence Crawford undercard, pay-per-view undercard. But that fight that Naioa Inoue was given against Donair in their first fight in the WBSS tournament, in which Donair broke Inoue's, you know, orbital bone in round two. And, like, that's the only time we've ever seen Inoue have to get off of, of the script off of the a plan. And what did he show?

True character, not just to hang in there and finish that fight, but to lean on his boxing instead of his punching and figure out how to beat Donair. All this does is, is basically tell you that no need to don't there is even better than we thought we were to pull off that performance against a new way. Yet. tell you that Nonito Donair is even better than we thought we were to pull off that performance against Inoue. Yet it still wasn't enough to best him. And moving up to a fourth weight class still wasn't enough to slow down exactly who Inoue is and exactly what he's trying to do and exactly

what he is doing. Where can he go? He's going to fight Top policy a new way. He's going to be a monster favorite. How high can he go? I don't know. I don't know. Because when I say it's rare that, that we see a combination of somebody who's such a great destroyer, but also so responsible defensively with the technique. And it just comes together to be ridiculous.

Gennady Golovkin was sort of like that at the top, although he was more hittable because he put himself more in the line of fire coming forward. But the point is Gennady had that amateur background style 350 amateur fights there was a responsibility there and he was more responsible or if not more responsible he just moves quicker and moves better and he's not there to be hit in return even Pacquiao when he was swarming through the lower weight classes of 122 126 going through those fights with Barrera Morales uh you know the market the beginning of 122, 126, going through those fights with Barrera, Morales, you know, the beginning of the Marquez rivalry.

Even then, he was not a finished product. I mean, if you go back, what made the breakthrough win for Manny Pacquiao in the first fight against Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003 in San Antonio so special was because Pacquiao at that point, he had grabbed our attention with the breakthrough wins on HBO, winning the title as a replacement against Ledwaba as an unknown coming out of nowhere. But he was like raw and reckless. He was left-hand only. There was not a right hand. In fact, that's why it was such a big story heading into the Marquez rematch about Freddie Roach and team teaching Pacquiao a right hand. They called it manila ice.

It was supposed to be a secret weapon. Obviously, Pacquiao eventually became a complete fighter. He became a tremendous classically trained boxer later in his career and actually used that, I think, after the 2012 Marquez one punch knockout loss to sustain his career because Pacquiao, whether it was infused by PEDs or not, I've never seen somebody retain speed late into his 30s like he has. It's only really the greats can. Mayweather, another one. Only the greats, the truly greats can.

Well, Inouye looks to be of that ilk because the point I'm trying to make here is even in the initial rise of Pacquiao, when he's blowing through the lower weight classes, he was not a complete technician. That's why guys like Marquez and Morales in their first meeting were able to stand in there with a backbone but rely on the fact that they had better technique they were better pure boxers in that Pacquiao eventually became a complete force and I think that is ultimately once he got up to the weight classes that were over his head 35 40 47 he was relying more on the boxing than being a swarming puncher outside of that Ricky Hatton destruction. Inoue already is just a more complete fighter.

He really is. And more responsible defensively and just more everything. I don't want to come back down from this cloud i mean it's it's taken me all this time to to to find out i mean well it's like what could a new way have done to change the conversation this week it spence crawford will be the conversation for most of the rest of the week and should be and again the winner wins that nominally. We're going to have a say in the pound for pound discussion. But Inouye could not have done any more than he did this morning to try and own that conversation this week. To almost try to say, like, whatever happens in Spencer Crawford, I might still be that dude.

Folks, he might still be that dude. I mean, really, the only, I tweeted out, I said, it's actually impossible to overstate how impressive this was. And if you are attempting to either overstate or pick up, or if you're, I'm sorry, if you're attempting to try to pick apart that and how, you know, then you're only going to be wrong. You're only going to be trying to say that Fulton wasn't that good, which is just not the fit, going to be wrong. You're only going to be trying to say that Fulton wasn't that good, which is just not

the case, you know? Special, truly special. I'm happy that Inoue was able to come to the States, even though this fight was his third straight in Japan. My point is being on ESPN, being here live on essentially, you know, subscription free TV here early morning, because the last time we saw sort of the rise of a, of a foreign fighter take over our imagination on a pound for pound level at this level, it was chocolate, chocolate, you know, Ramon Gonzalez,

but really his true prime as a, as a multi-division champion happened, you know, on illegal streams from other countries. It was at the end of the great run that he finally showed up on american tv i'm happy top rank and espn got got together with mr honda the promoter there at teken in japan and we're and we're able to make this happen now because what we're watching in front of our eyes is wild so please send in your questions our great producer mikey more mile cbs sports is on the ones and twos and will be able to serve them up to me. But just a reminder of what we got going on this week

here in morning combat and combat sports in general. Like there's been major, major combat days in the past, but they're normally that first weekend in May, Cinco de Mayo weekend, which has always, of course, been a monster boxing match. You know, De La Hoya, Floyd, Manny, now Canelo have sort of made that their showcase date. And, you know, now you're starting to see UFC get involved in that,

but really that first weekend is one of the biggest weekends in sports altogether because it's the Kentucky Derby. It's peak NBA and NHL playoffs. It's normally like Yankees, Red Sox, MLB rivalry weekend, and it's normally a monster breakthrough boxing match. But from a combat sports only collective showcase, this week is just insanity. A new A Fulton this morning, and we're reacting now. There actually is a top-ranked boxing card Friday night

that I forgot about with Sunisa Estrada, one of the pound-for-pound best females in the world, attempting to unify titles. But Saturday's Spence Crawford at night, UFC 291 at night, Salt Lake City, BMF 2.0 and Bellator versus Rise. And again, I'm not even sure what time is that 11 p.m. at night airing live from Japan. That will be Sunday in Japan. It's wild. It's wild. And this is a hell of a kickoff that we had today. And obviously Morning Combat is going to be Luke Thomas, myself, all over it.

So a reminder on the schedule for the rest of the week. Regular MK episodes Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern Friday. Luke Thomas will be on the ground in Vegas. Don't miss him hosting Friday's weigh-in and Saturday's preliminary countdown show alongside the great Cabe Dabdo, Ariel Helwani. Good to see that trio get a tryout together. Unfortunately, I'll be unable this weekend to travel to Las Vegas. But here's the other special big ticket that we've been teasing.

Thursday's live Spence Crawford two hour TV preview show as Luke Thomas and your boy, BC morning combat take over CBS sports network, 10 AM Eastern time, Thursday morning, check your local cable listings. I'm sure you've got CBS sports network. It's a live from the studio to our Spence.

I mean, it's got every element that you love more or less about what makes MK special. We are going to insert into the studio environment there and really shoot a fun but professional and thorough preview of that great fight. But then Saturday post fight, boy, do we got you covered double when we're talking about live instant analysis reaction from me for UFC 291, BMF 2.0, this light heavyweight co-main event that could decide the title future and so much more. And then Spence Crawford from Vegas posts from Luke Thomas live in the arena, T-Mobile.

And, you know, I also turned 45 today. So thank you to all the folks here who are populating this live reaction chat right now that have sent me some nice wishes. Hey, even Jay and Dawn Paquette sent me such a beautiful video. I appreciate you guys. It's weird, right? We've created this awesome community here in MK. And we clown on each other.

And, you know, it's a roast culture. But I genuinely appreciate all of you and all who have reached out. It is, you know, I'm washed. I'm hitting the 4-5, you know. This is a midlife crisis that you know i'm washed i'm hitting the four or five you know this is a midlife crisis that you're watching look the way i'm dressed this is this absolutely is a midlife crisis but uh if i get to enjoy this midlife crisis with you guys and enjoy it with the combat that we have this week um wow dave sandin sliding in does my favorite beige podcaster have any fun birthday plans great great point uh great question. Going to go out to dinner. Fantastic Mexican with my wife for my birthday. My amazing sons are at a running camp

in Vermont at the moment here. So, which is cool to see they're massive into high school cross country and track. So it's great to see them spread their wings in that, but yeah, it's going to be a low key, but it's going to be fun. Maybe a nice dog walk, maybe bed, bath and beyond, maybe on the lips for just a second. You know what I'm talking about. But yeah, 45, I don't really know what to do with that. I mean, we're at the age now where we're just getting older and the birthdays seem daunting, but I'm embracing it. I'm embracing it because this might be peak BC, not peak physical BC. That's probably about age 27, but this is peak this. Dusty Cole saying, yeah, join the 45 club. Same age dudes. Yeah, it's us. We were born in 78, class 96. That's probably about age 27. But, you know, this is peak this. Dusty Cole saying, yeah, join the 45 club.

Same age, dudes. Yeah, it's us. You know, we were born in 78, class 96. That's how we get down, all right? I'm old. I'm from the 90s. Deal with it right there. But we will have all of your questions come sliding in regarding combat sports, life, and beyond, whatever you want to talk about.

Thank you so much there, Cheetah Cheeto. You know, I mean, they do say that, right? You always hear those lame lines. Well, 40 is the new 30, and this is the new that. It's really how you treat yourself. And, you know, you know about my black liver. I've been really trying to work on that, been trying to lift every day, been trying to work in some runs, been trying to eat better and go the long haul. Why? Because, you know, I got hopes and dreams in this field, in this game, you know, calling fights, hosting fun pods like this, being a part of some of these biggest, most amazing, inspirational. Enduring combat events, I say inspirational because I'm still sitting here physically in awe of what a new way has done and what we are doing and what we are continuing this week though. But I appreciate you sliding in here Tuesday morning.

45 is, it's, it's just a number. You know what I mean? I mean, there's, there's some, there's some, there's some gray sliding in here, but you know, I try to stay mentally young. I try to stay mentally about, you know, about, about some about some I try to stay about 25 in my mind, maybe even 16. It's up to you, depending on, on who you believe the true real BC is.

I believe our producer, Mikey Morm's going to start pumping out some questions here in the chat. I'm ready for it. Mikey, let's do it. You want to talk a new way, Fulton, you want to talk UFC.

You want to talk BC cares. If don't, nobody else care from screw you. Can we talk about the, how great the Japanese crowd was? I we talk about the how great the japanese crowd was i love the the mentality of the japanese crowd it's like when i was a kid and we all watched uh you know bester douglas upset mike tyson and you the great line the famous great line on hbo legendary nights from tyson's trainer aaron snowwell of uh it was so quiet in that arena

you could hear a rat piss on cotton it's like the japanese audience whether we're talking about pro wrestling boxing mma you know can be so reserved and polite throughout some tense moments but when it's time to explode when it's time to meet the moment the japanese crowd can do that i loved it i loved seeing inoue just i mean here's the thing about inoue we don't know a ton about his personality because of the language barrier but the more you watch him he's kind of a i want to say cheeky but not even cheeky he's a cocky badass like he's much more cocky flamboyant and walking the walk than i think sometimes we realize in this and there were certain moments in this fight where that became evident where he'd slip a shot from full inner foam would hit him and he just kind of tap his thing and be like nah nah nah not not doing anything um i like that i

like the flash right there and i and i think the crowd does too uh from ymb9 shinzao how big of a start do you think it's possible for inoue to become his humility and english taken into consideration well i was just talking that there's humility and there's the traditional sort of japanese respect but i think inoue's feeling his stardom. I mean, he's like Elvis over there. Like, not kidding. Okay, maybe not that level, but the idea that he's a crossover idol is true.

It's apparent. You heard that rush. Do you need, though? Do you need to be able to speak English to really hit the mark in the States? I mean, look, Manny Pacquiao becoming the pay-per-view star global star that he became. I'm not sure he would have gotten there without the, I know he would not have gotten there without being able to speak English

because what Manny has is this sort of like relatable kind of almost cute public persona. You know, I remember he used to do karaoke on the jimmy kimmel show and and and it's that helped him i think canelo is strategically coming into english at the right time even though he obviously became a monster crossover brand without it it can be harder though and what inouye is facing is that he's doing it in the lower weight classes which casual fans don't tend to watch those lower weight classes. And I think a lot of people try to dismiss it. Same thing happened after Floyd Mayweather retired when Chocolito,

Chocolatito Gonzalez had his window to become the legitimate pound for pound king of the sport, which he held until the two fight series with SSR down there with a street to get so wrong beside. And that allowed Andre Ward to take it over for a brief run there. But I think even when Chocolatito did that, there's people that are like, and that allowed Andre ward to take it over for a brief run there. But I think even when Chuck Latino did that, there's people that are like, okay,

but are they facing anybody as their deep competition? Yeah. I knew he's faced some, some world-class guys at one 15, one 18, now one 22. Um, he's up against it trying to become a star,

but here's what's going in his favor. ESPN is giving him monster showcase here. I mean, I don't know if anybody watched like the half hour preview show that led into this main event that with the team down there, that they were, they were, they were live in Las Vegas, Tim Bradley, Joe Tessitore, Bernardo Osuna, Mark Regal. But you know, it was hard not to just keep banging the drum and embellishing that we've got this insane crossover talent that's helping the fact that a new way then

goes in there and doesn't deliver boring decisions that can go either way, absolutely handles himself in this cocky rockstar manner. Yeah, there is a chance that he could cross over and become something. How big? Pacquiao level? Probably not until he learns English and unless there's really something there personality wise. Pacquiao also had this sort of rags to riches story of, we all know the stories of him being poor on the side of the road and the Philippines selling cigarettes and donuts and all that. And his dad sold their family dog or, you know, ate them, sorry, ate their family dog to, to, to, you know,

whether this is George Washington chopping down a tree in line to his father or not in terms of, you know, mythology there, Pacquiao did have something different there, but if a new way continues to just take on tough challenges which is is always the the tried and true way into the hearts of fans to just you know run in the direction of danger and then just topple it I'm not going to put a ceiling on how far he can actually go even without English but but English is, it's the breakthrough because, because crossover fans want to be impressed by, by, by how dynamic you are, but they also want

to get to know you. And maybe, and maybe to be fair, that's why triple G really at the peak of triple G, I mean, he had the Jordan sponsorship. I mean, some major sponsorships, like he kind of became a household sports name for a brief season there triple g he was that dude that dude that whoever he fought like there was this mike tyson ronda rousey feeling of i don't care who his opponent is i'm gonna he's gonna slice through it but triple g had that perfect dynamic of being a killer in the ring and being like the goofy borat guy outside of it with the broken english um however a new way decides to navigate that he should just be himself. And if himself is this kind of cocky dude, who's be that walk into the, you know, lean into that, uh, no question about it from Kai Muse, what weight would be a new way ceiling?

How far could he go and stay competitive? Well, that's the question. We did have concerns at one 18, if he could carry his power, because look, we watched this happen with chocolate, you know, when he, when he rose weight dramatically dramatically when he finally went up there to 115 super flyweight you saw that i mean you saw the two fights against uh srisa ketsor rungvisai the first one being the disputed uh win for ssr or was it a draw either way that's one of the best fights ever been ringside for 2017 co-main event to golovkin versus jacobs on hbo-per-view. If you haven't seen Chocolatito in the first fight against Sohrang Vasai, just a bloody violent classic 12 round thriller.

But then Chocolatito got handled there and Chocolatito did hit his ceiling at 115, even though there were reinventions in there, he finally, you know, met guys he couldn't just knock out or couldn't systematically dominate and had the lean on his character like Inoue did by the way in the first Donair fight that I'm mentioning so that ceiling can arrive overnight I mean look there used to be a legitimate gap at times between 140 and 147 I thought Ricky Hatton was a victim of that gap where certain guys their effectiveness can top off at a certain weight class it doesn't mean they can't win at another weight class, but they can't be their dominant self. Adrian Broner, dominant, defiantly dominant through 135.

But when he went up to 40 and 147, he did not adjust his style necessary to adjust to the added growing danger of the size and power of his opponents and their abilities there. What the hell am I supposed to do about this question and trying to pinpoint Inouye's true ceiling in that regard? I don't know, because would I ever have guessed watching Manny Pacquiao go through those memorable, amazing wars at 22 and 26 against the Mexican trilogy of greats there, Barrera, Morales, and Marquez. I've got posters of that rivalry all over my office right here to show you how much it still means to me and should. Did I ever think

he was going to come out of there and like three years later go up to 40 47 beat hatton beat oscar no no oh hell no hell no but that's what makes pacquiao that's that alien um in a way is not showing signs yet that any of this is catching up to him. You know, it's something I don't think I talked about enough, but in me picking Fulton for the upset pick was the idea that Fulton's not a big knockout puncher. No, but he's stingy. He can hurt you. He throws accurate shots, almost like a Floyd Mayweather,

who you would never talk up his power at welterweight. But everyone he ever talked to said, no, the speed and accuracy, like he can check you, he can discipline you in that regard. I'm not seeing a new way and disciplined at all by anything that's touching him. So even if his speed and power is not as explosive as it is right now at 18, at now one 22, when he moves up and if he moves up to featherweight junior lightweight and lightweight, as long as the punch resistance moves up and think again, he's responsible on defense.

He's also his speed is going to feel like it's increasing the more he moves up, which I think is why that speed looked insanely faster than Fulton in this fight. And Fulton's a fast, you know, it's fast fighter. So let's see. I think as what we saw just now, could he move up to featherweight 126 and do this? Probably. Well, what about 30? What about 35?

Well, you got to remember like the more you climb, you got guys with longer arms, guys with wiry power, you know, all different kinds. Through, let's say one 30. From what I saw this morning, I'm, I'm, I'm now extending my belief that a new way could go as high as one 30 and still be a destroyer, which by the way, could mean if he's, if he's truly an alien, it also could mean he can go up to 35. And even if he's not knocking dudes out, can he handle himself?

That's the key question can he handle himself to to continue this dramatic rise so that he can start to meet the big names that are ahead in the next set of weight classes the gervonta davis's right those type of guys again it sounds crazy right now he just had day one at 122 pounds but we've seen this before with pacquiao we don't compare anybody to Pacquiao for obvious reasons. Inoue starting to make sense to compare to him. From Fabian Sajet, do you see Inoue versus Tank ever happening? Well, perfectly timed question right there. If you'd asked me before this fight, I'd say probably not because it does feel like eventually Tank is

going to go full-time to 40 and then eventually welterweight. Although I do question the size disparity, where will Tank find his healing? You could argue to some degree, even though we stopped Mario Barrios in a great fight at 140 and Tank, it took accumulated punishment. I mean, look, Tank is fighting over his physical head and he's going to have to be. Sometimes I wonder, because Tank forced Ryan Garcia to rehydrate because he didn't want to face a completely rehydrated at 135

or whatever that catch weight was, he didn't want to face basically a welterweight or super welterweight that night in terms of the rehydration. Rehydration is key. Like, a new way rehydrated to look bigger, longer, faster, stronger than Fulton right there. Could he ever end up fighting tank?

I wonder secretly if tank ends up finding a home at 35 or 40 and stays there because that height is in reach is going to be an issue. And when his power does top off tank, luckily can box, but I don't know. We'll see. Can this fight happen? I'm not, I'm not saying it's impossible anymore because of what a new way did this morning um let's keep the questions rolling in here whatever you guys want to talk about boxed ufc music hawaiian shirts from

willie is there a big enough fight for a new way to box in the toky or the Saitama super arena? Well, look, it's probably in a lot of ways, it depends on what they're offering. Like Fulton jumped at this opportunity and was willing to go to another network, go to the backyard of his opponent. I'm sure financially he was well compensated for that. A new way appears to be a box office bonanza in Japan and a favorite, truly favored son. I don't think though, that there are, you know,

the massive huge names at the moment, he's going to have to probably go as high as one 30 to find them. And it depends on what level of huge you're talking about. Like an Oscar Valdez, who has that big fight at one 30 on August 12th against Navarrete for the title, you know, could he do that? I mean, here's the thing. He may already be becoming a big enough star in Japan

where the opponents, again, may not matter. We're just moving up in weight and fighting a big fight. Like, what if he fights Marlon Tappalis in Japan to become, for the undisputed junior featherweight championship at 122, all four belts. And let's say Crawford doesn't win on Saturday and Inoue's got a chance to become boxing's first two division undisputed four belt champion. Even with DePaulus not being a big name, could you put that in the Tokyo Dome? Why couldn't you? It would depend on the market demand.

But I get the spirit of your question is sort of like will he be rising into an area where there is another fighter with such a big let's say a name in the states where they could go over to japan and do a stadium show like that gonna have to kind of keep rising i mean look to be fair if he does eventually move up to 26 there have been big names from 22 that have moved up to 26 uh brandon figueroa you're seeing now Fulton's probably going to move up. Are those big enough for a dome? It would depend on the, it would depend on sort of really the, the, the fan outcry in that regard. Any more box questions before we transition out of this topic from the King of one 61. What does Fulton do from here? He moves up to one 26 and he,

which he was going to anyway The rivalry, the potential rematch with Figueroa Has to be a big part of this I think Figueroa looks reborn Now that he's not making that hard cut to 122 The power that he showed against Carlos Castro In his featherweight debut Knocking him out

Was really eye-opening Didn't he just come back and fight Magsayo? I'm going to call up the ESPN.com rankings at the moment here at 126 so it's more than basically a guarantee here that fulton's done at 122 and was kind of already was the weight cut a problem i didn't see that in this fight some people did that are in boxing that i respect said look i saw fulton on the scale this is definitely the last time he that. And maybe, maybe he left a little bit of himself on the scale. Look, even though Fulton did not have a good fight at all and really didn't get

anything going. I think the dominance, the explosiveness of a new way, you know, I mean, did it affect him a little bit? Could he, could he blossom at one 26 physically in the same way to some degree that

Figueroa has when you're not cutting down and diminishing? Yeah, obviously. But when we look at this division, number one ranking at 126, according to Mike Cobbinger's ESPN rankings, is Luis Alberto Lopez. You've got Lee Wood at number two. You've got Brandon Figueroa there at three. Mauricio Lara, Ray Vargas, Josh Warrington, Robycy Ramirez,

who had a big win on the co-main here and could be a future, in theory, a new way opponent, Max Ayo, Dog Bay, Michael Conlon. So names there for sure not huge crossover uh in a lot of ways but that rivalry with with figueroa like you know if you're pbc you were already trying to make that heading into this fight that's probably the direction you're going give fulton a chance to make that successful debut at 26 i mean look i'd love I'd love to see Fulton against Ray Vargas. I'd love to see Fulton against a lot of these guys, but I think you're building toward that inevitable and eventual rematch. And look, that first fight, you could have flipped a coin. I mean, that first fight was among the most entertaining, exciting ones where it's like, I don't know who won. I don't know how you

can score that fight. It was just so fun. Both fighters had big moments in every round. So it's sort of like, you know, what do you like at the end of the day? But I like the demeanor of what we did see from Fulton in the ring, which is like I said, he had kind of a smirk afterwards. Like, what do you expect me to do? Look, look at, you know, look at what just happened. Look at who I just had to fight. Let's see the reinvention.

Fulton's too smart, too well-rounded, too great to not go on another run and be a factor in the title picture there at 126. I think he's better than most of those guys that I just read there in the top 10. Let's keep this going, Mikey, and continue on the roll here from LazyBed330. BC, you're 45 today, but let's flashback 20 years ago. What three bands does 20-year-old BC have performed at his dream birthday party? Well, you're, you're, if I'm 45 and we're flashing back 20 years ago, then I would be 25, according to the math there. All right. So let's go back to where BC was at age 25, not 20, as this incorrect thing states. That would be 2003. I did, as I've talked about in previous live chats,

go through a fairly dramatic quarter life crisis there where I think that people sometimes say like, what age did you become a man? And I think if you're a man, that means like, when did you, not just when did you grow up? For some people, it's like 18. Some people, to be fair, have to become an adult and they're, well, they're still a teen depending on their family situation.

Some people have to raise themselves to that regard. I don't think I really became a man until 25. I was just an absolute loose knucklehead before that. And, you know, some dramatic changes in my life fueled me on the right path and led me to where I am now. But at 25, man, I was, I would, I was consider myself a professional concert goer at age 25. I've been to, you know, a hundred or so concerts in my life, but like 75% of those concerts came between the years of like 2000 and 2003, where it was like every weekend I'm trying to figure out. At that point in my life, what I have gone out, you know, Wilco, my morning jacket at that time. Absolutely. Ryan Adams. Those were, you know, huge breakout all country crossover stars at that moment.

I was, you know, day to day life and death with Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix at that point. I haven't really changed much since then, despite adding some other legends like the Birds, Joni and, and traffic into my sort of inner group of favorite bands, Crosby, Stills and Nash, et cetera. But at 2003, man, I'm,

I'm trying to attend festivals. I'm, I'm trying to get Wilco, my morning jacket, bright eyes, dude. I was a monster bright eyes fan back in 2003. I don't know if you indie Rose can get down with me on that.

And then I fell out of favor with Connor Oberst and really hated him. And, but that comeback album in 2018, the one with flea from the chili peppers on base for a lot of it restored my faith in a lot of things. I'm now back into being a hardcore bright eyes guy. So you can nerd me up with that all you want, but let's keep it going here from Chinchilla.

Have you gone to any good concerts this summer? I've only gone to one this summer. And it was that my morning jacket show at the Westville Music Bowl there in New Haven. It was a monumental show for me because it was my son's first show, as I've talked about. And it was like a 10 out of 10 concert. When you see your favorite band and they over deliver in terms of a live performance, yeah, literally becomes,, in, in, you know, I take my, my working countdown of the greatest concerts I've ever seen seriously. And I factor in, you know, how close you were to the stage, your knowledge of the catalog at the moment. What, you know, what was, what was it like

in terms of the people you were with? How many substances did you put in your body? How focused were you? How great was the performance? All that stuff into it. That concert might be the best I've ever seen. I've not even fooling around. There actually have been a lot of great concerts this summer that I've just missed for different reasons. And it's killing me. Like Thursday night when Portugal the Man plays Radio City Music Hall. And I should have been there. But this is not only the biggest combat week of all time.

It's like people are like, BC, how are you not going to be at Spence Crawford? Fortunately, my wife, my great, my amazing, beautiful wife travels for work one week a year and has to for this big conference that defines her whole year. And this is that week. And I've committed a year in advance to that. But this week is also crazy. A lot of shows I'd love to be at Otele and friends this Friday night in New York city. My, my boy Otele, I wish I was at there. There was a Connie Crowe's dashboard confessional concert the other night that I almost went to last minute that's my jam baby um across the board but i i need to see portugal the man on this new tour of the chris black changed my life album and i you know i was really interested to see where john and the band was going to

where their sound was going to evolve to because remember that woodstock album that they had that they had back in back what five four or five years ago i mean had the big breakout single but it was i think some people dismissed that as overly commercial without really getting it and i was interested to see how they were going to respond there they've responded insanely brilliantly and it's not just because your boy bc's you know a friend of the band but uh it's blowing me away how great that record is and not just taking their traditional psychedelic sound but like they're going all in on polished pop you know there's other influences spouting out there but sometimes if you can take i mean you know studio polished pop and constantly weave in

and out other elements of genres and do it the right way. It can be, it can be overwhelming and breathtaking. That record, Chris Black changed my life is it. My son plays it in the room above me here. I'm playing it all the time. It is, it is changing my life. So shout out to those guys right there. Yeah, we'll keep it rolling here from lazy bed, three 30. What's your great question. What's your favorite type of birthday cake? He's a chocolate chocolate guy. To me, a real birthday cake is an ice cream cake. You know, I got the Carvel ones when I was a kid. I like the we got a lot of great ice cream places around here, whether they're like mom and pop independent ones or, you know, you can go to to Ben and Jerry's or all that.

But look, to me, a birthday is an ice cream cake. That's just what it is. I mean, an ice cream cake is like the royalty of desserts in terms of traditional cake. I don't think I really have a favorite because I'm, I'm so deep into the ice cream cake birthday lane. You know, if I'm going to buy somebody a birthday cake, I'm buying an ice cream cake. If you, you know what I'm saying? I mean, I don't understand how people could have heard or have tried something like an ice cream cake and you don't just automatically go the old way of doing birthday cake. Like it's decent, but it's dry and it's overly sweet and ice cream cake could change your life. So that's what I'm hoping that my wife purchased for today.

Thank you very much. A 45 year old boy sitting here excited about his ice cream cake. You're damn right. I am. This is life BJJ adventures with corn roll. Hey, how about that? You want you corn roll.

You want to roll with your boy BC? Hell no. BC is the long diehard mma fan getting into the box is it normal for corners to pour water on a fighter's gloves between rounds i didn't see that i don't know if you're referencing in in this fight um that would be abnormal as far as i'm concerned i thought you were going to do the famous sound anybody that had listened to my previous iteration boxing podcast with the great Rafe Bartholomew know that we had a soundboard. We played the fun drops. There's a famous drop from Eric Morales'

loss to Zaheer Rahim, where his trainer goes, come on, let me pour some water on your balls. I've seen people pour the water down the guard to the balls, cool them off a little bit. But no, pouring water on gloves, I'm not necessarily sure what you're doing there unless you're trying to remove substance off of it. I mean, no, I've never seen that before. I'm going to be really honest with you unless I'm ignorant to some idea of why that would help. It seems kind of weird, but that's that. We'll keep it rolling here from the Cheeto is back. Where can I get the Luke Thomas versus Brian Campbell poster that's hanging on my wall? I'm under the belief that we sell this.

MorningCombat.store. So RJ Bagballer is back. He's got his own consulting company now. He's producing merch for us. You can go to MorningCombat.store. I believe there is a future collaboration in the making here with the great Average Joe. I know they're working all that out. But these are sold out. I don't believe there's any more of the bc this but everything else we got

mugs baby bibs t-shirts some of the great i mean they look legit the bomber jacket could change your life like i'm not even kidding i think it's expensive but it is of high quality it's versatile you can wear it with a shirt and tie. It's fantastic. I think you should get that. I think you should get this poster right over here. And I got to shout out my guy, Jay Paquette, who's provided me with a couple of cool designs like this. I got a big one in my workout area over there representing the MK. So I don't think we sell those, but we do sell those posters on the website. Get the merch, keep it rolling right here. Dave Sandean, the bomber jacket changed his life. I'm so happy to hear that. Seriously. I think seriously, I mean, look, a drug rug isn't

for everybody, but I think our first line of drug rugs were absolutely awesome. I do wear them a lot in my personal life. My wife absolutely hates it. So I tend to wear it when I'm out with the boys. Right. But I mean, look, it's an old joke, but you know, the guys from my town who were drug drugs, they were heroes. Okay. Are they probably a short order cooks and drug addicts these days? Maybe, but they were heroes back then. And now happy to wear that. And the bomber jacket, I think is the greatest thing we've ever produced in that regard. So thank you very much. A lazy bed. Three 30 is your, if your liver never became diseased and fatty, what would be your signature birthday meal? So according to my doctor, I can't eat one bad meal a week. And you know, so I, you know, if I'm out on a business dinner, I'll get a steak every once in a while, but

I'm trying to avoid completely and I'm doing a great job at it. Beef, pork, fast food, extremely greasy food. My problem is, though, to offset avoiding those things that I love, being a gas station food-eating raccoon like I am, I'm overdoing it in carbs and in sugar. And that is basically making it like a break-even. So I've got to get away from that, and I've got to clean up a little bit more. Committing to weight training has actually really helped my numbers, so I'm doing that. But if there was no black liver, I'd probably get a meatball and pineapple pizza from ABC Pizza in Connecticut because they're Ecuadorian, but they do it in that Greek style of that, you know, greasy, sweet crust.

Like, you know, yeah, that's probably what I'd get. In fact, I might do that anyway now. I might do that. I might just cheat today for the 45th and just bang on it, go hard on it. A lot of people questioning if I've had no spears before this. No, I've just, I've been waking up with allergies every morning. I got to blow my nose. Hold on one second here. Talk amongst yourselves.

He's in cars here. Thank you for that detour there. Coach Craig Jones has not been over. No, no, BC never got down, never get down that lane. Not into that, not into that at all. I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you jumping in, asking some questions. This wasn't your typical sort of multi-hour. We're going to retrace the history of music, BC live chat or deep in-depth personal life advice, but appreciate catching some of your strays here. I do have a birthday to attend to, but to recap, just an absolutely insane performance from Niowa in a way. And I think, you know, I'm happy a lot of you guys

took our recommendations and tuned in and you're seeing the continued growth of one of the best that we've ever seen. And it's happening right in front of our eyes. So enjoy that. Enjoy this week because it's extra special. It really is buckle up, enjoy it.

And even if you're only the, you know, only a UFC guy, Hey, there's going to be a hell of a week for that too. It's going to be some great Bella tour crossover with, with a rise in this Saturday. But when you get like,

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am for Justin Dustin, too, because this era of lightweight brawlers, while also being lightweight elites, you know, I mean, like like lightweight isn't the historic depth and an incredible showcase that it was a year and a half ago, two years ago. Right. When you had Habib, Tony, Connor, Justin Dust. I mean, when you had, you know, Eddienor justin dust i mean when you had you know eddie you had god chandler arriving you had everything but what we got through that it's still great still great division still a lot of these action heroes are still around but we got the greatest confluence of sort of elite fighters who are also absolute killers that all round robin fought each other in any of these fights involving eddie justin dustin tony sometimes connor sometimes rda right sometimes whomever you want to insert they've i mean it's largely you know habib even to some degree or or just if you enjoy watching

one side of dominance but they've been incredible, but the best of the group is arguably my opinion, still the first Gaethje Poirier one. And, you know, that was before Justin Gaethje had made sort of this almost championship adjustment with coach Whitman there to, to refine his caveman style just enough and bring out more of that calculated, destructive, violent breakdown up close on you, heavy shots. That was still though, the,

you have to go to the deepest portion of the pool and out swim this devil to survive. And Eddie Alvarez did it and he went into hell and Dustin Poirier did it and went to hell and stopped that version. But that fight was just savage and incredible. And I think it was slightly better than like Poirier-Hooker or even Poirier-Holloway too, which, oh God, that was one of the best fights I've ever seen, which was also in this division. I mean, it's just, we've been spoiled by any combination of these two. Gaethje Michael Johnson, Gaethje Chandler.

I mean chandler versus all of oh god joe bronx has been a nice addition to this discussion of all action craziness fights but the fact that my favorite pairing justin versus dustin is now rematching and a pay-per-view main event and they're gonna roll out the gimmicky bmf belt this saturday i mean even with everything else going on the the fan in me is like, hell yeah. This is the rare gimmick I can get behind. I want this to be a title. I want it to kind of matter.

It's a cool pro wrestling inspired badass badge that basically says, if I can't be champion at the moment, can I still be a fun attraction and guarantee you violent, ruthless entertainment? These two consistently do that. I love that they get the call. I'm fine with Jorge Maswell being in there, putting the belt around them. That's great. That's synergy. Okay. Can we take those project rock shoes off of everybody and be done with that?

But this could not happen to a, this could, this is going to be, this is going to be a hell of a Saturday guys, but that's it. I'm your boy BC. Thank you to Mikey more mile on the ones and twos behind the scenes i hope you'd enjoy this brief little soiree we had here breakfast at wimbledon boxing from japan celebrating four or five with your boy bc i got uh some you know some hiking with the dogs in my future maybe go to the lake try to get rock lobster you know i'm i'm deep into into reading dune i'm i'm actually reading i'm actually reading a fiction book can you believe that web scream encouraged me to really go after it i'm getting after it because you know dune 2 is

coming out in november and it's it's poised to be a it's poised to be a pretty damn pivotal moment in my uh movie watching life i'm i'm going to you right now, you want to be friends with BC? You want to know? These are not no spears. Do you want to know what makes, what gets the nerd in me going? Go make sure you've watched the first dude movie that came out a few years ago.

Might be my favorite movie of all time. It really might be. Serious, that's what I want my Star Wars to be. Remember Rogue One? Rogue One was a reminder that Star Wars could be different. It could be grimy. It doesn't have to be all jar-jarred out. It could be a war movie. Denis Villeneuve

made that Dune movie epic. Can't wait for the second one. Be reading the book by the lake today. Celebrating. Maybe get some meatball and pineapple pizza. But for now, BC, checking out. Check us out on MK tomorrow. Check us out Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern, CBS Sports Network. Spence Crawford, MK Takeover, two-hour live preview.

This is live. What you see on your screen 10 a.m. Thursday morning is what's happening back in the studios, okay? And, of course, Friday, 10 a.m. Thursday morning is what's happening back in the studios, okay? And, of course, Friday, live MK. You can catch Luke Thomas at the Spence Crawford weigh-in with Ariel and Kate. You can watch Saturday's Showtime Boxing Countdown show with that same trio. Some preliminary action, big-time previews, and, of course, post-fight Saturday night. Whether you want to be with me recapping the BMF and all things UFC 291,

or you want to be with Luke Thomas post-Spence Crawford, MK. Final note on this. All right. All right. Sorry, I got an itchy nose this morning. I'm allergic to it. In my old age, here's what's happened to me in my old age. I'm allergic to everything out of nowhere.

I can't read up close at all. I got to get glasses. I know this is normal. Anyone who's old, it's like,'s happened to me in my old age. I'm allergic to everything out of nowhere. I can't read up close at all. I got to get glasses. I know this is normal. Anyone who's old, it's like, dude, like, thank you. Welcome. But, you know, I'm mentally like a 16-year-old. I'm mentally 24. My body's falling apart here.

MK's the best damn thing that's probably ever happened to combat sport. Okay, that's a little aggressive. But MK is a fighter. We're fighters. We're not breaking up. We're going to bang. All right. We're going to keep banging.

Thank you for dealing with us. I know some people are nervous. We're going to get through this. Okay. There's, there's some, there's some other stuff going on, but we're going to get through it. We're going to get through it and we're going to be better off for it. And that's what we're fighting for to give you the best possible show we can. We don't want to just be this, you know, your zoom buddy every week.

We got big plans. We want to be in the studio. We want to do big stuff. Thursday, we get Zoom buddy every week. We got big plans. We want to be in the studio. We want to do big stuff. Thursday, we get to do big stuff. We're going to keep doing big stuff or your money back. Okay. If you would like to further this, this scam and this patronage, if you want to patronize by being a patron to my Patreon, you can go to cameo.com slash brian campbell what do you want

a birthday shout out what do you want advice what do you want to be entertained for a few minutes you know you what do you want me to do a little song and dance whatever you got here all right i'll be your huckabee there what huck be whatever you want to be there but uh um mk forever we're gonna fight through this because we're the best damn combat sports show period and we've got a lot of awards to prove that. Whatever those mean. But really at the end of the day, what I care about, I want you guys to have felt something because it's entertainment.

And you can be entertained by anything, anything you want. You can tune into anybody giving you your hot MMA takes, but you're choosing these two washed ads because you realize that even deeper than these hot ass takes we got on the fight game and sometimes others topics, which may or may not get us in hot water. You're watching something special. You're watching art.

You're watching the growth of men. You're watching the ups and downs, the journey of life. I'm willing to be your partner in this journey. Thank you. Over and out BC 45, 18 in life, 18 in life, still counting 18 and life to go. All right. She's only 17. Can we, I mean, am I, am I still here? It's over guys. That's it. That's it. No more, no spears at all. That's it. Not even, not even one.