MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - New Years Mailbag: Drunk Holiday Stories | New MMA Rules | Paddy Pimblett | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: January 1, 2024

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell have you covered with a New Years day mailbag. Luke and Brian answer all your questions. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts 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

Reveille, Reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat.

Hey, it's a new year. How about no limits for 2024? Morning Combat, back at it. Anniversary mailbag show. Anniversary, what am I talking about here? How about New Year's Day? It is January 1st, 2024. We recorded this in advance,

but all your other favorite podcasts are taking the day off, so we might as well be here. Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas. We win awards in these parts. Luke, it's a new year, so I'm going to need a resolution to kick it off. Ooh, a resolution to kick it off. But what if I haven't thought this one through?

You're going to have to give me the first thing that comes to your mind. What can you change, Luke, for the better for this new year? Maybe less flatulence? Or maybe more? Maybe more. Maybe more. I mean, yeah more yeah if anything i need to scale up uh there it is yeah there it is uh we are so happy to be here with you folks thank you for the time while luke figures out what to do with the rest of his life uh mikey more mall cbs sports

behind us as always we have taken your questions from youtube and we are ready to answer them for another holiday mailbag. Quickly, you can like us, you can follow us, you can do all that stuff. Thank you so much, guys, for everything you've been to us throughout this great journey. This is going to be a new year, a big year for us as well. So we're very excited. But today's all about you. So there's the channels you can like.

And if you look closely at this here sweatshirt, you can also purchase it over there at morningcombat.store check it out right now all right luke um you know uh a general life recap of 2023 before we answer up all these questions um you know big year for mma on the big time level great year for boxing mk was up and down but you know like tyson fury around 12 against wilder we're back on our feet brother we're back on our feet i think i hope again not a bad year in mma but certainly a it felt like a different kind of year with some very good solid at times excellent punctuated moments at times some low lights that started with dana and his wife the worst way possible yeah you had an awful idea by the way for this show that you would open it by slapping me as

like the one year anniversary i'm like look that's horrible i just wanted no no first of all i never said that but that's an interesting thing to try and pull on air. What I would say is I do desire to do that. So if you want, I'm happy to take requests. Our drill instructors at boot camp would do this, BC. Like you do something wrong and one of them would be like, hey, go tell Sergeant Tice that you want to get your heart popped. And so you'd have to go walk over to the other, you know, to explode from like exertion. That's what they would do. You want to go get your heart popped.

So you have to walk over to the other guy and you have to be like uh you know recruit so thomas in this case request permission to speak and they're like what what do you want this recruit request permission to get his heart popped and then the other drill instructor every time would always say damn hell yes i love taking requests and then they would kill you and then they would kill you and it would be and then they were like hey sorry uh sergeant tice is unavailable at the moment we heard something about train tickets he's got a big uh got a big trip planned a lot of points on amtrak a lot of points on amtrak there you go right there uh yeah it's been a wild year we're happy to get through it man boxing really delivered hope they'll do it again obviously the end of showtime sports for

all of us was a yeah it was a tough pill to swallow but new beginnings new horizons for everyone as we start this new year hopefully all of you folks are taking a good turn for your health mentally physically let's get in the best shape of our let's be our best selves this year luke all right how about that for a resolution i think that's i think that's the way to go BC. I will say this. Someone's asked me like someone was asking for, give me generic advice for 2024. I will say this BC generic advice, take it for what it's worth. So many positive things happen when you take good care of your physical health that extends beyond just your physical health and so for that reason make 2024 a year where you take care of your physical health and let the many benefits take you over yes i have a

little moniker mantra i call it's called miga it's make yourself great again and i've got a series of thing i've ever heard in my life i've got a series of red hats luke that i'm gonna put on the morning combat site pretty much all right how about we make mk great again all right how about we do that by answering your questions that we pulled here from youtube it's probably going to be a lot of weird usernames in here luke but let's entertain the people and i mean then what are they going to say what's your favorite christmas song we've done that every year for four years what do you got for us people let's start it right about now luke john johnny 138 138 is sliding in first pretty much i mean is that his is that his jail identification number luke sounds like it okay okay johnny says hey happy new year we might have a jan sixer you know and

they're proud of their efforts. Happy New Year's, Dongs. My question is pretty straightforward, Johnny says. What is the time that you got most wasted for New Year's? Great question. Would love to hear a story of debauchery from the past. Thank you for countless laughs and great coverage. Happy 2024. Luke, I got a really bad one.

You have one particular one that stands out? Yeah, dude. I had a bad one. Golly. And it actually wasn't really much that I personally did, but I was with a group of guys. I'm still friends with most of them, but not what I once was.

Golly, dude. We went to a place in what's called the Golden Triangle, which is just south of DuPont Circle here in the city. And we got thrown out of a club because the security staff announced to me, I wasn't there for this, had announced to me that two of my friends were caught urinating in one of the bartender's sinks.

Oh, wow. So that was great. As soon as we go outside another one of my friends who was not involved with that but we all had to leave started a fist fight on the street with another guy over i don't even remember but they got to jawing and 30 seconds later they were fist fighting it was one of the most insane things ever and then we lose track of one of the guys who was alleged to have done the urination he and another dude went to another club we lose track of one of the guys who was alleged to have done the urination. He and another dude went to another club.

We lost track of them. We saw them later. They got beat up and stripped of their coats. They were all physically lumped up. And then to top it all off, we actually had a room that we rented that night at the Mayflower, and they got kicked out of their room for noise complaints because two of the cousins were then fighting on, not physically, but yelling in the room. And we had to leave, and it was super terrible. It was super terrible.

What age were you about, Luke? What year was this? 25, something like that. Yeah, that's pretty bad. that's pretty bad that's pretty bad mine was uh new year's eve 01 going into 2002 uh all my friends and even my sister got a we got a bunch of hotel rooms in south norwalk connecticut there's this area of bars downtown called sono that's very uh hipster and um luke i decided to uh you know this was was right in the midst of my debauchery leading up to my quarter life crisis. I decided to have eight beers off the tap.

And then somebody goes, hey, you ever have this new thing called Red Bull and vodka? It's great. So, Luke, I had eight of those. Eight of those not realizing the Red Bull element of it. So a couple of things happened that night my sister met the man she would go on to marry but my best friend ed and i spent the whole night trying to box him out away from her um and then luke when it was time to go home i i may have run out into the middle of the road and started stopping cars to try to get a ride home like we don't need a

taxi look i'll get us a ride hold. So that part was a little bit weird. But then when we got to the hotel, my, you know, my rage really just kicked in and also all of those drinks. And I ended up being so rowdy. There was a fire drill. Well, first I passed out and I passed out alone in a room, Luke.

And if there was not a fire drill, I would have died that night, like Bon Scott and choked on my own puke because there ended because I would go on to puke, you know, uncontrollably, but there was this fire drill about, about 2 AM. So all my friends that were in the lobby bar come running into the room. They pick me up. They can't pick me up because you know, I'm 220 pounds of just crap. They drag me by my shoulders and arms into the elevator, into the front. As soon as we get to the front, there's cops and firemen everywhere. And I perked back up. I walk one step out the front door

and throw up for five straight minutes on the rug that you walk in on. And the policeman comes over and he goes, oh, happy new year, kid. And then I walk over to the fire truck and I'm like, Hey guys, don't worry. My dad's a fireman. I got this. And I start climbing in the truck. I'm pulling stuff out. Look, it was one of those nights where, you know, you make a lot of enemies, you have a disastrous hangover. And I particularly remembered the next morning. So I would have been, uh, 26, no, 24, 24. And I, the next morning so i would have been uh 26 no 24 24 and i the next morning i remember for the first time i was like i have serious life problems right now if i you know i might need a therapist i need a life coach i need something because the road i'm on is going uh is going very dark and

you know there were a lot of other debaucherous moments and me acting out that night and um yeah you know you do need to get the show on the road, but I will say this, BC, and I say this to people all the time because they're always like, oh, you and Brian are so different. And dude, in so many important ways, that's absolutely true. Like irreconcilable differences in certain ways.

But in other ways, dude, we live the exact same life. You know what I mean? In the broad strokes, it's been the exact same life. It's fucking crazy. People want to paint me as a loser because I did whippets in the back of an Arby's parking lot.

But Luke, you know, you've done some things. Okay, let's be fair. I mean, that is a loser. King loser shit. Come on. Yeah. I mean, just throwing up in front of like 50 people and cops and firemen, you know, in the in the lobby of a hotel.

That's just gross. But anyway, that's my life. I've lived it. I'm reformed. Now let's get into the next question. This is frombo rampage wow big time old school mma fan here would you support longer time in between rounds mma took from the boxing model but mma has longer rounds with the same rest period so that's a good question you get 60 seconds in both mma and boxing but as we know boxing rounds are three minutes, two minutes for the women,

and five-minute rounds for MMA. Luke, for MMA, would you like to see that one minute become 90 seconds, two minutes? Does it matter? Yeah, it matters. That's an absolutely terrible idea. There was news this past 10 days, because this is coming out January 1, that MLB is looking to turn the pitch clock, which, by the way, I hope folks understand. I know we have a lot of European or Aussie listeners and they may not understand like baseball is an insanely old game and only recently after like a hundred plus years have they introduced a pitch

clock it's a brand new invention and BC already for the upcoming season, what they're talking about is if there are runners on base, then you have the pitch clock goes from 20 seconds to now default 18. In other words, all of the premium in terms of what goes on television these days in sports is making it as lean and quick moving as possible. Going the other direction sounds like an absolute impossibility for many reasons not least of which is what television network would want mma that takes longer to get going no i guess that's a fair point you want more action in there but if you're fighting five hard ass minutes is 60 seconds enough i guess that's the real question but we're 30 years into this the answer is of course 60 seconds isn't enough like of course like these guys get out there and they're still

fucking tired that's why they have to be in the most insane shape possible it's like you have to give them just enough of a break where if you're in insane shape it's perfect and if you're not it has this dramatic effect like you want to have this incentive of it not being a perfect rest period people keep trying to do this everyone Everyone wants like, I want pure fight, like it's some kind of pure version of Coke that you can just distill chemically down to. And there really is no such thing as pure fight. You can just create better or worse conditions.

The minute system isn't perfect, BC, but the trade-offs about what it gets you and the incentives it creates, it's basically a good idea. There you go. All right. When you said pure Coke, did you mean the soft drink or the Coach Craig Jones no spears?

There it is. There it is. All right. Let's go over to NCRRanger5030. I was like, BC, come on. We had a conversation about this. Hi there, old men, this man says. Two quickies.

Number one, best fights to rewatch from the post-McGregor era. So let's start there, Luke. What does he mean here? The best fights. What is the post-McGregor? Are we in the post-McGregor era? Best fight. What is the post-McGregor era?

I don't know what that means. Did he mean pre? He may have meant pre. Does this mean that he came to the sport because of connor which would be understandable connor brought a whole new generation of casual fans in i don't know how to answer a question like that it's like dude there's like rad mma for basically every year headed back to 94 that precedes it yeah let's take rcr ranger nword and leave him alone on that one. His second question is, best careers to dive into for a post-McGregor era fan. Love the shows. Can't wait to see you two bang next year.

Hey, Tui, what are we doing here? Okay. I mean, is that – look, if we get to 200,000 YouTube subscribers, are they expecting full consummation? Because I'm not that easy, dude. No, definitely not. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not do i'm not that's not there's that that's not the prize in the jack-in-the-box box okay um all right so luke the best careers so he keeps saying post do you think he means pre or did he stop watching after connor i don't get it but luke let's let's

hasn't stopped i mean he's taking these long breaks but like what is he saying like after 205 is that what he's saying like yeah but why would he say best careers to dive into that doesn't make sense let's imagine he's saying basically makes no sense whatsoever yeah we're gonna move on here our ncr ranger we appreciate you playing but you've lost you congratulations you've played yourself all right let's go over to at jack haxton 8650 uh With Patty's performance against Tony Ferguson, can you see Pimblitt ever cracking the top 10 at lightweight? Luke, you answer while I let Reggie Jackson out, okay?

Because he gets surly real quick, all right? Yeah, okay. I got to see where you picked up. Jesus, which one did he read? I didn't even hear him. Which one? Will Patty Pty pimble ever make the top 10 at lightweight luke oh yeah i think patty will make the top 10 at lightweight i actually did a little bit of tape study on him bc there's some stuff there there's some stuff there some of the

things that we had noticed from 296 uh definitely there was there there's a couple other things that i didn't really appreciate in real time the thing is this he's turning into this is not the right comparison but we talk about all the time like Ryan Garcia is great because he has like pretty fun offense and you know his defense is not where you would want it to be I'm not comparing the two in the sense that it's a one to one in any way but he does have defensively some some like real problems that are that they're just going to limit him. Like that's just the reality, but dude,

he's got some, he's got, he's got, he's putting together a little bit of a decent game here that I, I'm starting to respect a little bit more for sure. Yeah. His, his right hands were landing crisp,

clean, straight on Tony. He was looking good there. Obviously his leg. Yeah. Two things I noticed his leg kicks were like, they're real tough and do his mount. The stupid,

go back and look at the stability of his mount um when you see ferguson resisting it was very good he stayed balanced through the attack there that's hard to do man that actually takes like a fair amount of skill um i respect that i respect that good for him that was good shit one thing i still think he needs and hopefully maturity will bring this out of him so that he could have a shot at being the best he can be is i heard him at the post-fight press conference after defeating tony uh he had somebody asked him about his weight and he was basically saying you know many times between fights i get you know upwards of 200 215 he's like i don't want to be like that anymore but you know between fights i blow up and look we've seen

that a lot from younger fighters you don't see it as exclusively as like back in the day, 80s, 90s boxers in between. We're still, you know, going ham, drinking, getting fat, whatever. But if Patty does want to be legit top 10, become a title contender, you got to live the lifestyle. I remember like when Floyd and B-Hop about 15 years ago, 10 years ago, were like the first guys, at least from boxing, where it's like they're living the Spartan lifestyle 12 12 months a year they're not getting out of shape in between

fights that does matter that certainly does mean something it was it was never a coincidence to me or to frankly anybody certainly of course watching gsp in his prime where gsp lived in the gym and you were like right that's why like he's obviously athletically insanely talented you know he just had a dynamic athletic profile for mma he had a vast lead in terms of that on his competitors plus he trained like a madman he had good trainers he was a good technician there's a lot of reasons why him but like the fact that bc he never john jones was the opposite he would do all the shit wrong and then still beat the balls off everyone. But in general, watching St. Pierre, you're like, dude, I can understand both from natural abilities, but also the damn work that dude puts in. It's just he just has more hours in the gym. Simple as that.

More hours in the gym. And to be fair, Patty almost helped Tony create a moment in round three. I'm not saying Tony didn't help spur on that potential moment but patty was slowing down if tony wasn't taken down there around three we may have seen a ferguson rally so i hope patty can get to a new level of fitness because look obviously he's skilled he's incredibly uh popular he moves the needle so i want to see that guy in huge fights heck i want to see him against connor at 300 and i i'm assuming now i'm the only one because i don't see anyone really talking about that anymore it's a great idea it's such a good idea that idea caught on with

positively no one yeah all right hey listen i had john jones robert whittaker each year we all you all have that idea it's time to time we all have to take an l once in a while. Let's hear from at reclaimer seven, nine, five, four. Um, when deciding what to name MK, were there other names left on the cutting room floor? Look, this is a great question that goes back to our origin,

July, 2019. And we launched, uh, the, the Monday after the international fight, uh, fight week card for UFC,

John Jones versus Tiago Santos. You originally had an idea for a name. Cause we were kind of struggling to come up with one. Do you remember what that was? I do. Uh, here's what's funny about this. And I'm not casting any shade because I thought it was a good idea at the

time too. I want it in retrospect. It wasn't the right fit for us, but I, my idea was headliners, but like I knew that I didn't quite fully believe in it. You know, I wasn't, it didn't sound but i my idea was headliners but like i knew i didn't quite fully believe in it you know i wasn't it didn't sound quite right to me ultimately it ended up rachel nichols named her show that she had a show called headliners but at the time and again i'm not

saying it was the best fit but at the time someone internally when we were like floating names they said it sounded like an 80s cover band so we were like it could have been the head bangers luke head bangers would have worked right like metal it's like you know you like metal i like banging yeah i already used to you know before like every mma and boxing podcast is like that it's like the full uppercut or yes yes the the yeah uh what uh round by round like that so to bring people back to that point i remember being kind of like i couldn't figure it out i know i could be creative in these type of areas but i just couldn't find the right one and i don't it was it brian daly our patriarch

who did come up with morning combat because i remember thinking okay i don't love it but it is cool enough and it does have like that 90s throwback vibe to it, that it might work. Now, in hindsight, I'm happy we went this way. MK just works. The name is, you know, enough of a play on something that people recognize. But, Luke, whenever, it may have been Brian Daly who pitched it,

my initial thing was like, oh, really? Really? That's what we're called? Because I don't think we were given a choice in hindsight. Not that I'm complaining. We've had a great run and plan on continuing. But I guess this is how it happens sometimes, you know? Yeah, I think neither of us came up with that.

Someone else came up with this. It was like, what's the word? It was like focus group tested. They were like, we came up with this one. And our ideas were like, we love pornography podcast or head you know, headliners shit that you just couldn't possibly sell. They were like, well, how about morning combat? I think we were both like, yes, we're just not. We weren't going to do better.

We were not going to. Yeah. My favorite part in morning combat history was when you and I were the halftime show of the Charlo brothers pay-per-view on showtime boxing at mohegan sun and uh brian custer three separate times was like let's throw it on over to mortal mortal combat and we were like by the third time bc are you are you you know is this a bit or are you taking shots at us like what are we doing here bro all right shout out to brian custer. Let's keep this going here. This is from F Machado 509. What are your predictions on the fight card for UFC 300?

Interesting topic. I get this question every day in my DMs. What about 300? And I'm like, and I'm like, guys, I got to tell you, I feel, go ahead and read the question. I'll do it. F Machado wanted to add that we are the goats. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to another great year with you guys.

Thank you, F. We appreciate that. Luke, rather than play out the card, because, you know, we could make that another fun exercise and or we could get Whitaker versus Jones, too. But right now, let's just play main event game. What do you think is the most likely UFC 300 main event as we record this, which is just before Christmas airing on January 1st? What's the most likely or best choice for UFC 300 main event, which does have to coincide with the time schedules and the health of the

fighters that we want to see? You hear my daughter yelling at the door? Oh, yeah. Tukes is like, Dad, get the hell out of there. All right? Yeah. I'm sorry reset your question at the end there one more time about 300 yeah if right now given the time

schedules the current injury status of the fighters right okay okay okay so what could be on it right i apologize main event we're just talking main event what do you what's your prediction for the main event honestly the best thing i've heard as just a theory for what could satisfy everyone's conditions but like also who's available because that's really the bigger question like who what actually is the available roster I've heard stuff like and again it could just be total fantasy matchmaking but something in the order of like bringing back an old name a Rousey versus Misha Tate three or something right something yeah along those lines St. Pierre obviously is not available he has made that pretty clear so i don't know exactly how far back you could go especially

if connor's not on 300 i don't really know this is my point i i i think bc honestly like 300 will be like good i'm not saying it'll be in any way bad you'll be like that was a good card in the end you know that was a pretty good one but i don't expect to be like rocked off my feet in a way i never expected. If you can't figure out who that would be, the likelihood of this satisfying this grand vision of things just seems unlikely. Just expect a great card and that's it. Yeah, it's going to be a great card.

We can already tell the rumors of Bo Nickel kicking it off, Dana saying that top to bottom you're going to be blown away. I expect to be. As much as I will welcome the idea of gimmicks, whether that's Rousey coming back, Lesnar coming back, or really anything crazy, because I do think this is one of those special type of cards that's almost an all-star game celebration,

I still think the main event... 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. Should be a title fight involving current guys. That's why I don't even want Conor in the main event, although they could very easily do him against Chandler, Gaethje, Nate, whoever they wanted. I still think Conor

will be a separate card because of his individual drawing power so luke if i look at who's available maybe i mean you know i love that idea of perera adesanya again for the light heavyweight title it's possible but i want something like that luke i want something that matters so when you look back at 300 it's not oh rousey came back after a decade in a non-title fight no i don't you know i mean i want something that matters. People want a historic night. They want a historic night. That's what the centennial should be. Here's the thing. Volk has a fight

before that, so he's not going to be ready. Is Mahachev... He's not always active around this time because of Ramadan, right? Would he be able to take that fight? Is that before? Would Mahachev be able to fight at 300 i think so uh but not much later than that but it's like what are you gonna do you're gonna

do him against olivera like what is that i don't know him versus leon you could do him versus leon you could see i'd also be okay with that if you did two champions against one another i'd be okay with that but poor balal if they do that dude poor balal yeah if islam wins which you know i don't i would favor leon to win but i would not favor leon to win so dramatically that islam is like lost out there i don't i don't buy that at all and so you're like shit dude well what if islam wins they're gonna run it back again below we'll have to fight for at best an interim championship fucking sucks man um so interesting if it ended up being rousey tate tate was sort of accidentally the ufc 200 main event when she yielded the title to amanda newness and started

the lioness's run it would be wild if somehow she was the main event of 200 and 300 i hope that's not it that's not a main event to me it's a traction fight that would bring a lot of eyeballs but it's definitely not a main event for your boy bc with his white belt takes luke and i think that's the case who are we missing i mean is it i mean shevchenko's probably more aligned with with grasso i mean and that's not going to be a main event either for 300 um john j is not ready, so that sucks. That's what I'm saying, dude. It's like unless you get a name that's like not really in current circulation,

whatever that would be, who is it? Like there just doesn't exist. Who's the name? We've thrown around a lot of different combinations involving these two names. And this matchup was teased a few years ago and it never went anywhere what about this it's not fitting in line with the title fight like i want what about gsp versus conor mcgregor at welterweight dude gsp already said no okay i'm just look he said no but like if they if they're if they're in the war room figuring it out over

the next month there's going to be talks of how much money would it take. So I'm just throwing that matchup idea. You think all these guys are whores for money, man. I don't think that there's an amount of money that they would ever put on the table that would ever even get close to getting St. Pierre out of retirement. But the thing is, is he's in shape, and it's 300, right? It's 300. Did he main event 100, or was he the co-main?

He was at 100. He beat Tiago Alves at 100. Right, but that was not the main event, right 100 or was he the co-man care he was at 100 he defended he beat tiago alves at 100 right but that was not the main event right that was like the second yeah okay so the chance to come back at 300 against the biggest star in the sport i know he said i'll only come back in fights that raise my legacy and i know that he's probably not interested in coming back and fighting leon for the title so i mean that's an interesting, there's so much star power in that matchup, Luke. It's wild, right? First of all, first of all, first of all, like St. Pierre,

I mean, at age 40, he's probably still a real bad matchup for Conor. Oh, hell yeah, he is, dude. But more to that point, dude, I believe, dude, St. Pierre is not in shape because it has some transactional value for something else anymore. St. Pierre is in shape because that's who he is. This is what brings him joy and comfort and peace and excitement or routine or whatever.

That's why he does that. It's he, he loves it. It just, your point is it kind of keeps them close to like, well, how far away if you from professional work, but dude,

he made a shit ton of money. Relatively speaking, he appears to have spent it and invested it wisely he's in great physical condition without having taken too much damage in the fight game like dude why the fuck there's no there's no zero incentive zero all right and we're not going to see him against anderson silva either in the co-main okay maybe you're right look maybe you're right not that i want to either uh let's go to at san f man sant man 62 100 i don't know what these numbers are what is this they're serious they're social security numbers look hey

luke and bc from strictly a bodybuilding perspective who would you say has the most beautiful physique in the ufc this person hold on this this has to be a bit because this person asks that in my live chat like every week and it gets down voted and it's like i you know it never gets have they paid for it whatever has has sandman this is on the free this is on the free side there's an hour of the free stuff this is all on the free side they keep asking this one all right they want they want us to be like oh so and so looks so-so looks so hot or something. No, we're talking, he said from a strictly a bodybuilding perspective. I respect that.

First team all bod. We've talked about men's breasts before, Luke. We've talked about Big E. We've talked about Joaquin Huntley. Bilal Muhammad is first team all titties. Yeah, remember the pecs. I do. Remember the boobs.

No question. He says, here's the finish. I'll finish reading the question. Judging by things such as muscle insertions and muscle bellies proportioned abs i mean this is a stupid conversation just say whose physique you think is rad or whatever and pipe size no he didn't say that my he's saying my pick would be leon great definition and killer glutes all right this is going off the rails you're right what i'm saying this dude wants us to be like yeah this dude yeah i mean this dude's physique is so great we just want to fuck him

that's what they all want us to say and it's not what really what this is about he then adds leon's face ain't too shabby either lol okay we've been had we've been had none of that is inappropriate but i just know our audience that that can only be satire or the attempt to get us into some kind of stupid conversation. Do you think there's been a male or female UFC body that must, in terms of being defined and bodybuilding nature, has been the best body in UFC history, Luke? Is there even an answer to that? Dude, how about weight-cutting Yoel Romero?

Something like that. Yes, that's insane. That's insane that's insane right that's just like weight cutting Yoel Romero is an impossible level of yeah Brock Lesnar at 200 I remember I remember when I was in college I used to read I used to read bodybuilding magazines like flex and all that kind of stuff and they would do interviews with Rodney Coleman he that was the peak or pretty close to the peak of his uh like their early to mid 2000s and uh and in late 90s anyway actually i think it's more late 90s you get the idea he was always in these magazines and they would always be

like what makes it so you're so great and the natural instinct is the guy works out a lot he takes all the drugs which is true but then when you really fully wrap your head around the fact that they all take all the drugs and they all work out the same why are there now differences dude some people just have genetic gifts that are fucking crazy and uh yeah the old romero's got genetic you're right you're damn right about that uh he's he's a freak of nature that might that's a good answer there uh let's go over to ricky dash jo4st is that a racial slur what is that ricky jofst ricky joe forced it's probably it's probably a racial slur yeah he says what's your craziest christmas memory i need to hear how luke kimura and his 12 year old nephew for taking one too many hawaiian sweet rolls back in 07

thanks for all the laughs this year donks it's rick uh luke i have one christmas stories uh yeah i only have one and it's unfortunate it was when my when my when my sons were uh were still infants they have come they had come home from that crazy first year in the hospital where they were in multiple hospitals went through so many surgeries and about a week and a half before christmas my son one of my sons started to get very very sick and it led to us going back to Boston children's hospital. Suddenly we're in there and we have, so it's about a week out from Christmas and we've been in there for a couple of days and it starts to become apparent that like, they're like, as long as he makes a turn for the better, you guys can go home and you'll be home

in time for Christmas. I had my parents come up from Florida. We had, you know, hundreds of dollars of food in the fridge. We had this big celebration planned. And my wife and I unfortunately ended up being stuck in the hospital for two and a half weeks through Christmas, almost to New Year's. So that was disappointing. The only thing more disappointing than that was Christmas dinner when my parents and my mother-in-law were nice enough to drive up and meet us at Boston Children's Hospital. The only thing open on Christmas was the Obam pan in the lobby that was about to close. So my Christmas dinner that day with my son in the hospital was stale bread

and like the grossest sandwich of all time. And then Luke, add insult to injury while we're watching elf that night in the hospital room, I get a call from my parents back at my, at the house I was renting. And they're like, um, you don't have any heat. And I go, oh yeah, I was supposed to pay that bill a week ago, but I've been in the hospital. So look, I thought people would understand. I called the 24 hour emergency line for the local, uh, oil delivery and the old bastard that was on call. That was probably a few sheets to the wind since it was 9 p.m. on Christmas night. He didn't really like it, Luke. In fact, he was like arguing with me, saying, can you just wait till tomorrow? Can you just throw on extra blankets? And I'm like, sir, I'm in a hospital a couple hundred miles away.

Can you go back and turn the heat on so my parents can sleep at night look that was the worst christmas ever sound like a terrible son i mean i didn't pay the bill on time but you know my life was in chaos at that point yeah i mean i would just say dude i've not i've not had any crazy christmas memories my life is not if anything do they've been either good or dull? You know what I mean? Like I'm not, yeah,

they've been good. They've not been some crazy hair on fire kind of thing. Yes. Yes. You're, you know, dad didn't leave mom on Christmas morning or something where you just scarred for life.

Right. Yeah. I've never told you about like, dude, you've never seen the divorced handoff. Have you? Like you never, you never experienced that where one parent has to deliver you to the

other parent for custody and they don't talk weekends oh dude well it depends on who your parents are right yeah it's on that if your parents are cool and they're rational and normal adults they will you know they will understand that there's a way to do that that's better than others or you could do what my folks did which is just just bicker like, you know, LeBron and Boston Celtics fans or something. Yes. You know, LeBron and Colby. Covington. Yeah. A true, true, true rivals. Yeah. The Hatfields and McCoys of the sporting world. That's what it is, dude. It's the it's the it's the what is it? It's the parallel between north and south korea man that's really what it is did you use um the unfortunate nature of the divorce to get your way with both parents

like were you able to get extra stuff by like playing the guilt against them or it was just chaos couldn't do that because they didn't see the other person's like giving as anything other than at bare minimum owed or like an attempt to undermine you like i said my dad got me those reebok pumps and like i did my mom made me give them back and this was like at the peak of reebok pump coolness that would have been so cool dude and remember this was after i had to wear the winter shoe yes which means you're truly this was my come up this was my come up and then i didn't get drafted into the league. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

This one's from at Jimmy underscore Reed. Favorite type of craft beer. For me, you cannot. This is Jimmy talking. For me, you cannot beat a hazy pale ale. Keen to hear what you lads like best. Now, Luke, I don't really drink beer anymore. Yep.

But, you know, if I'm going out with my high school friends or whatever, I'll have some. For me, it's it's you know the ipas of course but not double or crazy or triple no longer any fruit in there or cinnamon or anything that's going to give me a vicious hangover just give me a really badass hazy ipa and and i'm i'm good luke what would you prefer if you had to drink a beer at an event what would you go for honestly like to drink a beer at an event? What would you go for? Honestly, like David Chang is the guy behind, you know, Momofuku. No. Yeah, of course.

Why would you? Okay. He's not big in my area, Luke. I'm sorry. He's a famous restaurant. You know, he has, dude, Momofuku is in New York. He's in New York. I think he has some other ones around the country, but the original, the big one, his name is David Chang, and he actually made a point. And I think even Anthony Bourdain said the same thing, which is you can drink nice beers and, like, obviously, like Bell, the company Bell's.

Yes. They make two-hearted ale. Everything they make is pretty quality. You know, if I see them on the menu, I happen to order them. Eggenberg makes a really good pilsner. But what they argue is if you're having good food, even if you're just drinking beer, just getting a cheap beer that's soft on the palate is kind of perfect, to be honest with you. That's where I'm at these days with beer. I just want a simple one that's soft on the palate if I'm eating something delicious.

That's it. Okay, so when I want exactly what you're talking about, and I'm not going to lie, sometimes like even cheap American brand name lager, if you get it on tap at the right place and you drink it at the right time, it can, it can be the joy that it used to be back when we were, you know, losers back in our early twenties. I will say that I'll go in the middle, like a hoppy American ale, not an IPA, but just an American ale. That's got a little hop to it that's probably like perfect where it's like i i really i used to do long rants about ipas i really find i mean i think it's just i don't understand the appeal candidly i don't get it i don't get it

yeah the level of hops that people claim to enjoy it seems absurd to me there's a i don't know like there's a if you have a really strong you know well done like amazing award-winning one i don't know there's almost like a euphoric high in there sometimes luke you know i mean it's like i've never gotten a euphoric high from that shit ever pc's like i got a runner's high drinking this i'm like yeah that's never that's never happened for me yeah you i was thinking the other day dude i drive by this liquor store i drive by this liquor store uh that's like on this main thoroughfare when i take tuky to school every morning and um it's a nice liquor or i mean as much as liquor store can be nice it's a fine area anyways what i'm trying to make and uh i remember one time i went in there and just for myself i bought a 40 and then like a

liter of beam and i was thinking to myself like this will last me maybe the weekend but probably like two days just absurd amount of drinking and the person who rang it up was like damn somebody's partying i was like you passing judgment on my on how much i am serving alcohol to myself sir do you have an american like you know shittyager, big brand name that you prefer the most? If you have to drink shit beer, are you loyal to Bud Light, Bud, Bush, Bush Light, Miller? If I have to drink absolute piss, Miller Light is tolerable. Or at least it used to be, honestly.

I'm not sure if it still is. It used to be tolerable. I'd either go Miller High Life, which is definitely piss but it's like a champagne of beers i've never understood that you know this is the wine of liquor yeah well that's almost like part of the charm of it it was almost ironic because this is the malbec of tequilas that doesn't mean anything that doesn't do when miller high life throughout our portions of our late teens and 20s when they would they would introduce those small ponies in the glass bottles, those were amazing.

Or they'd change the bottle shape, bring back the old label. It just felt like, I don't know, where I come from, it's almost classy to drink a High Life. I know that sounds ridiculous. But I would say I have great memories with Bush Light, dude. Or just regular Bush. Just give me the Bush. I partied well with Bush, with Bush Light.

I find the hangovers are so much more tolerable on bush luke you know yeah i guess but i just don't know bush you'll get a machine head once in a while a takate is not bad at like a ball game would you say con character yeah i don't i don't hate takate it's fine i mean they're all shit but whatever i mean they're all they're all the same bullshit would you would if if we should shoot some bud light cans with firearms one day look on camera that'd be fun right that'd be great just we've i've never taken you to the shooting range we should do that this year i have i have never fired to the shooting range okay get this i have never fired a weapon before you've never fired a weapon no i'm not like you know i'm not like a like a i'm i'm just it's just not my thing luke i'm just not i'd be i would be a little nervous you know i'd be a little scared

it's just not my thing i don't get off on it or anything but you know i've certainly had my fair share of experience with it dude every man should know how to fire a weapon like i don't know i feel like that's i don't know i i mean that's not quite true i don't feel like every man should but i feel like if you're if you haven't scratched that itch, there's a decent reason to try. Okay. Maybe we should do this on camera. Morning Combat 2024.

It would be a great doc, Luke. It would be great doc content. Yes. Do you know some of the 9-11 villains, unfortunately, trained at the shooting range in my hometown, Naugatuck, Connecticut? I'm not even kidding. Not a bit. They trained there in the year before that went down.

Not cool, but it's true. Is that a bit? You're doing a bit? Nope. And also, Hunter Biden during – a couple years ago when he had one of those hooker drug escapades came to the shitty motel in my town, Nogatuck, Connecticut, that we all went to after the prom to get wasted. You know what Hunter Biden is confirmation of, and I mean this quite sincerely?

There's two kinds of dudes. There are guys who have absolutely, in full reality, never once ever paid for sex and won't do it. Or there are guys who have spent $900,000 on hookers like Hunter Biden. There is absolutely no one who's like, yeah, I did it a couple times. are guys who have spent nine hundred thousand dollars on yes like hunter biden like there is absolutely yes no there's no one who's like yeah i did it a couple times it wasn't for me no you either don't do it or you've done it a hundred times that's it yeah i worked once when i dropped out of college luke i worked at a nursing home and um put together the food plates for the old people and delivered them to their rooms that you went through and you're just banging the female and um and there was uh there was a whole there was this

guy abdul he was so funny luke and he used to be the he's the type of guy that used to put on the mask with the weed backpack and then somebody would light it and he'd do the full immersion i'm the guy was crazy but i went to montreal with my friends one weekend for new year's and you know just to go just to go to saint catherine's uh Street and you know live the debauchery and I got back and I remember Abdul was like oh so you guys didn't get hookers I was like no dude no no I mean we went to club super sex but no we don't you know that's that wasn't really our thing he's like oh I just assumed when you arrived you would just instantly call multiple escorts and line them up for each day and it was so matter of fact Luke I'm like is this really how the other half does live yeah yes all right answer

yeah all right i don't know if that man served in the military luke but he would be accepted in that in that uh i cannot believe which so which hijackers like which flight um i'd have to do a little more research but but I think it was one of the building crashers specifically, Luke, on that flight. Yeah, they had trained. They looked at everywhere on the map. They're like, where's the most remote piece of shit out of the way place? Where's the most Isley spaceport of the tri-state area? Jesus, man.

That's crazy. Let's keep this rolling here, Luke, on our New Year's mailbag. Yeah. We got mail viewers. They got saggy ones. Here's that from at Korean British. I don't know if that's Korean British. All right.

Best of both worlds. Do you think the UFC has gone a little off on Patty Pimblitt? Can you ever see Patty getting into the top five lightweight rankings? Love the show from Korea. So we just debated that. Yes, Luke, we eventually can see Patty getting to the top 10. This is an escalation of that question. Cause if you get in the top five, you're a title contender in my eyes.

So as Patty Pimblitt, I mean, he may fight for a title anyway on popularity alone, but on merit, well, Patty popularity alone, but on merit, will Patty Pimblitt on merit get into the top five of the lightweight division? Unlikely. Unlikely. Wow. Wow. I would bet probably not.

All right. But, you know, there's a lot of factors where we'll see. Okay, will he ever headline a pay-per-view in any fight? Could be Conor, any fight. Yeah, I'll say yes. I'll say yes. Yeah, I think they'll get that out of him. I think he'll get to that point.

I don't know yet. Yeah, I bet he does. I do wonder, though, if he could get hot with favorable style matchmaking, which I know we always say the ufc doesn't do that but they do it sometimes and given the popularity i do wonder if he could get it work his way into a title shot if it's just like the the perfect storm where the season is right where it's a champion that's been there a while where he you know wins three in a row and it's suddenly like damn the ufc is going to do it they're going to punch his ticket like it's not impossible by any means but will he be a respected considered one of the five

best lightweights in the world you say no you might be right on that at the end of the day there's a lot of names you have to upset to get that far dude that's hard that's hard to do unless you get the right matchmaking with the right style or aging names even then dude even then getting to the top five at what at 155 is a feat in and of itself. Yeah, yeah, indeed. Here's from DrewFromYe882. All right, Drew. Luke, as a massive fan of Shavka Rachmanov, are you concerned about his struggling to get takedowns against Wonderboy and Jeff Neal going into this potential fight with Leon.

Now, we don't know if he actually is going to fight Leon next. He may have to fight one more. But, Luke, his lack of successful takedowns against these two men, Thompson and Neal, does that concern you at all? No, not really. I mean, he finished them both off. Yeah, he got him down eventually. Yeah.

I mean, he finished Jeff Neal with a standing rear naked choke. Remember that? And to the side, actually. So there was a whole thing there. eventually yeah uh i mean he he didn't he finished jeff neal with a standing rear naked choke remember that and to the side actually so there was a whole thing there so i mean we put out a clip and it's actually one of the ones that got picked up from monday's show where i said oh chef khan rachman was your next champion and people think that i'm like arguing he would easily beat leon i'm not arguing that yeah like in many ways bc leon is a bad matchup for just about anybody but especially rachmanov there are particular dimensions. His mastery of range, his ability to counterbox, obviously

his takedown defense, he's strong for the weight class. There's a lot of factors that make him a formidable matchup for at times an overeager and I still think somewhat, in certain ways, underdeveloped Rachmaninoff. But dude, here's just the reality with Rachmaninoff.

You're really going to tell me you don't like his chances, given that he finishes off quite literally everybody, how much he is able to make offense count very quickly, right? He has very decisive actions, both grappling and striking. Against a guy who, yes, the Kamaru Usman finish is remarkable, but is not a known dynamic finisher. That fight is likely to go, unless Rachmanov ends it early, it is likely to go, if it's up to Leon,

probably the full distance or something close to it. You really are going to give Rachmanov 25 minutes to get something going and then expect he'll whiff on all the attempts? Like, I don't expect him in BC every time he tries to have infinite success. Even Habib had a sub 50%, for example, takedown offensive rate, right? It's not about how much difficulty he would encounter. He would encounter difficulty, but I just can't believe over the course of 25 minutes, he would not eventually break through and cause real problems for Leon. There's, I don't

think there's going to be enough of him putting Rachmanov in enough trouble to deter him from what he ultimately wants to do. And 25 minutes, if the choice is do you bet on Rachmanov over the course of 25 minutes, I got to tell you, I like his chances against just about anybody in that weight class over the course of 25 minutes. And built into this question that before about, or I guess this is the same question about whether you're concerned about the lack of takedowns. It's like he's committed to eventually get the job done. He doesn't get deterred by lack of success in one area. So you're right, over 25 minutes. I mean, he's going to get there.

You get tired at all, you make a mistake, he looks like he's going to get there. Part two, they're not going to fight next BC. I understand something. Leon's 33. I don't think he's too far from 34. Shafkat's 29. So Shafkat hasn't even really entered his prime yet. And Leon is at the top of it or close to the top of it and potentially not on the decline,

but it's not going to get a whole lot better. This is him close to his peak. If there's a little bit of time that transpires where now Leon gets to 34, Shafkat at 30, and he's had time to work on some of these deficiencies then you add in the same equation a much better shop caught now with 25 minutes i think people are underestimating what that guy can do with half an hour that guy half an hour will snatch your shit up that's what he'll do it would probably be better under what you're saying for edwards for edwards's sake to fight him next but you know

i mean it's i mean edwards is so think about this bc in a 15 minute contest i might like leon i might like leon yeah leon is i mean look we saw the positives from the colby fight i mean he he is he's becoming a brilliant tactician and game planner to shut down what you do well so i think he that's definitely an incredibly competitive fight i can't i hope we see it eventually but i don't want balal to get screwed by the way john hank going ham on social media to to fight balal's battle now i know john's twin brother does a podcast uh remember the what is it remember the show remember the pod with uh balal muhammad but john like taken to social media basically saying i don't understand how anyone else could get it next

but balal so hopefully balal does get it luke we've talked about it a lot but uh the man is deserving for him even if i missed his his rise meaning i didn't see this coming i didn't see all these wins coming i thought he i thought there was a thought he was a little too average luke i missed some of those qualities that are that have been jumping out and have been a reason why he's able to be so competitive and then get the get the the win in all of these. Uh, let's go over to at L Heffy, not Jeffy. How does Mrs. Thomas feel about Luke saying his favorite country is Spain and not Columbia? Yeah. No one listens to the show in my family. Okay. What would your wife say though?

If I was nearby, my wife works nearby and so she can like vaguely hear me talking, but like she doesn't pay attention to the show. If that makes sense. You know what I mean? Sure. Yeah. My wife,

she can, she'll on occasion hear me like speaking a little bit of Spanish and then she'll be like, yeah, you said it this way, not this way. You know, see what's funny.

Luke is in my house. My wife has the, is, you know, much more apt to swear and has more of the, you know, edgy foul mouth in a funny way. Whereas I grew up with a dad who swore incessantly and as much as I love him and still do and have a great relationship with him, just refuse to not swear incessantly. You know what I mean? Like my dad could stub his toe at like a Christmas party with 50 people and yell the F word 25 times. It's just how he he got down so i don't swear around my kids at all and when when my family walks by the uh the basement office door and they they catch me saying things on this show luke it's you know there's some explaining to do but you know dad's got to go bring home the bacon okay this is what the people want right no they want some people

want a serious bc in 24 luke you are you ready for a serious no i don't why the fuck would anyone want that from you i mean you're like you don't have that in you yeah well no you do it's just it's boring people are silly bc i'm i'm happy with the uh you know the special special needs bc special needs bc is my favorite bc i put the ct and cte luke to answer it though would your wife be upset if in a conversation i was like hey mrs thomas you know luke actually likes spain more than columbia it's his favorite country she would be like what would you be like yeah me too i love spain uh she'd probably not be thrilled yeah oh okay okay okay all right i'll know i won't i won't out you on

that one uh this same man el hefe says if if deontay wilder is tied up with anthony joshua in 24 and just to remind folks that didn't see it uh looks like a two-fight deal according to reporting from espn's mike coppinger for wilder and joshua to fight each other i guess irregardless of whether they had one irregardless is not a word there's no such two days before chris i think irregardless is a word i used it in a text to you yesterday it is i put a dash between the two r's though luke that's probably wrong too i'm you know all right but it is not i love you so much but it is not a word thank you for that heartfelt love uh he says if that happens does francis and gano have a fight under pFL banner in 24? Look, I want to jump in and say this. We've debated this on other MK broadcasts, and I think it's true.

It does look like Joshua and Wally are going to be tied up for maybe even the whole year if they have a two-fight series, right? I think that Francis will also realize, since Fury and Usyk are fighting each other for the undisputed heavyweight title, and I'm going to guess there's a rematch. I think there is a rematch clause in that one too, that he's going to find quickly if he hasn't already, that he actually is out of big name boxing opponents to try to repeat the success he had against Tyson Fury a few months back,

unless he's willing to take a secondary name because of what PFL's Don Davis had outlined to Ariel about their want to do two pay-per-views next year. One of them be Jake Polish at the end of the year. One of them be Francis potentially against Wilder at the beginning of the year. I'm going to answer this man's question and say, I bet it's more likely that Francis just runs out of boxing options for the first half of this year. He sits down with PFL. They identify the best possible non UFC heavyweight they can fight, whether it'sweight they can fight whether it's ryan bader whether it's junior dosan i mean whatever like whatever and they get the best

one possible and francis agrees to make his pfl mma debut in the early spring area what do you think about that answer here's what i would say as i take this off first of of all, BC, my question back very quickly would be, you know, Spence and Crawford had a two-fight deal. They're going to get the second of those two, and now you've got this two-fight deal. Is this a new practice in boxing? Have you seen this as a trend? Because, like, I've got to tell you, if there is a history to it, great.

If guys start doing this more, I know it ties them up a little bit more than we would like, but honestly, I'll take two more than zero every time every day now it's not always going to be good because for example the george cambosis devin haney deal where devin and his team were smart to leave matchroom go to espn for a three fight deal we didn't need that second fight at all it was almost an albatross almost right it was almost like damn we got to watch this fight um i like it more than i hate it for all the reasons you said it is relatively new and um it also like fights that are hard to make this at least guarantees both sides that they have the that they're that there's

a great chance they'll get two paydays as opposed to one so it's sort of a necessary evil but um yeah because look as long as spence cruff as long as spence cruff for two happens at 154 pounds which i think it will i don't hate it i know people don't love it i know we would rather have them go elsewhere but like i don't hate that fight we get a chance to see those two legends fight again at a different weight class like i'm in dude i'm in even though it's not ideal right i'm in yeah I was just gonna say for I think what's gonna happen um this is probably gonna tie up Joshua obviously and Wilder for the foreseeable future which has its own negatives but I think is a net win for for boxing fans

BC I think that Francis is probably gonna just think about it logically what's the biggest fight he can probably get right now it's probably gonna going to be a rematch with Fury, right? That's really what he's going to try to do this year. And if Fury loses to Usyk, actually, I'll pitch that back to you. To what extent do his fortunes against Usyk either incentivize or disincentivize a rematch with Big Francis? Well, I'll shut you down because I believe,

if I remember correctly, there already is a two-fight unilateral rematch clause, whatever the word, bilateral, whatever the word means that either guy can activate it. I think we already have that for Usyk Fury. So if Fury loses, a thousand percent you're going to see a rematch. And if Usyk loses and is competitive enough

and wants to run it right back, he's going to have that option. So Luke, that's why I started the question the way I did. I don't think you're getting Fury versus inganu until if at all possible the end of next year so it's going to afford dude it's going to force francis to have to do mma which isn't the end of the world right like i'd be even though you're naturally going to get groans from people who are like damn i want to see him against john jones or aspinall so anyone else not in the ufc is going to be considered second rate but let's also take into account that francis has not been in an mma cage in a long ass time so i'm actually not mad even if it's a guy that you're

like oh that guy's old like if it was junior dos santos you know you'd get groans but i don't think that's the worst fight ever what about over him dude that that would win some people over a rematch with over him right or am i am i also stupid on that idea yeah i don't think i don't think that's the worst fight ever. What about Overeem, dude? That would win some people over. A rematch with Overeem, right? Or am I also stupid on that idea? Yeah, I don't think that does much for anybody. I mean, he nearly decapitated him the first time they fought, man. Okay, so what's the best case scenario? It's not going to be like a Josh Barnett. He's too old.

What's the best case scenario of non-UFC heavyweights? And this is where Derek Lewis dropped the bag, in my opinion. I would say honestly there's still a chance you could get a UFC defection coming up I don't think it's likely but that would be obviously if you let's say it outright if you get a top 10 UFC defection there's your answer right okay one um honestly I guess it's not gonna be fade or right let's just put that to bed please no i but like getting back to something here why couldn't he box like i don't know is there a second tier heavyweight that the saudis would pay money for francis to box okay great question what about a

dillian white for example a derrick chisora right here's my problem with that right what type of pressure can pfl put on him? Because I just said there actually is a possibility if Usyk and Fury fight in March and let's say they don't get hurt and they want to do a rematch in the summer. I mean, it's not impossible that Francis and Fury could rematch in Saudi Arabia next December. Not impossible, right? Maybe not likely, not impossible. But if he's going to then take money from Saudi to do a boxing match against a second tier heavyweight dude PFL will get effed and they did put a lot they did invest a lot in him so I'm just telling you I think this is there's no other turn but to go to MMA so what

we have to try to figure out is who is the acceptable heavyweight is it Ryan Bader with the Bellator title or no Luke is that Is that not acceptable in your eyes? I mean, I will tell you, in terms of pure fun, the best fun fight you could make, given who's available, would be the guy who won the last heavyweight tournament, Henning Fajita. Yes. He's like 6'7". He's pretty athletic.

He's got some limits to how defensively responsible his game is, but he hits hard. He's big. What about Bruno Capuosa? Maybe you could go that direction, but the point being is dude none of those guys they i'm sure they're wonderful people and i'm glad they won a million dollars like i got nothing bad to say about them but we have to be honest about the level of celebrity as a pay-per-view entity that they have and they are non-factors in that in that way yeah they don't have any name that could sell at all and they're

kind of dangerous too by the way you know all right so if it's czech congo you're gonna be upset right if it's czech congo or if it's just pointless it's just utterly pointless like and even the ryan bader one i respect ryan bader but like i just don't have any interest in seeing that fight for for francis really at all is there a blown up light heavyweight like what are we missing here there's there's an answer out there i know i mean no pro wrestler they could pull in i'm being serious not with ufc and wwe being together no and there's not a heavyweight in aew that i think off the top of my head that that is on this level so no um i mean maybe hulk hogan to try to like finally redeem him saying the n-word when he was

banging Bubba the Love Sponge's wife on film which yeah hopefully not did you imagine Francis and his like his accent being like this is for Bubba the Love Sponge yeah this is for Bubba the Love Sponge I'm sorry brother you know Nemkov's not doing that right? Corey Anderson's not doing that

Nemkov might be one of the most interesting guys that they have in that whole side of the roster. But like, dude, a non-factor when it comes to being a pay-per-view headline. Okay, I did see. I think I'll correct me if I'm wrong. I think Corey Anderson's wife watches our show. But I think Corey Anderson said something in an interview or social media post lately that he's not against moving up to heavyweight and not against fighting Francis.

Because he can wrestle, obviously. You know, it gets you a little bit further, but I don't think it really solves the problem. They need a big name as a heavyweight that people want to see Francis fight, not somebody you could slot in because they're kind of close and they might be good and, you know, fought in the UFC. It's not the same.

We're not solving the same problem there, you know. Do you think we get a Corey Anderson-Nemkoff trilogy at all under any circumstance? I'd love to see it. Yeah, I'd love'd be down i'd be i love that bellator light heavyweight division it's got it's got a little promise you know yeah yeah um i maybe we can petition ot to go back to the uh killer at uh at the dorm hall what was his name luke his old nickname cory anderson beast in 25 8 yeah i'd like to see him make a, make a, make a comeback with that. You know, dude, I'm just gonna, I'm going to go, I'm going to go and start fighting. And

my nickname is going to be like beast in 26, nine. Yeah. Corey, Corey, we love you, bro. I got more numbers in my fraction. Let's pause over time. Let's bring back the beast from, uh, from room 68 over or whatever you got going on there. Let's go to at the mojo corpse we got a couple more here luke 1290 can tom aspinall defeat stipe question mark and will they fight in the new year that answer is no unless john jones remains hurt season seasonal greetings from grimsby grimsby what's that uk probably grimsby luke he wants to be he wants to know do you do you think tom can beat steve uh yeah dude tom's like a younger version tom can fuck him up real good actually yeah yeah um have you gone back and watched the rematch between francis and steve yeah it's not gone back and watched it dude it's not a good time

it's an ass kicking beginning to end from francis like the fact that it went along you know a little bit into the second round or whatever is a miracle he was getting tuned up in that first round and then he hit him with that jab of death luke and that was the end of it but um do you think if john's comeback was delayed by further injury or arrest god help him or anything bad would we see we would see tom versus d-pay for the full title correct i don't i guess i i have i mean maybe not i mean maybe if john could come back by november they'll just rebook that in the garden a year later dude that'd be bad that'd be bad but yeah i have to say uh i don't know i don't know what they would do and i mean i don't know what else they could do shit honestly they might do like jones and co-promote with francis before

they have tom going there i was talking about this earlier man if tom goes in there and like dusts off john in many ways that's really great for them like that's actually exactly what you would want um but uh if the opposite happens if john goes in there and dusts tom and then just calls it quits dude that's like the worst scenario for your division and john already did that at fucking 205 basically especially waiting a year for that so that's why i i think they should strip john now for that exact reason um obviously when we were talking about francis before like the best scenario nine view ufc would be malikin from one but i've i've seen quotes from him where he's like i'm gonna fight for one for my

entire life i love chad tree i want to be on the you're a champion over there you're not getting out of that deal you know so what if the thing folded with the finances that could open something it depends on how the contracts are structured legally at times you can buy them out um you know uh there's the contracts i've noticed every time an mma organization would die whether it was like elite xC or IFL or even pride, there were different ways. Contracts were legally structured that allowed you to acquire them. A lot of times,

even then guys have opt out clauses in certain cases. So yeah, it can be weird. It can be weird. Hey dude, I think I just found Francis's opponent. Okay. Okay.

You're not going to love this. You, you'll hate it, but I'll like it. My head. You're not going to love this. You'll hate it, but I'll like it. Maheta. Maheta. Come on. Heavyweight Tiago Santos, right?

Heavyweight power. Isn't he past it a little bit? He's past it, but he's past it for competitive title winning light heavyweight. Dude, that guy could. I know he used to be a middleweight, right? But he's heavyweight big at light heavyweight. He is. He could fight at heavyweight, cred dude that guy could i know he used to be a middleweight right so i but he's he's heavyweight big at light heavyweight he is he could fight at heavyweight credibly probably no i'm not saying he wins or should be anywhere close no dude this is you can't solve this problem except by making some somebody famous in a direction you never thought possible some pro wrestler has to come over so or some major boxer has to come over uh or someone

has to defect from the ufc that's it those are your only options like all right i wonder if your idea on hennon ferreira is the clubhouse leader in reality because if you're the pfl you would get to showcase one of your top young guys and if he won dude you've you know you could have in theory a star overnight but even if he went in there and looked good and lost Luke, you'd still get a lot of people into him for the next heavyweight season, right? Yes, potentially. But also if Francis goes in there and breaks his jaw, that's fine, but you're just not going to sell a bunch that way. Yeah, that's right. Let's go to Nick Gopal, seven, two, five, three. Dude, what are these names? Who will be the new MMA prospect of 2024 that no one knows about yet luke is there

anyone you've heard on the regional scenes it's going to get a contender series shot what do you got one for you paul hughes out of ireland yep i think he's their cage warriors champ let me double check to see if he still is uh i will tell you uh but he is he's real good he's real good uh he is i don't have his age in front of me. Obviously, he had a loss previously to Jordan Vucinich. He rebounded from that. And let's see. I think in that contest, yes, he won the featherweights championship.

And did he win? Did he go up the next one and win the other title? He definitely won at 155. I don't think he won the other title uh he definitely won at 155 i don't think he won the belt so he has fought at 155 he has been the champion at 145 dude he's awesome he's like super good he was one of our hammers of the month do you remember that i do remember that actually great call yeah one of the first ones no he was a nominee he didn't he didn't win but he was a nominee yeah yeah oh dude we got gotta side note luke uh as we take inventory for what we forgot at the old bomb shelter that we'd like to have mailed to us i guess we got to

get that hammer right oh yeah yeah yeah we do need to get the hammer yeah that was a failed fun idea we got to bring that back in some form the old hammer we tried to tell him we tried to tell him we tried we tried okay tried so hard there um what were we talking about oh we were talking about um yeah i forgot what was it lucas probably pretty good can't miss prox paul hughes is cedric paul hughes quickly is cedric dumbe which kind of fits this question but not really is he a legitimate threat in his weight class on a pfl level or bellator level or is he just about in action and entertainment you think so he was a very he is like poeton in that he was a very very decorated um kickboxer in kickboxing right so we're not talking about a guy who like fought at a high level we're talking

about one of the guys right that's who he was so the reasons to have optimism are high but bc we just don't have much tape to go on against anybody you can reliably count on. Too early to say, but the promising nature of it is legit. Damn. And one final question about prospects, that 6'7 dude that the UFC signed that has some Olympic background, could that guy have a breakout year?

So that's the guy, I forget his name. He is from Cubaa he was a taekwondo champion um so he fought he definitely his last fight was against somebody that i thought had some promise and i still do but if you look at the records against the other guys he's fought they've had a lot of upside down records you just again it's the one thing where it's like you get a guy who's big and tall and reasonably athletic and has an Olympic pedigree background, which is going to put a premium on speed, accuracy, and has amateur experience. So he's got a ton of it. That's going to put him ahead of just about every heavyweight, given the selection of who is available to fight heavyweight in MMA.

But we don't really, again, we don't have any real clear answers about, hey, what happens if someone doesn't suck ass and can just take him down right away? He hasn't fought anybody. The last guy he fought was good. But you just don't have enough. Again, sometimes people ask questions like, how's this guy going to look in five years? I'm like, guys, I couldn't possibly tell you. The level of development is just really,

we just don't have enough answers. Yeah, you're right. Luke, you want to run through a couple more here? What do you want to do here? We can pick one or two good more ones and we'll call it a day all right i'm going to steal this boxing one first from at simon etate 3158 if devin haney does not fight tank how do you see him facing sabriel matias for another belt at 140 or teo fimo thank you you two old bag of bones so it does look like haney could be fighting ryan garcia that could be a real thing i don't think he'll

fight teo at all yet at least you know promotionally he is a bad matchup for matthias haney has a long jab but they have been talking even though sabriel's with PBC, the two sides have been talking. Sometimes if a fighter pushes, Al does let them go. Look at Stephen Fulton Jr. going to another network to fight in a way. Matias, you know, you wouldn't count him out against anybody, but I would favor Haney to win that. That's why they don't look scared of him at all. The two-team of Lopez was interesting, BC,

because Haney's going to be more consistent, but Lopez has the capacity for rapid fire and quick spring attacks. It makes it interesting. He has that plus athleticism. He has power, Teofimo, although he's got to really prove that at 140 that it's a major thing. But he's also crazy, Luke, and he does have – we did learn in that Cambosis fight,

even though it was a disaster for him in so many ways, reputationally, health--wise he does have that dog in him i mean he he almost died that night seriously he was in he was in bad physical shape that night with the tearing of the boses no this is teo fema remember when he lopez he tore his uh internal organ there when he got the hug from um the the mountain yeah the bjorn thornson punched him in the stomach or something yeah that's right yeah bjorn Thornton punched him in the stomach or something? Oh, the punch, that's right. Yeah, Bjorn Thornton punched him in the chest and actually fucked him up proper, like, in a real way.

At Toast Woozy, how did you meet your wives? Luke, do you feel comfortable sharing any parts of your origin story with the lovely and radiant Mrs. Thomas? And I will no longer call Coach Latorre lovely or radiant, Luke, because I got served for doing that to Mike Perry. No, I mean, for a brief time when I was between different jobs before I ever got to MMA, we had crossed paths and, you know, kind of sprung from there. All right. What was how long was the courting before the the before the engagement? A little over three years, closer to four.

All right. So you, you know, you got, yeah. All right. There you go. And it's a beautiful, happy ending. Luke. Happy to see that. I met my wife on my space and I, she doesn't like when I tell that story in public, Luke, but we were both in our late twenties. I just started working at ESPN. We had a my space group private one in there among employees to warrant, get this, to warn each other ahead of time that Mikey's late father, my mentor, Anthony Mormyle,

if he was on the war path, which was every day, we would warn each other like which, so you knew if you were walking into work for that evening shift and you'd cross paths with them, you're going to get it. So that was what we created. And then Luke, you know, work into two, 3.00 AM. Uh, you know, I started searching for local, local women on MySpace. That's not creepy. Is it Luke? It's kind of creepy. I know it's not right. I mean, here's the thing. It's like, it matches like, it's like, Oh, the guy who just admitted to doing this also admitted to doing whippets in an Arby's parking lot. That checks out, that checks out, you know? Well, my wife initially assumed I was a checks out that checks out you know well my wife initially assumed i was a serial killer and a you know and a weirdo so there happened there needed to be a long

email courting process then a phone process and then we finally eventually uh you know had the first date so but yet with that said luke from the first date to the wedding day exactly one year say go to my own one year engaged at three months do that or six no six months engaged at six months it happens luke it does happen damn that's like an arranged marriage man yeah it's like there's no there's no dating you're just here together 16 years later we're still at it thank god and uh wouldn't change a thing but there were a few people that were like you do they like you yeah oh yeah yeah it's cool it's cool everybody's good everybody's cool um i mean i don't know if

they might think i'm a weirdo luke i mean you know that happens from time to time but no you know i'm pretty i'm a solid family man luke all right there we go no i know i know i mean i might follow too many straw weights on instagram but we're gonna move on past that we have like one maybe one or two more as we get out of here we'll call it a day let's do one okay uh you want to do mma one mma or movies movies for sure all right from at the taint the taint oh well probably the taint um what are your top five favorite 80s movies so luke what when you think of the 80s what is that core movies that are either you think are among the greatest of all time or have that cult classic where you're like i've seen it 75,000 times and i wouldn't change a thing jesus man this is like i mean empire strikes back predator

alien okay alien 79 i don't like i'll look it up i'll look it up Was Empire Strikes Back the 80s? 84 I think Oh it's 80 1980 was Empire Strikes Back Was it really? Yeah so you fit in with that one Aliens was 86 Perfect

Okay so then Predator which I think was 87 I'm judging this as a kid like i'm not actually making a claim about the best cinema of the 80s i'm just telling you what i know no no this is this is about what i mean you could probably rocky probably rocky yeah i'd throw rocky three and four in there i definitely throw predator which did predator i was never i was never a big rambo like first blood no cobra cobra by stallone i'll put up there i love it's a cult classic but i love that um i've got to throw in better off dead without question do you like that comedy luke oh i was gonna say also the running man the running man movie which is different i think we've had this debate i love

the running man but it's not i've Predator. I've read the book. The book is better, but it's the Stephen King thing. It's not on the Predator. I put Commando above Running Man every day. Commando is so not above Running Man. But look, what about my favorite 80s comedy, Better Off Dead? You don't get down with that? I don't remember that one.

That's the $2 newspaper kid. They ski at the end. You don't remember that one? The weird. All right. A lot of weirdness. How about Ghostbusters? The original Ghostbusters, everyone wanted to turn it into this franchise thing where we're going to

sell toys, but if you actually watch the original Ghostbusters, it's edgy, it's satirical, these guys are kind of losers. There's a real kind of undercurrent vibe of loserdom to the whole thing gone well for them that i just love subversive i was five i think when ghostbusters came out and i remember going opening night see

my dad one you know in hindsight my dad was awesome at if there was a movie with any level of hype we're going opening night first showing right after dinner like packed house and we're going to be there and that was an opening night one but i remember being scared in the first like 30 minutes like because it was it was you know edgy it looked like a horror film in some some of the scenes it was kind of i mean i was five years old but you know that's fine yeah that's fine i mean the karate probably like that karate kid part one has to be in this yeah that's got to be of course it does of course yes um the television series ruined it by trying to make the lives of teenagers much One has to be in this. Yeah, that's got to be in there. Of course it does. Of course, yes.

Unfortunately, the television series ruined it by trying to make the lives of teenagers much more interesting than it actually is. You're wrong. You're wrong. You're wrong. It's great, and they're coming back for a bonus sixth season. It's like round six of MVP versus Mike Perry. I need to just tell everyone in Hollywood, the lives of teenagers are not that interesting. I'm wearing a hat right now for that. I got a lot of merch in that area.

I love that. I love that. All right. I think that'll do it i'm trying to think if we missed any late 80s like automatic movies that have to be in the camp i will tell you i will tell you one second by the way big trouble in little china yeah i could see oh 16 candles luke 16 candles is going to be there for me too so some of the bigger ones from that decade here the 100 greatest movies of the 80s according to rolling stone bc you ready for some of these yeah there's a bunch of things i haven't even heard of uh hold on i can't read this this is too far out how about goonies oh yeah that should have been on our list should have been gremlins gremlins was so big you have no idea yeah but then they

had a spider and gremlins too and i was not i was gone luke spiders are the worst before time uh beetlejuice little shop of horrors oh the never-ending story luke come on right story was big dude a bunch of these were big man i'm telling you i guess raging bull was the 80s as well oh here we go 25 greatest movies of the 1980s you're ready fanny and alexander i don't know what the hell that is the 1982 the terminator of course 1984 dead poet society oh captain oh dude that is that's a legit five top five movie for me damn that's a great et how about et people don't know shit about et dude i saw et four times four times in the theater look the only other movies i've seen that much are billy madison and christmas vacation four times in the theater let me get through and we'll call it a day breakfast club

1985 is a 20 airplane at a 1980 grave of the fireflies i've not seen that raiders of the lost ark dude this is prime harrison ford oh back to the future luke back to the future's gotta be come and see 1985 robo ro. Robocop, 1987. Scarface, 1983. One of my favorite movies from Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing, 1989. Back to the Future is at 12. The Princess Bride with Andre the Giant sitting at 11. The Thing, which is super underrated, by the way, at number 10.

Ron is my favorite movie of all time. It's ranked at number nine, bitch, by Akira Kurosawa. Eat a dick. How about that? Eight is Aliens, 1986. Seven is Cinema Paradiso, 1988. I've not seen that. Die Hard. Dude, Die Hard.

Bruce Willis. Shouts to Bruce Willis, who apparently has very bad Alzheimer's. 1988. Loved him in Color of Night with Jane March. Luke, pants around the ankles. No question about that. Top five. When Harry Met Sally.

They don't make movies like that anymore. 1989. Number four, The Shining, 1980. Number three, Blade Runner, which was the original one, 1982. Again, Prime, Harrison, Ford. Number two, Raging Bull. I mean, come on, one of the best movies. Dude, Raging Bull's, one thing people don't talk about enough, Raging Bull's hard to watch, dude.

That is raw, real. It's a brutal film. And by the way, 1980, also in 1980 the empire strikes back to 1980 was a hell of a year for cinema hell of a year so that whole stretch in the late 70s well all that neo-noir classic was luke i do have one more question it's about mk it's a perfect thing to close on this is from sino your night uh something like that whatever what are your top three goals for mk in 2024 keep up the good work don. Enjoy the break and best wishes on the new year. Luke, you don't have to go three,

but how would you frame if somebody said, what's your goal for MK in 2024? There's a certain amount of, let's be honest, man. MK had a bit of a, like we persevered. I'm excited about the road ahead. I know you are as well, but we ran into some speed bumps this year. I mean, there's just no denying that we did.

I'm looking to put that chapter behind us. i'm looking to get back to the kind of content that um that do we just love to make you know what i mean like i love doing the show but then there are moments during the course of what we do where it's one broadcast whether it's a show or it's on location or it's whatever whatever it ends up up in interview, whatever, where you're like, dude, I love doing this shit. Um, I'm, I'm looking forward to getting back to some of that. I'll say that. Yeah. And I think what's going to help get there is a lot of the major changes that, that you'll be seeing eventually when we make this, uh, when we, when we, when our plan, when our vision starts to come to, to, to life, you'll, you know, you'll be, you'll know about it. Believe me, you'll, you'll be fired up about it.

But I want to say one thing is I'm not always great as we know, it's a running joke at being efficient, but we're going to sharpen the blade this year. We're going to examine what works best for us and focus on that. And I think we're going to do our best work ever because of that loop, because sometimes you can get over, you can get too caught up in the, in the, in the quantity over quality debate in a show like this because we want clicks we want to you know I love doing interviews man I don't care if 400 people watch a boxing interview

of mine like I love just being involved in that game and keeping current um if we sharpen our blade and really focus on what wins for us with renewed vigor and this bright vision that that's upon us, despite a lot of the rough changes lately and shout out to everybody that have lost their job at Showtime. And it was a tough, you know, it's tough to end of that run and Malka just the same.

But if we get a little more efficient and we bring it, our joy is going to be through the roof and we're going to be our best versions ever. So I'm ready, dude. Let's, I mean, I feel like we are, I feel like we're in the on deck circle 2024 maybe we will finally

we're in the on deck circle of life right now luke and we're about to we're about to swing big and you know i'm getting in shape you're getting in shape let's do it let's do it new year let's take care let's take let's let's take care let's like let's work on our shit work on our lives work on our bodies work let's work on our shit this Work on our lives. Work on our bodies. Let's work on our shit this year. Yeah, I want my body to be a wonderland. I would like to work on my time with my family. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely.

Let's be the best version of us. Let's have balance. Let's be the best. Absolutely. Let's be the best versions of ourselves. There it is. Happy New Year. Happy holidays.

All that. Thank you to Mikey Mormile for all he does for us CBS Sports. Always the heart and soul behind the scenes. That's Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. Thank you, folks. Because ups and downs through everything we do, you guys are clicking play. Just push play.

That's what we're talking about. There's something about us, Luke, that these people can't go away. One day they'll harvest our organs and it'll be a horrible ending, Luke. They'll harvest our organs and it'll be a horrible ending, Luke. But before we get there. They'll harvest our organs and mutilate our bodies and then turn that into Land Yeager that they feed to the next podcast host.

I could see Appy selling Luke Thomas burgers proudly and then referencing that bottle of wine, Luke, that you just were like, I don't need this shit, that gift from Appy. This druggered shit. There it is. All right, that's it. That's Luke Thomas.

Have a great year. It's BC. We love you. Take care. We're out of here.