MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - OG RSD: Jersey City | Trip Recap | UFC Schedule | Movie Review | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: May 21, 2023

The old school Room Service Diaries is back! Luke and Brian turn on the camera and discuss some topics that are on their minds. The guys discuss what may happen with the future of AI, What goes on at BC's cameo and what motivates them in their career. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

well hello everyone my name is Luke Thomas this is Brian Campbell this is our sex scene we said we would never do this again at least not on camera you know not no not that part hi this is a old school room service Diaries where we tread a line between... Unemployment. Unemployment and dick jokes. Yes, yes. And I don't know how good they're going to be. Not great, not great. Because we're a little rusty.

But we're on the road in here in Jersey City, New Jersey, which is, to be fair, a shithole. But it is our shithole, and even though you don't have the view to prove it, the Manhattan skyline is like right there. It's actually pretty nice out there. It is. The Manhattan skyline from here. I one time got up at like right when the sun was just blocked by the skyscrapers in South Manhattan.

I took a picture. It's one of my favorite pictures. This is a 43-year-old person's story, which is utterly worthless. And I should be euthanized for telling a story so stupid, but it is true. It was beautiful to see. I thought that was going to end with somebody getting third-worlded, but no, it was very wholesome. Hey, my wife got me these socks a while ago.

What are your thoughts on them? Ride or die Chewbacca, bro. No, bro. Check it out closer. Chewbacca. Chewbacca with the Chewbacca, you know, Kevin Nash. I feel like it's racist. Do-rag.

No, it's not. It's Chewbacca, bro. That's Chewbacca who's just dropping the N-word at parties. Yo, Chewbacca was ride or die, bro. It's like, dude, stop dropping the N-word. Okay, Chewbacca was ride or die. Yo, this is mixing it with another American hero. No, this guy.

This guy is telling inappropriate jokes in the workplace. Chewbacca's ride or die. Yo, this is mixing it with another American hero. No, this guy is telling inappropriate jokes in the workplace. Chewbacca's more Kashyyyk American, to be fair, right? Yeah. When was the last time, like, I'm not talking something debatable. I'm talking, like, clearly over the line. When was the last time someone did something, like, wildly racist? Oh, you didn't hear that announcer, Glenn Kuyper, on the MLB broadcast? Oh, yes.

That was pretty bad. When he was talking about the Negro League? Yes, yes. But he didn't use that. Oh, no, no, no. I was like, dude, those are kind of Freudian slips where you're like, man, you're not just. Yeah, you better just pack your shit up because you're done at that point, right? Get your stapler.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's curtains for you, buddy. We are, though, here this weekend for some Showtime Boxing undercards. But I got to say, Friday's in-studio show. As we record this, this is Friday evening. I don't know when this is going live. When is this going live? Sunday?

Monday? There's a chance it never does. We, though, today, we had deuce is wild the hot wing challenge and we did reverse wheel of death and ray fucking longo got on the rsd 2.0 dude ray brought it ray brought the thunder he's like hold on i got a story about uh matt sarah pulling a guy's eyeball out basically you know let's go to it he now. He pulled a big John Fury, right? Almost, yeah, yeah. He pretty much... Basically, dude,

Ray Longo is a treasure of a human being. A treasure. And he told some cool stories. He's old school as shit. Dude, he's like in the 60s now, dude. Those are exactly the dudes who you gotta get their opinion from because they don't give a fuck about your feelings.

That's what I was trying to tell him and I don't think I accurately did that, what i was trying to tell them and i don't think i accurately did that but i was trying to tell them that like you're this nice guy who doesn't give a fuck not at all and you're going to war with anybody in this game at any point i like that about him you know yeah he's the best dude and then uh let's watch some bellator we had this 10 wing challenge today how much did it mess you up so um i ended up with eating three of the 10. You had seven. And I was messed up for a good half hour to an hour afterwards.

Lips were numb. Whole face was kind of ringing still and pulsating. But, dude, you had seven in a row. But you were definitely like McGregor at the end of the second Poirier fight at some points, right? You were just like, dude, it's over. You know what I'm dude, it's over. You know what I'm saying? I never surrendered.

I leaned into the challenge. But here's the part that I respected. As soon as the challenge was over, like five minutes later, you were like, oh, I'm good, I'm back to normal. Quick recovery. What is wrong with your body that you were able to do that? Yeah, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I told you, I eat a lot of spicy food. Like, it's not... Like, that was hot. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to I'm not sure. I told you, I eat a lot of spicy food. Like, it's not, like, that was hot. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to say that wasn't hot. That shit was hot as balls, but I've definitely had worse.

I've definitely had worse than that. All right, I enjoyed the stress that that brought during that. I enjoyed, you know, it didn't give me the shits violently.

Honestly, here's how bad it was not. Obviously, I didn't want to eat the wings, but, like, I was only mad I didn't get them right just to stick it to you. I wasn't upset that I had to eat the wing. Okay. I was only upset that I couldn't make you eat the wing.

I was willing to eat all ten if I had to, right? I would have been hurt. I don't know if that would have been possible, to be honest with you. Hey, you want to talk about Twitter? In what regard? Do you like... Ilona Must? Yeah, do you... There's always a cult personality around it, but I haven't had a chance to talk to people about it.

I'm, strictly speaking, as a user experience. Yes. But I don't pay the $8 for the star like you do. Fair enough, fair enough. I know. I did it before he got all crazy. What are you getting for that? You ain't getting shit.

Here's the only reason why I got it I think it does give you priority in comments, but whatever The one reason I got is because if you don't have it You can only upload videos two minutes and 20 seconds long and I didn't like that restriction I wanted to get around it So I've been paying for Twitter blue for some like full adult films Yeah I wanted to be able to put did you see that someone put like mario brothers on twitter and it was up for a solid 24 hours and it got

an insane amount of views before twitter took it down people here's what i was going to say man i'm judging purely on user experience there's some things that i definitely don't mind there's been various like i don't like the for you feed but it's very much like taken from tick tock and uh in that sense i don't mind the attempt, because I think TikTok is on something. Obviously, the Twitter medium is different, but I don't know, man. Is your user experience better?

Mine is not fucking better. No, mine's gotten worse since Elon's taken over, to be fair. And I don't care about the checkmark, so that's not part of my analysis. But no, it's not been great. But I'm a little nervous about the larger tiktok takeover on social media and i don't mean that from a chinese american political standpoint luke i thought you might be racist i meant more like um you know already you know what i mean we're

like this as we fall asleep to bed first when we wake up we're like this in our bed it's like you know those dirt holes and i know there's probably some mk listeners out there that are this level of dirt hole who wake up and smoke the first cigarette under the sheets, right? So I'm just absolutely like, do you vape before you even get out of bed sometimes? Like that's where you know your life is in the shit. No, no, no, no. You've just given up. Hold on, honey.

I'll come up for those pancakes. Let me just, let me just get that water. I've never thought of it. You're right. If you can't even get out of bed before hitting the vape, man really quit i forgot what i was teeing that up oh i'll get it so the addiction level as you already know yeah first as a adult in this era we were the last generation to to like become a man without the internet and then the internet came full on top of us right pour some sugar on us in the name of love, right? So my point is,

it's already at crack addiction, this phone that's like jumping out and trying to get my attention. And now you're like, bro, I'm killing it on TikTok where it's like... Yo, I gotta... At 44,

okay, I'm gonna be 45 this summer. Yeah. I gotta draw a line and say, some of this shit is not only not for me, but I don't think it can be for me because it's gonna up my brain rot wiring all right yeah i think that's fair i would say uh it's too late what they're trying to do is all these apps but like in tiktok in particular is

like obviously they want you to be on you know there as long as possible but the way they would measure it is like session time so not how much on protect per each video although i'm sure some of that matters as well but um they just want you they just want you on that thing as long as possible whatever it takes yeah so i don't want twitter to become like anything else i like twitter dude but the ability to go viral on tick tock i cannot overstate this their algorithm really sets you up for success like i've gotten a video or the one i did for izzy on his win the one over at ufc 287 the things are like 6.1 million fucking views man like how are they not taking you down for violating copyright uh because they have a fairly lax policy regarding that kind of stuff um it's

it's dude tiktok is remix culture remix that's all that's all. The more you spend time on there, everything is intertwined with itself. And some of it gets monotonous. Okay, I want to ask you about technology as a whole, Luke. I mostly use it for pornography. I don't really read too often, Luke. But when I do read, it's on technology. But I sent you that link to that Guardian story where the guy who kind of created the whole AI bust-out boom for Google is now saying, hold on, guys,

I want to be out of this because this is too powerful. Basically, the new AI is going to bring on the Matrix and then eventually it will lead to the biggest world war, which will be us against the robots. Do you have an intergalactic future, you know, romanticism for future intergalactic wars when we take on these computers that we're allowing to take over our brains?

Dude, in a war between the humans and the machines, I'm Benedict Arnold, motherfucker. I'm riding with the machines. I'm riding with the machines. You'd be like, you know what? Machines never hurt me. It's people that do. Dude, I'm riding with them.

I'm riding with the cyborgs. In all, you know what? Machines never hurt me. It's people that did. Dude, I'm riding with them. I'm riding with the cyborgs. Okay, but in all seriousness, and I'm not being super crazy conspiracy weird, but here's the deal. AI can already do your homework. It can already produce videos of you saying things that you never said. You know what I mean? You can do a lot of crazy shit now with it. It's going to take over, bro.

It's going to start telling people how to live their lives. No, I think I'm a little more skeptical about certain forms of AI. So I found this debate someone held between people who are very pro-AI, people who are very anti-AI, and it was illuminating. The biggest conclusion or the biggest thing that seemed to be true to me, subsequent to me listening to this debate, was that stuff like chat GPT is certainly interesting and helpful technology in a variety of different ways, but there's some basic problems with it. One, it's just something that approximates language based on patterns, right? It doesn't actually have a concept of truth and the ability to sort truth

which is why it will invent things that never happened it will say you can do things you never did it will tell people they have they wrote books that never existed it's because it has no fundamental capacity to grasp truth so it's an interesting tool but it's a broken one and what what would also appear to be uh people think you can program around it and of course it can get better, but this is the way it was explained to me. This technology, that version of it, is not new. It's actually been around for some time, but the reason why it's now accessible and interesting is because it's a better product. And this guy who's been involved in AI, where did he work?

I think Microsoft, which obviously is behind one of the most important AI initiatives, he was saying that it's not to say that the problems that ChatGPT faces can't be solved, this capacity to sort truth. It's just that ChatGPT is not going to be the one to solve it. There is another level that is required that we just have no ability to reach yet. Yeah, that level is going to create clone troopers. Well, you're talking about what they described. The term's going to create clone troopers. What you're talking about, what they described, the term apparently for this is emergent properties.

Things that just kind of boil up out of nowhere. To my knowledge, there's no real evidence. And they're going to be able to find the launch codes because everything's saved on a computer in the cloud. Once they hack that cloud, all the celebrity nudes will be wild. They'll be roast meat for everybody. It'll be like an Arby's drive-thru, right?

Can I be honest? I think I've eaten at Arby's maybe once in my life. I know. You've failed in that regard. I'm not even kidding. Arby's is like elite fast food. Dude, I literally

look down on people. I think it's like, it's like, I mean, it's one step up from just stealing from a 7-Eleven. No, no, no, dude.

Which, by the way, I've done. And a Jumoka. I've done many times. So, look, you're not afraid that... Okay, forget about the computers taking over and starting a war. What about the evolution to the Matrix Society? Remember in Total Recall where Arnold's character was able to put the mask on after they put the needle in him and he got to go away in his head

to whatever vacation with a slutty woman that he wanted. Yeah. We're almost there when you consider how many people are, like, plugging into the same video game for 15 hours a day, right? Or just us. If I'm on the road and I'm in a hotel, Luke,

I'm probably on my phone the whole time, right? That's just what we sort of train ourselves to do. Yeah, you don't want to talk to me, that's for sure. So how soon before you're going to wake up in the morning and just decide to put that thing on and type in your paradise and then just give up and just stay plugged into that machine i don't know i don't know i don't have any you're asking me questions well the machines take our jobs luke yeah they already ran our grandfathers out of the factories. That's definitely going to happen. Oh, yeah. How much technology is too much, bro?

Listen, as long as I can scam other people. That's really all I care about. Are you talking about your super jet again? Oh, tell me, how's the cameo business? It's a little slow at the moment, but I was, for like a week, I was on fire. Oh, yeah? I was gangbusters. How much, like, okay, walk me through a normal cameo. How long is it?

Most celebrity cameos, I believe, are like on the worst end, like 30 seconds, and maybe on the best, 90 seconds. Mine are like five to eight minutes. Dude, what the fuck are you doing each one's different though that's why i don't put any because you know you can put them on your page so like if somebody went to my you go to a page of any celebrity you can see like their last five videos if they made it public yeah these are all personal requests like hey can you reach out to my brother and make fun of him for this or hey can you wish my wife a happy birthday tell her how much i love her

that i want each one to be so personal because each one's unique that I don't post them after the fact but I'm giving you my time. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to make that dollar worth it. Dude, if I paid for one of yours, I don't want five minutes of you.

No, but it's interesting. I want 30 seconds to get the fuck out of my life. Do you remember when we got to college and cell phones arrived and everybody had one? I was the bastard.

I didn't get one until my senior year. Okay. I got one my junior year of college, my dropout year. I mean, no, that was my senior year. Look, what I was going to say is that I used to just call you and you didn't answer, so then I'd leave you like a seven-minute rambling voicemail of all the jokes that's in our friend group over the past couple years intertwined. That's what cameo is, bro.

All right? People give me a couple buzzwords, I weave them a beautiful blanket, a hand-me-down that they can pass on to their family, you know? It's a great scam, right? No, but I like it because I connect with our people. And that's the thing, Luke. Dude, just transactionalizing your interaction with...

In a way, it's definitely a dirt hole move, but my guy, Lupe Contreras, was like, yo, I think you could do it. You could be great at it, and I can make 5% of your commission if you do this. Bro, you gotta hustle out there. You gotta find an angle. But I will say, I really enjoy it,

but that's the difference between you and I, Luke. The only similarity we have in our relation to the MK fan base is that both of us have pretty much come to terms with the idea that one day we'll wake up in a bathtub in an abandoned building missing one of our key organs, right? It's probably inevitable, but on the road there,

you love our people when they're out here. You know what I mean? Stay behind the camera lens. I'm on this side of the line. You people are on that side of the line. Thank you for your awards and patronage, but stay the fuck out of my life and DC and my family.

Here's what you don't. Bitch. No. First of all, I don't. What? Where I'm like, yo, thank you guys

for making our show great. No, you've jacked off our fans a few times. Okay, that is aggressively dishonest. You brought them to sexual climax and really

awkward and awful. Maybe emotional climax maybe. No, dude. I do that with every person like the keep people at a distance like there there isn't a segment of my life where I don't do that it's not like in any way special so if I said who hurt you where the answer would be who hasn't Luke yeah I don't even know anymore doesn't even matter anymore okay Okay, but you know who didn't hurt you?

Who? Abby. Don Paquette. He didn't hurt me, but he was close talking. Like, dude, you ever seen when someone is so drunk that you know, like, you know how sometimes it's like, hey, we talked last night, don't you remember? And they'll be like, oh don't know whatever there are times where you can you ever seen someone so fucking hammered that you know there'll be no memory of this interaction with on this person's end in subsequent days like they're just absolutely zeroing out their brain for that day that was david appleton i knew i was like holy fucking shit yeah dude i still can't get over the brits get busy with the bottle when the brits are the fucking model. When the Brits are like... They get busy.

Even if the Brits are like good dads and good family, man, but they're like, yo, once a month I get together with my friends and we hang out. Like, I got this thing, I'm going with my high school friends. You know, like, after you get married or after you go to college, like, you see your core friends a lot, but every year it gets a little less. And then people get married or engaged or move, and then it's like a little bit less. We were getting on to the point, me and the high school friends, where it was only like once or twice a year. So now we got this thing we call Monday Night Raw.

We get together at a brewery, we play cards, and we tell really bad jokes, Luke. And it's like, it's a reconnection there. How many involve the N-word? None of them at all. I forgot what my setup was. Where was I going to try to bring that back to you, Luke? Oh, who hurt me? But no, I guess I forgot.

I mean, you know, that's the price you pay at this level, right? You know, yeah. But I'm sure it was going to be good. But, Luke, ultimately, how many of our audience, I know we got some weirdos, but they're passionate weirdos, right? So I can respect the passion. Yeah, for sure. But how many are just normal folk?

That could be, you know, could be your neighbor. I think we got a lot of normal people, too. I think our fan base gets a bad name. No. Do they? I think we got a lot of washed dads all right yeah we got a lot of we got a lot of dirt bags i mean let's just be honest we got some dirt we got some diggity dirt bags in the you should see the have you seen the shit videos that don't that don't make it dude i these people still send me stuff to be like give this to brian like i'm the shortcut don't do that

shit oh i love when they go through me on the DMs, like, yo, ask Luke this MMA question, and then it's like 5,000 words, you know? I get if they hit you up to be like, yo, tell Luke to unblock me. That one is a regular. But don't do that shit where it's like, yo, give this to BC.

No, you give it to BC. Yeah. Trust me, he's looking for the attention. No, no, no, no. When we're not looking... Dude, why was there another video with Chef Kaz in a car? No shirt on. Chef Kaz DM'd me a picture of him driving with those big...

Dude, that's what I'm talking about. He takes his skin and he squeezes it. It's like he's got these fucking headlights attached to his body. I don't even know how to explain it. And he's shirtless in some kind of, I don't know, Jeep or whatever the fuck. And he's, what was he talking about? Some shit? I don't know.

But yo, shout out to Chef Cass. That's my guy. Dude, he, yo, he's a world-class nutritionist and fighting chef, all right? And he's a capoeira master. Is he? Yo. Capoeira is hard as shit, bro. And he's a new father, master. Is he? Yep. Capoeira is hard as shit, bro. And he's a new father, alright?

Yeah, man. Capoeira is hard as fuck, bro. Don't let anyone tell you off. That's fight dancing, right? Yeah, dude. That shit's... Like, the ones who are good at it, that shit is Cirque du Soleil acrobatic, man.

It's pretty incredible. So I'm very skeptical of these acrobats. Yeah. You know, I had a whole line of questioning. I was opening up a door, too, and then I just fell apart. Have you watched anything interesting? It's pretty incredible. So I'm very skeptical of the exact amount of stuff. Yeah. You know, I had a whole line of questioning. I was opening up a door too and then I just fell apart. Have you watched anything interesting?

Are you talking, what category are you talking about? Netflix, HBO Max. So I watched the show with my wife called A Million Little Things

and they had their final finale, right? After five seasons to wrap it up. And dude, I wasn't paying attention to what the final episode might be, after five seasons to wrap it up. And dude, I wasn't paying attention to what the final episode might be,

but it was like this dude dying of cancer in front of his friends. And yo, that shit ripped me apart. Just crying like a bitch, yo. I just was like, I almost wanted

to turn it off. I got level. It was like a body punch. It was like Gervonta to Ryan Garcia and I was just like, nah, that's turn it off. I mean, I got level. It was like a body punch. It was like Gervonta to Ryan Garcia, and I was just like, nah, that's fine. Dude, I've turned it too. Have you been leveled like that in a while? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not quite like that, but I can't watch sad things with kids anymore.

Oh, my God. At all. Dude, I can't watch. I had to stop watching hospital shows because the flashbacks to being in there with my kids when they were young. I'm so good on that. Yeah. No no thank you like that shit has definitely softened me i can't do that at all that's ptsd um i don't think i've seen anything awesome in a while because you know i i watch different things i watch um a lot of 90s mba with the volume down while i'm

listening to 70s music luke on vinyl that's you know in my office in the basement that's that's like king in the castle right there that's my that's my wife okay and it's now or never that's your happy place because i'm not going to live forever you know what i mean what is the do all any married guy ever wants to be left alone well the way i would explain it was is as follows they want to be able to watch pornography with the volume on. Oh, stop that. With the volume on. That's the kicker.

With the volume on. Is that part of your tight tenure? You're putting together hair? It's a bit. I do a bit of skits and bits. Do you have a... How private is your setup? My setup?

Like a little office and shit down there. For masturbation? What are you asking me? Both yes and no. No. I put soundproof things all over the ceiling because my kid's room is above me. And back during the pandemic,

MK gets really loud in the tiny house. Oh, fuck yeah, man. So I got one of those um you know one of those giant heavy moving blankets that you get in like if you're running u-haul truck i got one of those covering my door oh my god dude i had the worst motherfucking experience adam okay you kind of said it but at a moving company recently dude i was just like what in the motherfuck is this? I had a reservation time for 11 a.m. I was so pissed about this. I go in there to this lady who's not even trying to help me.

She hates you right away. I have to go pick up the keys. I have a 10-foot truck that I had rented. What, are you helping a family member? Yeah, I had to help a family member move. And so I go in there, and I had a reservation at 11 a.m., and I go in there, and she takes reservation at like 11am and I go in there

and she like takes forever to like work through this other couple's problems I get to her and she's like oh you have to go through the check in process

and I'm like oh fuck me oh my phone takes forever they literally have to call another person to like verify your fucking identity

or something it's the weirdest shit finally to get a picture of your driver's license all this stuff it finally gets through now it's like 10 45 they're like sir we actually need a semen sample if you don't mind we got a room over here yeah uh so i'm just like dude what in the fuck so i finally go to get my truck it's not even that building it's across the street basically have to go get it i go to get my truck they give me the fucking beater they're like yeah it's in that line there,

but mine was behind like three other ones. Is it a box truck? So they have, just with the 10-inch fucking truck, or 10-foot truck. So they move all the shit to get my truck out. Then I get my, dude, they gave me a truck that looked like it survived, you know, the 91 fucking LA riots or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was Reginald Denny's 18-wheeler. Yeah, like, people hit it with bricks like it had the bit where it technically did lock but it wasn't flush with the spot yeah and i get in there and i turn the light on i turn the ignition and when i say every dummy light was on i'm talking check engine light no windshield wiper fluid the whole bit and this vehicle self-destructed and then there's a fucking there's a fucking thing on the the the dashboard that says left tire pressure low um fill immediately and i'm like dude i'm not driving this fucking vehicle across town like what the

fuck is this so i have to go back into there. And I was like, I cannot drive this truck. And I was like, oh, by the way, I also secured a furniture dolly. And they're like, oh, yeah, we don't have those. I'm like, okay. Okay, right. Let me see if I understand this. It's now 11. Or excuse me, it's now noon.

I still don't have a truck. And I don't have a fucking dolly. And you didn't tell me. Did they trick you into get the insurance too? I get the, I've had an issue before where like, I needed the insurance. So like, I pay for it. I pay for it. Yeah, but you have your own insurance that has clauses. I know, but like, I don't mind the extra bit.

But the point I'm trying to make is, then they finally get me another vehicle. That one worked great. Still don't have a fucking furniture dolly. And then, yeah, I was on my way and i was like do i have to have it back now can't you just push me an hour they're like someone's waiting on the vehicle i'm like yeah motherfucker me me i'm the motherfucker waiting on the vehicle so they were like okay okay you can come back later so i actually still made it like right around the same time but dude what the fuck is that man yeah i mean you know i

want to i was like what the fuck is going on it's the worst customer service yeah but you also are at that point in your life where you have no patience for other people remember what was that you told me like one time like they got us a car to go out to dinner in which they were paying and like you were like waiting at the meeting point you were like yo if these people don't show up so i'm just gonna get my own car i like, yo, they just rented us a car to take us out to this dinner. You're like, yeah, but I'm at a point in my life

where I don't wait on anybody. Why are you making me out to be some antisocial villain? You definitely said that. It's true, dude. You know what, man? I got to be honest with you.

I have, I got a lot of anxiety, bro. I got a lot of anxiety. It's crippling. Okay, where does your anxiety, which we all have, but to different levels, where does it come out? Where is it the most that screws up your life? Because mine is work travel. That's a big one.

That's a big one. Work travel is eating me up. When you come out in my room and hang out, I'm just like, dude, we were on camera for six hours. We were traveling for 18 before that. I know. The only reason why I want to hang out is, I mean, that's not the only reason, but it just feels weird to, like, only talk to you in those circumstances. You know what I mean? That's why I try to break it up a little bit. It makes our relationship transactional, you know, in that regard.

But that is where, like, I'm not afraid of the plane falling out of the sky. I'm not afraid of the plane falling out of the sky. I'm not afraid of any of the danger. Just that chaos of being stuck in one spot and being at the mercy of other people's timing, it just drives me like... And it's getting worse, dude. Because we're traveling more. We're doing bigger shit. My travel anxiety is getting worse.

Dude, that travel... You know what? That vacation I went on, I know it was long. I didn't even really know I needed it. And honestly, here's the truth. My wife was like... She was like, I didn't even really know I needed it. And honestly, here's the truth. My wife was like, she was like, you haven't really planned anything

for the vacation because we went back to one of our favorite places. Cartagena. Yeah, but the truth is, dude, I could barely stumble to the finish line of that vacation. It took everything I had.

And then all I wanted to do was just chill. I didn't want to do shit else. All I wanted to do was run a zoom, zoom, zoom, and a boom, boom. Yeah, just shake the rim. Dude, it was great. I feel better, but I'm saying that run right before,

and you went to the Tank Davis one. That run right there, that run whooped me, man. I had a crazy sequence of getting home from work trips, Dude, you did the fucking showbox stuff too man yeah yeah i mean it's taken it's taking days and years off my life for sure it has but you know i'm trying but here's the deal though like we're always up front about our ambitions like dude we got a small peak window here you know we're at this point in our career luke let's be real right or you're on twitter no i'm listening to you. All right. Trying not to be frightened.

I mean, look, dude, I got goals and dreams. Like, I want to call fights. You know what I mean? I mean, we're lucky to do prelims together, and I got this showbox thing going. But, like, dude, I want to be working the broadcast when the fights freaking happen. And I'm willing to do whatever it freaking takes to get there.

Me too. I mean, dude, that's the drug in this game. Forget the money. I mean, look, if we go to that one day full time, would you have a different, more relaxed schedule? Probably. You'd probably be making a lot more money. But I'm willing to die on the road to get there, Luke,

because I think it's worth it. I mean, the money's probably great. All that's great. What about sitting right there? Do you think about like broadcasters who've had like the best career in terms of, you know, longevity in the space, the fans like them,

steady work for a long time. We also talk about Joe Rogan on the MMA side, which is obvious. Like he's been front row to the craziest shit. It's just the most remarkable experience. put some respect and I mean this Al Bernstein dude yeah Al Bernstein every time I go back and I'm like oh I wonder what I remember or look you're catching up on fights I miss from like the 90s the boxing fights there's Al calling shit again you know dude Al I mean I was

going back to like the early 80s. Yeah. In terms of like the elite top level. And I mean, dude, him and Barry Tompkins, who I'm so happy to be working with now on Showbox, when they did the ESPN gig, when they had that top-ranked series in the late 80s and early 90s, and they aimed to do the two guys at a bar.

That was like their strategy. Like, yeah, I might be played by play. Sometimes you might be played by play other times, but we're just calling this like we're hanging out. Like, that's the dream right there. Like they had, they had something going there. Like that was chemistry. Yeah.

Yeah. That's what I want, man. That's what I want to be a part of. I mean, do you get down with that? I mean, what, what I'm actually asking, what motivates you in the broadcasting side beyond, like we said, beyond money, beyond the broadcasting side beyond, like we said, beyond money, beyond trying to get recognition, which we all want to be considered the best and these awards and this podcast make it all fun and all that.

But I'm looking at it like that's the elite level of this job and I want to compete on that level. I want it to be known that I'm competing on this level. What gets you out of bed in that regard? Probably just the money. What the fuck? First of all, that wouldn't be on this level. What gets you out of bed in that regard? Probably just the money. What the fuck? First of all, that wouldn't be a bad thing. But no.

Just, you know, I think you just want to be... What do you want out of a commentator? What do you want? You want them to be helpful. You want them to be a guide. So you want to literally help educate the audience, take them along with you.

Well, the truth is I'm educating myself constantly. The job is not fucking rocket science. Just break it down this way. I don't have any other gifts that any other person I think could could have I don't have like some special blah blah I have to write speeches in Washington don't count yourself short well here's what I mean to say but I have time in the day to invest in the looking at tape and talking to people in the industry and getting feedback from coaches and blah blah blah like it goes on and on I have the time and the resources to do that. So obviously over time you do it long enough

and decently enough you're going to pick up some stuff along the way. But, you know, that's it, man. That's really it. Like I would just like to, I would like to have like the kind of command of the craft. Yes. Where people feel like they really get something.

You want to enhance their experience. Yeah, that's what I hope. I want to in similar but other ways. I want to be on the soundtrack to that fight. You know what I mean? How many moments are great moments? We don't fight, but we love the game. We want to help elevate it.

I want to deliver my part of the job on the call that elevates the broadcast I'm watching. That you say, damn, that fight was so great, but that announcement that got me in there was like a rollercoaster. They just took us, they were our guide. Dude, I'll tell you what, though, where I'm at with stuff,

I think about the times, one of my favorite fucking things that still happens all the time is when I listen to somebody who's good at it describe what's happening in a fight or describe a fighter. And sometimes it can be extremely analytical, like foot placement, blah, blah, blah. Sometimes it can be more narrative driven. But there comes times where someone says something about a fighter, usually in a moment of victory,

but not always. And it's so brilliant, you actually can't see them the same anymore. Yeah. Like, it really is like, oh, fuck, how did I not see that before? Like, holy fuck, that is so true. Not to be like, you know, you can't be the person that delivers these consistently,

but, like, you really remember those broadcasts. Absolutely. You remember, like, fuck, that was such a great point. And there's so many people, I want to be clear, like, there's so many people who are doing really great work I don't if I could contribute

that would be you're asking what success would look like it would look like something like that but you know and I still on top of that

I still love great interviews I love being a part of them I don't think anybody interviews like we do together on that RSD yeah I actually like doing interviews

like the ones like we did today those are are fun as shit. Um, I do need to do more interviews, but there's an art to that. There's also a rush you get in that because I've been too checked out. I mean, sometimes you got to fight the subject. Sometimes you got to kiss up the subject. I mean, you've got to, you've got to play armchair psychologist in a way to try to, if you're trying to get something out of it and you know what your intention is, but you also got to be able to read and react on the fly. And, you know, I never want the subject to know exactly what my true intentions are. Because they're not your adversary. They're no, exactly.

They're not my friend. They're also not my enemy. So I always want them to be guessing. I always want them to be going, wait, did he just insult me? No. Or, or like, wait, is this guy a clown or what? Like, cause you know, you, you realize, you know, this, you've been interviewing people for years on your shows.

It's like, especially when you get a guy or a girl that, you know, is not a great interview and you're like, okay, I'll do it. But like, I haven't had great success here when you're able to finally play psychologist or or pick an angle and it works and you get like the first time i got cowboy serrani to say something that was like worth sharing i was just like damn that what that was worth it that was like my seventh interview with him and i've tried to piss him off i've tried to get him to laugh i've tried everything and i finally found the inside because look you don't want them to say What they've already programmed their mind to say, you know

I mean, you don't want it to sound like the other 50 interviews that they're doing you want something I have to tell you like That's an exhausting way to go through interviewing Here's why I disagree with that Like it's not that you can't do it you You can. And I've seen you do it. You can do it. But the real way to combat that is you have to develop relationships with the fighters such that the kind of person they view you as

is the kind of person where they can share those other details. True. It's all about your proximity to them. But you're not always going to get that. No, it's hard as fuck to do that but I don't care

if they're giving me eight minutes which I had when I used to cover WWE man I was the king of that you're only going to give me eight minutes

for this guy and I've got to hit these two bullet points I'm still going to get some sound that's worthful I'm still going to find that I don't have quite that same

but I love I almost love that from a competition angle or from a challenge angle. When I'm getting a big name but only 15 minutes, as much as that sucks, that's also a challenge. How quickly can I get them to say something that they weren't prepared to share? Either good, either bad, either surprising, whatever, you know? Yeah, I tend to gravitate to the ones who are already more on the articulate side, typically.

All right. Not always. Did you like articulate women in college, too? Probably. I don't understand. I got to tell you, I don't get the whole part where dudes like dumb girls.

I was never that guy, man. I was never that guy either, but I get it. What the fuck? If you're actually picked, you get it? I come from an area where we were raised to get it.

I'm not talking about like, you know, hit it and quit it, fucking escapades. This is not another rant against suffrage like you were doing earlier? That was you, you dumb bitch. No, quite the opposite. I get the whole part about like, hey, you know, it's in between my junior and senior year in college,

I've got a job in the city, I'll date her for six weeks or whatever. I'm not talking about that. I'm actually talking about like long term. You did date her for six weeks or whatever. I'm not talking about that. I'm actually talking about long-term. You did it all for the nookie, you dirty dog. Dating someone who's obviously fucking... Either way, no matter what, your preference or direction, why would you be cool with a partner

who is quite obviously a fucking moron? I just don't get that. How can you develop a meaningful partnership over time if your interest level and the ability to navigate the world are so disparate? The easy answer is that people, based on usually how they were raised or how volatile their early relationships were, have different understandings of what a real or what a genuine relationship is. Dude, a smart, successful partner is a good thing. Well, I agree with you on that.

That's certainly, I feel like I went after something. These guys date dumb women and then they're like, oh, women are dumb. No, no. The women I agree with you on that. That's certainly, I feel like I went after something. These guys date dumb women and then they're like, oh, women are dumb. No, no. The women you surround yourself with are dumb. Right, but they're already...

There's plenty of fucking super great ones that you're just not supposed to. They're already predetermined to try to get themselves into an imbalanced relationship. Anyways, because that's the only

balance they understand. But I'm asking you, man to man, who the fuck can make a serious argument that dating a person... I'm not talking about less intelligent. If you have low self-esteem and you dating a person... I'm not talking about less intelligent.

If you have low self-esteem and you want to be... Then fix your low self-esteem. That's not a good marriage. That's not a high-functioning relationship. I would never recommend that for finding marriage, no. But hot and dumb, that is something that people are looking for, though. Again, short bursts, for whatever reason, no judgment. But as a long-term thing, like just

being in a relationship with a person who's a fucking moron. You were more into like hot and crazy than hot and dumb. Yes, that's correct. I can't tell. I can't tolerate. If you're willing to put up with a certain amount of crazy when you were single, you'd also be able to shop in a higher tax bracket. That is accurate. It's actually surprisingly accurate, yes. That's actually quite true. Well, I hadn't quite thought of it that way. Real talk, yeah.

Real talk, like men do. Yeah, that is exactly correct. You're like, what's a front door anyway? Right? Most countries don't even have them luke right you know yeah yeah that's when was the last time you used one of those toilets that's not really a toilet it's

just a hole in the ground that you talk about from like the middle east and and from like dude i know you think that every place other than america i said when was the last time you used them i have news for you there's there's many wonderful parts of the world. The last one I saw, the weird part of, dude, Istanbul is one of these, like, you know, used to be called Constantinople and all that shit. Like, dude, Istanbul is one of these places, man. You're in the middle of it, and it's like,

you can just feel the world history everywhere around you. It's crazy. So a lot of neighborhoods are really new. A lot of ones are really old. From what I remember, the galata neighborhood was really old and then the like besiktas area was a little bit more new shake it's actually pronounced what is it yes this is also like a soccer club but uh anyway in the old galda area there was this it was like i think by the galata tower area there was this it was like I think by the Gallata Tower even

there was this fucking commode and the dude was I'm not doing a bit was charging one lira to tear out pages of a phone book oh yeah

to go wipe your ass to go take a dump in an opening and I was like dude come on turkey get it together I mean what are we doing here

fellas dude I saw my first floor commode recently in Canyonlands National Park in Utah turkey get it together i mean what are we doing here fellas i saw my first floor commode recently in um canyonlands national park in utah when you go into the bathroom which is like uh you know some cinder block walls and a roof outside yeah and they have the regular toilet they also had the the uh what is that the asian model so it did have a bidet did it spray your not a bidet a hole in the floor with railings. Oh, fuck all that.

Well, you just got to squat like an absolute... Yeah, yeah. And I had never seen that before. Like a badger. And the area where you drop into is closer than it should be. Yeah, it's not like there's clean separation. No, yeah. You're squatting over a shithole, literally, Luke.

Yeah, yeah. So when was the last time you used one? So that would be, well, I guess, actually, I didn't end up, oh, I urinated in it. So that doesn't really count. No, no. Unless you also squat where you urinate, Luke. The Marine Corps, like just having to dig with an E-tool, just having to dig a hole and take it. I told you about this.

So what we did was, in artillery, the purpose of artillery is to shoot, move, communicate. That's what everyone does. That's the whole bit. And what we used to do is, on the hill... Run drains? Yeah, he used to. No, that was in the school. That wasn't actually in my unit, where they got...

I can't even... I'm glad your unit didn't get involved in that drain. Yeah, that's good. No, but... So what we would do is, we took a milk crate, and we cut out the bottom so it's just got the sides. And then we would zip tie a toilet seat to it. And then we would haul that around in the back of the Humvee.

And then dig a hole with the trenching tool, the e-tool. Put that bad boy on top and it'd get to work. It was great. The only part that was the catch was, and this is not a joke, I'm not in any way exaggerating. This is 100% true. In the space where the ass and the feces will go is where they would store the coffee pot. That's a real thing that they actually did that I fucking hated, but I still put up with because I wanted hot coffee in the morning.

Wow. Do you go or are you a part of any Marine reunion email chain? I used to do that, and i still keep in touch with some of those guys um funnily enough one of the guys i served with he ended up uh i think volunteering to do a couple of tours over in iraq i don't think he enjoyed the experience in the end but he ends so he is of chinese descent and his family which he now works there at 100 full time owns one of the most i didn't even notice that i didn't notice at all at the time we were in the and his family, which he now works there 100% full-time, owns one of the most, I didn't even notice it,

I didn't notice at all at the time we were in the same unit, owns one of the most iconic Chinese restaurants in the fucking city. Like, dude, Chinese, or I think maybe, no, excuse me, I want to be careful about this, I think Taiwanese dignitaries, or people of Taiwanese influence, they go to this place as a destination, so he's doing great, which I'm really happy to see. Dude, a lot of them, man, they got weird at the Iraq war, bro.

I'll just be honest with you. They got real weird. They got into the like, I talked about this in my live chat, some of them were posting art, like phony artwork, but like artwork that referenced the Crusades. And I was like, yeah, I don't know if we're the same

people anymore man do you think any of those guys are proud boys now um well the ones who were my age are probably too fucking old um but i wouldn't be surprised i wouldn't be surprised if they were i wouldn wouldn't be surprised. But do you think they made better soldiers because of it, though? Dude, I had a funny conversation about shit like that. I've got to be honest. I don't know. But I will tell you this, man. You do need to embrace, not to get into the Marine Corps, but to really thrive in the Marine Corps.

You absolutely have to, in my view, adopt, especially in combat arms, right, you have to adopt a certain level of personal extremism. I don't mean political extremism. I mean personal extremism. A certain, for me, certainly a shattering of limits that would have been, in your mind, would have been prisons before. You have to go recklessly beyond that. We call it being gung-ho.

And like, dude, you see these Marines who are super fucking gung-ho. Everything is buttoned up. They have first-class PFTs and they're fucking this, but then they're drinking and they're fighting and the whole thing. I do think it makes them better Marines. Yeah, I do. The problem is it doesn't make you good at fuck all else. It just makes you a complete maniac, you know?

And there were some, dude, I honestly, like, I don't want to serve around someone who's such a maniac that they can't make good combat real-time decisions, you know? But I've seen some maniacs who, you know, who could. But you saw dudes who were in it for the sport, in it for the rush, in it for the rush, in it for the experience, in it for hoping they go to battle? Yeah, I've got to tell you, the person who's like that

who's also not intensely patriotic is not as much as you might imagine. Hollywood likes to paint these kind of people who are kind of into war, but they're not patriotic. Nah, the ones who are super patriotic are the ones who are into war. Oh, they watch our show. They were there on the steps on 1-6.

But I'm telling you, dude, especially, I don't know about the officer ranks. Let me back up a second. These are the ones who go to college. And I was in college. While I was in the Marine Corps, I wasn't eligible to be an officer. In retrospect, I'm glad I did the way I did it,

but I was in the enlisted ranks where a lot of it is just grunt work. Dude, you want those guys to be fucking... The guys on the gun line, we called them gun rocks. They weren't necessarily the brightest, but dude, they attacked the problem in the most

ferocious of ways. You want that shit. It turns them into... Whatever their pre-existing political orientation was before all that, it just supercharges it in some kind of weird direction in the end. That's the problem. So is football just sporting war?

Softer extension, a natural pivot? I don't know. We just got gridiron deep. Luke, did you consider, given your size at all, making a run for the football team at either of your high schools? No. Like it wasn't even like a, you know, it would be, you know, I probably should. No, it wasn't. No, I didn't like American football while I was in high school. Or Americans? Or America? I like plenty of parts of America. I didn't like Georgia. You do protect the flag better than I do.

Yeah, I know. For all the bullshit I get, it's like, again, one of us did something about that. One of us didn't. You also served our country and I didn't. That's what I was implying. Yeah, I almost joined the National Guard to try to get the free college. People should own National Guard.

They're valuable. They're valuable. I mean, they're pathetic, but they're valuable. I'm teasing. I'm teasing. Dude, I know a lot of Marines. This is true. I know a lot of Marines who do like eight.

So you would have to do an eight-year deal to get money for college. And what they would do is they would do eight years, and then they would fucking hate the Marine Corps. They would walk out of the Marine Corps on their hands and knees, barely passing PFTs, totally checked out. And then what they would do is they would stay in the reserves and they would go into the National Guard

and then stay in 20 years and they'd be eligible for certain retirement benefits for life doing that. And I would ask them, how is it in the Guard? They're like, dude, it's a cakewalk compared to all that shit. It's easy as fuck and they they're all fat, you know?

So God bless them, man. Yeah, yeah. You know, I probably would have joined the Army, though, because I think I had the image of them being the toughest at the end of the day. I mean, maybe you can blame military movies on that, Luke. Yeah. Pat Tillman was in the Army. No one's really, I mean, theines have the longest boot camp and then the longest

training for their what they would call the basically trained marine the same thing as a basically trained soldier it's the longest boot camp is 13 weeks uh the army i think is eight or nine um they have the they're the only branch the military branch that runs three miles for their physical fitness tests army so do you think the marine makes the best specialists no not necessarily i mean everyone is enamored with special forces which is like one percent of one percent of one percent of the military you know everyone like the vast majority of everybody else is just a fucking ordinary dude dude i will tell you this much too i have seen you know what well you know i want to say i have seen so many people talk about these extreme personality guys, some of which are military-related, some of which aren't.

Some of which watch our show. Some of which, yeah. But, dude, these guys were so fucking macho. Yeah, yeah. So fucking macho. Let me tell you, man. Like Dana? No, let me give you a different example.

I've said this before, dude. We had a guy, a drill instructor. He was not with my... I went to college. So if you go to college in the Marine Corps in 1998 during the summer, what they would do is they would let you skip one week, which is called team week. The Paris Island is self-maintained.

So like the recruits cut the grass. The recruits work in the kitchen. It's self-maintained. And every troop, all the troops and all the battalions take turns in a week during that process helping to maintain the island. You get to skip that if you go into college so you don't miss out on important parts of your thing. So instead of being 13 weeks it was 12 for me.

So I had to change platoons two-thirds of the way in over to 2nd Battalion A Company. No, excuse me, 1st Battalion A Company. And they had a drone instructor over there, dude, who had the jump wings and the scuba bubble, which meant he was force reconnaissance, which is the Marine Corps Special Forces. There's some other ones, too, but that's the big one. And, dude, this motherfucker was the hardest, dude, he was the toughest human being up to that point in my life I'd ever seen. Was his name David Goggins? I forget. No, dude, he was, toughest human being up to that point in my life I'd ever seen. Was his name David Goggins? I forget, no, no, dude, he was, this guy must have been on steroids,

because he was enormous and shredded, the whole thing, and he was a complete asshole. So he was like real life Rambo, right? Dude, I'll never forget when we graduated, he told us, he goes, I hate you, I hate this job. I hate my wife and kids. When this is all over, I'm going back to recon. I'll never forget that, dude. That was the coldest shit. I mean, if he had stuck a knife in you afterwards,

you'd have been like, I get where that's coming from. You know what I mean? So what does he mean, recon? What is he talking about? It's like the Marines, the Navy SEALs. Oh, but he lives for that. Yeah, yeah, that's where he's back from. So you get selected.

The Marine Corps can order you to go do stuff like that, depending on your situation. And I guess that they had, because he had the jump wings and the scuba bubble. And, like, dude, he had, like, you can see someone's rifle, not their score, but their quality. He was expert on pistol. He was expert on the rifle and he had been expert

many times because they had all these awards like in between like he was as thugged out as you could possibly be and he was like i hate you i hate this job i hate my wife and kids when this is all over and i was like dude these guys don't make great husbands and fathers like they make real bad you know not neither real bad neither do fighters luke okay that's not true necessarily it's a fair point rest of the population some are good some are bad yeah yeah yeah all right you backed me into a corner maybe I was wrong you know what kind of pornography you watching it is I'm not watching it this This is, you know, you asking me that is very religious. Pogs?

You watching Pogs? No, no, no. I'm trying to think. Oh, dude, you know what's coming out soon? Huh? Tell me you're going to get geeked for this, please. What? Dune 2. Dune 2?

Dune 2. I think it may still be like under a year away. So I don't know if you know this,ke but the first dune book which i bought and i and i got to get back into it luke you know i do read once in a while like once in a long while but uh the first dune book would essentially cover these two movies whole luke so the first movie was only one half of the book all right i tuned you out like yeah i mean you know a long long time before that to be fair just tell, when is the second movie coming out? Nine months, six to nine months, something like that.

But are you fired up? I mean, dude, that first movie was fucking awesome. Come on. I'm not fired up until you see Black Hawk Down. You say that compared... Is that the same guy? I have no clue. I don't think so.

But Black... I can't believe you went on, like, I'm going to watch military movies and you haven't seen Black... Which, by the way, is the thing that, like, actually happened. Oh, so you think that movie is, like, superior to the other military movies? I think it's not the best military movie, but I definitely think it's better than military movies you saw. Yes. It can't be better than The Deer Hunter. No, it's not better than The Deer Hunter.

That's a better movie. But it's... But those are, those are film films. I'm talking war movies where a little bit more action oriented. Joe, what was that Bradley Cooper one in the Gulf War? I liked that one a lot. Not Her Locker.

No, but dude, Her Locker's real good. Her Locker's excellent. Saving Private Ryan is good. Yeah, but that's good in like a Disney type way, right? It is pretty good. Well, except for the first fucking 15 minutes. Yeah, yeah. Where they're just burning Germans alive.

No, but I guess I mean like they commercially went after it. That's an all-star game cast. Yeah, yeah. That was big budget, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Dude, I'm still a letters from Iwo Jima guy. Dude, you got me to watch that. That was really good.

But why don't you rep 1917? I mean, come on. You overstate how good that movie is. Dude, you got me to watch that. That was really good. But why don't you rep 1917? I mean, come on. You overstate how good that movie is. Dude, that movie's great. It is great. Cinematography is extreme in that movie. It is excellent. They made it look like a one-cam shot the whole time.

I agree. It's well-made. It's very well-made. But it's still not that interesting relative to something where they can really slow down and dissect the plot. The journey, man. The twists and turns and the journey. It's unique for that reason, but it's not better for that reason. Plus, there wasn't any pornography.

Yeah, but how about that scene where they're singing? I want nothing but these to be episodes where we talk about pornography. You just won't take the bait. No. Dude, you know that part at the end of the movie when they're in the woods and they're singing, but yet everyone's just so beaten down mentally from war. And the looks they give each other, those are moments. You know what I mean?

Yeah, again, you should see the scene where the guy has to go looking inside the arm of another guy for his split vein. Oh, that's the movie you're setting me up for? Yeah, Black Hawk Down. Oh, God. It's gruesome. It's gruesome. Okay.

Dude, also that Pat Tillman documentary where I told those ladies to shut the fuck up they still make me angry about that shit gawking at him oh my you threaten suffrage taking that away listen that was such a lot it was like 15 years ago like times have changed a little bit you know you can't quite just tell women to shut the fuck up in public as easily, but they deserved it. They deserved it. That was very misogynist of you right there. No, no, dude.

Fuck them. I'm sorry. No, don't be going there gawking on a dead man like that. Don't be doing that shit. Just keep it to yourself. How many times have you, as a sexual fucking pervert, gawk at women in your head, and you just keep it to yourself? Luke, that man was a hero hero and his country let him down.

Who? Pat Tillman? Yeah. All right, we're not doing the Pat Tillman thing, are we? We were on that Greg Kelly interview. I think I've got to call my wife and kid. Dude, hold on. We've got to talk about this real quickly.

The Commanders, bro. It's official. Did you see it? No. What's official. Did you see it? No, what's official? So, Schefter reported it, but then Dan Snyder,

Josh Harris, which is the primary but not the only new owner, they all put out a statement being like, we're selling. We're selling to the Josh Harris group.

It's official. We look forward to a swift transaction and to wish them well. It's official. Dan Snyder has said he's on the way out. It's not exactly completely 100 completely 100 done but this is the first time that he has obviously ever acknowledged his hand dude it's not just that the there's a tweet from grant paulson like all the

former employees speaking out about the abuse all the media work to like shed a light on what a fucking crook this guy was um you know, everybody in between who helped to do it. Like, it was such an awful thing. It was such an awful thing. I just can't tell you, man. Like, I remember... Is he a dirtbag

on the Weinstein level or more like a James Dolan level? It's really hard to say. He's trying to indemnify himself from a, what's it, Mary Jo White,

who's got a big report coming out on him as well on some other, I think, workplace issues. Like, it's just fucking awful. Dude, they ruined that fucking team. They, dude, when's got a big report coming out on him as well, on some other, I think, workplace issues. Like, it's just fucking awful, dude. They ruined that fucking team.

They, dude, when I was a kid, in the 90s, at the time, the Redskins, they were fucking gods, man. Yeah, but, I mean, the Hogs, dude, they weren't cool, though. They weren't cool. Yeah, you're out of your mind, because you were a Giants fan. They were punk your bitch ass. I'm not a Giants fan. Yo, the Hogs were not cool.

I mean, that 91 team was great, but they weren't, like, cool, dude. They were a bunch of fat people with pig masks. Yeah, yeah. Well, in D.C. they were fucking cool, so fuck off. Yo, but you never had... My point is, our whole time as kids, you didn't have someone on the Redskins that was, like, cool as shit. Art Monk. Fuck you.

Dude, Art Monk was not cool as shit. Art Monk was... You mean, like, the icky shuffle? Yeah, like, you don't have Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders. You know, you don't have, like... Flair. You don't have a star, Luke. F yeah like you don't have bo jackson deon sanders you know you don't have like flair you don't have a star luke flair you don't have a star i mean you charles um dexter manley dude he did a lot of drugs your dexter manley loved cocaine briefly uh in a different career path i crossed paths with his wife who worked worked for for a brief split as a security guard armed if she was lovely armed security no no well the other guy was I

was why not I just did New York licensing and was a 2002 to get a weapon was I don't know what it is today but even then it's really fucking difficult and let's go Burris got one. Plexico Burris got one. Who? Plexico Burris. Did he though? Did he have, I mean he had one, but he. He shot himself. I understand.

What I'm saying is like, I know that he had one, but should he have had one? No, no. You know, in the end. No, no. I don't think he did himself any favors, did he? No. Imagine shooting yourself and then having to go get prosecuted for it. Okay, so are you going to go to the theater to see Dune 2

in like IMAX? Like are you going for it, bro? I have never seen a movie in an IMAX theater. Oh, dude, it's badass. I've seen like, DC has an IMAX theater like the,

in like the air, air and space or whatever the place is. And I've seen like, I've seen like, like short movies, like 45 minute movies. But I've never seen like

the new Top Gun or whatever. Yeah, dude, I saw Creed 3 in IMAX and it was really good and I saw the second Sonic

in IMAX that was real good dude you watch a lot of bad movies Creed 3 I mean I'm a father Creed 3 sucked that's why my kids

like that stuff Creed 3 sucked it didn't suck it just wasn't great and it they led you to believe didn't the trailer lead you to believe

it was going to be great it that there was one of the best trailers I've ever seen you definitely maybe and it wasn't bad dude it just wasn't great that's the thing it's just I yeah it wasn't bad but I just never bought in you know I just Michael Jordan's pretty cool though I like Michael B. Jordan's pretty cool, though. I like Michael B. Jordan. I like him. He's a great actor. Got a great chemist, clearly. Yeah, he's on, I mean, so was... Not even bitter at him, just jealous. Just jealous, that's it.

Just jealous. He must, his DMs must be just, I mean, just... Can you imagine? Yeah. Just the absolute poonhound. He's probably been. Yeah, parlays and poonani. Yes, yes, indeed, indeed. Yo, we never talk about James Krause anymore, speaking of that.

We don't talk enough about pornography. Yo, do you think, like, real talk, you ready? Yeah. Second half of 2023, is the UFC going to be good? Or is it going to be more bullshit? Dude, did you see what their profit margin was up to? Yes. Just a few years ago, it was 20%.

Their profit margin has grown to 34 fucking percent. Dude, they are printing money. Printing money. Yet they're watering down the ships. Yeah, the two are related. They've got to pay off the debt. People think they're making money despite that. No, they're making money because of that.

Some of it is growth in advertising, things like that. But the point being is part of that is because they have so much inventory to sell. There's so many hours on so many events that they have to sell and fill with ads and there's other ways of course they do that it's not just that but that's a big component of it do people think it's like oh how are they making money despite watering down the product dude they're taking the product and spreading it a thousand different directions tying contracts to that and then selling it that's how they're just selling more things than they were selling there i mean did you see holly holman event against bueno silva like dude they are aggressively just like not giving a fuck aggressively like we don't more things than they were selling before. Yeah, but they're, I mean, did you see Holly Holman event against Bueno Silva?

Like, dude, they are aggressively. Just like not giving a fuck. Aggressively, like, we don't care. So, I mean, dude. Dude, they're not building. There's something here. They're not building cards. They're just building calendars. Yeah, but there's something deeper here with the Staying Away Contender series.

Maybe I'm watching too many of those investigative conspiracy guys on YouTube, but, like, like dude they are bringing in there's like there's like clone trooper you know development you know i mean like they are bringing in hungry cheap guys and that's how like luke do you know how many of those guys are managed by the same people too yeah yeah dude there's a. Dude, who gets the least amount of scrutiny in the industry? It's managers. They get the least amount of scrutiny because for a lot of media outlets, that's the gateway to get access to the fighters. That's not entirely true.

That's not always true. But it's generally true. People think it's mostly like Ali because I know he's got some famous views with people. But it's mostly like Ali because I know he's got some famous views with people but it's not like most of these any manager that's got like several hundred clients for sure they're going to act like a gatekeeping okay I want to ask you an important question

you'll think it's unrelated but it is Lando Calrissian did he have no choice? in the Cloud City when he let Darth Vader in and he set up his friends? He didn't have no choice, but he made all things being what they were, he made the right choice.

Not to betray, but what I'm saying is he had a choice. He could either be like, I'm going to fight Darth Vader to the death, certainly going to lose, certainly going to lose, or he can go along with this scheme and hope to wiggle out of it later

which is risky and shitty and awful but it's better than instant death because in the end Han lived Leia lived

Luke lived Chewie lived C-3PO lived R2-D2 lived like everyone lived so like clearly it was the correct choice

R2 was a bitch dude R2 was no I'm sorry C-3PO was a C-3PO was a hoe yeah yo R2 had some bitch dude R2 was no I'm sorry C3PO C3PO was a hoe yeah yo R2 had some it's like dude

how are you this fucking neurotic as a as a sidekick yeah alright but back to this so are the managers like cause we all

look when I get deeper in this I watch all the MMA stuff dude he's got something going here with this how he's framing the way the manager's

role is that they are surviving by becoming the pipeline from the regional scene to the UFC they're not out there fighting Dana White they're not Luke

it doesn't seem like they are no how could you fight Dana White if you have 300 clients but their promotion how could you make money if you have that many clients

and you don't have access to the UFC you couldn't actually make enough money you couldn't employ enough guys the UFC. You couldn't actually make enough money. You couldn't employ enough guys to get commission checks to make it worth your while. But it's tied in deeper. It's keeping the regional scene alive

because they're all getting the UFC fight pass contract. But it's creating a funnel system, which is not a problem unless you look at this with a critical eye and say the manager's job is to get the most money and the best situation for their fighters. Are they actually doing that, or are they just surviving

and keeping both relationships going, Luke? Yeah, I think, again, here's what needs to be explained to me. Someone explain to me how the business model, not of boutique firms, which have a small amount of clients, or Nate Diaz famously, the guy who reps him only reps Nate.

He doesn't rep anybody else. I think those things obviously work. And there's going to be some borderline cases or whatever, and we can all debate them. But the ones that have hundreds of clients, that model doesn't work but for compliance with UFC. And you're like, oh, they could take their clients elsewhere. Dude, no the fuck they couldn't. Actually, no they couldn't. There's not enough other places that could employ them to make that worth their while.

Also, that's the most lucrative end. So even if you could get them jobs, you would be vastly undercutting your own ability to get wealth. I don't understand the ethics of that business model. So perhaps I am missing something about it, which is possible, because it's hard to get any manager on the record to actually defend the business model as such. Anything where you're that leveraged just by the virtue of the relationship, it's just impossible for me to believe that that's the best way to get

um things for each client it doesn't it does it literally doesn't make sense yeah i don't know if they're landos and they're just surviving them same or if this is just another ridiculous obstacle that the that the average fighter in 2023 still has to deal with you know i mean just think about it like if you wanted to get sideways with u with UFC and you're a manager and you have, like, let's say 400 clients or whatever, 300 clients, like, you're actually more leveraged by having more clients, right? Like, if you had one client

and they told you to go pound sand, you know, they can't hold the fate of the other ones against you. And, you know, imagine if you have one person who's kind of struggling or a bunch of people that are kind of struggling and a bunch of people that are doing pretty great and you need to account for all of those needs. Are you in a position to make sure that you're getting the custom results

that each person's individual situation would necessitate when you're having to leverage risk from one relationship to the next, one risk in realities to the next, where they could be in vastly different situations, vastly different needs from the promotion. And in fact, those needs could be in conflict with one another. That's the optimal business model for... Well, look... I don't understand that.

But who had an aggressive manager? Well, you can look at Francis. And it got to the point where it became so caustic that they had to break up. Right. So that's the point. Going hard in the paint against them, I don't know that that works necessarily either. That's what I'm saying. Dude, if they're that powerful, seriously, answer the question.

If they're that powerful, what leverage, even under the very, very, very best of circumstances, do you actually have? There are some ways to get some, but dude, it's just not fucking much. It's just not much. And dude, here's the thing, man. I know sometimes people in the UFC see some of this stuff. It's like, here's what I want to tell them. It's like, dude, you won.

You won. You won. I watched all those battles, man. I watched all those fly-by-night promotions. I watched the death of pride. I watched it happen in fucking real time. I watched it. They won. They won. They beat everyone else. And some of that, they bought them out like Strike Force. Some of them, they just out-competed. They're really good at what they do. They consolidated the market. They are the clear competitive winners. And obviously, those victories entitled them to a certain amount of fucking spoils, man.

Like, they earned it. But the problem is, dude, they've gotten so fucking big inside the space that now I think it's starting to work against them a little bit. Well, you can just lazily say they've gotten greedy. But is it not greedy? And I'm wondering, is it because, look, they just acquired WWE. They're still paying off debt from acquiring UFC, you know what I mean? At extreme amounts. So the whole point is this.

Even though they're doing great financially, we're watching it get watered down maybe or possibly or most likely for the sake of the parent company's bottom line. Yes. When the company's thriving in every other possible metric. It is clearly, I think, to some degree being manipulated. They're cutting themselves to save more. Listen, you can ascribe to that problem whoever you want, whoever's masterminding it, but whatever the case may be, they are taking

a quality product and diluting it in such a way where it's like sometimes difficult to find the, like where it's good or distinct

or in keeping with the brand's typical standard of historical excellence. It is troubling. It is troubling. And I love the people that have the, dude, shut up and just, you know, it's fine. It is troubling. It is troubling. And I love the people that have the,

dude, shut up and just, you know, it's fine. It's troubling though. It is. I just worry that like, it's like, I don't know, like, we just haven't had a,

we've had a lot of really good stuff. We just haven't had that blockbuster, man. Like Davis Garcia, even on vacation, vacation man it felt fucking yeah dude and that that kept getting bigger and bigger enormous man like when i landed in vegas if you would ask me how big do i think this fight would be i would be still hopeful but i wouldn't

have anything to prove it dude that weigh-in was out of control luke there were hundreds to thousands of people that couldn't even see like They were so far back around the corner in crowds, and they were packed in there to just listen to that shit. Dude, I've got to be honest. I love going to... Boxing, my relationship with it has really grown. But I love it when MMA is in a position where it has fucking huge fights like that. And the thing is this, dude.

It's like, dude, Conor has given us, let's be real, Conor has given us, in terms be real, Conor has given us, in terms of big fight feels, so many fucking gems. But it'd be cool if he wasn't, like, we weren't just fucking reliant on him. Okay, what's the last...

You know what I'm saying? It'd be cool. Let's be honest here. What's the last non-Conor related UFC blockbusters? Where it was one fight, and that's all you needed, and the whole

sporting world was taking notice. Khabib McGregor is Yeah, but non-Connor. When's the last non-Connor? Jesus. Are you going all the way

back to Rousey's first couple title defenses? Maybe there. Maybe Jones, DC, maybe. Maybe. Oh, yeah, that's a great point.

Maybe. Okay, what about Lesnar? Lesnar's 200, but like, dude, Lesnar, dude, Lesnar fucking, this is what I meannar fucking this is what i mean i remember when he came in the sport dude and jolted that shit yeah i was shocked at the electricity he just fucking like four or no huh silver sun and on that level maybe i was jacked up for that rematch man that's what i mean dude like i feel

like we're just, you know, it feels like everything's, I don't know, like the kind of buzz you get from a mandatory in boxing. Like, yeah, it's fine. So that's, I mean, that's the fear, dude. Yeah, it's fine. But that's the fear of any product, whether it's your favorite beer or anything,

or your favorite band, you know, when they get... Favorite pornographer. When they become too popular and they have too many resources at their hands and they lose the creativity or they lose the drive, UFC has not lost the drive to dominate and succeed. They don't have to. Yes, they have, only because there's nothing left to rail against.

Dude, they have utterly conquered the industry. They are the industry. They are the industry. I remember a much more diverse industry even 15 years ago. I mean, more different kinds of players, different kind of power centers. The UFC has fucking absolutely taken over. I mean, maybe that'll just last six months and it's just, let's, you know, pinch pennies for a little bit. Let's bring this number to this point.

But all will be forgiven with big fights but i just need consistency man equality i just need pornography and i'm just talking about as a fan luke okay like uh it's just weird man and it's so unexplained like no one's gonna ask dana that anyway like no one's gonna be like hey dana why is it what's going on with the quality people i've done it too like people bag on the people who are there, but it's like, bro, dude, that job that they do, it necessitates being there, right? Otherwise, the job doesn't exist.

Yeah. So, yeah, of course, you can push data a little bit, but you can't do it to the point where they have to, you're not allowed in the building anymore and then they've got to get somebody else. And you're like, oh, well then, don't take those jobs.

But it's like, dude, these people are just feeding their families like i you know i think trying to what you should to me i've always felt the problem was that the media companies never empowered you to like make choices like that and so all the all of those companies will cave and um so like your your job would be imperiled like they would just get rid of you. So, you know, you just have to understand where that situation is. Like, Dana has, you know, Dana does, like, this interesting, like, podcast circuit now where it's, like, I think he still does, like, Jim Rome and stuff like that. But in general, he goes on, like, a lot of, like, sports-oriented, barstool-y kind of podcasts and stuff. He still does Aaron Bronson and TSN because I think, obviously, you I think they're the Canadian partner and whatnot. But he doesn't really have conversations at all with any kind of a skeptical or otherwise inquisitive audience.

I know Aaron does his best. Yeah, there's a lot of people that do their best. But again, if Aaron went in there and angrily got adversarial with him, the TSN is the partner. TSN will tell Aaron to go pound sand. Yeah, they will. They're not going to get his back. I've seen this like they're just these companies don't do that they fold immediately you know so um so dude let's say he doesn't have to answer for anything i mean but you can't like i mean it's easier for us to be a little bit more freer and open and honest because we're not reliant upon them on the day-to-day access that keeps our show afloat are we all

reliant upon some lead mma promotion doing great business so we all thrive yeah with that you know we're all kind of in that together in that regard but we're also fans and we want better quality whatever dude who cares i'm covering it anyway because i love this game luke yeah i mean i have to i like good or bad i gotta be there and I wanna be there anyway I mean I'm a boxing fan to stay a boxing fan you have to want

the marriage to work Luke okay I only feel the heat in terms of like there's just not been blockbuster events that you could like

Davis Garcia was big for us but in terms of MMA like huge events there just hasn't been one in a really fucking long time

or it just feels that way anyway alright dude what's your feel level for Haney Lomachenko events. There just hasn't been one in a really fucking long time. Or it just feels that way anyway. Alright, dude. There's some really good ones. What's your feel level for Haney Lomachenko? I have a feeling Haney's going to win very fairly in a competitive fight where Lomachenko just looks old.

Looks old? Or will it showcase... Will Haney get the credit under that scenario? Yes. Dude, I'm really excited about that fight. I'm really excited. I am most excited about the news about Spence and Bud. I mean, we haven't heard much, but that might be a good thing.

That one seems like it's pretty good. It seems like it's coming. The heavyweight thing is weird only if you believe there's money under the same. Dude, I'm so checked out on the heavyweights in boxing. Dude, it seems like Joshua and Wilder... Make a fucking fight. Yeah, but it does... I know, I guess Ruiz is now in and out of the Fury picture.

Dude, to heavyweights, all these motherfuckers are not fighting each other. That's what I know. I know I see a lot of reports about fights that aren't actually happening. Yeah, it does feel like AJ and Wilder want to fight each other. So hopefully in some form. Great, great. I mean, that's a stadium fight in England. It would be great. I'm not going to sit here and just jerk off over like more,

you know. It could happen. It'd be great if it did. Dude, that's how boxing fandom works. Dude, that's the most copium, sad-ass shit. Here's the thing, dude. It's a broken marriage, but we're still chasing the dragon. You're the guy who likes to date dumb women.

Like, of course. No, I'm not the guy who likes to date dumb women. You were like, dude, I could totally see that. I'm like, why? Why would you want a partner? No. Why would you want a partner that you found boring to talk to? Basically, I'm saying I understand what people are looking for when they're looking at that,

but I'm telling you that they're looking for imbalance based on them being imbalanced. You know what I mean? I'm not saying that like that's the way you should but... You mean like if they feel like they're not smart they also want someone

who's not smart to like... Yeah, so then they can feel like they're the... Here's what I'll say. They're the one in control. It does... It's not a certain

absolute level. You just want someone you know, either right around your intelligence level maybe you want someone slightly higher as like a...

Whatever. Roughly around where you're at slightly higher, as like a, whatever, roughly around where you're at. As long as you meet somebody roughly around where you're at, again, I think that can be great. I'm talking about the ones who clearly want to step down. No.

Because all they care about is the other things. I know, but I do get that idea when you're a broken person, you tend to reach down in your pursuit, maybe out of some deep insecurities, know what i mean if you want that's why that's why guys will want to date younger people a lot luke okay i want to be they could want to call my wife and kid they could be um but no dude i chased i chased i married up i mean my wife is um she's fearless and that's my favorite quality in a woman dude my wife's

ability to detect bullshit is absolutely next level. I have tried all my fucking like, kung fu mastery and it has one billion percent not worked.

Plus, we're running out of recording time, so. I don't, you know, I thought, you know,

we don't really drink on these anymore so they're a little more boring if I can be honest. But yo, I don't, I think that was

an enjoyable talk between, I wanted to say two friends, but A, we're really think that was an enjoyable talk between I wanted to say two friends but A we're really not that close and B

I meant three the people at home watching Luke don't you want to make them feel like they're here on the couch but you don't

actually want them I want to call my wife and kid oh god alright Luke I'm getting out I'm done that's it

bye everyone that's it