MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - PFL Dubai Recap, BKFC: McGregor calls out Stephens, GFL Draft | Full Episode | MORNING KOMBAT

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

Luke and BC are back to recap all the news from this weekend and look ahead to some great events. Starting with PFL Dubai, Usman Nurmagomedov edges Paul Hughes in instant classic. Was Usman-Hughes the best fight in PFL history? Plus, in BKFC, Conor McGregor calls out Jeremy Stephens following Stephens TKO of Eddie Alvarez. From selling a Philadelphia combat sports record of 17,762 seats in a sold-out Wells Fargo Center to having Conor McGregor call for a faceoff with main event winner Jeremy Stephens after an exciting night of fights full of household, ex-UFC names, did BKFC just prove -- in an odd way -- that it's currently the No. 2 MMA promotion in the world behind UFC? Staying in MMA, the guys react to the very odd GFL draft. Looking ahead now, Luke and BC discuss the storylines for UFC Riyadh where Israel Adesanya takes on Nassourdine Imavov. They also discuss the storylines ahead of the huge boxing match between David Benavidez and David Morrell.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille Reveille Boys Look at us now tip to tip Oh Jesus Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho Do you want a margarita? Yes! My God! It's us doing what we love.

Two, three, two, three. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah. Monday, Monday, folks. Can never, ever trust that day, but you can trust us. Morning Combat back in your absolute face hole january 27th 2025 and boy do we have a fun episode recapping a very eclectic weekend in combat sports while looking ahead to two major offerings for the weekend to come hey my name is brian campbell that bbc with that bde you better it. Next to me is a man from Washington, D.C., a man who's been through a lot.

So we say on this day, Luke Thomas, RIP Barbas, pour one out for the big man. RIP Commanders on a fantastic, incredible season. Kato Kaelin, RIP? Yeah, I think he's still kicking. Oh, he's still with us? Okay, okay. Luke, welcome. Heavy heart, but the MK community has your back. Yeah, they've been very sweet. You're right about the Commanders.

Listen, not the game that I wanted it to be, but honestly, and I said this to everyone who's listened, I have no complaints about the season, even a little bit. It went far better than I could have ever imagined. Had to be hard to be a Giants fan watching Saquon Barkley. Well, I live around Giants fans, and I've heard this from multiple people. They were just happy he could get possibly a ring. I don't believe that.

I think they're bitter as hell that they let him go. But whatever. But, yeah, Barbas died on Saturday. He succumbed to a longstanding illness, yeah. Got the dog in him. That was tough, bro. That was tough. I put out a video this morning sitting in my car talking about it um i'll just quickly tell you if i have a light-hearted semi semi semi-light-hearted take about it um he when he when things turned bad

they went bad real fast yep we took him to the er and they basically recommended that we we euthanized him there and uh we did and that was real hard but i felt kind of bad because there was a guy behind us in this vet clinic a very nice vet clinic by the way um it's the one on ninth street and h in northeast in dc and um this dude had a like a chihuahua there yes who just had like a paw issue like i'm not even bullshitting it was bleeding a little bit but i think they just had to pull the nail on the on the Chihuahua painful but ultimately very small injury and I had called ahead to let them know we were coming and this was a potential end-of-life scenario because Barbas was doing so bad and then we get there and he's he's sitting

right here we get on the table they they do a sonogram to see if his chest is full of fluid which it was the medicine was no longer working, and they were like, this is basically the end. And so we gave them permission, and, you know, my wife is in hysterics. She's crying. They're giving him oxygen, and then they do the whole thing. And this motherfucker waiting with his dog watched the whole thing. He looked like he'd seen a ghost, and he kind of did. He kind of did, man.

That was traumatizing as shit for this guy. Yeah, yeah. Shout out to that guy. So I feel kind of bad, but I will say this. I got a million DMs. I got a million messages. Thanks to everyone. My wife is doing real bad, but death is a part of life.

It is. It's the fourth circle. What a life you gave that young little rascal there, RIP. And as we mentioned, Daniel Snyder not happy about the joy that's been going on. Small victories. He's miserable. He may have celebrated that loss, though, like he was the female owner of the Cleveland Indians in Major League.

You know what I mean? Oh, yeah, Major League. Yeah, I was going to say, who was the owner of the Reds who was super racist? Marge Schott. Marge Schott, yeah. You League, I was going to say. Who was the owner of the Reds who was super racist? Marge Schott. Marge Schott, yeah. You always remember the racists. Well, dude, she was a battle axe. Was she not?

She was. She was crazy. As mentioned, we have a fantastic show. I would like you, though, to check out our socials right there. You can like the show. It would help us if you did, if you subscribe as well. If you want to be a regular viewer, just hit the subscribe button. We're here for you every Monday and Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern.

And as you can see there, you can follow our solo YouTube channels, which complement the work we do here. And a brief mention of the third member of our team. You know him on the Main Card Minute podcast. They call him Bong Island Luke. Noseda, sir, I heard you had a record weekend when it comes to the podcast clicks. Well done. Yeah, had a great weekend. Over 100 concurrent.

First time I ever did that. You know, big deal, Luke. I know, you know, how many times you've done that. Hey, small victories, bro. Yeah, exactly. And you didn't show your pipe yet. I didn't show my pipe. We watched the GFL draft, the blunder that was the GFL draft.

They show their pipe a lot on there, more or less. Long Island Luke, the only guy who came into the office today and literally said that he thought the GFL draft was great. I didn't say great. I mean, you had pretty nice things to say about it. He was like, except for that slip up with showing that it wasn't actually a draft. He's like, outside of that, kind of excited about it. That's what I said.

He's like, outside of the fraud and shit fighters, this was a home run. I stand by that. There we go. We'll get into that and then some on this show of course uh what else we got going on here luke though to email the show you can go to morning combat at gmail.com this friday ems or no what do we do us fan subs dead wrong you know the drill we'll be back with that with a bang uh big weekend though luke we got pbc on prime pay-per-view Benavidez versus Morel.

We've got... Not the biggest fights, but very good fights. UFC Saudi, yes. MMA and boxing. Riyadh will be on fire there. Adesanya back this weekend. We will also get into that. Anything else you want to say publicly, Luke? Anything you want to disclose?

Health updates? Body count? Whatever you want to share with people. yeah body count whatever you want to share with people weekend sucked uh in a lot of ways so yeah that's it that's it that's that's you know i'll drink to that right i mean it is what it is what can i say dude life yeah life takes you into funny and difficult directions would you be upset offended if i broke out into creeds what's this life for a little bit i'm going to meant to ask you like you because i would you only ever put down one pet before no no i've done i've i've do you save like the paw print or the nose print or anything we have the uh of our last two cats that perished we have the ashes in a box

with a picture of them on the outside. Oh, that's nice. Okay, yeah, that's cool. It's in the hallway. I'm cool with that. I'm cool with that. Yeah, we lost. We did the clay paw print for Barbas and then the ink nose print.

I like that. The problem was we lost those two in two days apart, an 18-year-old and like a one-year-old. So that was, you know, that hit hard. I know you lost a bunch in the last few years. Three pets in four years, bro. I had enough. I was texting our boy Average Joe about it

who, you know, he's got heart. He's got love for those animals. He knows that fight. So shout out to everybody dealing with that as well. But hey, let's get fired up. Great show that will begin right about now. Topic number one from the weekend. Hey, it went down in Dubai.

There was a road to get there, and PFL arrived to kick off 2025 with what? Well, first of all, an instant classic in the main event for the lightweight title, and second of all, opening the new year with the bang. Hey, PFL, this is what the hell we are talking about. Usman Nurmagomedov, Paul Hughes. It may have been the final Bellator title fight in the history of using the name Bellator for PFL, but it also may have been one of the best fights

we've ever seen in promotional history. So, Luke, I'll use that as a setup to ask you this. With the outstanding ebbs and flows in this fight, with the ton of heart showed by both in a fight which ultimately Nurmagomedov scored a majority decision win, and the massive interest in the rematch that is firing across socials was Nurmagomedov versus Hughes, in fact, the best fight in PFL history. And how important was it, given the storyline narratives

of a make-or-break year for PFL, to come out with this fight and hit an absolute home run in a loaded arena with a real atmosphere there on Saturday afternoon. Can I challenge the premise of the question just a little bit? I would love it. I actually, okay, so let me meet you halfway. I want to answer the question, but I do want to talk about the atmosphere because it is relevant.

It's especially relevant when we talk about what the rematch is going to look like. But for this one, it was in Dubai. I think we could probably all agree that Dubai wasn't necessarily the best place to put it. However, what I'm going to say is... In theory, but did you see the results? Yes, what I'm going to say is it also was by far not the worst. Yes. Because the Irish turned out that they traveled for Paul Hughes,

and they make themselves known. And it was certainly much better than having it in Saudi Arabia where they can't even fill an arena. This one looked to be for the most part, pretty full that Coca-Cola arena in Dubai. I actually feel like that was not a bad place to put it, but I don't know how much that actually does for building any part of a North American business.

And in that sense, there might be some problems with it, but that aside, this was the best fight in PFL history. Say it, say it. This was the best fight in PFL history. And for two basic reasons or two ways, you at least can examine that. I can show you, especially if we go to the World Series of Fighting, I can show you crazier fights that this organization in either iteration. Justin Gaethje involved in these? Justin Gaethje, Luis Palomino, one and two are crazier than this. And then, honestly, the one that they had, I have my notes,

the one in NFL, sorry, NFL, what am I saying? The one at PFL Europe that they put this year, Lewis McGrillin and Dean Garrett, this was the one that had 14 knockdowns in like 12 minutes or so. Something insane. I can certainly show you more insane ones than what you saw on Saturday. In many respects, BC, it was actually a pretty measured fight. It wasn't crazy.

Well, it wasn't about craziness and theatrics. It was about heart, level. It was about, yeah. But this was the best fight in PFL history. In terms of the combination of youth, elite talent, nip and tuck, one person raising their game, changing something, the other person having to answer for it, and winning a round, potentially losing a round. I know the judges' scorecards didn't necessarily reflect it, but then the referee getting involved to kind of clean it up,

but also having an effect on how the scoring went. In terms of a marriage of slow burn appeal of a fight youth technique skill strategy implementation drama this is the best fight the pfl has ever put on by a country mile and if this is the end of bellator then what a fight to go out with and i'm gonna say this it wasn't just that the fight itself was great although it absolutely was despite some of the early fouling in both directions which inevitably forced the hand of referee mike Beltran. But I got to say this again. I don't necessarily think Dubai was the best place to put it. But in terms of the matchmaking, this was excellent matchmaking,

giving Paul Hughes a shot against Nurmagomedov. Nurmagomedov at BC dismissing him, which we talked about last week, ended up actually making Paul Hughes more competitive because Usman admits after the fight he took him lightly. Which we called. We called that he may be taking him lightly and that this was going to be a real fight. And that blew up in his face big time.

And for the BC, you always know a fight is great when the scoring is to a degree controversial, but the person who lost somehow still won. Yes. People either think that they won. This wasn't controversial. It was disputed. Let's be fair.

Disputed. And the loser raising their profile in such a way to come out of this being like, we've got to see the rematch. We've got to see this one again. The PFL promotionally with this entire thing, especially how the fight ended, BC, they hit a complete home run. We kill them all the time on this show,

so when they do well, we got to give them credit. They kicked ass this weekend. Rare fight where everyone won. Usman won and showed great heart in round five. It reminded me, by the way, Usman's performance. He won round five on two or three scorecards, and we'll get to the scoring in a second. But it reminded me of the first Douglas Lima-Roy McDonald fight in L.A., that five-round thriller, split decision,

where Roy came out in round five and just said, no matter what it takes, I'm going to win this round to show you that I'm the champion. Obviously, Paul Hughes wins because you can make a great argument for him to have won the fight. The rounds were that close, and I know a lot of people think he got screwed, but we'll get into that. PFL wins monstrously. Why, most importantly?

Because, hey, PFL, these are the two guys you need to build the entire promotion round. Like, let's wake up. And, Luke, I'm going to push you back. I don't have any problem in the end with Dubai as the spot. Why? Because people showed up, and that was a real atmosphere. And it wasn't just on fight night. It was the face-offs they did in public outside. There was

buzz. There was anticipation. Maybe it helped you had Habib involved and you loosely had Conor involved and there was the Irish versus MMA narrative coming in. But none of that matters once the fight starts. Ireland versus Dagestan. Dagestan. Then they all hit a home run. So hey

PFL, I almost want to say it, like, scrap the tournaments and do exactly this. Pick a champion in every division. I'll be honest, this should be Nurmagomedov now as the PFL lightweight champion. Or if you're dead to rights to the tournament format, then do it one more time this year and have a tournament in every division

to unveil the real champion. Like, let a new era start that way. And let's put Nurmagomedov, Hughes, A.G. McKee in this lightweight tournament. You could do that. But no matter what you do here, make the fights matter by everything building toward a title shot, not four different types of belts. We got super five belts. We got regular season belts. We got this. No, none of that. This is the type of thing. These are the assets you have. Usman, Paul Hughes, Dakota Ditcheva, Patchy Mix. We can go on and on. These are the type of guys that should be what people are tuning in for, not for your scoring structure or your smart cage for this. So I just wanted to say that. Let's get into the scoring though. As it went down, 47-47 even, and the other two cards were 48-46 in favor of Nurmagomedov,

which with the point deduction in round three, that means four rounds to one. The judges agreed on round one where all three gave them to Nurmagomedov, and the judges agreed on round three where all three gave it 9-9 because of the point deduction, which means they scored it for Nurmagomedov. In real time, Luke, I scored it a draw, 47-47, which was three rounds to two for Nurmagomedov. I did feel in that moment when I saw the outrage from people, when I saw, you know, Paul Hughes in the interview say,

I'm gutted, I thought I won that, and he made a strong case. I mean, he won the story of the night, right? Like, he won the moral victory, if there is one, no doubt. But upon replay, I did turn my scoring in rounds three and four the opposite of how i originally had it but my scoring the second time four rounds to one so how did you how did what round the second time did you give to hughes so let's go through it look everyone believes nirmaga met off one round one from distance he kind of outclassed him in a way it was it was a slow start h. Hughes just didn't do enough.

Yes. Round two, I thought Hughes really made it a point to make that fight physical. He was stuffing takedowns, which led to action in the clinch, which was favoring him. So I gave him round two, and I think two or three judges did. No, one judge did. One judge did. Excuse me. Okay.

Round three, this was the round in which the point deduction happened for the two low blows from Nurmagomedov. Like in round four, where we had a big break in the action with the head butts. I think Nurmagomedov benefited both times, even though he had to absorb that, absorb that headache, that head butt in round four, both times he came out better from the break and rallied in the second half of the rounds and used takedowns,

used control and pressure. So round three was really close. The first time I scored it for Hughes, second time I scored it for Nurmagomedov, but I do acknowledge that that's probably the closest round that could go either. Round four was, so round three I scored it 10-8 originally for Hughes.

Second time is 9-9. Okay. And then you go to round four. In real time, I scored it for Hughes. I'm sorry, I scored it for Nurmagomedov. Yeah. And ultimately I was like on the fence after re-watching that round I still feel like you can lean Usman in there and go four rounds to one if you want to

it really was that close I really thought the pressure he put on the second half after the break for the headbutt where he took him down where he was in the clinch doing the knees to the back of the thigh I really thought that overvalued the one or two punches that Hughes landed and then round five even though one judge did give it to Hughes and he did rally in the closing seconds for some shots I really feel like Nurmagomedov closed that down with his grappling and controlled the the situations there so I see a little differently yeah please so again um I I have gone back and watched clips of it but I haven't watched the fight fight I mean I had to go to the vet right after the fight was over literally so

i have only watched clips back when i scored it in real time the first time and i want to get long island luke score here if we can as well in real time round one to number come made off no problem round two i also gave to number come made off just because i thought he was doing a little bit more i grant that one's close three in real time i time, I gave to Hughes. In real time. With the point deduction becomes 10-8. Four, I also grant is close, but I gave that to Nurmagomedov. I thought in the end he did do enough with the ground and pound on the top control position to kind of make that count.

In round five, I also recognize that one is close. I leaned Hughes on that one because I thought he did the more damaging work but i recognize some of this stuff is harder to score sure well now luke how did you score it i had it uh five nothing usman so with the point deduction 49 45 you just hate the irish huh no i didn't in fact i did take that paul hughes spread bet that i recommended everyone take plus nine and a half and that covered easily oh nice yeah but uh i got texts from different people saying 4-1 Hughes, 4-1 to Mark Medoff. So I can acknowledge that. And look, the thing about Hughes is he overachieved

with the expectations we're coming in with, betting odds, with everything. He stuffed the takedowns early. Can we just say he actually only matched exactly what we said he was going to do. On this show, we told everyone he was fucking awesome. He came as close as you could to beating him. But I think even I and scoring in real time were overscoring the fact that he was overachieving when I rewatch it. I think the breaks in round three and four are really the key.

Nirmaga Madoff came off of both of those breaks each time it happened in the middle of the round and was fresh. And it was times where you thought he might have been fading and he used that break. He came back fresh and he took him down. That shows the judges something that you're taking control of it. I know his ground pound wasn't spectacular in the top position and Hughes was able to reverse out ultimately, but I really think you,

you it's controlling the fight. You know what I'm saying? And you have to put that up against, did Hughes do enough offensively to take those rounds from him? I just don't think he did. So I don't think it's a robbery. But if you had it 3-2 Hughes, I don't think you're crazy. It was that close.

Three and four, I think, are those rounds that you can just flip either way. Yeah, I'm going to say this. I really believe this, and I'll be curious to see if you agree and if Bong Island Luke agrees as well, which is when the fight was over, I felt like Nurmagomedov deserved to be the rightful winner, recognizing it was close and recognizing judging can go a few directions. But my general sense was that a little bit more was done by Nurmagomedov, especially in those early rounds when he's just leg kicking, kicking, kicking, kicking.

And they weren't doing a ton, but Hughes couldn't get an offensive rhythm going. He just didn't get enough going until a little bit later. But this is my point. I think Hughes is going to go back and look at that footage and say to himself, why didn't I get started a little bit earlier? He kind of punched it round one away. He punched it round one away completely. And I know he was worried about the takedown.

A round of applause for the takedown defense of Paul Hughes. I know they credited Usman with four, but really it was one good takedown. It was that takedown around fourth. The other ones, dude, I grant they were control positions, and I grant that in certain cases with some of those knees to the thigh, some of them were valuable. But pure takedowns, pure takedowns, he got one. He got one got one.

He got one good one. The rest were mat returns or control positions from the outside. Paul Hughes did a phenomenal job. And there's an important— The body work from Paul Hughes was great. The two most memorable things for me in this fight were the kicking game of Nurmagomedov, some of the takedowns, but really the kicking game. And the threat of the high—he would always mix in the threat of the high kick. Absolutely. Anytime Hughes was about to put offense

together. Paul Hughes had that backhand up the whole time. But the other part of it was the body work of Paul Hughes. Dude, he had Nurmagomedov like, punching over with his shoulders coming forward, leaning down. And I'm like, dude, he's gonna go right to the uppercut. He went right to the uppercut! And every time Nurmagomedov

had him in that tie clinch, Hughes would just power through either the body or upstairs with punches. Destroying the body of Nurmagomedov. So he succeeded in luring. I mean, so in the first round, he gave up too much distance. In the second round, he came right out, closed that distance. And what it forced Nurmagomedov to do was to constantly go for the clinch to go for the trip.

And that's where that opened up a lot more offense for Hughes. So Hughes gets so much credit here. The defense, Luke, the poise, the cardio, the everything. He's legitimately world-class. Dustin Poirier tweeted out how much he appreciated that. A lot of people were comparing the performance of Hughes in here to the spirit of Dustin in those ways. No doubt he jumps through as legit elite world-class.

No question. How did, honestly, the UFC not offer him a contract? They did. They just offered him no money. Oh, so it was a tender series type thing. Yeah. So Luke straight up. Well, let me let me first run sound because the obvious talk should be about this rematch and would it be promotional malpractice

for the PFL not to force away with this much buzz and attention? Because remember, it's nine weeks before their next show. It's over two months. I don't think that's ideal in this setting. But I do think it gives them time to maybe possibly reorder some of the strategy that they have here and realize what they have in this fight. Nurmagomedov, despite showing a ton of respect afterwards for Hughes, despite Habib interrupting, grabbing the mic, and shouting out Hughes for his support of Palestine and all that,

and there was a lot of Bushido going around. Nurmagomedov is getting called out for not wanting an instant rematch. Let's listen to his words, and then we'll get your reaction. It was a great fight for me. I go to the deep ocean, and I know what I can do for the next time. And I little underestimate this guy. и да го најдам во голема Даушна и да знам што можам да го правам на следната време. И некој не ми го подгласил, беше нешто, но, што сакам, Алхамдулилах, Алхамдулилах, не се зашто. Мене е како и всеки спортсмен, имам некои веќе,

имам моја строга врата, строга седа, и не сум како некој кој не може да не се злите. Но во моето мисле, не ќе се злит, иншаллах. Во пет раунди, мислам како да го закривам. Në 5 rrëndës, nuk të të përgjithim në që nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë nështë në For the fans, first of all, and of course for me too. Does he deserve a rematch? Do you think he did enough? For a rematch? No. He had to win a couple, three, four fights in the Bellator because he had only two fights and they gave him a title shot. But Paul Hughes, this is all my respect to these guys.

And I think even if he will go to the tournament for a million, he have 100% chance to take this belt. And we can... So, Luke, what stands out, of course, is the three to four fights before fighting you again, but he does back it up with, I want him to enter the tournament, go for the money, and try to win a spot back. Do you think that's, in some ways, pushing him out, avoiding him?

Or is it saying, look, I'm the champion. I showed you. Everybody else get in that tournament and try to become my number one contender. Yeah, I mean, he's completely out of his mind. Paul Hughes, in no way, shape, or form. Now, if Paul Hughes wants to go through the tournament, that is something else. Paul Hughes wants to go through the tournament, that is something else. If he agrees to go through the tournament, that is something else. Fine.

Do you think PFL should go with the Bellator Grand Prix rules where the champion is in the tournament, too, and defends it in every stop in the tournament? I do think so. Now, obviously, it's going to get a little complicated because you have Ramadan coming up pretty quickly. It's not too far from now. So that's going to make things a little bit difficult. No, they're off for nine weeks. It's not going to be. Oh, you mean going to make things a little bit difficult. No, they're off for nine weeks. It's not going to be. Oh, you mean in terms of training?

Training, yeah. I mean, you can train. I have friends who do train during Ramadan. They're Muslim, but they tell me they lose a bunch of weight and it's difficult for them. And, you know, it's just tough. It's just tough to do. So I don't think that's going to make it super easy.

But the notion that Paul Hughes lucked his way into this, we told everyone that that was absurd ahead of time beat AJ McKee straight up he beat AJ McKee straight up and remember the big fight to make previously was AJ McKee versus Usman Nurmagomedov and he put Nurmagomedov through the paces this is what I mean it's like dude can a tournament in the case of someone like a Dakota Ditcheva can it find a way to get one person through it the main event ends up being in the case of someone like a Dakota Ditcheva can it find a way to get one person through it the main event ends up being in the final tournament fight the most consequential fight of that tournament bracket and it launches someone into a new stratosphere of attention it

absolutely can do that and you must acknowledge it Dakota Ditcheva is living proof. Many of the guys from the Bjorn Rebny era are also proof of that. But the reality is, for all the faults of the matchmaker model, what you always hear people from the PFL say and everyone else who does the tournament model believes in it is, you know, we're taking the matchmaker and their unfairness out of it.

And the reality is, unfairness in the matchmaking process is actually the magic of it. Which isn't to say that it's a wrong accusation that sometimes matchmakers are deeply unfair. Hello, Nate Diaz versus Hamzat Shumayev. That would have been a goddamn execution in the end. But the reality is it gives them the license to also make the more interesting permutations that you simply cannot rely on the tournament to give you. This was that. This was that.

This was that. More of this, please. Look at, if you're the PFL and you're watching this, look at how much enthusiasm you have garnered from this. Look at how well it worked for you. Look at how smart it was to give Paul Hughes a good contract when UFC wasn't. Build on this. Yeah, sign Pico now.

Like, put these stars in there and put them against each other. So I want to ask you specifically, they have nine weeks. They haven't officially, outside of Don Davis on the Mike Heck second town hall, saying that the tournament this year would be for less money, but would be a different structure, and it wouldn't be for the championship. They got nine weeks. How do you take advantage of the buzz from Nurmagomedov-Hughes? What do you do next?

Do you alter the format? Do you run an instant rematch back on pay-per-view? Like, what do you do next? How does this change what they might want to do? So this is the problem with their format. This is everything. They got rid of the season format, but they kept a tournament format. And they changed the tournament itself, but they didn they got rid of the season format but they kept a tournament format and they changed the tournament itself but they didn't get rid of it and now they have

locked themselves into a series of dates and places that they now have to fit all this stuff in they don't have the freedom to do what I think actually makes the most amount of sense here whether you could get Usman to agree to it is a different consideration. But after this fight was over, BC, Paul Hughes called for the rematch in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which I have to tell you, if you've ever seen Mick Conlon fight there, it's a fucking show.

Yeah. Like the Irish... I saw Callum Walsh fight there. It was... They threw full cups of beer after he got the knockout. Wait, Dublin or Belfast? I'm sorry, I was in Dublin, obviously. It doesn't matter, though.

Either way, the Irish, whether it's Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland, they're going to show up for their own big time. Can you imagine the scenes and having the PFL bring to you an MMA rivalry that's of quality, of style contrast, of substance, and of fanfare? Bring it to life in that way. But, BC, if you're locked into your calendar for all the tournaments that you owe, you simply don't have the logistical license

to go and make this stuff happen very easily, if at all. So what should the tournament be? To produce a number one contender? We have to connect the dots. The problem with a tournament is not just that you don't get all the fights that you want, although sometimes you get ones you didn't expect that it can be better.

But if you have this tournament schedule locked in, it promotionally cripples you from being nimble enough to take lightning in a bottle and use it forcefully the next time. If there is any way, if there is any way for them to make use of it, and I'm a little skeptical because they never did the rematch between Baki and Doombay from their PFL Europe europe card which should have been an automatic rematch i don't

know what the fuck happened there that's the that's the future of pfl they want to live at all be nimble enough to give yourself the chance of building on your wins not scoring a win and then just pivoting off to something else. I'd like them to drop the tournament altogether in every division, launch all the divisions with PFL championships, and take your number one and number two contender in each division, basically your best fighters, and roll them out over this year in main events. And be like, okay, now we're going to fight for the vacant middleweight title. Here's Bellator champion Johnny Ebelin against whomever.

Now we're going to go over to this division here you know like match your best and then you can have the ability once things get established to eventually have champion versus champion fights or do some crazy stuff but this is what people are going to tune into the fighters the storylines the rivalries and the stakes they're not going to tune in just because it's pfl branding on there so they're not there's time to do it we should also say something beyond this too which is i saw some people suggest that after this yeah they might have liked the fight that neither nurmagomedov nor hughes are top 10 or even at all ufc quality i'm like you're out of your fucking don't waste your breath on there but do you think that this is a legitimate fight of the year contender

like I tweeted and some people laughed at me? It is still very early. There's plenty of time left in the year. But if we're making lists, they start with this one. Okay. That's what I need to hear. Let's see some of that respect backstage with these two fighters embracing, talking to each other.

I love these moments. Great sport, bro. Great fight. Great atmosphere. Very special. Honestly, to be honest, in Dubai, good atmosphere. I hope next time we will fight same event, but...

But in Belfast. Yeah, in Belfast. No, in Dubai. All the best. In Dubai. See you. Thank you. No, no, no. In Dubai. In Dubai. See you, Mike. See you. Thank you, guys.

Good stuff. We also saw a continued exchange between Habib and Paul Hughes that made its way to X. And that was, Luke, I love this. This turned out to be a bonus, but they basically were like, F this fake Conor rivalry shit. How about we recognize Paul Hughes? I know. You know what I love about this? They called it Ireland versus Dagestan, too, which, you know, whatever. Promotional angle, it's fine.

But it didn't end up really being that. Right. It just ended up being a dogfight that was so competitive that, yeah, the guys have different backgrounds, and that's fun. But it wasn't – it's not like Benavidez Morrell, which is like – Benavidez is like literally on camera, fuck his dog, fuck his cat, fuck his team, fuck his life. It was none of that. It was a bond and rivalry heightened by extraordinary competition.

I got to ask you though, if knuckle mania from BKFC, they're one of their tentpole events used to be a pay-per-view. Now it's live on the zone. If that wasn't going down this weekend, you could, you could make the argument. It was the biggest night in BKFC history, from the sellout, 17,000, all that. Would Conor have gone? Because originally after Paul Hughes beat A.J. McKee in the post-fair press conference, he said, I would love to have Conor in my corner.

Well, that would have changed the dynamics dramatically, Luke. What would have happened? What would we be saying now? It tells you about the ugliness that follows. But aren't you happy in the end that it didn't happen, so now we can savor Paul Hughes the right way? I'm happy to see Les McGregor no matter what. But yeah, I agree that it's fun to get the angry

Ireland versus Dagestan angle, but it turns out there is an Ireland-Dagestan angle that's just about competitive rivalry, which that would have spoiled by making it about personal animus that both Habib and Connor have for one another. Final question. I saw some, and there's haters on every group, and we've been given a lot of flowers and glazing to the extended Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov coaching and fighter tree there.

Some people said now, in back-to-back weeks from Marab edging out Umar and now Usman barely getting the decision over Hughes, both, you know, good performances, good fights. Are we seeing a blueprint of how you can slow down Dagestan MMA? You have to be elite. You have to have an elite takedown defense, top-level stamina. There's things you need. Are we seeing a blueprint so that more fighters will come in more confident and understanding how to slow down these incredible fights?

I guess what I'm going to say is, like, how can people watch this fight and think Usman Nurmagomedov fights in any way like Khabib Nurmagomedov? They have vastly different games. And Islam has a different game than all these guys, too. Like, I get that there are clear similarities with their games, and it does seem like brother Umar and brother Usman together, their games actually do mirror each other pretty

pretty closely they're kicking range guys with you know good takedown defense some offensive takedown ability as well uh but not the lights out wrestling of habib they don't sometimes not at all and again habib had like mean ground and pound these guys don't have that islam's got some of that so when they say when they say like solving Dagestani MMA, I'm like, what does that really mean? What I can say is that the gap that elite Dagestani guys owned over the rest of the sport, that gap is closing. That gap is closing very, very quickly. And it's because they're forcing everyone else to raise their game. And I think what I will say is this.

Javier Mendez, who I like very much, and maybe in the training room and based on what he's seen, he has reason to feel this way. We only have what Usman turns in in person. But they were saying that like Umar and Usman might be the most talented of the group. What I'm going to say is, Umar and Usman, in terms of all the things that an MMA fighter needs to do, they do many of them really well. They're not better than Habib and Islam. They're more well-rounded, but they're not as strong in some of those key, stubborn... I mean, I will say, Usman showed it in round five.

I did think he did. He showed the, I'm going to tighten the grip... We're talking about guys who are awesome. We're only talking about awesome fighters here. But I don't see the evidence that Umar and Usman are clearly ahead of the pack. It's early. We'll see. I mean, they're 27

and 29 or 26. But these guys are the future. And I'm like, they're awesome. They're really good. Habib, I watched his career. He fucked these guys up way worse. I need to see a little more. Quickly, the co-main event brought former Bellator light heavyweight champion

Vadim Nemkov's continued quest at heavyweight. He didn't want to fight Corey Anderson, so they gave him Timothy Johnson, who they said on the broadcast was what? Fresh off of truck driving? Donating goods, maybe? That was a little... I mean, I appreciate that he was there. Okay, well, it went easy for Nemkov.

I like Timothy Johnson as a person, so, you know. Nemkov took it slow at first, but once he was able to take the back, establish the ground game, the grappling, the submission, he got the tap. He looked great. He looks good at this weight. But, Luke, maybe an even bigger story than,

oh, my God, was he pumped up, puffed up, and polished, and now he's ready for whenever Francis Ngannou is going to give PFL their annual MMA visit. The bigger story might be that he's also a free agent. He fought out his PFL deal. Is he in a spot to get a stupid offer from UFC, or do they look at that as second rate? We don't care. Yeah, throw him to Francis. Nobody cares.

So I'm going to say this. I think Nemkov gives Poiton problems at 205 wow i'm not saying i'm not declaring that he beats him but i think the idea that poiton just walks through him for a guy like nemkov who is athletic experience has good takedowns good wrestling by the way decent submission decent ground and pound like he's he's not bad about it the notion that that guy can't give poet on problem seems to me ludicrous now again i'm not predicting a win but like that'd be a really interesting title he looks like he's built his body into a full-time heavyweight he has but you know he was he waited at 240 like it's not impossible for him to get back to 205 forrest griffin used to walk around 240 rampage walked around 240 um so that's an interesting

fight and even at heavyweight to the point you raise he could do wonders at ufc i really think he could be an interesting addition will he get an offer from ufc a good offer one i think the fact that he's team fedor makes it hard for me to to imagine that's the likeliest i don't think if a dummy's still running that show anymore right no but i don't know if they want to do business with anything team fedor related you know dana white is nothing if not insanely petty yes and they have long-standing beef he's the only one of the big probably the biggest fighter that they never signed to ufc i and also remember pfl's contracts they have exclusive negotiating and matching periods to that's true they want did you see that irish headline that uh from a tabloid that dana White is only blocking Conor from the Paul Brothers

boxing match because he hates Jake. Do you buy that? Yes. Alright, well that's that. I'm not saying it's true, but do I buy it as a reasonable excuse for why the fight's not made? Yes, I buy that. Somebody had a strong opinion on Nemcov's performance and that somebody is Corey Anderson.

Let's hear from OT. We watch the PFL fights. That's what you wanted, ain't no cough. You wanted a truck driver, somebody that was going to fall over and give you his neck. Put your hands down, screw up. You duck. Put your hands down.

He said he was training to join the Army Reserves next week. You're celebrating for that? Duck, duck, goose, grub. You are lame. Wow. Shout out to the Beast. He kind of ate with that one, didn't he? So does this show that Nemkov ducking him

or wanting an easier opponent was more about free agency or was it more? We'll see. We'll see. If he sticks around, then I mean, like the ducking accusations are going to be really hard to ignore. But if it was to find out his contract and actually go someplace else, then you can sort of understand. All right. Before we transition to topic two, I just want to remind everybody of this episode of Morning Combat, live and direct, coming at you right now. And you can watch it, of course, on the DraftKings Network.

It's brought to you by DraftKings Sportsbook. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Let's go into topic number two. And it went down in Philly on Saturday night. And hey, listen up. It was a big deal. It was KnuckleMania 5 from BKFC. Jeremy Stephens versus Eddie Alvarez in the main event.

But anything involving Conor McGregor will inevitably be about Conor McGregor. And so was this from the standpoint that Conor McGregor stepped in as co-owner and promoter into a face-off across from Jeremy Stevens after he stopped Eddie Alvarez. Maybe even the bigger story than all of that was the 17,762 sold-out seats sold at the Wells Fargo Center, breaking all combat sports records for attendance.

So Luke, here's the key question. From selling out that arena and what I just talked about to having Conor literally call for the face off with Jeremy Stevens afterwards after an exciting night, bunch of ex UFC names on the card. Did BKFC just prove in an odd way that it's actually currently the number two MMA promotion in the world behind UFC, even though it's a boxing promotion? Like who else is doing that? PFL just had maybe their best weekend in a long ass time, but that's 17,000 sold in Philly. The fans went home happy. There's storylines to talk about, even though the McGregor thing seems unrealistic. Are they number two right now behind UFC?

Yeah. Yeah, they are. They are. I mean, the reality is this. They're not an MMA promotion. But can you tell the audience what you called them before the show? Because I actually feel like people know this, but the framing of it explicitly is helpful. It's an MMA promotion that does boxing.

Yes. That's basically what it is. And of course, it's an amended version of boxing. But yes, that is essentially what they are. And for that reason, they've captured the MMA audience. They have a ton of MMA fighters. Their biggest events all feature MMA fighters, all kind of moonlighting. It was interesting to me, BC,

because the quality of what you got on the PFL was by far the highest quality main event of the weekend. But if you watch this BKFC event, dude, just a McGregor walkout alone. So he comes out to G&R's Welcome to the Jungle. Which is gross that they're rehabilitating him. But it worked. The crowd

was going insane. It worked. And more to the point, BKFC made that event feel from the production standpoint from selling tickets the whole nine yards big they made it feel big and they did it in philly they didn't do it in Dubai. They did it at home. What other MMA promotion right now outside of the UFC can pull 17,000 plus at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania? None of them. I don't even know if PFL could pull 7,000 on their best date at any city of their picking in the United States. This is what I mean by holding that fight in Dubai. It was fine for the broadcast, but what are you doing for your North American audience?

You make a good point. I don't know if they're building anything, whereas BKFC, it looked like fucking, I don't know anything about WrestleMania except what I see on the clips, but it looked like fucking WrestleMania. Best thing they did was build that stage.

That stage. That goes all the way to the fighting. For folks who may not remember this, circa UFC late 30s, UFC 40s, so UFC 39, UFC 40, all that kind of stuff, they used a ramp with explosives, and they got rid of it. Strikeforce for a time brought it back. I thought it was a big difference.

BKFC used it. It's a small adjustment amongst a larger set of choices that they make, but it fucking worked. It worked. The product is kind of gross. There was some spectacular chaos. Well, that's the brand. The brand is, yes gross. There was some spectacular KOs. Well, that's the brand. The brand is, yes, at the top you do want some recognizable names.

But I feel like BKFC, correct me if I'm wrong on Luke, because I know you like them. I feel like part of their brand. I'm not saying this is the way it works, top of the card to the bottom of the card. But I am saying for the majority of the card, you don't really care who's fighting because you know the rules are designed the guys are bad enough with their defense where you can reliably count on some kind of insane violence to happen and then the two three fights you care about the top of

the card they do have better names and better that women's fight with starling and beck rawlings was gnarly what do you think about that assessment you nailed it yeah you nailed it because i was only tuning in for the top three fights back Ben Rothwell and the main event obviously and I was thoroughly enjoyed for every single fight. We had a bunch of underdogs winning a plus 1400 dude one. He was doing a

live stream during this. It was a crazy time. Dude, if you could take the promotional ability of BKFC and marry that with the quality of the kind of MMA that PFL is capable of, that together would be a dynamic challenge. What do I keep saying on all my channels here that everybody hates? I said, whether we're talking about PFL or GFL or whomever, you need raw energy and almost like a rebel image that's aligned with ecw in the 90s luke because it was it looked enough like mainstream wrestling but it was just

bat shit crazy bkfc has cornered the market on that if we're being honest it's got pro wrestling vibes and how the storylines are built it's got a bunch of trashy gnarly looking like over like remember the movie over the top with sylvester stallone it's like all those guys that he went one-on-one with in arm wrestling. That's who like the heavyweight division is here. And not my favorite cup of tea, but they market the shit out of this. The grassroots old school way. And whether you love him or hate him, getting McGregor involved has been a big boon for them.

We'll get to that in a second. I want to bring up the fight quickly in the main event. Jeremy Stevens, did he just score the biggest win in his combat sports career, Luke? We should talk about that. 41-year-old Eddie Alvarez was coming off a loss to Mike Perry. Yes. But he hung in there for two rounds. But when Jeremy started landing those hard counter shots,

a big right hand dropped Alvarez in round three. He gets dropped twice, and then his corner stops him. And it looked like his jaw, or it looked like there was some, you know, swelling and growth on his face. I don't know if there were broken bones, but he got effed up here. And Stevens was able to play that villain role in front of the hostile Philly crowd in a weird way. You had to feel good for him, right? Like this was his moment. It's similar to what Mike Perry was getting in terms of rejuvenation.

Now, if you look at Stevens' career, I made a list of his five, what consider to be his five best mma wins sure he beat rda in 2008 now that was before rda was really rda but that's a great name on your resume and it was a vicious win he beat henan morale in 2016 now granted this was the fight after dillashaw thrashed him so he wasn't exactly in a great place but that's a big name sure but the best stretch of his career was three fights in a row. He beat decision Gilbert Melendez in 2017, and then he KO'd both Duho Choi and Josh Emmett in 2018. You have to ask yourself, is this win better than that one? I don't think from what it means for a combat sports wins, it is. But in terms of promotional attraction.

And probably money. He probably got paid very well. And probably money. This is the most significant win of his career. And again, to the point you raised, Eddie Alvarez is the Philly guy. This was a sold-out Philly crowd. They showed up for him. Let's be honest.

I mean, they may have showed up for McGregor and the violence, but they showed up for Eddie. By the way, Eddie, I mean, it's kind of funny. He's been the underground king. Didn't look all that underground to me anymore. He looked like he'd arrived, to be perfectly honest. He's not... I mean, he's at the extreme end of his fighting career. Yes, he definitely is.

But he looked, for what this is, for what the sport is, he looked good in there until he didn't. And he has, you know, he's looked okay. He beat Chad Mendes in a close fight. He got beat by Mike Perry. And he was in this and leading it until somebody with superior power took over. But that's this weird sport. You connect with a fist, you're going to cause problems.

There's going to be a change in your opponent for certain. I think bare knuckles is going to be a problem for Eddie because, one, he's older. And then, two, Eddie always had a problem. In MMA, I'm not saying anything anyone doesn't know, he got rocked a lot. Flash chin. He has a flash chin. And as you get older, especially in a sport like BKFC where you're right on top of each other, that's going to be tough to persevere.

Now, granted, he fought a very young Mike Perry, and Jeremy Stevens obviously still has a lot left in the tank for this particular stage of his career. But I think Eddie obviously had much better MMA careers than either Mike Perry or Jeremy Stevens by a considerable distance. Although he was a UFC champion, he was a Bellator champion. He did a lot. But it's come to the end here, I think. His wife was the loudest she's ever, ever, ever been. You know what?

Ride or die. It's not for me. But I'll say this, man. I've been watching Eddie Alvarez fights a long time. And I've been hearing his wife screaming for a long time. This was blood-curdling. This was... Yeah, but, dude, like, fucking marriage is hard.

Life is hard. I'm imagining fighting for a living is even more hard. Yeah. And for her to just be there through all the parts of it as being the number one booster... That's what I'm talking about. Dude, people don't realize this. God bless Rashad Evans.

His first wife was just like this. When he won tough, she went nuts. If you want to hear her, I don't know. I've never watched it on Fight Pass, but I remember watching it in real time. Go listen to her after the Sean Salmon win when he head kick KOs her. You hear her fucking losing her mind.

But then they got divorced. You don't hear that anymore. Dude, it's 2025. I'm sure he still hears it to some degree. It's time to hand over the kids for the weekend. But the point I'm trying to make is, Eddie's wife is still there doing this kind of thing. Yeah, does it hurt my ears? It hurts my ears.

But it heals my heart, BC. I agree with you. And this can be a very lonely sport, which was perfectly illustrated by Jeremy Stevens at the post-fight press conference. He played the heel, Luke, in the ring after the fight, but I was happy he got his moment. Let's listen to the little heathen.

The fashion you did and having Conor call you out, do you feel like you will finally get the respect you deserve? And is the hate for Philadelphia real? Man, I did it for me, bro. I don't need no one's respect. Like I said, bro, I've been in the darkness. You know, I got a lot of, I got 70 messages, text messages. You know, I've been in the darkness you know i got a lot i got a 70 messages text messages you know i've been knocked out before no one called me not my mom not my dad

nobody i've been in the darkness so i i had something to prove to myself no offense but everybody they all went against me you know i'm saying i feel like eminem i'm a piece of white trash i say it it proudly. Fuck everybody bro, that's the attitude. That was the attitude, but I love fighting here in Philadelphia, man. Look, I gotta say that's some factory town MMA shit. He also shouted out his dad in the post fight interview and was like 43 years on the job, gave it all. That's some factory town.

That was awesome. I love that. That was fantastic. That was, I gotta tell you dude like the fighters who go the furthest, whether it's MMA boxing or, you know, transition to the next stage of their career, like obviously he's now in bare knuckle, the guys who kind of get clarity about why they're doing this.

And sometimes that clarity is I'm doing this just for money. Yeah. Sometimes that clarity is I'm doing it for me, whatever that clarity is, it takes time for them to actually understand what really powers them. For some people, it was either this or stripping. It was this or it was buttholes on OnlyFans. Yeah, it might end up there as well. But the point I wanted to make was he clearly understood what is raison d'etre, as we say.

Like, there's reason to be. Why is he doing this? What matters to him? What powers him? And, dude, that clarity of purpose, man, when you really can weed out everything else and you can home in on that, it's powerful. It's really powerful.

I think Jeremy Stevens against Mike Perry feels like a no-brainer, even though they're a little bit different in size. Definitely very different in size. But Conor McGregor got into the ring, faced off with Jeremy Stevens. Obviously they have who the fuck is this guy? You know, the history... Can we make a point about this? Yeah. It tells you how far

Conor has fallen. Also, to a degree, how far Jeremy Stephens has risen. Yes. That the guy who Conor treated as who the fuck is that guy is now the guy he's facing off with. So, you have to give give Stevens credit for getting himself to this position. But Connor has lowered the bar about who he wants to position himself next to

in such a dramatic way that that was, if you had told that Connor on that day of that press conference, you're going to be facing off with this guy a little bit later. I mean, how many years it was, he would have told you you're out of your fucking mind. That's definitely true. And we all would have said you're out of your effing mind.

But this is his business now. So I think he's also willing to lower. I didn't say it was a bad call. I also think he's itching to get the fight. Let's hear from Dave Feldman. This isn't a joke, according to Connor. One more thing. As I was walking out of the arena, Conor actually tapped me on the shoulder,

and he told me to make sure that I tell everybody that he's fighting Jeremy Stephens in BKFC. That's what he said. I mean, he's got two fights in the UFC. I'm telling you, Conor just told me that he's fighting Jeremy Stephens in bare knuckle. Long Island, Luke, let's go to this meme real quick, and then we'll get Luke's response

on how not likely this is. Yeah. quick and then we'll get luke's response on how uh not likely this is yeah um so luke we saw connor arguing on that logan paul inauguration thing to the paul brothers about like you can't even do your main job yeah but no we saw him arguing like like why are you just listening to wwe you should push through there's nothing that connor can do here right i mean it's connor can go and tell dave feldman whatever he wants but unless dana white also agrees it doesn't matter yeah it does it literally does and now by the way maybe he'll agree maybe he'll agree maybe he'll go out and be like you know what i didn't like for the reasons you indicated hey you know what i don't really want you making money off

jake paul but you want to go make money with bkfc for whatever the fuck fine you can go do it fine that then it will happen. But I'm just telling you, the buck stops with the monopoly. Like, that's just how it all works. I'm with you. Quickly, in the co-main event, you want to talk about Mike Perry, Jeremy Stephens raising their profile on BKFC. How about Ben Rothwell?

Ben fucking Rothwell. He unfortunately poked Mick Terrell in the eye in round one and then came back after the eye poke to land this beautiful right hand. He's the BKFC heavyweight champion. That's the ringside view that BKFC put out on social. It was a thunderous finish. Rothwell very happy, and I think we got sound here of Rothwell. You know, he shouted out Philly afterwards. Let's hear him in the post-fight press conference.

Ben, President David Feldman said that you'd make a great fit for the $25 million tournament. Are you open to that? Yeah! Thank you for asking. Yes! I'm in. Good luck fighting the opponents.

But I'm in. Because if this is bare knuckle, I'm going to win it. You're going to make me, you're going to change my life. Because I will win it. I don't care who you put in there. Get the biggest, best names. Bare knuckle is different than anything I've done in my life. I've done kickboxing, boxing, MMA. I've win it. I don't care who you put in there. Get the biggest, best names. Bare Knuckles is different than anything I've done in my life. I've done kickboxing, boxing, MMA.

I've done it all. This is not like anything. You just don't do this. You just don't learn it. So let's put me in it because I'm the best. I am the best at this. I felt good for him. I fucking love Ben Rothwell.

Yes, I felt good for him. Ben Rothwell, by the way, a guy who was – people forget about this. He was the – I believe he was, I think he beat Roy Nelson for the IFL Heavyweight Championship way back in the day. He's been consistently excellent. Another one of these guys who has done a lot of soul-searching through ups and downs.

Family guy. Couldn't be happier for Ben Rothwell who deserves this. And by the way, just look at that fucking grizzly bear. Put him in the $25 million tournament. Let's go. You can't lose. And by the way, just look at that fucking grizzly bear. Put him in the $25 million tournament. Let's go. You can't lose. He looks the part.

He's playing the part. He's getting the rewards I think he deserves. Good for him, dude. Feldman did tell Ariel that the tournament will be like a couple division window. So it'll almost, you know what I mean?

It'll almost be like. So it's not open weight exactly? No, but it will be like, might be light heavyweight and heavyweight. Like they're going to almost combine two. I see. That could be interesting. Put him in there.

He earned it. Put him in there. Good stuff this weekend from BKFC. But Luke, you know when you're looking for that snack at night and the nostalgia in your heart and that itching feeling inside is like go to the sugar cereal, man. It worked for me when I was growing up. Problem is it doesn't work with this waistline as an adult.

Also, eating that much sugar is bad for your brain. Yeah, there's a lot of bad things about it. It's bad for your gut microbiome. If only I could have the same taste, but something that's wholesome and nourishing. Luckily, I found it in Magic Spoon. Yeah, Magic Spoon, bro. You know, as a kid, I'm like you. I loved eating cereal, but as an adult, I just can't handle and don't want that much sugar.

And most cereals don't really give me the protein, by the way, that I need either. You have to manage this kind of a stuff. But BC, we found Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon, nostalgically delicious, tastes like my childhood favorites. Every flavor. Every flavor tastes like it. But without all the sugar, and it has a ton of protein. If you're low-carb lifestyle, you you're carb conscious this fits right in there the high protein as luke mentioned the flavors are

absolutely delicious i love the marketing i love the box it just feels cool to pull that out of the cupboard uh at the campbell household we've been taking down magic spoon left and right and it's not just the fantastic cereal it's those power bars as well luke that you've been touting over there with Tunes. Oh, no doubt about it. By the way, just speaking of the cereal itself, 13 grams of protein, zero grams of sugar, and four grams net carbs. Wholesome food, BC. It fuels me. It's simple. It's high quality. And as you also indicated, they have the protein bars, which you can get the marshmallow flavor. I love. My daughter likes to taste it as well. By the way, I can feed her the cereals without all the guilt because I know she's going to enjoy it and it's not going to be full of all that nonsense. So it helps me meet my nutritional guidelines,

my nutritional needs, and the best part, it tastes freaking great. I mean, the treats, you can use it as a pre-workout. You can use it as a midnight snack, but you want to talk about the taste of the cereal. Okay, what am I getting here? How about Fruity, Cocoa, Cinnamon Roll, Peanut Butter, Birthday Cake, Chocolate Chip Cookie, and so much more. You're not going to believe the way it tastes. You're not going to believe the ingredients on the box. I'm a big believer in Magic Spoon.

So how about you get involved too? So how about this? Get $5 off your next order right now at magicspoon.com slash combat with a K or look for Magic Spoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery store. That's magicspoon.com slash combat with a K. Get $5 off right now. It's a lifestyle choice for me, Luke. I represent Magic Spoon. Yeah, I mean, I've been shopping, and my local grocery stores are Harris Teeter and Giant,

and then there's a Target by my house that's also got some stuff. All three carry Magic Spoon. I think Costco, too. You can even give that five big booms. You know what I mean? Yeah. Who does the boom? It's like, five big booms for Osama bin Laden.

Boom, boom, boom. Okay, okay, okay. Let's keep it going there. Thank you very much. MagicSpoon.com slash combat with a K. By the way, I became a Costco member. You did, finally. Yeah, I feel like that is a the way, I became a Costco member. You did finally. Yeah, I feel like that is a...

You're more of a chicken bake guy or a... So I've never had the chicken bake. Double chunk chocolate cookie. So the other day I went in there because I changed my pharmacy to the Costco. Yes. I can grab a glizzy on the way out. Well, the CVS by my house is just a fucking disaster. So I changed it to the Costco.

So I had never... I've still never had the hot dog. I've never had the chicken bake. I did have a slice of the pepperoni pizza. Put you in the bathroom instantly. It went right through you. It was excellent. It was delicious.

It comes with directions to Joseph A. Bank. It was delicious. Okay. I couldn't believe how good it was. I didn't know we're shilling for Costco now. There you go. Hey, let's go back to our topics. Topic number three.

What in the damn hell was that? Hey, Friday night at 8pm Eastern we watched the GFL, the Global Fight League have their inaugural draft ahead of what is supposed to be their inaugural season. But from AI superhero montages

to accidentally leaking the full results of the draft before it even ended to just halfway through the broadcast going, F it, we'll stop the draft now. Here's all the picks. And why does everybody live near this team that they're on? Oh, was this pre-planned? I don't understand. Luke Friday's GFL draft felt like a bad SNL skip. A comedy of errors. So what did it say to you

about the prospects of this league ever even launching let alone becoming a success? Well, I've always thought it was a complete gigantic tire fire and nothing about this assuaged any of those concerns. They should just change

the name from GFLBC to AIDS. I think that's a better... Oh, my God. Come on. Are you serious right now? Where's my hip-hop horn? There. Goddamn.

Help me dunk. You're supposed to be... You're supposed to, like, you know, Kobe's and I'll come in Shaq. I don't know what else to say. I don't know what people need to see to realize that, like, the fight game is full of carnies. It's full of carnival barkers.

What the hell was this, Luke? It was nonsensical. It didn't even look like the draft was an actual draft. It looked like they had pre-planned all of the picks. Great night for MMA Twitter, by the way. Great night for MMA Twitter. By the way, they would announce picks in the 11th round after the 5th. They were...

Let's be honest. There was no draft. They assigned the fighters to the cities they're affiliated with. It had nothing to... Remember they had Sage Northcutt and his wife or whoever. Fake acting once they got picked. Can we show the Sage Northcutt clip, please?

Sage Northcutt. Not Super Sage. I've seen better acting on a House Hunters International episode, Luke. Okay. Can we go to the Goldie tweet as well? The tweet about Goldie had a few great one-liners. Mike Goldberg just called Aspen Ladd one of the most decorated female fighters ever and a former champion.

Well, I don't want to kill Mike, but suffice to say. Did you hear what they said about Derek Brunson? No. Let's go to Robin Black right now. You see a guy like Brunson, and you see his body, and you see how fast he is, and you think of his attributes, and you kind of forget that actually fighting happens in the brain, right? The brain interprets the movement. When we see a fastball hitter hit a ball, we know something is happening in the brain to slow it down and let us see it.

Brunson fights like that. He fights. He sees everything unfolding in front of him and he's able to pick spots so yes he is you know a a race car but he's also an artist and he's very very sharp and his brain is really good and he just sees everything coming sees it all in full yeah and derek brown luke i've been saying for years that brunson is race car qualities, but definitely an artist. I don't know what to say to that. That is, uh,

I'll just say this. I'll just say this. I don't know what people were expecting. It was a format. This is the season or not. Sorry, the season, but the team format,

the team format is nonsensical to begin with. They don't have any events planned. They drafted Rashad Evans against his own will. They drafted people who were not even eligible to be drafted. One guy was in a Polish prison for the last year before they even tried. Yeah. And then they roll out this draft, which is not a draft, with fake acting. Hey, Dylan Danis got drafted.

Dylan Danis gets drafted. It's the AIDS. This is the most nonsensical nothing burger that ever, ever existed. There's absolutely nothing to it. They may hold an event, BC. They may hold a few events. But, like, even if they're able to rattle off a few of these, does anyone think this has any long-term potential? This is not to say you can't find fault with BKFC or PFL or really any other promoter out there,

but they at least have something going. BKFC proved to you concept. Look what we just did in Philly. Fair enough. PFL has been doing a lot. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but they had this event in Dubai. Proof of concept.

It worked. They followed my mock draft strategy. They're using AI slop with an AI song, AI future Sparta. Yeah, but that song's a banger. You want to hear it? No, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. They're going to copyright kill us if we play it.

Oh, come on. Right? They'll copyright kill. Dude, YouTube will fuck us. All right. We should play it safe, then. Yeah, I think they'll fuck us. I agree.

I could mute it. We could play it. Dude, everything about it screams low-rent carnival barker to the nth fucking degree. This was obvious before, and now it is simply incontestable. All right, let's go to the tweet with the stats. So the average age of the GFO rushers is 35.7 years. And get this now, 26% of the fighters on the roster are over 40. 61% are over 35.7 years, and get this now, 26% of the fighters on the roster are over 40. 61% are over 35.

Now, Luke, I've said it before. I think they would have more success early on branding themselves as almost a senior league. So for as many events as they can actually pull off here, would you actually say the best strategy is to take advantage of the names, make Kevin Lee versus Tony Ferguson 2, which both fighters were talking about on twitter but dylan danis against another like make literally the most ridiculous and absurd matchups you can to bring in as much

interest as possible if i was in charge of the gfl i'm being dead serious here's what i would do i would try as quickly as possible to get some kind of meme coin going rug pull all the investors and then move to a country with non-extradition treaties with the united states anything else is a gigantic waste of their time and everybody else's there's nothing this is are you more into doge or the millennium meme coin i haven't seen the i don't know whether i don't follow um phony uh financial assets all that closely uh i thought the hook to a thing got pulled already probably yeah that's all that shows you what i know i think they're listing i think they're listing the trump coin like coin base and stuff like that but in any case um this is vaporware this is vaporware this is the this

is the most mma vaporware I've literally ever seen. And I've been covering this sport a long fucking time. I've never seen something that has less get talked about more than AIDS. It's unbelievable what they're trying to do. I mean, this felt like an all-time low moment of the presentation that they were doing. I get that they tried hard. They put these fighters in AI superhero costumes and had them come out to an absurd rap song. But it was just like to watch them like show you accidentally behind the curtain with that full screen and everything that was happening.

Really long interviews on that broadcast. I really want to get Bong Island Luke Lowe to here because before the show, he was like, dude, I think GFL is going to overtake UFC. And I was like, I haven't been that shocked since Mikey went to bat for Bernd Kreisler. Remember? Can you imagine trying to argue in 2025? Bernd Kreisler is funny. You genuinely have to have been hit in the head with a tire iron. I don't know how else to do it.

In my defense of the GFL, going into this event, I would have said they put on four or five events this year. I'm actually not even thinking they put on an event at this point i gotta be honest dude they're gonna put on ai fights and they might be better than the actual ones they could put on the report yeah somebody had a great tweet that this was all just a commercial for a video game where all these fights were gonna happen and that's the ai didn't it feel though that um i forgot the train i thought i was going something negative toward them of what everyone has, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, AIDS. I mean, I don't know.

Look, that's going to be up there with that picture of Bjorn Rebny with the MMA union with Dillashaw and GSP. Or the Mexico tweet as well. That was like an all-time fluff moment. It reminded me of that famous WCW wrestling moment where the guy comes through the wall with the Stormtrooper mask on.

What the hell was that wrestler called? Super Blaster or Super? Yeah, no, something. You know what I'm talking about, Long Island? I don't know. I'm having a brain fart moment. He had the Stormtrooper mask that was like a shiny. Yes, it was the Shockmaster.

Shockmaster, I remember this one. Which is just an all-time hilarious moment. No, but Shockmaster actually existed. He actually walked through or fell through a wall. He was a person. He tripped over the bottom board. He was a guy that was Tugboat in WWE. Tugboat.

Oh, my God. I haven't heard that in a long time. Uncle Fred. There's a few things in MMA history that kind of stand out for their insane silliness. Dada 5000 being one of them, nearly dying in a Bellator fight, which was kind of amazing. Face the Pain is another one. Face the Pain is another one. Face the Pain is another one. The Yama fighting pit, which was like this lip that was on the edge of a fighting surface.

The Just Bleed guy. These are the things. The Just Bleed guys. The GFL draft and the GFL more generally is going to be a part of that. It blows my fucking mind that people think there is anything to this being any. I mean, again. It drives me nuts. Again, hold on.

Might there be an event? There might be. Might the event be good? It might be. But that this is anything that has any sustainability at a bare minimum relative to what the UFC is doing is like fucking comical. I just hope we get Kevin Lee, Tony Ferguson too.

And what's, I mean And what's the best? You know what someone texted me? Someone texted me Dylan Danis versus Tony Ferguson. Yeah. Long Island Luke, what's the most ridiculous matchup you can make? Weidman Rockhold 2. Let's go. Oh, yes.

Dude, seriously. You make your first card main evented by Weidman Rockhold 2. I'm in. I'm in. Okay? But the air is going to come out of the balloon. It's going to be like that gum that you used to buy for three cents as a kid you get like one chew and then the flavors what do you think about Dylan Dennis uh and Tony Ferguson uh Tony would run right through him you'd

have I don't know you'd have that I think Eddie doesn't belong in BKFC you bring Eddie into GFL you do Eddie and Tony how long before Michael Chandler's in GFL? Yeah, he's not going back to PFL, is he? He might do BKFC. We're going to get Eddie versus Chandler 3 somewhere, right? I hope not at the Lavashek. You could get it at BKFC. You could get it there.

I don't know if you will, but you could. Anyway. You know who else could get it? We'll tell you on our Patreon show later. Are you going to say Aileen Perez or something? No. Why would you sexualize a... I'm looking at your smile, and it only means one thing. It means you got a boner in those dungarees.

I have phoners, but I'm too old for the other side of that. Look, okay. Thank you very much. Anyway, Vaporware. Thank you to the GFL Draft for entertaining us. That was more than I ever expected. Tyron Woodley, the number one pick by Dubai. Thank you to the GFL draft for entertaining us. That was more than I ever expected. Tyron Woodley, the number one pick by Dubai. There you go.

He was the number one pick? Yeah. We didn't talk about the Abubakar Nurmagomedov graphic that said Team Duabi, and it had him as a UFC champ, Strikeforce champ. It had Douglas Lima having knocked out. Do you have it? No. I can probably get it, but I don't have it.

Douglas Lima, full screen board said best wins KO won Cain Velasquez. They must have just copy and pasted the JDS one. They had Douglas Lima, the former Bellator welterweight champ, his best win was KO in Cain Velasquez. That's like saying,

remember when Pantoja knocked out Mahatchev? You know, it's like heard it both ways, ultimately. All right. I mean, doing skits and beats. I'm going to beg you. Hey, let's keep it going here. Topic number four.

We got MMA this weekend, and it does matter. A fight night of large concern, considering the Riyadh season partnership and sponsorship that goes with it. It's UFC fight night Riyadh, and there's at least two fights that you really do have to see, maybe a third. And, Luke, let's talk about that main event, middleweights. And at age 35, Israel Adesanya, the two-time former champion,

has now lost three of four fights, two of them by stoppage. So, Luke, when we look at this main event of Adesanya versus Nasruddin Imavov, what is the biggest storyline surrounding this matchup that you are focused in on come Saturday? So what's kind of interesting if you look at this fight and you look at what Izzy's coaches

have been saying. It wasn't Eugene Behrman. It was another one from City Kickboxing. I cannot pronounce his last name correctly. Is his last name Blood Diamond? No, no, no, no, no. It's like some kind of, I don't know how to pronounce it. It's a unique last name.

He was basically saying that like this time around, the amount of, the kind of training that Izzy's putting out and the way he is looking at him, thinking that he's got another title run left in him. Izzy, 35 years of age. Pop Quizby, see how old is Nasassar dean imava without i would guess 33 he is 28 28 he is very very young here's what i'm going to say the value of this fight is that if izzy's coaches are correct and he wins this one i actually don't think it's impossible at all

for him to at least get another title shot now whether he can win one i don't think it's impossible at all for him to at least get another title shot. Now, whether he can win one, I don't know, but I'm going to say that's in play. Okay. But what I think is really happening here is they're trying to see what they've got with Imao Vov as he surges into his prime. Everyone who's been fighting up to this point has been fighting him pre-prime. Well, now he's entering into it. And additionally, it's a very, very interesting style clash. This is another one of those fights. Who's coming?

Who's going? Indeed. Who's's got the future who's the past or in the case of imalvov if he loses i'm not going to say he'll never be anything but you know it would be a detriment to any kind of future implication so you get the idea but it's a contrast not just of styles and of course geographic location to a degree but really about where the division is going. And listen, at lightweight, we thought all those young guys were going to come out and force everyone off, and it didn't really work that way. No, those old guys are digging in and representing. They're digging their heels in.

Did I think Poirier was going to stop BSD? Nope. So is this going to be a case at middleweight? Are the older guys going to dig their heels in and not let the upstarts really take over? A fight like this is going to go a long way towards answering that. Well said. Odds per DraftKings at the moment, Adesanya a minus 170. Betting favorite, Imamov plus 142.

We do have some sound here from Adesanya talking about what's in front of him in terms of the challenge that Nasruddin brings to the table. Imamov, this is the biggest fight of his life, and I know he's going to come ready. So it's my job to shut that down, and that's what I brings to the table. Imamov, this is the biggest fight of his life, and I know he's going to come ready, so it's my job to shut that down, and that's what I'm going to do. He's slick, bro. He likes, he's really slick. And I like that.

I like his style, so I want to test that. I want to test that. There's no pressure on me, but I like to put pressure on myself when the time comes because I am Israel Adesanya. Luke, when fighters get to this point, and you can argue we saw that in the DDP fight, they can still harness together a close enough version

of their elite self to give you some problems. But whether it comes down to stamina or willingness to go to war, they can slow down quick. I'm not saying that's exactly what happened when DDP submitted Adesanya here, but if you were Imavov entering this, would you be thinking that, that you may have a guy who can look good for a bit,

but does he still have that gut to sit down and get into a war? Would you try to make it a war? I wonder if that's something they're talking about here. Yes, I would. Knowing he's been stopped twice, lost three of his last four. If I'm Imavov, I think there's a couple things I'm looking for. One, I'm going to put this fight in boxing range because you're going to know Izzy's going to want to keep it at kickboxing range, which

by the way, Imovov can fight at that range too. I don't think quite as well as Izzy, but you're going to have to put this fight on disadvantageous terms if you're Imovov, and I think that's also advantageous for him to have it inside boxing range, so that pressure's going to be interesting. But I think he's going to test that wrestling of Izzy too.

And here's the interesting part about Izzy, as I've noticed he's gotten older. Sometimes in the grappling, the more you make him grapple, it's not like his defense gets like, oh, it noticeably gets worse over time. That's actually not quite right. But he begins out of nowhere to make bad decisions at times. Or he gets kind of like locked into place

and can't really go anywhere like the turning his back to it's less from the grappling but as the fight wore on and he got a little more tired you saw him turn his back to ddp and that's when he got hit and then he just showed his back and didn't scramble at all as the fight goes on it's not like he gets tired and like oh i just you know brain fart but he can be kind of made to act in a way where he takes a little bit of license and i think if you're young and maybe not the biggest deal but when you get a little bit older it actually can really cost you it really cost him against ddp granted ddp is the champion he involved i was just 28 and has some more proving to do but you see my point putting pressure on izzy not exclusively but a lot

through the grappling department i think yields mistakes and those mistakes yield opportunities ddp is also big awkward and relentless and here's a fun clip uh we mentioned that it happened that adesanya and old buddy robert whittaker not only came together to train but to make content here's them laughing about ddp but giving him respect at the same time there's one i remember when i sprawled on him and, like, head hit the mat. I tried to kick him on the ground. I was like, get up. And I advanced, and straight away he just went.

And I had to stop. I had to stop. So I stopped my momentum, and I had to reset. So he's just weird, man. He's, like, the best shit fighter in the world. Dude. He's so good. Yeah.

I can't even fault him for it, eh? Because it works. Yeah. Bastard. You know what I mean? Like, I remember when I fought him, that first 30 seconds, I was like, dude, he's so slow. You know what I mean?

It's like out of nowhere. I'm like, bro, he just. Dude, but then I got punched in the face. That's the reality. That face. That's the reality. That is. That's fun stuff. I saw this, too. This is really good stuff.

I like that. The two guys. And by the way, fucking DDP finished both of them. You can't believe it. You got to shout him out. He is one of the palm for palm best, even if he does it differently than others. Hey, the co-main event at Middleweight, it'll be a one-off for Michael Venom Page in MVP, and he'll be a plus-164 underdog per DraftKings

in this matchup with rising Shara Bull at Magomedov, who can look human or weird or not ready for primetime at times and then come back with a double backfist KO. He looks like a pirate. And Luke, this matchup has gotten oddly personal. Did you see this post from Shara Bullitt? It was in response to comments from MVP. He posted a video from a horror movie that he was a part of.

And the words here are from Shara Bullitt on that post I heard you say I will bleed in our fight Yes, I will bleed only in yours That was aggressive right there Those are the text messages I sent to you when we're beefing Okay, that was something Luke Thomas We're going to break these down and make our picks on Friday

But it's a big opportunity for Shara Bullitt to continue being looked at as a hyped guy or an attraction. But at some point, we're going to have to move him. Yeah, and against an unusual matchup, too. That's a guy who's going to touch and go versus Petrosian, his last fighter, who just kind of stands in front of you and swings. Very, very different styles. We're going to actually see to what extent Bull bullet's got other skills we haven't seen yet to what extent he can problem

solve this is one of those fights where you know michael venom page is not the best fighter in the world but he is an interesting test to see what your problem solving abilities look like let's see he slows down shower bullets output and makes it more of of this tense chess match where you're leaping in. It could get interesting, but if you're Shara Bullitt, if you could turn this into a war, what does that look like against MVP? He's going to have to walk MVP down and crowd him a little bit. That's going to make it interesting. It's going to be fun. That'll go down this Saturday afternoon, is it?

So, yeah, it's a Saudi Arabian card. 12 p.m. main card. 12 p.m. Eastern main card. I'm going to have two streams this weekend. Oh, you're going to have like a jug while you're... No, no, no. I'm going to do a stream for the UFC fights. Oh, I thought you meant if you had a pee,

you'd just have the second stream going. No, no, no. And then I'm going to watch and do a stream for the Benavidez-Morrell fights too. All right. You got any plans for a golden stream or is that too personal? Yeah, yeah.

After the show's over in your face. How about that? Thank you. R Kelly on you. There's one more event. I'm going to do. That's just as big, if not bigger.

And it's going down Saturday in Las Vegas at T-Mobile arena. PBC is back on prime video. Paper view. Unbeaten light heavyweights to David's by name, but to Goliaths in the way they throw down here as David Benavidez and David Murrell Jr. basically said, I'm not waiting on Canelo anymore and turned around and pointed the Spider-Man meme at each other. So Luke Thomas, at the end of the day,

what is the most enticing reason why you are so excited to see Benavidez and Murrell main event? What is, I think, a very deep pay-per-view card offered on Prime Video this weekend. I think this is actually important that I answer this one first because you're the boxing guy. By the way, one more time, I'm going to say this. BC is on the pay-per-view call for the main event.

Well, the whole main card, obviously. What's the biggest call you've ever been assigned? That's a great question. In terms of level, it was probably a Showtime pay-per-view, their last one when David Benavidez beat Demetrius Andrade. I handled the in-ring interviews for that. No, no, no, but I mean like commentary. Do you remember when Spence Ugas fought on pay-per-view in Dallas?

We were there. Yeah, I called two prelim fights on regular showtime. One was a title bout, Imanta Staniosis against Raja Butaev. But that's more of a hardcore special, right? Yeah. I've called some showbox fights. I've called, oh, sorry.

Actually, the highest profile fight I ever called was Usyk Belyu on DAZN, yes. That's a pretty big one. That's a pretty big one. This is, but you weren't there in the arena, were you? No, I called that from a closet in Miami. So in terms of being in the arena, this is the biggest fight you've ever called? I wasn't trying to make it all about me, but if you want to,

this is like a mountaintop moment to some degree for me, and I'm so excited. I'll be on color commentary. I'll be handling the in-ring interviews. Tell the folks again who you're calling it with. Mauro Analo, Abner Morris, and then Jordan Plant, as well as doing uh reporting and then i think it's uh ryan custer and joe goose and joe goose i'm gonna be wearing the denim

i know he is oh i can't wait i mean i love a lot of those i love all those people by the way i've loved uh getting a chance to work with them in various stops in the past i've actually got five reasons that i've listed that this fight rocks and i have to tell you this is why this fight is so great between david benavidez and david morel especially if you're an mma fan you're like you know i only want to tune into boxing when you get like a real good reason guys you've got five good reasons to turn into this fight let's go number one it's a grudge match and a hardcore grudge match these two guys hate each other david morel says he's been calling out david benavidez who was avoiding him david benavidez like i'm not avoiding you they took this fight

and they can't be in the same room without screaming, pushing, shoving, yelling. Want to throw to that? Yeah, let's show. Let's throw to that. This was them in Miami. Okay, no, no. They had a workout and did a face-to-face, and there we go.

This is real, by the way. This is very much real. They cannot be in the same room without absolutely losing it on each other. So number one, they don't like each other. And I know a lot of times we say that in the fight world. A lot of times it's either overstated or somewhat true. It's not overstated at all.

David Benavidez loathes this guy. And Morel thinks he's going to run right through him. Can't wait. That's reason number one. Number two, how about this one, BC? They are both undefeated. Somebody's O has to go and obviously in boxing that carries a little bit more significance than it would in mma where you

see guys lose fights and you know it's not the end of the world and i think it'll be the end of the world here necessarily either but the margin of error on this one in general is low and the cost of getting it wrong is real damage to your record in a sport where you can ill afford that i think it creates a little bit more of an incentive to watch and also i think for these guys they don't want to lose no matter what but especially they want to give up their first loss to the guys that they hate number three style contrast you've got a slick boxer puncher i'm going to call him that in david more, and you've got a wall of firepower in David Benavidez. And it's so funny because Morrell and his team,

do we have him calling him Robocop? Making fun of him calling him Robocop? Do we have that one? Please watch this. Watch this. Now, the fight David Morrell Jr. has been waiting for is finally here. He's got the opponent, the spotlight,

and the opportunity to prove he belongs at the top. I got everything, like fast power, defense, attack, legs, the move. So I got everything, you know what I mean? Ben Ali can't dance, you know? So only for this, you see the movie, there's Robocop, right? You know?

It's the same. I don't know why people say, okay, here is the monster, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's from Gloves Off, by the way. So the style contrast, Morel is super slick, and he has good firepower, but he's one of these Cuban guys that will dance and circle and angles and combinations and rhythm change and timing change. Uppercuts from out of nowhere.

Uppercuts. He's fucking awesome to watch. And David Benavidez is a tsunami of firepower. Yeah. Who is, by the way, quite hittable and knows it, but it's part of his whole style. You gotta love it. That's reason number three.

BC, because of the style contrast, I think there's all different kinds of bouts we could get. Yes. Right? You could get, and I think it'll end up being a super high action fight eventually, but the first half of that fight could be nip and tuck it could open up right away could be a cotto margarita one type thing where where you know there's big boxing early for morel but benavidez goes downhill in

that second half and starts really closing up so because of the way in which they match up you can get all different kinds of permutations in the fight itself, or you can get them forward to BC's point, three rounds, four rounds, and then a switch to the other one. The ebbs and flows of this fight can change in a lot of different directions because of who they are and how they match up. And BC, this is also a reason number five to like it. It's the fights that the winner sets up. Does the winner get Canelo? I don't think that they will, but it will certainly be part of the conversation. However, does the winner get the winner of Better Beave and Bivol

in the same fucking weight class? I think there's a very good chance of that. So BC, you've got all the reasons, and yes, there's something of a title unification. It's the regular WBA title with the interim WBC title, so it is kind of unificationification but that's really not the reason all the reasons that you like a fight it'll be action-packed it'll be a real weird in a great style contrast they hate

each other they're fucking undefeated what sets up the future it's got every part of that chain this fight is the one i've been looking forward to in boxing since, discounting Usyk Fury since maybe even Spence Crawford this fight fucking bangs I saw Dan Canovio on Twitter basically trying to make the argument that this is the best fight you can make this year just in terms of the stakes, the talent

the unbeaten records, the disgust between them, and Luke I can add on to what you said with those five very good reasons of each other is the toughest matchup of their career, I think, without question. Right, it's the toughest fight for both of them. And so it's not just a great style contrast. It's not just, oh man, there's been some fun trash talk.

It's not just, hey, the winner could be getting better BFB ball. And oh, by the way, I did see Benavidez this week rehash that story in sparring where he says he nearly stopped BVOL. So that's something to think about right there. I think the thing that drives me the most when you combine all these elements are these two are so hungry.

Yes, Benavidez has already headlined a couple of pay-per-views. He's getting pound-for-pound votes. He's looking like a superstar. But he hasn't had that breakthrough victory like he was hoping the Canelo one to be where you put down that flag and you try to argue that I'm one of the best fighters in this whole sport. One of the most exciting ones. He's come really close. He's got the monster nickname from Mike Tyson, but this is that hill he has to climb.

And obviously for Morel, it's like he can do so many things great, but he's got to do something that no one's done. They've, they've, he's got to disarm somebody who in the second half of fights, when he comes downhill, puts that pressure on you, it overwhelms you. So it's the fact that they are both so hungry that I don't think this is going to be anything but a tense masterpiece. You know what I'm saying? Whether it becomes more action heavy or more technical,

it's going to depend upon the skills of both and how they mesh. But I think this is one of those where they are both going to leave everything in the ring. This is the kind of fight that changes your career if you win, and sometimes can change you if you lose. There's so much at stake, there's so much hunger. And if you like the fun trash talk, here's one more piece. Here's Benavidez summing up what Morel means to him.

David Morel, his team, his dog, his cat, everybody over there. My main job is to beat the at him them and that's exactly what i'm gonna do that's the best commercial for the fight right there fuck his dog his cat uh don't you love by the way that whoever benavidez fights it inevitably goes this way to some degree you know what i mean like the build to the plant fight was awesome the vasnik fight wasn't like this no that's right you need the right dance partner but like if he has a willing partner fight was definitely like yes and it brings out the best in him. And dude, we don't really know how great David Morel is,

and that's why this fight is going to be so fun, because we are 100% going to find out. There's no scenario where you don't find out exactly what Morel is made of going against Benavidez for 12 full rounds. By the way, open stance fight too, so pay attention to some of those details as well. Love that stuff right there. Those are our five topics for the week.

Thank you very much for playing. Now we go to a segment that is to hear your voice every Sunday night at Morning Combat on Instagram on X. We put out the call to the fans to get your questions heard. You better have a suitable enough username with no spelling or grammar issues that Luke can call out, And you better have brought it. This one's called DMs from dongs. Well, that's disgusting, Luke.

It's just jizzing. All right, let's hear from the people. What do we got going on here right now? This one's from, how do we pronounce that? Kieran, Siren? Chakowing? Chaka Khan? This is one of those Irish names that always looks kind of funky. Yeah, and then it's like Lexus.

And you're like, oh, yeah, I could see that. Krzyzewski, I got it. Okay, how do you think Paul Hughes stacks up against the top five lightweights within the UFC? So I'm definitely convinced he could win inside the top ten. I think Michael Chandler's number seven. People think Michael Chandler was a Bellator guy that everybody said couldn't do shit. And again, he's got more losses than wins in UFC, but he obviously does belong inside the top 10.

I think it's fucking madness to think that both of those guys couldn't win inside the top 10. Yes. Top five's a little bit harder to say, especially since both are not even in their prime yet, I don't think. Certainly Hughes is not. I think if he'd be competitive with the top five, he he might be able to get wins on the outer portion of that

you know i don't think he's ready for the very very very best of the division but give it time he might be able to be paul hughes won the hearts of so many fans can we show that picture i forgot to throw it earlier long island if you still have it just the one on his face with the blood yeah dude this is going to become one of those iconic pics forever with the smile on his face, like refused to wipe off the blood. He looked, and you could see the cut right over the forehead line, a clash of heads.

Accidental clash of heads. They didn't mean to. But... Usman was down and out, just like Hughes was on the second low blow. Like, they both kind of really messed with each other. That's why this fight had everything, Luke. It had it all. That was incredible. By the way, do the uh abu bakar stats from the gfl thing put that up here real quick because we were talking about that earlier as he's eating donuts back there like a fucking new york city cop all right

abu bakar number gamedov 17 4-1 i don't even know if that's accurate but former ufc and wc lightweight champion yes that's correct ufc and w WC lightweight champion. Yes, that's correct. UFC and WC title record, 3-1. I remember all four fights very clearly. He's got one title defense. Oh, he defeated Gilbert Melendez. Okay. This is Anthony Pettis' shit. Once did Showtime. Wait, the 19 finishes, but only 17 wins?

Well, he has been finished as well. 11 plus 8 is 19, you fucking idiot. I just said it says 19 finishes, but it only has 17. Oh, the record. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The record. Oh, that's hilarious. That's great. Again, GFL do lobby. Okay, GFL. That's

great. But also, for as much as we're clowning the week, we would have took the paycheck, too. I would have sat next to Goldie for the paycheck. Yeah, listen, if they would have paid me, I would have done some shucking and jiving, too. Alright, let's see what else the fans have to say. Hit me with a DM right in the hole from Real Kempe.

If the PFL just sticks to putting on good events and fights, can they be as big as Strikeforce? That's an interesting question. The advantages they have are celebrity investment, like real deep pocket investment it seems. They have the right relationships in the Middle East and they're on ESPN+. I attended in person many strike force events this may come as some great surprise

to ufc fans who weren't around strike force had a fan base oh yeah i'm going to say this again pfl in the united states does not have a fan base so they're asking if they keep going can they get there i think it's on the table i think it's on the table I think it's on the table that they could do something like what Strikeforce did but they got a lot of work to get there Strikeforce had did you go look at who was in the Strikeforce

heavyweight grand prix big names I was there for Fedor vs Bigfoot at the Izod Center in New Jersey and they gave you an awful seat they gave me that they didn't give me an awful seat they gave me the worst seat in the house they gave you a seat that suggested you should get a new career yeah and then scott coker wonders why i was bitter about uh towards him especially after he tried to fuck with us

on the early version of mk but i got no issues with coker in fact i enjoyed doing that show with him and Mauro during the pandemic. I enjoyed doing that show, too. We got paid stupidly well for that. No, no, I enjoyed doing that show, too, but I had issues with him. Luke, there is a long list of people

you've had issues with in this industry. There's a lot of people who think it's cool to fuck with me, and I don't... Some of it I ignore, some of it I can't. I've been fucking with you since the show started. That's part of the show. I mean, what are you going to do? What else you got, Shane?

You got any more of these? Long Island, at GrappleHeavy93, who are the three best Irish MMA fighters of all time? All right, so Conor's on that list. Okay. Sinead Cavanaugh, too. No, Paul Hughes, too. Well, let me ask a question.

How is it not Conor, Paul Hughes, and Ian Gary? That's what Long Island Luke suggested pre-show, and I didn't have an argument against it. There were Irish fighters during the initial UFC foray into Ireland and the UK circa pre-UFC 100. Cabbage Correa wasn't Irish despite the first name, right, Luke? His first name wasn't Cabbage. I gather that.

He was Hawaiian. Yes. I'm really pulling at straws here trying to find some. Do you guys remember when Marcus Davis, I think they fought in Belfast, and they made him change his name from the Irish Hand Grenade to the Celtic Warrior? Oh, wow. Because they didn't want any connotations with terrorism, which is understandable, I suppose. But I don't know who would be better than those three.

Like, Patty Houlihan is not better than these guys. Sinead Cavanaugh is not better than these guys. Right? Yeah. Right? How is it not those three? Who are we forgetting? It is those three.

It just feels weird to say because Gary and Hughes are, like, so young in their careers. And relatively new to the scene. Yeah. I mean, by proxy, Callum Walsh might be number four. He's dating babies. Who are the best boxers? Would you even count Mickey Ward?

No, he's not from the States. I know, but they call him Irish Mickey Ward. Right, because he's Irish. Okay, well, I'm asking, is he fucking Irish? No, no. I like Carl Frampton as one of the best okay irish of all time um i get some confused whether they're uk or irish but uh yeah can we just keep going okay i guess you hate the irish all right everyone no people have to understand that i'm an eighth

irish my great-grandmother was a brady this is a true fact. We've been through this. She claims that she was a descendant of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president. Do you also own slaves? Okay, I didn't say that. You know, the practice is carried up through the lineage, Luke. Okay, that's really insulting. It's like Borat. He is your slave. No, he's not.

My wife, she has sleeve like wizard on her. Okay, that's great. Hey, do we have any more of these jams here? Let's go to at Fahey Lee under dot Liam. If you could combine any MMA fighter skillset with a fighter from each disciplined, i.e. boxing, wrestling, BJJ, Muay Thai, kickboxing, who would you choose? Imagine Inouye's boxing with Habib's wrestling. Is that what they're trying to ask me? Yeah. I think he's saying pick one. So like, Imagine Inouye's boxing with Khabib's wrestling. Is that what they're trying to ask me? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think he's saying pick one. So, like, would you have Inouye's boxing, or would you choose, like, Khabib's wrestling? Would you choose Poiton's kickboxing? Something like that. But from each discipline. From each discipline. Oh, so he wants us to make a perfect fighter, right? With one person.

I'll tell you what. You know how I've always thought? Tell me how you feel about this. I've always thought, if I'm thinking of, like, boxing styles that translate to MMA, Inoue's a good one. I always thought Pacquiao had a good style. Because he had fast combination punching, set angles, good power, power translated up.

He would have been a good... If you're going to borrow someone's boxing style, that's a pretty good one to borrow. And he had massive calves. Let's never forget that. And wrists. Did you know his wrists were the same size as Vladimir Klitschko's? Did you know that? Let's never forget that. And wrists. Did you know his wrists were the same size as Vladimir Klitschko's? Did you know that? That's insane.

Yes, he had the same wrist circumference as Vladimir Klitschko. So explain some of the power punching. Yeah. So let's see. For Muay Thai, I mean, I'm out of my depth on this one. The kickboxing one, I'm always going to be out of my depth. I think, aren't they just asking for for i don't know what they're asking long i'll look so they want the they want if you can combine an mma fighter skill set with a fighter's skill set

from each of these disciplines yeah all right so who's bjj would you take i would take i guess well would i take gordon ryan's or would i take somebody else's yeah i might i might take somebody else's because it's a little more athletic i I would take... Nicky Rod? No, because he's got a heavyweight style jiu-jitsu. Mikey Musumechi? He's got nerd style jiu-jitsu. Something in between. God, who was that Levi Jones kid?

I'm saying his name wrong. He's real fucking good. Would you take Seagal's Aikido? And his big old fat tummy? Yeah. I would take, for the yeah um i would take from the wrestling i would take you know you could take satiev for for kickboxing you know ernesto hoost you could take remy you could take somebody boxing i would take pacquiao yeah Yeah, something like that. Okay. Okay.

Rousey's Judo? Fine. Who has better MMA Judo? Harrison, Rousey, or our guy from Armenia? Caro. Caro and Rousey had the most visible Judo. That doesn't mean that Kayla has better pure judo. No one did throws like Caro.

Rousey had some pretty good throws on Alexis Davis. Caro's much more violent. It feels like people's arms are kind of socket. Caro would go for it, but then he wouldn't establish control afterwards. So he wouldn't just stand up again. He was like, Ippon. It's like, well, you don't win by Ippon in this sport. But he had some fun ones for sure.

I was thinking one Irish boxer named Stevie Collins. I was trying to think of. I don't know if there's a bigger one. The Irish probably have a separate sense of things. Yeah, probably. They probably don't recognize me for my 1-8 either. I can't speak for the Irish, but from what I can tell, they seem disdainful of Americans who identify as Irish.

Especially if you use the term Southern Ireland like I did in our live show that time. They don't like that? I don't believe they like that at all. I was threatened with violence, but that's fine. Oh, wait, because you were doing Northern Ireland and then Southern Ireland? Yeah, I had the UK plus bit. You don't like that at all.

No, but what a great show we gave them in London. There was a documentary. There's a lot of documentary footage sitting on some director's room floor right now. I'm waiting for it to be released. That director is Jake von Amsterdam. We just need to pay him. Would you, what if we both agreed to take like a little bit out of our salary into a Jake fund just to keep the docs going?

I'd do that. Oh my God. Are you serious? Yeah, I'd do that. I hope Matt heard that. I don't know. It's now or never. Okay.

Is that it, Long Island, for that stuff? No, we got one more from MT Booble. What's a topic that you could give a 45-minute presentation on with no prep? PED, use in combat sports for Luke, yes. Yes. Business ethics. No. 45 minutes, no prep.

I don't know about that. It was a family reference. Um, you could do one on Delta eights and Fortnite. Definitely. Definitely. On, on the attraction of grown men. How about, you know, men with cats? I could do a nice, you know, 45.

I mean, like I have to illustrate the understanding that although his behavior doesn't represent the love I have for him because he's so selfish reggie and i are are like a forever thing i could do one on the change in pornography on the internet since the 90s okay that's something right there i could um you know i every week on i mean i really only i'm only an expert in 70s vinyl 90s nba and you know boxing that's pretty much you know what i could do i could do one on a no bullshit i could do 45 minutes on philadelphia underground rappers interesting on army of the pharaohs vinny paz what about which fast food uh places have the best shitting options in dc i can

definitely do that okay which restaurants like give you the best shitting options? In D.C.? I can definitely do that. Which restaurants, like, give you the most space and, like, the nicest toilet paper and whatnot? Dude, I could absolutely destroy that. You should have, like, a side website going with that where you just. I can do that for sure. All right. But definitely underground rappers. By the way, white underground rappers love me.

This is true. I'm followed by Vinny Paz. Yes. Apathy. Yes. And I found out the other day because he DM'd me. R.A. the Rugged Man. You know R.A. the Rugged Man from Long Island?

By the way, R.A. the Rugged Man can rap his fucking ass off. He's from Long Island. Do you think he would ever freestyle in this studio? We should invite him. We should get him to do this GFL song cover. We should invite him. We've got to get Imm this GFL song cover. We should invite him. We've got to get Immortal Technique in the studio. Immortal Technique gave me his phone number.

I have his phone number. We were texting back and forth. I think he wants like a boxing media career. Dude, I'd be into that if we had him. If you like Squarevo, we can have him in here. Yeah, dude, you know what? We should do a pregame preview with him when we do a boxing one. I'd be into that.

With Immortal Technique. Yeah. I'd be into that. With the immortal technique. Yeah. I'd be psyched for that. I'm into that, yeah. But yeah, dude, white rappers love me. They love me. There you go. Thank you to all your questions from the listeners here.

And a reminder that morningcombat at gmail.com will connect you with the show for Friday's Dead Wrongs, fan subs, and we don't recommend this, but showing Mikey your hog. You know what I mean? Send your dick pics to him. No, please don't. Seriously, that guy does not deserve that type of treatment. Take a picture of your penis. I got a final segment that sometimes has penises in it, Luke.

It sure does. Because that's what the people are talking about on the internet. Hey, I scoped the globe high and low, the good and bad, all that other weird stuff that I say. Let's do it. This one's called BC's Feces. I want to see some thangs. Luke, there has been nothing but disrespect going on the hardwood.

Have you seen this shit? Let's see it. Let's watch this in this game. Okay, that's a clear flagrant. Oh, hold that as Lukeke which oh he caught like it was the palace probably caught that dude mid-stride just hitting him with the bop gun left and right is no one gonna get involved what the fuck are they doing wow well they're getting involved because two kids just died wow that was that was wild hey uh let's go to another high school game

where it's like regional mma anything can happen let's see what's going on notice the top left of the screen okay okay oh they just went to go scrap all the coaches are getting involved look at this oh my god ground to pound yeah dude basketball is a different game these days well the disrespect on the hardwood only continued in this next clip i mean could you travel a little bit more for being five foot three oh wait okay well oh my god i mean come on if you're in a game and somebody's what happens when you get rid of diversity initiatives you know you don't let the kid in the wheelchair score anymore. You know what I'm saying?

Well, this guy took it to a whole new level. Dude, how can you teabag the wheelchair kid? I mean, what the fuck are you doing, honky? Get off the fucking way. Luke, speaking of wheelchair disrespect, did you see this flash mob that broke out here on TV? Watch the lady in the chair. Great moves.

She's dancing, whatever. I'm not mad at it. Oh, what the fuck? They danced her into the wall and then just left her there? Oh, right. Luke, it doesn't help when you're trying to sit in your wheelchair to watch fireworks or Christmas lighting

and then Terry gets the gas button pressed down and then suddenly, yeah. I saw a segue get out of control one time. Yo, this motherfucker's going to barf everywhere. Yes. Well, perfect segue from here. If she's high and then doing that, I'm good on it. Like, let him cook. Let him breathe.

You know what I'm saying? It's like a, wait, what? Go back and play it. The ending of Million Dollar Baby? Is this what you're saying? Go back and play it. Assisted suicide? Yeah,. You know what I'm saying? It's like a... Wait, what? Go back and play it. The ending of Million Dollar Baby? Is this what you're saying? Go back and play it. Assisted suicide? Yeah, so here's what I'm saying.

If you were here and you're watching her and you know this person is in control and on drugs and just having a good time, let them be. Let her cook. Let her cook. All right. Well, the perfect segue from that is Knuckle Mania in Philly. Luke, did you see the cannoli fight that broke out during weigh-ins? I did not see the cannoli fight. So this gentleman on

the right here brought out the cannoli. Connor's like, let me get one. Let me get one of those. Yeah. Yeah, let me get on that. You know his hands have been touching his balls. Watch the move coming up from the baldy on the right. Oh, yeah. Slaps the cannoli. That's what I'm talking about. That is what I'm talking about.

Luke, there was another fighter who had a great before and after. This was a stupid bit. His name is Pat. Oh, look at that. Who won that one? I don't know, but I can tell you this. The cannoli smasher won. He was minus 3,000, and he actually looked like a really good boxer.

So the one who gave the cannoli away was also the one who? Yes. The asshole. Luke, I'd like to introduce you to BKFC's Pat Sullivan. Here's him at Friday's weigh-in. Got to be careful on those small scales. Okay, he looks like he's... That's how it started.

He's got the tan of every Florida redneck I've ever seen. Well, here's how it's ended for him when he took on Kane Tomlinson Jr. Here's the ringside view. Oh, mother... Oh, my God. This is the BKFC brand. That is wonderful stuff, BKFC. It's just murder.

And it's always set up by something ridiculous at the weigh-in or press conference. Dude, this guy stops moving his feet and then immediately gets blasted with a one-two. They got a formula, and it's dial-in for murder. Get guys who are not that great and do it with a rule set that makes them get CTE. Even though Conor McGregor has two fights left on his BKFC deal, he talked to the Schmoe. I'm sorry, his UFC deal, which would stop him from fighting BKFC. Here's him talking to the Schmoe about what he might do anyway. One of these days, you'll just hear my music come onto the stage here in Bare Knuckle Fight Championship.

And now I come with my fist wrapped with no gloves, and I fight. I went nowhere. No promo, no promo, no nothing. Just fighting a random, fighting a card. That could be where my future holds. And, you know, legal, legal, making claims and all this bollocks, that's for pussies.

That's for sure. So, Luke, making legal claims when you're under contract is for pussies. He might just show up ready with his knuckles wrapped at any point and you'll hear his music. No? Okay. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't think that's true. Alright kids, we used to call this Roadhead. Um, I miss those days. Luke, did you ever see that movie that women like called Eat, Pray, Cock?

Eat, Pray, Love. This is almost embarrassing. We were sitting here and we just realized we've got eat cock on our wall. And the word yum right beside of it so somebody here eat some yummy cock come on that's your dad's house it kind of looks like it yeah not bad uh speaking of cock luke if you're gonna cook it you better book it you better know what you're doing 50 ways to eat cock is this your girlfriend's book is your kitchen have that luke uh also we saw the sanctions and tariffs that trump is putting on the nation of columbia luke have you seen that yeah he couldn't spell it right

either but luckily there's someone in his family with sense let's look in on this uh that's baron saying father keep the bbls yes please please let those let them yeah they don't want to deport those ones okay all right uh speaking of marines and their sexual habits oh god do you agree that marines have been helping fat chicks get laid since 1775 negative negative absolutely not fat chicks have been helping marines get laid since 1775 yes that's fair look at that dip he's got yeah unless we have the fucking tools i mean that's a low reg haircut i don't think that was a very marine approved but he is correct that uh marines have been marines have been what we in my day you know late 90s early 2000s in the marine corps we called that hoggin

when you went hoggin you know the thing is to be very honest i don't care what tim kennedy lied about in the end i just want to know if he also paid for sex. Again, I can't say, but my guess is if he's like most people, most Marines I encountered, it would not be a very strong ethical dilemma for him to. All right. Hey, it's time to smoke him if you got him. And you know I love the, that's right, guy. Luke, you sent me a clip from him and his buddy Jughead over here.

Check this out. Did I? Yes, I did. Mr. T Gang Shit. Yeah, Joy! His name is Squirrel Bait. Dude, they're going to kill each other. At least they went out doing what they love.

Also, you can kill me like this. There's no way you can survive that. You would be out. By the way, they filmed this at Long Island Luke's house during the main carpeted podcast.

Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? They made heaven a place on earth. Oh, well, Luke, when you take out the morning Joe, how about taking it out

in this nice wake and bake mug? That's an amazing, amazing. My girlfriend owns this. Oh, my God. Did you just hear that? Do you use it?

No, it's more just like a novelty. I don't even think we have it in the coffee mug. We girlfriend owns this. Oh my god, did you just hear that? Did you use it? Nah, it's more just like a novelty. I don't even think we have it in the coffee mug thing, but we do own it. I love the way that man says coffee. Say it again? Coffee talk. Coffee? I don't know, how do you say it in New York? Do it with your terrible Long Island accent.

I'm going to go get a cup of coffee, I'll be right back. Coffee, yeah, yeah. New game idea, Luke, that's hit the market. It's called Bong Pong. You into this? I also told BC that Gaff messaged me this and was like, we need to get that. So it's beer pong, but instead of drinking, you have to rip the bong. I'm in.

Okay. I'm in. All right. You had me at bong. Hey, let's go to the airport. And I think that's the seventh death you've shown in this segment. I got to say, that was better than the GFL draft. It was a perfect remake of it.

Luke, it's time to play Would You Eat That? All I need is a yes or no. Would you eat that, okay? All right, let's see. This is called a... Glazuki. I might have a bite. I mean, it's a hot dog inside of two chocolate chip cookies. Well done. Now, can I have a couple of those bong hits first? Yeah, I think so a bite. I mean, it's a hot dog inside of two chocolate chip cookies.

Well done. Now, can I have a couple of those bong hits first? Yeah, I think so, yes. Okay, would you eat our next offering? Guess what I found at the gas station. Buffalo hard-boiled eggs. I am not a hard-boiled egg guy. But curiosity is going to kill this cat.

There's juice in the bottom of the package. Oh, this is so gross. It's radioactive orange. It looks like an Easter egg. It has a dent in it. It's going to be horrible, but, like, I have to try it. It's better than a normal hard-boiled egg. Like, I'm going to soak all my hard-boiled eggs in buffalo from now on.

I've never been more surprised at anything in my entire life. This is... I'm becoming a hard-boiled egg. You once had sushi out of a CVS. I did. It was here in New York City. Good lord. It was the one below...

For folks who know the city, it was actually the one below Fox News. That little area across the street and uh okay that is like baltimore or pennsylvania white trash with nothing else to do except eat hard-boiled eggs soaked in buffalo juice from the gas station so we need a simple answer on would you eat yes i would okay our final one would you eat a massive wiener the competition competition of the hot dogs. Oh my god. That's called the sofretti. Are you ready for the sofretti? This is the Lex

the Impaler. Yeah, I'd have that one. Yeah, alright. Hey, new combat sport idea. It's called Just One Bite. First one to take a bite of the sandwich wins. I mean, I think car jitsu is lame, but we're already going on. Subproximity meter is up.

They're close to it. Now they're very close to it. Just one bite. That's all it takes. Just one bite. It looks like there's meat and lettuce. I don't think it's going to last. Oh, is she going to get it?

Oh, my. That hurt. Got a yellow card for excessive force there. Oh, is she going to get it? Oh! Oh, my. That hurt. Got a yellow card for excessive force there. All right, we can end this. Oh, all right. Yeah, I mean, all these people should be executed in Saudi Arabia. Want to see a disgraceful MMA celebration? Sure.

All right. Hey, right hand. Is this octagon? Where is this? I have no idea. Dude. Oh, dude. Oh, dude.

Okay, okay, now. All, dude. Oh, dude. Okay, okay now. All right. That's too far. What Izzy did to Polo Costa. Yes, I've seen that before. All right. Don't mess with a security guard, Luke. He might be trained.

Is this Russia or some shit? Probably. Okay, you're about to get it. Yeah, bro. Yeah, bro. You get it. Yeah, bro. Yeah, bro, you get these. Yeah, this has got to be Russia. Good lord. Hitting those motherfuckers with, like, spinning heel kicks and shit.

Hey, Luke, real recognized reel in MMA spaces this week. Here's Yuri and Jamal Hill after their fight at UFC 311. Doing celebratory, respectful shots at the bar. That's nice. Dude, his face looks fucked up. Yes, yes. It looks like his eye is broken. And Yuri would go on Joe Rogan after this.

I know. Holy crap. I know. Oh, I like to see that. By the way, I like how Jamal Hill's been kind of a soft face turner. I don't think Jamal Hill's a bad guy. I think fighting with the public doesn't do him any good, you know? Yeah.

I actually don't think he's a bad dude. Well, look at this power meeting at PFL Dublin. I'm sorry, not Dublin. PFL Dubai backstage. How about Fedor and Habib? Yeah, bro, that's horror right there. Oh, my God, the respect right now. I have a phoner watching this.

That's a long generation, or two generations, a long lie, I should say. Fucking MMA dominance. See that picture with the two of them in Islam? That was a hard picture. or two generations, a long line, I should say. Fucking MMA dominance. See that picture with the two of them in Islam? That was a hard picture. They just took it right there. By the way, they had PFL shirts on. I never got an answer for this. If you actually look at that picture, him and Fedor have PFL shirts.

Islam is wearing a Bellator shirt. Yeah, Hughes and Usman had clothes on all week that would have the Bellator logo. Why were they confusing them? This was the final Bellator title fight I heard. I don't know. We'll see what happens here. Hey, a lot of us thought that Marab was ducking Umar before that fight was finally signed. You remember that period of our lives?

Ray Longo has a message for people like us. And for all the guys that said Marab was ducking him, go fuck yourself. And admit that you were fucking wrong and stop. Don't come up with shit and start attacking me. You fucking bunch of morons. That guy's afraid of somebody. Guy's fighting

every day of his life. Who's he afraid of? I didn't think he was afraid. I just thought he didn't want that fight then. Yes. But quote DeLongo, nevermore, please. But don't be fucking with Ray Longo. No, no, no, no, no. He was right. Let's, you know. Indeed. Do you remember that post-fight interview with Ray Longo. No, no, no, no, no. He was right. Indeed.

Do you remember that post-fight interview with Yuri, by the way, with Megan Oliva, where he said to celebrate? He was going to have sex with those guys from his village? Well, he wants to clarify what he was talking about here at the Schmo. Yeah. I want to clarify the interview after the fight. What we had and I spoke like, and I said something, something like, we will celebrate with the guys on the room and all these things. So just to be sure to everyone, man, I'm a, like you said, straight man. You like the females.

This is what I want to say. I just want to say that two of my friends came from Czech Republic from my childhood, what I know from my childhood. And every time we're celebrating like very wild. You know, everybody's party is... Look like something, but we are really... Again, you see, again, it sounds like... It sounds weird. So...

Just admit it. No, it doesn't matter for me. He should just be like, listen. We had some Marines over. It's like, listen, when we said, it sounded like what we were saying was we were going to have sex with guys. What we really meant was we were going to have a lot of sex with guys. Did you love the schmo? He's like, did you mean the ladies?

It's like, you know. By the way, he's wearing the USADA jacket. Did you notice that? that no but that's he's wearing the fucking usada jacket and he's he should have just been like we're gonna fuck each other and we're all guys that's what he should all right hey it's time for your song of the week luke song of the week is literally just ribs by lord because that song is a fucking class dude i fucking love that song i also wanted them to shut the fuck up. Luke, you know what I got for Christmas?

My stocking bag bomb. It's like a Vaseline type consistency. It's like an old wives tale thing. It fixes everything. Anything you can have physically problem. Apparently Borax does the same thing in the insect world. You know that if you mix Borax and honey and put it out where you have an ant infestation all of the ants will come i heard it works they all they all arrive and okay you're horrendous i got one more for you, Luke. Let's go to the youth boxing ring.

Yeah, you know, I'm going to imagine that the country that's having Toddler's Box probably also doesn't have a great degree of safety of their materials. It's Kane! I mean, somebody's about to rise up through the ring right there. That was great. That was the shock master breaking through the wall over there. Yes, there you go. And that's the shit of the week. Not bad.

That was better than last week. Oh, okay, good. We're proving on the upward right there. So that's all I got for today, and we'll be back Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern. Luke, I wanted to remind the folks, especially those watching on the DraftKings Network, that when we're talking about great partners, we're talking about DraftKings. And the thing about DraftKings is the crown is yours. That's right.

Get that DraftKings Sportsbook app. I mean, use it for the Super Bowl, okay? Use it for Benavidez Morrell this weekend or UFC Riyadh. That's right. That's right. And maybe buy some of that Magic Spoon. Get that Magic Spoon. Tukester approved, by the way.

I'm a serial killer. You know what I'm saying? I'll crush all those boxes. I hope you have a coronary on air. That's all I've got today. Okay. I got to pee really bad. But you notice the no shit bathroom is still condemned. Dude, they put hazardous signs on it.

And I didn't use it. You cannot blame me. They did ask me, do you have any leads? And I was like, yeah, co-host. Co-host, baby. That guy. Listen, I am so proud of the dumps that I take. I would own it if I thought I broke it.

But there is another. It's like Yoda. You think it was Ken? There is another. You think it was Ken and he's just keeping that under the vest? Ken is a suspect. Okay. Nadir is really.

Oh, wow. Look at him on his phone. Pretend he doesn't hear us right now. There we go. Well, that's all we got. Long Island Luke, thank you for playing this week. I guess we'll see you back on Friday. We get to see your face on Friday.

Yeah, we'll do a full Saudi preview Friday. Looking forward to it. Saudi, have a cup of coffee. It'll be great. That's my we got. Long Island Luke, thank you for playing this week. I guess we'll see you back on Friday. We get to see your face on Friday. Yeah, we'll do a full Saudi preview Friday. Looking forward to it. Yeah, Saudi, have a cup of coffee. It'll be great. That's my guy right there. No Sita. He's a great guy. Great guy.

This guy? Yeah. Yeah, he's all right. Oh, shout out to the Australian couple that were supposed to be here today. They're getting married this week in New York. Yeah, I'm glad you invited people to the studio without even telling me. Well, you know, I don't have producer credits, but I am one half of this operation yeah that's right one half not the whole thing yes well i figured you would have just ignored them anyway it's on brand well the thing is you love to give stray cats milk

and then you force me to then also give them milk are you asking if you got shivved whether i would step in of course i would yeah you'd take the other shiv to the other side of my fucking between sixth and seventh rib, you fucking asshole. That's all the show we got today. Thank you for watching. Help out with our sponsors and like our shit. There you go. And

subscribe to what we got going on here. There it is. Wump. In fact, there it is. For Luke Thomas, Long Island Luke, I'm your boy BC and all the guys in the back, take care of yourselves. We're big fans of you. Thanks for being behind us and reaching around when we need you. That's the MK way. We out.

Yeah, that's it. I don't.