MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - PFL: Harrison Loses In A Stunner | Conor McGregor | Prograis stops Zepeda | Ep 379

Episode Date: November 28, 2022

On Episode 379 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian recap the 2022 PFL world championships, where Kayla Harrison lost in a shocker to Larissa Pacheco via unanimous decision. What does this mean for her career? Plus, Conor McGregor appears to admit to working outside of USADA’s system to heal a catastrophic injury. How significant is this semi-admission? Also, Regis Prograis stops Jose Zepeda in the 11th round to claim the WBO 140lbs title. How legitimate is this victory for Rougarou? (6:50) - Pacheco Stuns Harrison (31:15) - Brendan Loughnane (39:40) - Rest of PFL 10: 2022 Championships (50:30) - McGregor USADA Situation (62:30) - Prograis Stops Zepeda (71:00) - Dm's from Donks Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, it's Monday, the 28th of November, 2022. Turkey Day is over and we're back to business, bitches. Hi, it's the best the 28th of november 2022 turkey day is over and we're back to business bitches hi it's the best podcast in all of mma my name is luke thomas i am merely one half of your hosting duo i join you as i always do mostly anyway from the capital of status and noodles right here in washington dc joined by my friend who looks like jimmy neutron if he fell off a truck and just got into the meth business. It's Brian Campbell. What's up, Brian Campbell?

Luke, thank you. And if I do, if I happen to look unshowered and unpleasant, that's because I am, Luke. Okay, so here I am ready to ball up the fist and come back fighting after a fantastic weekend of family. You know, fun, turkey, tortillera, as the French Canadians would call meat pie, Luke. I don't really want to know about your gourmet meal that you ate with your brother and sister who are ex-famed restauranteurs.

I am wondering how much MK talk happened at the Turkey Day dinner table. Bring it. This is what the people are here to see. Congratulations to Larissa, but this is the lead combat story here to see congratulations to larissa but this is the lead combat story this week luke so i'll say this i gotta give them credit in the sense that they were very nice to me like truly genuinely very very nice very kind i actually had a good time but not one question about mk zero zero is the answer so your dad didn't say hey did you guys

end up winning that back-to-back uh best mma programming or not he didn't bring that up no that wasn't brought up the show wasn't brought up in any capacity whatsoever so but they were very friendly i mean i'd be lying if i said they weren't they weren't my brother as long as toques had fun okay it's all about the toques had a blast so that's what i mean like it was good but there was zero mk talk well because we can do mk today i hate to be like you know george teague and try to spike the ball on your star luke but there was zero mk talk well i because we can do mk today i hate to be like you know george teague and try to spike the ball on your star luke but i was overwhelmed with love and support at uncle tony's house i didn't realize that cousin connor and cousin ryan were big mk guys like almost p1s and they're like yo i listened to that all the time i was like what so shout out to my family

luke although cousin rye rye was like remember when that guy you did the show with used to have that other job? That used to be real annoying. I'm like, yeah, you knew it. Yeah, tell me about it. Tell me about it. I hated doing it, but I had to do it to make, to pay for the bills. All right, we have a lot to get to today. So PFL happened over the weekend.

Pretty big results, actually. We're going to talk about that and all the different championships that were handed out. There was an update in the Conor McGregor-Usada usada saga sort of we'll get to that because it's kind of important uh plus we're going to do uh other news and notes dms have you seen this shit a lot to get to so i've got good shit i've got i got some decent feasts this week okay all right all right big talk we shall see you've been you've been teasing it on the pre-show you teased it on text yeah we're gonna see about that so we'll see how that goes obviously thumbs up subscribe if you have it on youtube if you are listening on your favorite podcast platform do leave us a nice review there

as well now bc you did a little digging and let's remind folks if you want to get merch morningcombat.store is the place to go i'll say this cyber monday is still in effect. We're having a full-on sale across the site. BC, what did RJ Dunkelgangbang tell you about that sale? RJ Milfmugger told me, Luke, that Black Friday is still live. Today, as you mentioned, is Cyber Monday. So our promo code for you to get 20% off every single item right now on morningcombat.store is Black Friday. Not Black Adam. That movie sucked the horn.

Oh, that movie was real bad. Yeah. Black Friday, by the way, is our code. Look, right now, you want to wear a bomber jacket? It's that time. Okay? Get 20% off. You never have a better chance to get it for cheaper.

You want to wear amateur director hats, MK style style or that that like mk hub shirt that's our best seller because we have absolute decrepit uh morale in terms of our fan base luke but um you know it's available if you want that shit too but uh luke would you say that um like i i would say to you luke i I wear MK merch like four to five days per week, even if it's just like the undershirt below a sweatshirt. Do you ever put on the blue, Luke? I would say I'm pretty close to that, three to four days a week. I mean, my closet is, I won't say nothing but, but it's at this point like 50% MK merch.

It's crazy how much MK merch they've given us, which is great. I'm very happy about it. And if you want yours, it's available on the site at a discount. Well, the point of meeting you up is that you're such a fickle and anal person, Luke, that you wouldn't wear that shit that often if it wasn't comfy and it wasn't stylish. So why don't you join us in this revolution? Black Friday's your code. 20% off right now.

MorningCombbat.store. There you have it. And of course, Showtime is the label that pays. If you want to try to get Showtime, which by the way, there's a Bellator event not this weekend, but the following. I should say next week anyway. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you are allowed to bounce, and that's that.

And of course, the show. For Wednesday's fan subs, Friday's Dead Wrong, which, by the way, we're going to have a double-packed Dead Wrong this coming Friday. So strap on your helmet there. We're going to get crushed. A little teaser. We're going to be in the studio on Wednesday this week, so there's nothing like that live magnetism of two men coming together

right now over me, Luke. Phrasing. Phrasing. Two men coming together. I don't know if we're going to be doing quite like that, but it'll be fine. Well, it depends who's directing our photo shoot, to be fair. But we're going to bring in Chuck. We're going to bank some good material.

So Wednesday's going to be a very productive day in these parts. Luke, if you had to establish a title on this PFL pay-per-view, you're going to grade it? You're a winner? You're a loser? What do you like? Do you like it, Luke? Okay, so overall grade on the whole white card? Was it a scam to price this pay-per-view? What do you like it luke um okay so overall was it a scam price was the scam was it a scam to price this pay-per-view what do you what do you know oh just i mean just all no vaseline just gas or was it a match and a little bit of gasoline that's it it. Verbatim. Yes, verbatim.

Yes. All right. If you're ready, I'm ready to get this show started. So let's start with topic number one. Really the biggest news in terms of the fights themselves over the weekend. And by the way, I got to have a major mea culpa here. So don't worry. I will. But let's get to the actual results themselves.

Kayla Harrison losing in a shocker. A monumental upset. Larissa Pacheco wins the unanimous decision, 48-47. I think most observers had Pacheco winning the second, fourth, and fifth, and most observers having Harrison winning the first and the third, although some of the rounds were pretty close, but either way, Pacheco wins. Now, BC, I want to say up front, I thought this was never going to happen, no chance, hoisted by my own petard. I want to explain why I think I got it wrong, but to happen. No chance. Hoisted by my own petard.

I want to explain why I think I got it wrong. But let's start with you and what you made of it all. What does this loss mean for Harrison? What's your big takeaway from this fight? Yeah, and by the way, shout out to Aaron Bronstad, our friend of the program who produced instant receipts that he more or less called this as a possibility in August. As you can find out, it took me a few months to come around to this idea.

But it turns out fighting a world-class opponent three straight times, it's going to be hard to dominate and win every single round against them or even every single fight. You know, what Kayla said ahead of this fight is, this isn't a rivalry if my opponent has never won a round. Well, she has now. But for Larissa Pacheco, she had gone 5-0 with five first round kos since last losing to kayla three years ago but it was her complete well-rounded game that won her this and that was

the biggest shock look if she had come out there you know fell behind and then knocked kayla out we'd be giving her you know flowers up the kazoo but that's not the way she won it she won it by essentially going into the same areas in which kayla harrison typically dominates opponents you know, flowers up the kazoo, but that's not the way she won it. She won it by essentially going into the same areas in which Kayla Harrison typically dominates opponents. And then not only prove that she wasn't going to get dominated, but with her jujitsu prove that she, what she did, the best thing she did outside of largely keeping Kayla from taking her down, right? The best thing she did was when she did get taken down she made her jujitsu an absolute threat which made Kayla's aggression oftentimes ineffective even in top position that completely

changed this fight because when you don't allow Kayla Harrison to dominate you on the ground which few humans on this planet can then you got to go on the feet with her and that's Larissa Pacheco's game that's where she landed the bigger shots that's where at times it looked like she was forcing Kayla into almost like not desperate shots but okay crap I gotta try to change the momentum of this fight type of shots I did not believe that Larissa Pacheco would win in this manner which is beating the great Kayla Harrison in basically every single category across the board for 25 minutes, keeping up the gas tank, constantly making the big adjustments. I had it three rounds to two like the judges. I thought rounds three or five, three and five, you could have flipped either way, depending on how you saw

it. I don't agree with Jed Meshew and his WT stance on round one being a 10-8 round for Kayla, but I'll say this, close fight, but the but the right fighter won and Luke she went into Kayla's wheelhouse to do so that was not on your bingo card or Bronstetter no chance no it certainly wasn't I was surprised I mean I I certainly had completely undervalued the abilities of Pacheco I totally wrote off the possibility I mean again if I thought if she was going to win, it was going to be if she was getting dominated and not landed a lucky shot, because she is heavy-handed,

she's got some good striking, but that that would bail her out. But that really wasn't the case to everything you said about essentially having to fight mostly really on Kayla's terms in the sense that Kayla would go for takedowns and then sometimes they wouldn't get it, but they'd be these extended scrambles that she'd be initiating and still finding a way to

persevere through that or other methods of the fight. I mean, I got to tell you, I thought Pacheco's improvement was frankly kind of remarkable. If you go back and you watch the second fight, there's so many pieces of the game that she had in this one that she didn't have in the second one, whether that's takedown defense or at least stopping the takedown, at least initially, whether that was being able to land from underneath as heavily as she was. We saw that triangle that she attempted. The triangle wasn't close, but the fact that she was even able to threaten it at all, I think it just put Kayla Harrison on a very defensive footing.

The thing I'd also say in terms of my own error here, BC, because I think when you get it really wrong, you've got to tell the audience why and be honest about it. I think a few people had done this. Definitely, I think I'm guilty of it. I think I had, frankly, overestimated Kayla's abilities to this point. I want to be clear about that. She is obviously very, very talented. Hello, this is her first and only professional mixed martial arts defeat, and her opponent had to get three cracks at her before it happened. She's still quite good. But it did seem to me in this fight a couple things were happening.

One, she just didn't have much of an answer on the feet. The fight was really either get the takedown and win on the ground or not at all, right? And then that's the first problem. The second problem was she was able to get the takedown. She got six of them. The other problem, though, is that Pacheco got three of them. So it wasn't like she was getting totally blanked here. And then while on the ground, this was the big one.

And I saw people talking about this. I think you might agree, 2BC, not so much for Harrison's benefit, but for the competitors and frankly the audience's benefit. I think there should be elbows allowed in the actual championships, like the final event of the season. They should allow elbows for that. But either way, whether they had it or whether they hadn't, there just wasn't hardly any ground and pound.

And I also noticed she had a hard time establishing top position. It took her a while, especially in those later rounds. She had a hard time passing, it looked to me. There just wasn't enough urgency and, frankly, methodical damage happening on the ground for there to be enough going on. Pacheco had good guard retention, constantly giving her problems, a good ability to strike underneath. She was obviously much better on the feet.

Dude, when you mix the activity that Pacheco showed on the bottom with the threat of the takedowns, it rendered Kayla ineffective in normally dominant positions that's the key to that fight I can't believe it happened though seriously I can't believe it happened and also I'll say this both ladies I thought it looked like after the second round Pacheco might have been slowing down a little bit and maybe her cardio was going to catch up for her because they were fighting at a pretty hard pace in a lot of the portions of the round but no her cardio held up for five

rounds now Kayla's I thought cardio was pretty good too obviously she's a championship level fighter as well but Pacheco showing like she had dude they had clearly like it seemed to me that Pacheco had put beating Harrison as her north star guide and what are all the things she needs to do to make sure that happens within reason and getting good cardio and really making sure your striking was dominant and forceful. And frankly, like putting Harrison in panic spots in a couple of those rounds underneath staying offensive, just denying every little inch of that grappling game that Harrison needed to make her game come to life. So it wasn't like some kind of dominant. Oh, my God, victory, but it was a lunch pail.

I'm going to fight on every single level that I have to, to get it done. I take my hat off to Pacheco. I apologize for getting it so wrong, but it's an incredible win. BC, let me pitch it back to you. Well, I got, I got, I want to pitch it right from you, Luke, and tell you this. Do you remember when Chuck sat on our couch on the pregame preview ahead of Adesanya and Parada and said, you know, in, and tell you this. Do you remember when Chuck sat on our couch on the pregame preview ahead of Adesanya and Pareda and said, you know, in just such eloquent Sir Charles Mendenhall IV,

you know, ways that we all are coming to hear as this is the story of Izzy and getting to, you know, redeem the two loss he had in kickboxing when in reality, what if this is the story of Poiton? And it turned out to be, right? This was the story of Pacheco not just sitting on those two L's for three years but Luke she also was you know kind of the favorite to be the runner-up to Kayla in last year's tournament too but as we talked about had a missed weight got kicked out of the tournament basically and missed her opportunity all that just you know you talk about building toward the North star i mean all that dude just fueled a resolve where think about this if pacheco goes out there let's say she goes out

there and fights great but still loses a competitive split decision that may end up being her name in history like that's her footnote you know i mean she was one of the the group of fighters which kayla harrison ultimately dominated although hey let's give her credit she went the distance three times and finally nearly won this was her career-making moment it's not that she was never going to have a big fight again but we had seen her early on in the UFC and it didn't go great this was her chance to not just make her name and and the potential of of huge rematches but but you know everything in her career on one night. So Kayla had all that working against her. So I think when you look back at the stuff we talked about leading up to this fight,

would there be the potential for complacency issues with Kayla? I didn't necessarily see complacency. I just saw somebody who was out-thought and out-fought at typically every turn in ways that I don't think Kayla could have expected. Who would have expected when you take away or that somebody could take away her, you know, A and B game that, you know, where she's not allowed to dominate on the terms she normally does, what's that fight going to look like? She just hadn't had that history to show us that. And you mentioned, you know, Kayla didn't do much on the feet.

She did a lot in the first round where she had a great round and even into the second, but something happened along the way. And I wonder if that was Pacheco's right hand kind of starting to discipline Kayla because by rounds three and four, you saw that Kayla didn't want to be on the feet. I mean, rightfully so, but I saw her going for takedowns in non-disguised ways where suddenly it was like, okay, there's, there's some urgency here to really try to put out this fire that has started so as you look at the totality of this fight taking into account the the rival reboot before them which has that weird izzy uh adesanya you know memory to it was this more about pacheco being ready i'm sorry pacheco being better than she ever was before leading to this moment or Or was this more about Kayla just being flat?

I mean, what actually happened in their loop? I think it's, you know, people hate these answers, but I really believe it's true. I do think it's column A and column B here. I mean, it really does seem to me that, like, you mentioned that there's this story of triumph with Pacheco in terms of his life story and all the difficulties and then getting to this point, and it's kind of amazing. That's really true for a lot of the winners it's true for OAM it's true for Lachman it's true for a lot of these guys where this is like a huge triumphant moment off the back of setback off the back of of difficulty of obstacles of you know

fear and and difficulty and everything else I think all of the setbacks that Pacheco had really kind of drove her to greatness I also think that and I do you know I do believe that this loss will be beneficial for Kayla long term in the sense that you know these losses for the right kind of competitor in the right kind of setting with the right kind of team and the right kind of internal constitution they do make you better long term I believe Kayla will benefit from that on the other side side, as I mentioned, because it's column A, column B, Pacheco benefited from that in a sense. Again, not everyone does. It's not automatic. It takes the right kind of fighter, the right kind of person, and the right kind of environment for

them to elevate themselves out of the muck of difficulty and setback. In the case of Harrison, I also think her game has stagnated justated just a little bit I like Kayla a lot I know she watches some of my stuff she might see this so I'm not doing this to bash her or to pile on or to make things more difficult for her and but obviously it's probably a very difficult time in her professional career at the same time there just needs to be pieces of the game that aren't there yet for her to get to her next stage right there needs to be pieces of the game that aren't there yet for her to get to her next stage, right? There needs to be a little bit more comfortability on the feet. There has got to be way, way, way, way more damage on the ground in ground and pound scenarios, whether that's by adding elbows or not.

I don't think that's the difference maker, quite honestly. Very fair. But if she wants, if she really wants to take her game to the next level, and I'm certain after this loss, it's the only thing on her mind, man man there's just got to be a lot more than control to it okay i gotta dig deeper in the wound because i thought you you gave a very very smart response that was accurate it was as nicely harsh as you can be but it's still harsh i want to unfortunately dig even deeper into that wound is this ultimately you know it is a great loss for care for kayla in the overall arc of her career right it's not over here she didn't get one. There's not like a Ronda Rousey scenario,

you know, but she was solved. So was this loss, now that we're peeling in even deeper, the result of what Kayla Harrison's career up to this point just has not given her the opportunity to learn because when she gets other opponents in dominant positions they don't have the resistance or they don't have the striking ability on the feet to force her to bring the fight to the ground whatever it is she steamrolls those folks so was this more this kayla lost more about the idea that you know she hadn't met her equal yet until now or the flip side of that luke is it just that you know we did we overvalue her i mean do i would do like are we asking too i mean did she get audited did she get audited by larissa pacheco luke that's

audited is a strong word i tend to think of auditing as like thorough i mean here's the thing one more round goes a little bit differently and kayla retains now there might be a different narrative around it you know in terms of like, she barely won. What does that mean? Fair enough. But, you know, it wasn't like some kind of drubbing. She didn't get drubbed. This was a closely contested, difficult fight for her.

I think Pacheco was the clear and quite deserving winner, but nevertheless that. I will say this though, BC. In some senses, no, because like, you, because how deep is women's 155? Not that deep. If anyone's got them, it's PFL, but UFC doesn't even have this division. Bellator doesn't even have this division. It goes on and on.

It's not like it's some kind of worldwide division. I want to say this one more time. Kayla Harrison is not just a decorated judoka. By a mile, by a mile, she is the best judoka in american history no male has ever won the gold medal she's got two of them she's got two of them and she's out down there an american top team with mike brown steve macco i mean it's like dude she's just built for success in every way you can imagine but i do think if there was a bigger division she might have lost earlier in her career bc that's what i think i

think she got really good and it's not dude i'm i'm not in any way doubting she trains hard but it's different when there's a like a legitimate fear of like holy fuck i have to i mean i gotta turn every rock cross every t dot every i to make sure i get ahead i don't know if she had that competitive pressure on her until Friday night. That's why I ask these sort of specific questions, and in the end, it probably is a little bit of everything. Because, look, she didn't implode.

She didn't gas out. I know it wasn't a complete audit. It was just a competitive fight in which she lacked an ability to find that extra door to open to come over the top. Yeah, came up short. She definitely was challenged in her cardio, which never happens. She was definitely challenged. And like we said, I mean, when she had Pacheco in very vulnerable positions,

Pacheco was either offensive enough or provided enough a threat to make Kayla average in those positions. And that was shocking to see. But, Luke, I have so many questions related to this. A big one is what do you do next in relation to like you know sean o'connell said like this might be one of the biggest upsets in mma history you know and odds wise and history wise it might be but kayla also didn't have access unfortunately to opponents before this of this ability level with this exact

story of having come up empty twice and then found a way to come over the top and let's give Larissa Larissa Pacheco a chance to show us that she's world-class and elite moving forward how do you book the future Kayla told Ariel Hawane in the MMA hour last week that she has two fights remaining entering the 2023 season and there's no extra clauses involving matching or anything like that. So, Luke, do they run back another season? Although I don't know if you could because you've only got two fights left to try to produce this fourth meeting between them, or do you just go right back to the pay-per-view well

and launch this pay-per-view division, which was the big cornerstone of signing Kayla, and have these two rematch outside of a tournament for another shot at that title what the hell do you do now if you're I mean do you really need to do another 155 women's tournament you've got other weight classes use them uh you and then by the way correct me if I'm wrong I don't even think they have a 135 division um you know they are for for excuse me for for men they the bantamweight division they could get one there they could try to move into that direction i mean they already have a bunch of what you're saying is they've got already bloated like bloated like uh what's below lightweight they're like bloated featherweights already right yeah uh i mean i'm not i haven't

looked at their full roster in that way but i guess what i'm trying to point out is dude you just rematch them i mean this is i was going to ask you and it kind of leads into this question, like whether or not this loss was good or bad for PFL. And the answer is, well, it's bad that their star figure that they put so much in kind of got upset. On the other hand, it's actually good for them in the sense that now you've got a rivalry. Now you've got someone who's a legitimate test and her trying to get the title back from Pacheco, even though she has the two wins prior is actually very intriguing. And we don't really know if she can do it. That was a tooth and nail fight. And you can imagine Pacheco even though she has the two wins prior is actually very intriguing and we don't really know if she can do it that was a tooth and nail fight and you can imagine Pacheco is going to be quite motivated to hold on to it so I think you can do that and then she can have

some fight against Aspen Ladd or whoever the fuck down the line and then is that still in play is it still in play a cyborg by the way is gonna listen man he's gonna box in the hold on one second cyborg just announced she's gonna box in the the co-main event for the Bud Crawford fight on December 10th. So she's in boxing at the moment. But do you see a pay-per-view super fight between brands in 2023 if if Kayla wins back the title? No, no, I don't. I don't. I don't. I just don't take seriously the idea that Bellator and PFL are going to work together. And you could blame whoever you want there, either, both. I mean, who the hell knows? I just don't really buy that they're going to work together for that.

I would love to be wrong. Certainly wouldn't be the first time. But I'm very skeptical of that. So BC, let me ask you, what do you think they should do? My view is, fuck the tournament at 155. Have them rematch. You can find some other fight down the line thereafter. can try resigning whatever you want to do but you don't need to make a 155 tournament again no you think and you nailed the two key parts of it like the first key part of it

is just go right back into a fourth fight between them the history's there plus if kayla wins it she's right back where she was if she wins it it's an amazing fight god you can have another rematch if you wanted to or you can still keep her on track for all the stuff we just sniffed out. The potential of a cyborg pay-per-view or whatever else it would take for PFL to keep Kayla. And maybe that's another separate discussion for another time. But either way, for the immediate future, this brought Kayla down. But you got to set up that rematch. And the fact that there aren't any other real lightweights is the biggest

factor whether you want to do a 145 or 135 tournament most of the people you have masquerading at lightweight are only there to kind of you know enter the cable discussion and try to win a million dollars in that tournament because it's available but if you can put something together at 145 i guess you do it um yeah but you know in in the end, this plays better for PFL. It does, Luke. It really does. But without knowing the outcomes of next year, is it when I just mentioned PFL will, you know, do their best to put Kayla in a position to want to resign?

Is that even in play in your mind? Or is it automatic that she's fighting out the last two and moving on in your head? I think that these two might have run their course together. I think they probably ran their course already. I don't think Kayla wants to be there. And over time, if you keep, I mean, again, if they can't come to a deal at this point, Kayla might be able to move on.

But imagine that they did have matching rights or something like that again, where they could really lean into that. You know, just keeping someone on your roster that doesn't want to be there. This just leads to bad shit down the road. It leads to more press in the bad side than is worth keeping. So I think this is probably going to be the end of that relationship.

But remember something, BC. Dude, Kayla Harrison's not 25. She's 32. She's 32. So I guess she'll be 33 by some point next year. This is not exactly over the hill, but this is if you're going to go to the UFC or some other promotion or something else big it's right now Michael Chandler was 34 when he made the leap from

Bellator to UFC that's a little bit older and at different circumstances and different athletes all that kind of stuff but nevertheless it's like this has got to be it I think they've run their course together they've both benefited from the relationship but all relationships tend to run their course but if the UFC thing though unless they adopt my women's heavyweight idea like she still hasn't proven that she can make 145 consistently and that's exactly what she would have to do to go to the UFC and get those fights with Amanda and whoever else she can find well here's the thing dude if she fights Pacheco again and can't win, I don't think that that necessarily means she couldn't sign with UFC or couldn't sign with Bellator.

I don't believe that. But that might change her options on some level. It's hard to know really exactly what it would all mean. But I think if she gets her belt back and she has the championship to like, hey, I reclaimed this and now I'm even better. And let's say she goes up there and looks amazing or whatever. I think that would really boost her fortunes but if she loses again maybe she does stay with the pfl because that really would be her best option it's really really hard to say i got one more question to you before you you move on is the pfl structure system as a whole which essentially means you have to win four fights in an eight month period now

it's not unheard of bellator used to have the tournament season that was so grinding are we undervaluing as we just talked about the main event and now transition to the undercard how difficult this is compared to regular see you know regular mma and what we're used to to be forced to fight four times in eight months um i mean not everybody everybody gets there physically just to make it. So I'm glad you brought that up because Bellator under Bjorn Rebney, it's so funny, PFL basically does what they do. I mean, there are some meaningful differences,

but that was kind of what the Bellator experience was like under Bjorn Rebney. And he got canned in 2014 after he introduced this, like, pull where guys didn't have to go into the tournaments anymore. And then they brought in Scott Coker and it was a whole thing. But I remember talking to guys who were working under that system and what they feel like they, what they told me was, not to a man, not every one of them, but a couple of them definitely said this,

was that they felt like it took years off their professional career. And Bellator was doing it, but remember, their system back then was a little bit different so it was almost like if you made it through the tournament it was almost like one every month so you know you're you're fighting three times in 90 days or something like that it was brutal it ground some of those guys into dust i think pat curran got ground into dust for doing all those things and it really sort of shows you how fucking remarkable that Patricio Pitbull is that he did numerous tournaments. Oh, yeah. And look at him now. Like, he's just a fucking Iron Man.

Yeah. But he has whatever they have down there that produces humans like Shogun and RDA and Big Nog. I mean, it's just they're just they're made out of different parts. To answer the question, dude, it's just they're they're just they're made out they're amazing they're made out of the question dude it's a fucking grind and like you see these guys partly when they win they're happy that they won they got the money they got the belt what's the first thing like half of them said when they were interviewed this is the hardest fucking thing i've done in my life i came into this one injured i came into the last one injured i've never done anything so difficult like they're telling the truth man man. They're telling the fucking truth

about how difficult it is. Even if you discount that the quality of opponent might be somewhat lower than, you know, if they were in UFC or whatever, just the regularity with which they have to show up to claim that belt

and under the difficulties which they're competing just is insane. It's very, very, very difficult. So something to think about there. Speaking of which, BC, we go now to point number two this was that really my favorite moment from the whole night i gotta tell you man

brendan they kept saying lock name um but i always thought it was brendan lockman either either way point number two he goes from being a dana white contender series point number two boys uh contender series cast off to now a millionaire he did it and becomes pfl champ at 145 pounds stopping bubba jenkins in the fourth round but really that that path was set early on in this fight brutal leg kicks phenomenal boxing and he got it done stopping him ultimately in the fourth b. He was overcome with emotion. They brought his family into the cage. This was truly triumphant. What would you say is the best way to characterize the victory of a guy

who gets cut from the contender series, goes through all this difficulty and ends up here? Yeah, blood, sweat and tears is the best way because he had to earn it every single step of the way to make that transition in front of our eyes as, oh yeah to earn it every single step of the way to make that transition in front of our eyes as oh yeah that's the guy that got the hard luck with dana white you know or that because that's the guy that got screwed or that's the guy whatever because he went to for too many takedowns to become in this battler and that's what he is look none of these

stops on this ride to winning this one million dollars were easy or were him as a you know overwhelming betting favorite. This fight in particular against Bubba Jenkins was an exact perfect representation of that grind where he gets his nose busted up early and gets wobbled by Jenkins and is fighting through the constant blood flowing, yet is chipping away with calf kicks and eating a fair share of his own that were just brutal to watch. I mean, the toughness Bubba Jenkins showed to push Brendan Locknane to have to put forth a performance like this is just really in a lot of ways what this tournament is all about and what does make it unique as a potential free agent offering to anybody out there in

the MMA game. Because, you know, you get the chance at the $1 million for sure, but you get put in the damn meat grinder. And it was maybe, you know, apropos that that Locknane had to prove it in this way. But like every other stop in this journey to get here, he just bit down and proved it. He's very good. But this was as hard earned as it could be. And that seems to be the story of his career to this point.

So you got that real emotion. We'll see that wholesome moment with my feces shortly but um luke about this million dollars and we can you know keep it on lock name for sure but is that like a bonus on top of what they already make or do they need to win all the fights to get one million into totality i did always wonder that do you have do you need john s nash online one yeah i think it's the latter. I don't think it just covers what you would get in the purse. I think it's the bonus on top. But you don't get just $1 million at the end. It actually comes staggered.

But yes, it's ultimately, I think, an extra million in prize money. But it's not, hey, here's a $1 million check. Take it to the bank. It doesn't work that way. BC, I got to tell you, quick pop quiz for you. Brendan Loughman defeated who on the contender series wow don't remember no is he is he a hammer uh he's pretty good he's pretty good we oh you weren't there when we went to extreme couture it's bill algio algio bill algio

um uh senor perfecto over at Extreme Couture, who, by the way, I think he lost his last fight, but he gave old Herbert Burns the business. That's who Brendan Lachlan beat. He didn't beat some terrible guy who you never heard from again. He's a guy who made his way to the UFC and has done quite well for himself after the fact. He's only had one loss in PFL to Movled Khaboulaev,

which was a split decision. He's beaten everyone else. He fought in, let's see uh april he fought in june then he fought again in august and then he fought again uh over the weekend an absolutely brutal fucking stretch he said he was hurt do you hear him after the fight he's like dude i was you know crazy and like i'm think about this think about this he fought on the 28th of april and then he fought the 25th of november that means in the course of seven months he fought four times

four times in seven months i mean dude i don't care if these opponents aren't as good at their very best against the guys of the ufc that is insanely difficult to do he stopped uh he decisioned three of them and then for the then against bubba jenkins put on the performance of his fucking career with those unbelievable calf kicks i mean he tore bubba jenkins apart and dude this was the most amazing part and they talked about on the broadcast bubba jenkins is striking that may be the best i've ever seen it in all of his career. He's training with, um, uh, the, the, the black Cobra Dewey Cooper the whole time. I mean, amazing, amazing leveling up of his abilities here, but he was not to be denied. Remember this conversation we had, I think a couple of weeks

ago, BC, where we're talking about, like, if we only ever talk about the guys in the UFC hall of fame, you're just missing a lot of what makes MMA great. You're missing a lot of the stories. Perfect fucking example, man. You're missing Neil Magny. Don't miss that future Hall of Famer. That's what you're saying. I never said he was a future Hall of Famer, BC. You're just making a joke about it,

but I'm trying to be serious for just a second. You miss stories like this. You miss guys maybe not getting treated fairly by promoters and having to reroute their whole career, and all of a sudden it just turns into a different level, and they've got to figure it out, and then they do, and then they do. And he did it with sensational ability the whole way. You cannot feel anything but great for Brendan Loughnan.

What a win, what a performance, and at this point now, what a champion. And I'll say this. We questioned the PFL going to pay-per-view at the last minute for this. This wasn't announced to open the season. Even Kayla was outspoken and critical of that decision because she said she wasn't getting any extra points. She didn't give the promotion a chance to help them promote it. It was all kind of last minute.

But yet, if you did pay for it and watch it, you almost got a steady stream of these make-good stories. You know, OAM to Rob Wilkinson. I mean, look, it was like you physically watched in front of you people that had an early exposure, had an early chance and stumbled or or or the timing wasn't right and fought back. And Lockname was the perfect example because he rallies back and wins with blood trickling down. And it's this emotional scene. But I guess that's that's the core of what pfl offers i guess i i ask about the grind of the season and do wonder if it's sustainable because you know we saw different bruno capolos uh ray cooper the third

in the past year sort of seemed like they were ready to come out and go full bloom and then they got hiccuped whether it was an injury or a tough loss or whatever so um this is not easy this tournament but uh these stories and watching it all break out i i felt like i was touched a few times while watching this card luke and and maybe the smart cage knew that in advance because it's you know i mean maybe you know i didn't have my face like i didn't i didn't have to watch enough hallmark in the minds of like the executive meetings when they like plan this shit out what do they say is smart about that cage like what do they uh it can pick up the miles per hour of of uh of the swinging bag look as it sways i think that's that's what it is but uh just this series of absolutely useless fucking stats hey shout out you you know sweet baby ray flores

of course you know him right and him by the way, him and- His brother was the announcer, yeah. Yeah, he did. Don't spoil my thunder or anything. But by the way, him, Ray and Raul Marquez, not Rafael. I can't believe I called him that the other day. They were on the Zepeda Progre call, which we'll get to. But yeah, you're right. Sweet Baby Ray's brother was, what's his brother's first name?

It's- I forget. Yeah, Sweet Baby Ray's brother Flores.uel it's miguel flores thank you i've botched that in the moment shout out to miguel flores who we've met and know from boxing but you know he did a very nice job on that pay-per-view card but luke as you look up and down this card i mentioned getting hit in the fields a few different times um did you see ante delia facetiming with crow cop afterwards as he got we'll on, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. One last thing.

One last thing, because that's point number three. So staying on Lockton, we'll move on very quickly. Very quickly. BC, we talked about with Kayla, do they do another 155 tourney? Different circumstances there. But with Lockton as champion, do they just sign Shane Burgos?

They've got other players here. There's a 100% chance they're going to do another featherweight tournament, right? And they should. Oh yeah definitely and and we talk about him having his sort of full full you know full turn movement let's see now if he could defend it it's physically not easy it seems like the stakes and the opponents are only going to get better as you know look pfl like anybody who's competing with every other major organization is trying to create divisions that are loaded enough where they can say like when, when them call fault Corey Anderson, is this the best light heavyweight in the world, the winner of this?

PFL, in their own way, Luke, is starting to populate some of these divisions fairly well. Certainly true. All right. So to your point, we move now to point number three, which was the rest of the card. Now, BC, personally speaking, I thought that the Bud and Aspen Ladd fight sucked the sucked the horn it was terrible but there was a lot of other really good fights well hold on hold on you don't skip over that's another redemption moment that this card offers but did you agree with the scoring as aspen lad you know ends the losing streak i yes more or less why did you not i thought that third round i think you flip a coin. And in whichever direction you went, that's the fight, two to one.

So it's hard, Luke, because Aspenland overall did what she had to do and had a fighting spirit and kind of took away some of those real negative areas she was doing with her striking, making a lot of noise, not covering a lot of distance. She got rid of that. She was active. But she wasn't overwhelmingly awesome against a stubborn tough out with a nine inch reach advantage in julia bud were you impressed by aspen it was like i yes and no is

the answer right yeah yes and no like i was i definitely thought 145 was a better weight class for her i mean there's just zero debate about that okay and there were some parts of her game like early in the first round when she had the back and she had wrist control and she was going to work i'm like all right here we go but then it kind of faded a little bit down the stretch so i would say good first attempt on the career restart i would say that would you not agree to that a good first attempt on the restart yes because that they did not give her an easy opponent that was a a very tough out. No, they didn't. Okay, so BC, I'll pitch it back to you. Aside from the Bud and the Aspen Ladd fight, what else stood out to you on this card

that was either good, bad, or otherwise noteworthy? Yeah, it was the continuation of the thread that started with Locke Nain and just this redemption, or Pateko, actually, you know, just this constant redemption, bring it all the way back around. And Ante D'Elia, the heavyweight champion, you know, had already beaten Matthias Scheffel, who was upset-minded with that big right hand.

But that first fight was a war, and this was a war for the, you know, half of a round that had happened. And, you know, how about Ante D'Elia? Like, he was never a favored son the last two years in this heavyweight tournament, but to see him stand in and take big punishment, which he's often had to in his biggest wins and deliver it be the last man standing and then get to facetime cro cop his you know mentor in in countrymen there and you see the croatian fans at the garden theater were like jump in the guardrails for him hey another good moment luke and you know he makes fun fights you can't really say anything bad about him no you can't for me was going to say OAM to me was maybe the most impressive in victory. Wilkinson, you could make a case for,

because he really bodied Omari Akhmedov over the first two rounds and finally getting the stoppage in between them, basically. But dude, OAM with that right hook, completely shutting the lights off of Stevie Ray. And let's be clear about something. Stevie Ray can grapple a little bit. He had a mat return to a back take on OAM, which he had to fight out of. OAM was one of these guys who was initially kind of like a wrestler type a little bit in UFC.

And retooled his game, repositioned everything, really worked on the details, and gets a phenomenal finish. Like a no bullshit one hitter quitter. And they showed the replay too, because Stevie Ray kind of moves afterwards. But his eyes are like all over the place. it was just a really triumphant moment i love the pfl stories in the sense that a lot of times promoters are selling you a lot of bullshit about you know what the story means and how significant the victory is here's how you know like that's really not in play here look at how much it means to the winner the winner puts an extraordinary amount of significance and we're not talking guys who are like you know 19 years old and this is their first big taste of

something great we're talking guys who have seen the mountaintop fell all the way back down and then had to climb all the way back up they had to really do it the hard way OAM everyone hard way and got every single one as a hard scrabbled story like as much as Locknane fought and crawled and exactly OAM did to get to this point it's wild I mean look like again it's like was this worth the pay per view I was entertained because these fights people went at it

there was a lot at stake with the million dollars I mean it was successful if PFL wants to make the championship always a pay per view thing Luke I'm not against that. You know what I'm saying? But at least it delivered entertainment-wise. I want to also bring up, because this guy will not be in Have You Seen This Shit,

but Jeremy Stephens got subbed in round two against Natan Scholl. And, Luke, that does drop him to 1-7 with one no contest going back about four years. And the one win was a split decision win. So what's the future here for a 36-year-old Little Heathen who still is the hardest hitter, Luke, at 145? I'll say this, man. I interviewed him

many times, but the last one was like 2018, 2017, something like that. He was still in the UFC and I brought this up a number of times because it always stuck with me. I asked him about some fight he was offered i don't remember what it was at the time and like did you decline it he was like i didn't even know we could decline fights he wasn't being serious he was sort of doing a bit he's like i've you know i don't ever ever ever ever decline fights and we love him for it the problem is dude you might shorten your

career doing that because you're gonna fight fucking hammers left and right. And even in PFL, dude, Natan Schulte is not a household name. Dude, or Natan Schulte, however you pronounce it, he's very good. He's a legit fighter. It wasn't like he left the UFC, great, out of the frying pan, right into the fire for him. This is what happens when you take – it's not like he doesn't work hard or he's with a good team all that stuff's true but he's taken a ton of abuse a lot of miles on him and i think it's beginning to show we're starting to see whether it was rory

whether it was uh pettis now stevens it's if you come here as a free agent from another big organization and you're in your twilight you're gonna get it's not easy you have to come like you you know you might as well go somewhere else where you can just make fun action fights you know against other names or whatever because you're the meat grinder starting back up again next year the season's gonna start again and that cage ain't getting any dumber luke okay you know you know where i'm going with that? I'm sure you don't. Can that cage get me tickets to the Meadowlands when Pantera opens for Metallica?

I think if you ask nicely, Luke. We'll get to the Maraich Bowl later and the other title win we didn't mention. Oh, God, that was so sad, dude. That was so fucking sad. The other title win was Sadabusi had a largely boring win over Delano Taylor, but he's also a redemptive champion.

A lot of great stories there for the PFL, Luke. All right, before we move on from PFL, last question about it. Give me a grade for everything, for the pay-per-view, for the price, for what you got for it, the whole nine yards. What would you say was the bang for your buck on that whole thing? That's hard when you say the price. Look, it's also hard for us to talk about that because you know when was the last time i paid for a pay-per-view luke you want to know what the answer is never you get them reimbursed i haven't got mine reimbursed in a while i always had a

black box or i work somewhere where i got reimbursed and maybe that's you know but i i certainly know what it's like when you're like do i do this pay-per-view or do I take my family somewhere? And there's not a lot of, you know, there's not a lot of money, which combat sports puts you in that position. Boxing loves to put you in that. So was it considering the price and that the fights were really good? Look, that main event, Pacheco Harrison was, was drama. It was great. It was high level. It was fantastic. The card delivered. It did. It really the card delivered it did it really freaking delivered but it definitely shouldn't have been a pay-per-view so b b yeah i think that's about right it was actually a pretty good card um the only two fights that kind of sucked

were the lad and bud fight and then the c and then taylor fight other than that it was pretty great all the way through great stories great pacing for the most part um as you mentioned main event really kind of delivered uh certainly in terms of drama so yeah i'd give it about it shouldn't have been a pay-per-view but i give it about a b as well not not a bad effort all around i suppose all together do you think now that we're another season in the book, the announced team of O'Connell, Florian, and Randy Couture, do you think that they're world-class, that they're coming along? How do you sort of grade them, Luke?

I did hear them pronounce the names so that I could do well on today's show and didn't listen to much after that. All right, there you go. So I'm not the best person to ask this question. Why, do you like them or not? Yeah, I do like them like them i do like them i don't think they're great yet meaning i i think that they're still they're still getting used to each other but they're they're very good they are very good i will say this i've heard a lot of sean o'connell because we worked together at sirius xm

um when he was still actually in the pfl i remember when he won his final season and then quit and then became like full-time broadcaster sean o O'Connell had a background in radio before working for Sirius XM. And then when he got there, I remember I was talking to our program director at the time. And she thought he was so good and she was right that he was like, he should be doing college football for like Pac-12 stuff. And he ended up doing that as well. So like, dude, Sean O'Connell is a very talented broadcaster. And PFL has a hit with him. If he wasn't a fighter and he just walked on,

which I thought at first he was, and I hadn't done the math, and, oh, yeah, that was Sean O'Connell, he's really good. But you add in that he's also a fighter, and I think it just throws this story through the roof. Like, this should be more of a front-page story, the transition he has made. And not just a fighter, a guy who came in their system and then won it, like proof of concept kind of a guy who for being a fighter he has taken over

the play-by-play role which has certain responsibilities that are different from being an analyst that that are challenging and has pulled off not only that part flawlessly to be fair but knows when to fit in uh analysis himself having been a fighter so you know that that timing and that pay that that sort of um decision making and discipline is hard to develop over years of reps and he gives his collar men a lot of room to to do their job well so yeah i think he's the glue to that team luke and i think they're going to get a lot but i mean i've always been a big randy guy you know what i mean always yes yes randy's obviously pretty good but uh he's great look he might be he might be the best uh fighter analyst of all time people are gonna think that's controversial

i think no brian stan was better brian stan was better they're both american heroes in their own way luke no i don't think he was better brian stan was very good though i did i enjoyed his uh okay but either way we're talking about some pretty great guys. All right, BC, let's talk about topic number four here. I'm moving on from PFL for just a second. So this is a weird one. Conor McGregor took to social media over the weekend to basically go after Anthony Smith. Anthony Smith, I think he does

the Believe You Me podcast with Michael Bisping, although he talked about it with us as well, and I think some other places, but somehow Conor McGregor got wind of it, and basically what Anthony Smith's argument was, was that this is bullshit. How is this guy able to get out of the testing pool, take a bunch of PEDs,

and then just come back when he's ready? This is nonsense. And of course, he recently suffered his own ankle injury against Ankalayev, and it goes on from there. Conor McGregor hated everything about this and lashed out at him on Twitter saying things like the audacity of this loser than tagging Anthony Smith. You're a loser. The percentage of the bones joining back after a break like this is so low.

You think I give an F about anything else? I'm the most tested fighter of all time in combat sports. I gave everything to this game. You nothing. He went on and on and on from there, even putting out like recorded messages for Anthony Smith but in the end here's what he did say BC and this is what I wanted to have a conversation about quote everything was fully disclosed before I began the state of allowance for athletes to recover from injuries as horrific as the one I overcame

must be assessed my thoughts are with Weidman and Anderson Silva, the three of us and only us know the severity of this injury. BC, subsequent to this, ESPN and Mark Ramondi followed up with USADA to get some kind of confirmation about what the hell is happening here. All they said was that he would have to get back into the testing pool for six months, although an allowance could be granted. Remember the same thing they did for Brock Lesnar at UFC 200 where they're like, you can just come right on in. And that kind of blew up in their face a

little bit nevertheless bc we are back where we started a little bit where it's like he wasn't cut he didn't retire he was not removed from the rankings how is this fucking possible it appears and i want to use that word very clearly it appears that what mcgregor is arguing is that he received medical treatment that standard usada restrictions would not allow but fucking he did it anyway how do you unpack the situation what is the significance well peds are also really good for recovery so he's making a fairly strong point right there yeah in some way he's kind of like openly admitting things but also the the system and structure is kind of broken look i mean in in some ways is it parallel to the marijuana

discussion not even central to just fights but in general right i mean it's like you know there's there's i mean you when you mix with the everybody's probably using any way way of looking at things which i think is the accurate way mixed with this is a scenario where connor's probably right and this could greatly aid your recovery i mean look didn't r.i.p the great girl dad himself kobe bryant went to germany for those special surgeries to get himself back on the court right i mean what are in those special surgeries luke uh really good medicine right my understanding is he went to germ to get stem cell therapy, which USADA does not prohibit. That's my understanding. It fits the same

larger point that there's, you know. Well, Mirko Krokop, for example, took HGH per the recommendations of his surgeons and his doctors to heal one of his injuries and that got him in trouble, but he just left USC. You're the drugs win, drugs war t-shirt guy, Luke. You may be right

here. So Conor admitting it, yeah. And the reason why Ray Mundy got a quote from USADA was because Connor was kind of bragging on Twitter about the potential of him coming back and was sort of mentoring February of next year. And then that he could just come in, pass two tests and be back. And then that's when USADA responded and be like,

no, you have to do the full six months. And they said, the key part was they said that this situation would not meet the exemption terms that they would normally operate. Well, I guess it was fine for Brock Lesnar. Right. But yeah, your point taken there. But also, I mean, I don't think it's USADA's decision. It's UFC's. I mean, is anybody debate? OK, here's the things that we have to talk about. Is anybody debating that he's on the juice? Nobody is right. Is anybody going to know exactly what that is under what protocol? It seems like it's a medicinal level to treat this horrific injury he suffered. He also prioritized, and I'm not damning him, doing the role in the remake of Roadhouse,

which necessitated him bulking up and going another calendar year without a fight. Now, he was also recovering from the leg, so all that. So, like, I don't think anyone's going to debate that he's probably but i think you can also make the same debate that he did that using and they in the force of recovery too like if you can you might as well exit the usada pool and do that i mean right you know what i'm saying like you're already investing okay but here's the problem here's the problem funnily enough i actually had a couple ufc fighters call me over the weekend. This is a true story.

I saved it for today's story because I didn't want to ruin it. Yeah. Are they good at fighting too? High level. Very high level. Pay-per-view headliners. Oh my God, Luke. Wow.

They called me because they were very confused. They're like, I don't even understand how this is possible. Right? They were very confused. They're like, I don't even understand how this is possible, right? Like I can only get out of the testing pool per the rules if I've retired or I'm no longer employed with the organization. I'm like, well, that's certainly what they've told the public is the rule. But remember, people like, well, Connor just must have retired and then unretired. But if he retired, he has to be removed from the rankings. He was not removed from the rankings.

So that from what we know know that can't be the case and so i don't know what usada is or is not doing but it doesn't match whatever they told us publicly are the rules so this is where the confusion comes in and what they basically expressed to me was and this is like almost like they had had a coordinated conversation about it they basically were like they don't even care that conor got to do this stuff. They really don't. But if he gets the option to heal this way, they want the option in the event that they have some kind of other really very serious injury, they want the option to deal this way.

And you know something that we always do on RSD for all the fighters that come through, I didn't do it for Glover, I should have, but I do it for a lot of the other ones, which is like, tell me about all your injuries guys if you've never talked to a senior level fighter these fucking guys wreck themselves to say nothing of like the cte and traumatic brain injury just the orthopedic shoulder finger wrist knee elbow ankle all that shit all those issues get i mean they are massive problems and when connor talks about how he wants to be able to play with his kids when he's older dude i feel that completely i totally understand that but if he is allowed by some mechanism that we don't know to go and get medical treatment that other guys don't get i'm not mad at mcgregor for getting it and from what

i understand i don't think the fighters are mad that he got it. What they want to say is, I want that shit. I don't understand what the problem with that is. Look, I think this is the same situation. I think I said the same things. When, like, if you're a celebrity-level fighter, so we're basically arguing that it seems like both USADA and the company gave preferential treatment

to a celebrity-level fighter. Like, how would they waive the clause for Brock Lesnar ahead of 200? You know, obvious reasons why. And I think this is the same case as when John Jones was allowed to move his rematch from against Gustafson because the state commission in Nevada wasn't going to address that until the next weekend after the holiday. So they didn't clear John.

So everybody said, oh, wait, let's just pack up and move it down to four hours away in LA. And everybody was like, cool. Yeah. During Christmas week. No problem. Right. clear john so they did everybody said oh wait let's just pack up and move it down to four hours away in in la and everyone's like cool yeah during christmas week no problem right it's john jones coming back after a very long time could i so yeah you're right this is preferential treatment when you get to that celebrity level where you can flow and kind of call your own shots and um everyone should have access to that luke which is doesn't this just exploit that the testing system as you always harp about what you're right is is just more of a dog and pony than we even than we even necessarily it's just one of the things this is a common critique of anti-doping which again people don't want to listen to until it's right in front of their face but one of the major

documented critiques is it actually makes the dividing line between the very elite who are rich and the ones who aren't even worse people think like anybody who can take it will just raise their level and then it will just level the playing field which is actually not quite right when you have anti-doping in place what ends up happening is the people who can't afford to get around it can't afford to get around it the people who can find all number of ways whether it's stuff that isn't detected or whatever the hell again we don't know exactly what's happening here but we appear that something outside of the rules that as we understand them again i want to be sort of clear about the the the ambiguity of it all appears to be happening here there's lots of

ways in which it actually entrenches power it doesn't do the opposite of that and i want to make one more point bc on this whole thing it's like listen i understand that i have a view of anti-doping and perhaps you saw it more specifically that it's going to take a lifetime, I think, to convince people, and maybe even then it's not enough time, and I accept that. I really do. But what they are not entitled to is your automatic trust. No organization is. They are not entitled to the idea that they can operate at carte blanche.

No organization is. If you believe in their mission, that's one thing we can have a debate about. But if you're going to grant that they exist, all of us still have a responsibility to say that we don't have to agree to every single thing that they do. If you want to say that they're the good guys, I don't think that that's really a fair way to put it. Nevertheless, you don't allow them to just make up whatever they want to do or whatever rule they pass or whatever rule they pass or whatever that we have to accept and say, well, that's because of the good guys.

We just have to go along with it. No, all of their rules and all of their meetings and all of their statements, all of them deserve scrutiny. And the last thing I would say here, BC, is it's one thing for any organization in any sector to do things in a way that isn't in keeping with the highest standards. We all kind of accept it. But if your brand, your whole brand is transparency and your whole brand is trust and your whole brand is where the adults in the room, and then you have a clear situation that, again, we don't know what is happening, but clear in the sense that there is an obvious contradiction here that remains unclear. you do not get to then benefit

from the halo of trust that you told us you deserve because now it's being undercut i just want folks to understand you don't have to agree with the totality of my position on anti-doping to still be a critical thinker in this scenario and say this is bullshit this is bullshit and the ways in which the ways in which that informs your judgment about them should be changed accordingly i mean this is you know i've worked in a factory this is the osha guy showing up once a year and you have to get everything in order or if you worked in a kitchen this is the health inspector right luke you know what i mean let's all like button up and look good when we have to and then go back to regularly scheduled debauchery. I mean, this is what this is, Luke.

I mean, it's, yeah. I mean, how far are we away then from, it's like we've now realized and all come together and be like, not only can we all make money off of marijuana legalization, oh, this wonder drug can help so many people in a million different ways.

So can HGH on your recovery to keep you healthy as an athlete, right? Right, I mean, I think if you get a situation- It's not black magic, but it is science there. Yeah, I don't understand. Like, does it help you get a situation. It's not black magic, but it is science there. I mean, it's so. Yeah, I don't understand. Like, does it help with bone fusing or other kinds of things that you might need

in the case of what McGregor had? And again, there are all kinds of different things guys could take, peptides and the fucking works. But I just feel like USADA doesn't have to tell us what's happening with Conor, but they have to tell us the mechanism in place by which someone can leave the testing pool not be cut not be retired and stay in the rankings celebrity because as it stands we don't have that

and this whatever the fuck is happening it just has to be explained you can we know the ingredients though luke to be the adults in the room and do this you're a giant brand and a pay-per-view draw and you also work with the company to make really huge fights all right there it is that's that's the pact right there celebrity i think zoom is cutting out because i heard like three words of that that's fine it was it was largely bullshit hopefully my wi-fi catches up in time to share shit with each other here luke hopefully all right i still got like two words of that but I'm gonna plow on just the same okay BC uh fifth and final topic this one is near and dear to your heart you know I love this guy how about this fight this one went under the radar because it was on a pay-per-view that really I mean we talk about PFL pay-per-views that no one wanted to pay for no one really wanted to pay

for this one at all how about Regis Prograde the Rougarou by the way his wife is Brazilian he's trained with Jose Aldo. He loves MMA. He's a boxer out of Louisiana, I guess now Houston, whatever. He stopped Jose Zepeda in the 11th round to claim the WBO, excuse me, 140-pound title. BC, help the folks understand how legitimate is this win for Rougarou? Huge, huge, not just in the way he had to earn it against a guy in Zepeda who almost like in the second half of his career has found out this formula to be as good as he can be. And he's a tough title off for anybody. And he makes fight of the year after fight of the year contenders almost accidentally. But this was more about the arc

of Regis Progre in the end, because he was a guy who, you know, was once this, this warrior with the fun mask and the rougarou background all that you know the nickname and all that stuff but never got the right deal at the right time promoter network manager wise to get ahead in the more traditional ways and was almost looking like he was wasting away on the bench trying to get more big fights well he had that big unification against josh taylor know what happened there. Fight of the year, great performance. He lost by that close on the scorecards and it took this long doing the mandatory system and getting involved with the alphabets to work his way back up the old-fashioned way. And even though this pay-per-view, you know,

shout out to Marv Nation, the promoter with the big bid, probably didn't move many units there. These two put forth a performance worthy of the war grounds there in Carson California won't be a fight of the year you know leading nominee but it was a fun fight because both were willing but Progray proved that he still got a lot of gas left here even in his 30s in this division he grabs an important belt he stops Zepeda late it was always a you know it was a boxing match but it was an aggressive one but Progray was did never never allowed Zepeda late. It was always a boxing match, but it was an aggressive one. But Progre never allowed Zepeda to do what he does best, which is

sharpshoot from the outside from the southpaw position. He made him fight at relatively close range and then ultimately broke him down, wore him down and stopped him. So when you look at the landscape now at 140, Josh Taylor still has some of the belts. He was the Undisputed Champion.

He's going to rematch Cattarall. Some of these other belts are floating around here. Now one of these belts is around Progre's race, and his No. 1 contender, a mandatory contender next, will be the former Unified Champion in the division, Jose Ramirez, who was supposed to be in this fight but wanted more time to get married and take a longer break. If we're going next, Regis Progre against Jose Ramirez or potentially Teofimo Lopez who's going

to return Heisman weekend against a replacement opponent but is in this title picture as well um Rougarou may end up getting the close-ups in the opportunities Luke that his talent and excitement deserves this was a really good performance because you didn't really know where he was at in his career right here because it just been so long since he was in a real big meaningful fight. But how about that performance, man? It was grimy and he got it done.

He went after it. I was proud of him. All right. So you mentioned like what could be next for him. Where would the fights take place? What is his contractual situation that we are aware of? How,

how available is he to move to various networks? Well, it depends, right? Cause didn't he sign with Probellum, which had, you know, deep links with Daniel Kinahan reportedly,

or very obviously at everyone declines that. So where does that leave him? You know, was this odd purse bid win pay-per-view for unheard of Marv nation, just some front for Probellum and can, I don't know, Luke, I don't know at the end of the day. Okay. Certainly, you know was this odd purse bid win pay-per-view for unheard of marv nation just some front for pro bellum and can i don't know luke i don't know at the end of the day okay certainly you know far better journalists than me are at the roots of all that but can he now as champion work himself through who is promoting and managing him to be amicable to go over to espn and potentially fight

jose ramirez in a title fight or you know to wherever, to zone wherever it was needed to make these fights. He may end up being in sort of the spot he's always been, which is like in real interesting free agent. Why is major promoter have, why have they not signed him yet? Um, he's kind of still that guy. And some, if long as he has flexibility within the deals he has Luke, he may be able to just shop around and defend that title wherever the biggest offer or, or most exciting opponent is available. And, you know, not just Jose Ramirez, as I mentioned in that top rank ESPN family. Also, you're talking about Teofimo. So Luke, you know, if he has to fight Jose Ramirez and Teofimo Lopez in his next two fights, they're going to be big, they're going to be action. And I have to believe, you know,

networks are going to work together and make this happen. Or his team work together, whichever network it would take, which in this case, ESPN. I mean, are those front row viewing for you? I mean, yeah, that's insane. Those are going to be great. Yeah. Like, that's not a hard sell at all. It's just a question of, like, between Marv Nation and Pro Bellum or whatever the fuck,

is he going to be able to move into like top rank territory on espn but they have nowhere else to go right and unless they're trying to put on these you can't be making money on this pay-per-view they had to have taken a bath there's no question they had to have right so in that sense i think some kind of move is inevitable and either way ramirez or especially lopez dude those are sick fights uh because Because you mentioned it was a gritty win, but dude, Progray's kind of slick, too, when he needs to be. That's the other part. He can be a lunch pail and meet you in the middle kind of guy

if he has to be, but if he leans on his strengths, he's a fairly versatile fighter, sort of in my opinion, anyway. Oh, definitely. Now, you're always going to fear him against a super elite boxer with a backbone. The problem is those are really hard to find right he found one in josh taylor when that fight was a majority decision 12 round classic back and forth i'd love to see that again at any weight class but if he if look if if pro gray can

can control on his terms like he did for most of us then he can start to go downhill and try to break you he lured zapata into a kind of shootout that he wasn't going to win, right? Because this is an Ivan Brantic who made such a great war as Zepeda, and they knocked each other down like six times, but they also had flashy chins in those big moments to create that level of drama. Ruger is not going anywhere. He's going to stand in there and trade, so you're going to lose that battle if you try to outshoot him to really beat this aggressive version of Progre.

You have to also be an elite boxer. But, you know, Jose Ramirez is of that ilk, certainly Teofimo. I mean, these are going to be some fun-ass fights. And don't forget, Luke, all the talk about all the excitement at lightweight with Ryan Garcia, Tank Davis, Devin Haney, now Shakur, those guys are all going to be moving up to 40 more or less eventually anyway as well. this larger discussion of flowing fighters they move up in weight even with the network divides going on this tank davis ryan garcia come together could be the could it be the beginning of the breakthrough i mean all at this weight class 35 40 and you know obviously always leading to 47 it's some of the the most exciting fighters in this entire game

okay let's let's let's start making these money fights. Let's get really excited about boxing. Okay. I'm fired up. And Lopez, December 10th, as you mentioned, Heisman weekend, he fights Sandor Martin. Yeah. Who retired Mikey Garcia. So he's not, you know, he's not a chump.

He's, you know, he's semi. He's pretty, he's legit Luke, right? Very good. All right. I want to remind folks, we're getting closer to the end of the month and you know what that means, BC. It's almost time to select the first ever Money Lion Hammer of the Month.

For those of you who may have missed it, a few weeks back we decided we wanted to start spotlighting some undercard fighters who aren't getting the recognition they deserve. Our new sponsor, Money Lion, agreed, so we came up with the Hammer of the Month, which invites you folks out there, the viewers or the listeners, to nominate which undercard fighters blew your mind and deserve to be rewarded for it.

Very simple. Go to moneylion.com slash morningcombat to learn more on how to enter. And, of course, you can tweet moneylion at moneylion. And you can use the hashtag hammer of the month or even holyhammer if you're someone inclined. Or you can do it on Instagram at moneylioninc. Same kind of thing there. BC, I will say this. Last thing on this card from PFL, there was way down at the bottom of the card,

Dakota Decheva beating Catherine. I can't pronounce her last name. You're going to be picking those kernels out of my shit shortly, Luke, okay? They're kernels of gold, all right? Yeah. Well, she won via right hook and hammer fist. I mean, a dominant, dominant puncher and striker. She looked tremendous on this card. You know, it took a while to get them here luke and they've certainly taken their

time but but they have blown our mind and you know aaron blanchfield on top of that list as well along with uh many others this has been a very very uh wild stretch these four weeks here to try to identify the first hammer but somebody's going to get to hold that thing by the shaft, Luke, okay? So hopefully it's not a female, so that this moment doesn't ring awkwardly true in our brain stems, you know what I mean? Only your brain stem, which is terribly damaged. Alright, it is time

now for, well, you guys get to ask us the questions. It's time for DMs from the diggity dogs. Yeehaw, yeehaw, yeehaw. As a reminder, we put up a post on Instagram on Sundays. You guys fill it up, and then the producers pick questions. All right, BC. From Cole underscore Brown 858, what comparisons, he should add, if any, do you guys see between

Kayla Harrison and Ronda Rousey after their first loss in MMA? Not that many, actually. I got it. There's just one. They're both female. just one they're both female oh they're both two they're both uh accomplished female judokas luke that's the only comparison here right yeah like rousey imploded in a monster terrible upset where she was viciously put out and kayla was scrappy like that was a close fight um and kayla went to the press conference after

and talked so there wasn't any of that either so yeah yeah i mean the fact that they're both women they're both americans and they're both blondes is really about the beginning and end of that one so that i can think of anyway all right uh question number two at coach underscore cory 96 again worst name ever who poses a bigger threat to Islam? I was going to say like the Crusades. No. Volk or Darius? I feel as though Benil didn't get enough credit

for how soundly he shut down Gamrot. He got plenty from me. Some of the best defensive wrestling I've seen in a while. Volk or Darius? Who's a bigger threat to Islam Makacho? Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich.

McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. And participate in McDonald's in Canada. I mean, Dariush is a bigger physical threat. Dariush is very well-rounded, dude. Very well-rounded. No, there's no question about it. He's more experienced than Makachev. But he's also a physical threat dariush is very well rounded dude very well rounded and no i know there's no experience than makachev but he's also a physical threat and clinches and with his you know with his

punching power he's in in ways that i question if volk can be in this same matchup volk is also a freaking wizard so i give him more potential to go full bloom in directions that i didn't see coming then dariush in such a difficult matchup. So while there are better, there are good arguments here to pick Darius for those reasons, Volk's the best fighter in the world. So I'm still going to give him the chance to show me that against Mahachev. I won't pick him to win it.

I'll tell you where to put your betting money, but I also respect the shit out of that guy, Luke, and do wonder because he's competed in the past at very high weights in rugby or whatever the hell that was, that he may be able to just carry weight and still be the same guy. Who knows until we find out. Obviously, this is the hardest way to find out,

the most difficult possible, but at least they're letting him fight at home. Is Perth home or is it too far away for any Australian to call it home, Luke? What is Perth? Like the Siberia of down under? What is it, Luke? siberia i don't know i don't know about siberia but like you know it's definitely uh from what i understand anyway pretty far fucking out there i mean the the argument for volk would be he is not as big but he can match physically strength he's going to be quicker he's got you, the very extremely difficult stand-up to solve.

And, you know, just cardio until the bell rings, basically, to beginning and end. Like, he just has unlimited, nearly cardio. That's one argument. Darius is, like, very battle-tested, great submissions, super good wrestling, and, like, plenty of aggression on the feet. I don't know if there's much of a difference to be.

I mean, there's difference in the, the, the things that they would offer Makhachev as threats to solve, but in terms of their difficulty, I don't, it's hard to tell if there's really a meaningful difference in terms of the difficulty between them.

But I think I'd side with you a little bit. We were talking about the best pound fighter in the sport with Volk, you know, like what happens if Makhachev does what will end up being more you know more likely from a betting standpoint but still if he goes in there and not only beats Volk and even if it's more due to size than anything else but you know he's also can do it without the size equation and is you know in his favor what if he goes out there takes down Volk and just grounds him up into a pulp like he's the best fighter in the world right I mean are we prepared for say so we say he's gonna look unfricking beatable obviously it's

a smaller man moving up but it's the best fighter in the world moving up right you know it's that I mean if he does it if he if he controls that entire fight on his terms and wins it oh boy luke this motherfucker i mean yeah i don't know i would necessarily say that because we're just making an estimate about how good he is but maybe the size really is yeah but i like to get a difficult factor i like to get caught up in the drama the romanticism of it i like to get drunk on it luke you don't like i think it ends up being like that i think folks are going to say that the size was too much he needs to go back to 155 and then dory you could still lose but be a much tougher fight like um you can still be the best fighter on earth but if the size difference is too much then it doesn't mean it don't you want

to see that shit now i know we're about to but oh yeah yeah oh yeah dude i'm i'd be happy to see makachev fight either of these guys the fact he's fighting volk first is great but yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, dude. I'd be happy to see Makachev fight either of these guys. In fact, he's fighting Volk first is great. But yeah, either one of these fights is real difficult. No, I'm really, I'm just trying to let you know right now that I'm really excited about that fight. I'm rock hard with emotion, Luke. I'm glad to hear about your genitals, BC. All right.

At Brandon Blackstone, if Conor comes back and somehow beats Islam, I doubt that, but let's say he did, how would that change his legacy? Now, when he says his, I think he means Conor's. I will tell you that. I don't know if Conor has that in him, but if Conor makes anti-doping more friendly for the athletes, where they can now get things a little bit easier than they would be

for difficult injuries, that actually would be a great contribution from him long-term, and I mean that quite genuinely. But in terms of the fight, I mean, if he beat Islam, which he probably won't, that'd be big, right? Huge? Are you freaking kidding me? The discussion we just had is how unbeatable is Mahachev going to look if he grinds up the pound-for-pound king, all right?

You know what I'm saying? If then Conor came in there and not just one punch slept him, but you know, they got into a fight and Connor won the fight. However, he did that actually one, you're not a fluke. He won the damn fight. Dude, that's, that's not just Randy Couture level of Paul Bunyanism. That's like maybe unique to what hated he also is in polarizing and considering how right now of what we know is just unlikely. Like, like people like me who have always been willing from a betting and picking standpoint to still believe in that magic and that romanticism of mystic Mac. And no, if he just puts it together for one night,

he could beat anybody. You know, sometimes you can, you can, you can be an addict to, to wanting that thing to be true for, many reasons the entertainment value the influx to the sport or just no i really believe he can he can do that one more time um there's not much left to believe that he really can do that one more time and certainly not against islam maha

i mean are you or at 155 so yeah dude if he did that, that would become like, you know, like, hey, GSP beating Bisping, move over. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's are you kidding me? That's wild as shit. That'd be insane. Yeah, it'd be insane. I just see it as so remote for no other reason.

I just don't think that's a fight he's even going to get, you know? Well, no, no. Okay. Okay. Never doubt. However, he plays his cards in terms of coming back. I would agree he's going to come back and beat somebody and look good. But there's plenty of people they can give him where that's possible.

Like a Tony Ferguson type fight. Like it's possible. We could get a Conor versus Cerrone comeback type of like looks better than he actually is moment. The conversation of Conor versus Islam is always going to be in the front of the UFC's mind from here on out until it's completely unviable. So don't act like it's not like they would, they would drop everything to make that Luke with the Habib connection. I mean, come on. It's what the UFC lives for that fight.

You know, I don't think they'd make that fight. I don't think that dude, don't get me wrong. Connor's got pull. Like no one's got pull. We just had a conversation. I mean, he's got it. I'm telling you, he's got to beat somebody first. That's what I'm saying.

You got to be. Yes. Yes. Yeah. We just had a conversation. I mean, he's got it. I'm telling you, he's got to beat somebody first. That's what I'm saying. You got to be. Yes. Yes. At 155 or 170. Yeah, I want to say 155, but he gets special treatment, Luke. So even if it's against old name at 170, but he stops them and looks pretty damn spry, then he's going to call the shots on this. I mean, the thing is, I don't think he I think he wants the title in the third weight class.

I don't think he wants it at 155 anymore. That's the issue. Well, good luck beating all those guys, first of all, but also good luck beating Chimaev. Or good luck beating Shavkat Rachmanov. Forget Chimaev. Yeah, good luck. All right.

From AtRealKempi. Not the worst name. Why do so many heavyweights at MMA look out of shape? I mean, because of the 265 cut, like that prevents the serious fat guys from fighting. Well, I mean, it's so many factors. Like there's this argument about the World Cup. It's like, oh, if America's best athletes played soccer, we dominate, which is a very simplistic argument it's not really true

um so you know i don't want to overblow it but i do think in the case of the united states dude our best heavyweights definitely in terms of like physical athletes they don't they don't box by and large they go and play in the nfl they go and play in the NBA or whatever. The vast majority of those guys are just pulled out of the system so they can't go do it. So that's one reason. The other reason is, dude, as a heavyweight, and yeah, I'm just the most average piece of shit on earth,

but it's just hard for... This is why Cain Velasquez was a unicorn, man. Because it's very, very hard for someone to be 270 or whatever, 65, but whatever after a cut, 270 pounds, and be able to have 25 minutes of cardio. It's hard for anyone who's 135 pounds to do that, much less 200 plus. It's just hard to carry around that weight and have that kind of stuff. Plus, we're talking about a diluted talent pool in terms of the heavyweight division itself. I do think these guys train hard,

but like, do they train in the very best way? Do the vast majority of them train in the way that's like super ideal for them to get VO2 max pushed to the limits? I don't know that they do. So it's a few reasons in place, BC. Yeah, that's fair, Luke. Also, some guys like keeping a little bit of heft

for their game, like because it gives them power or it gives them like the ability to like lay on top of someone and, you know, from like side control and really own that space. So like part of it is there's a little bit of like, I don't want to add too much muscle if I have enough bulk.

I still think, you know, as much as UFC like loves, like we always talk about putting chase Sherman and the co-main of a fight night card against anybody. Cause oh, they're heavyweights that'll bang. Guess what?

They will. Um, fat heavyweight should be, I know it's hard to get two fat elite guys right so you don't see elite fat heavyweight fights but i love in like in all the weird permutations like what oh i i love it when wrestler fights pure boxer no i love it when fat heavyweights fight luke it's great that's great we should have a fat division right uh we should have a fat division let me ask you not named butterbean so you can't say him who's the best fat guy boxer ever the old the old version of george foreman when he came back like the 40 plus version who beat yeah who would like you know be eating a tray full of burgers at the,

at the press conference to try to fool people. You know what I mean? Like, you know, Oh, well, Long Island Luke is offering James Tony, which he would be referring to like the cruiserweight and heavyweight.

Cause the early version of James Tony was pretty slender. Oh, hell yeah. But no, so James Tony, like he, he actually won a heavyweight title against John Ruiz, but then failed the steroid test and they stripped him.

But like, you know, he won the cruiserweight world. He was so slick as a fat dude. Yeah, it was pretty incredible to watch. But he was a smaller man adding weight. Yeah, I mean, who's the best fat fighter of all time? I mean, like an actual fat man.

Like Roy Nelson, maybe? Yeah, probably. Roy Nelson in his peak was really good. I mean, second half, Fedor was just giving up on crunches. Right? I mean, yeah. Last couple fights. Kettlebell swings and calling.

Oh, Mark Hunt. Mark Hunt's a good call. Mark Hunt's a great call, yeah. You know, like the early part of DC's announcing's announcing career you know he let it go a little right yeah we're in that part still luke it's okay though that's funny uh all right and last but not least from khaled i'm gonna pronounce his name wrong khaled bedoon he asks aside from the bc which world cup team are you pulling for and why oh uh um i so i do you tend to generically cheer for england after the u.s or no because you hate white people and gringos well it's not about white people per se there's lots of whites in the tournaments but i never cheer for england i mean i

love the english but i ain't cheering for you. Dude, English fans are, English national team soccer fans are the most pompous motherfuckers alive. I mean, all they do all day long is talk about it's coming home, it's coming home. And then if you saw the response after the draw they had, it was like, well, they really let us down and they could have done more. It's like, dude, we fucking bullied you. Like, granted, Gareth Southgate didn't bring in, what's his face, Foden? They didn't bring him in. He's real good too. But they got fucking bullied you like granted gareth southgate didn't bring in what's his face uh foden they didn't bring him in he's real good too but they got fucking bullied i mean that's just the reality of it and uh are you talking about this year's world cup i haven't watched a single second because i'm joining your boycott so i haven't watched a single second i got to

watch the second half of that with my wife we were out for on saturday so i did see that part but all right well i always cheer for lithuania luke but they're you know they're not they don't make it they don't make it they don't make it i always cheer for england i sort of like but that's sort of like the lame but that's a lame white person move right kind of like how some people just automatically cheer for notre dame football a little you know because they're white and like it's just weird i don't think i don't think the english get american fans to like them if anything like the american second choice would be Mexico. See, I always want Mexico to be good.

Yeah, I do cheer for Mexico a lot. That's true. I do like... Dude, the Mexican team is sorry. What about France? They're looked at as villains, but because... Oh, dude, the French are the jackhammers of all jackhammers, dude. I end up cheering for them. Who was the guy with that Teddy Atlas scar? Remember that guy? He was like

an evil genius in the midfield. For France? Yeah, Ribéry. Remember that guy? Oh, he's retired. Frank Ribéry, yeah. He's retired. You know, my guys are willing to headbutt their way through life, Luke.

That's Zinedine Zidane, who, by the way, coached and played at Real Madrid. Yeah, no, I don't think Americans would cheer for the English like that. I don't cheer for the Canadians. Like, outside of Bronstetter and Shaq, you know, and Morrow, you know, they're kind of the worst, right? I don't know. I like the Canadians, man. They're good people.

I like Canadians. Yeah, they're all right. I mean, my people are French-Canadian, Luke, but, you know, whatever, right? The answer is I think they're playing today. I don't know. Maybe they're playing now. I'm not even sure. I think I would say Brazil. I'd say Brazil because they got a playing now. I'm not even sure. I think I would say Brazil.

I'd say Brazil because they got a bunch of players from Madrid. You can't cheer for Brazil, dude. That's like cheering for the Yankees or something. Like, if you don't have a... Well, you did pull off that real Madrid PS. Remember, a couple World Cups ago, they got bodied by Germany 7-0. And here's the thing about the Brazilians. Who cares?

They'll be back in four years. Luke, they're always in the final. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're real good. They're real good. But, like, the thing is, I don't know. They're always in the final. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're real good. They're real good. But the thing is, I don't know, they're a little bit choke artists. A little bit.

A little bit choke artists. But they've got a bunch of players from Madrid on their team. I mean, they win it. They're like LeBron in the finals. Like LeBron in the finals? A little bit of a choke artist. He also has got three rings, Luke. So it's like, what else is there?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, listen. I like to root for teams where I'm showing up to the casino and I'm rooting for the house. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I know. That's your real Madrid. You know what team I was real into, Luke, I like to root for teams where I'm showing up to the casino and I'm rooting for the house. Yeah, I know. That's your real Madrid. You know what team I was real into, Luke, in 94? Bulgaria.

Hold on, just back up a step. Hold on, just back up a step real quickly. Oh, just take the L. Just take the L. No, no, no. Hear me out. If you're asking me, like, how many good teams are there in the World Cup? There's like three good teams.

There's not that many. All right. I don't know. teams are there in the world cup there's like three good teams there's not that many all right i don't know but i do know luke that um uh remember the 94 bulgaria risto stoichkov and that other dude that used to pass to him like they were awesome remember they almost they almost made the finals no i don't remember that at all oh all right i have patchy memory like okay so then would you okay i'll say this who is your like um who is like your you know it's a long shot but you really love their story kind of thing I mean that's become Mexico although that's not what it should be right

yeah sort of but they're sorry like Senegal is a good choice for that oh yeah yeah yeah yeah that's a great um who else would be a good one for that oh yeah yeah yeah yeah that's a great who else would be a good one for that um croatia looked they i think they got they they beat the shit out of canada um so there you go the croatians beat up the canadians damn i'm sure ante uh dalia what was going maybe chris dalia too going nuts for that right yeah yeah so i mean you know i just like the brazilian players because they play for for Madrid and they're probably but they're probably like winners Luke that's all I mean if you are you the type of kid Luke that when you were doing a season in your video game and it looked like you were about to lose you would hit just hit reset and redo the game

no but but if you do that you're a POS okay you're a POS you're a terrible person I'll say this here's my World Cup prediction but hold. Here's my World Cup prediction. Take the L, people. Which ain't real shit, but hold on. Here's my World Cup prediction. I don't see how the French lose, man. The French team is like, it's just. Do they still have Kareem something?

Well, so they have a bunch of injuries. You're talking about Benzema? Yeah. Who just won the Ballon d'Or? No, he's out. He's out. They got a bunch of injuries. Dude, this is the fucking insane part. He can't't play through pain Yao Ming in the 08 Olympics played

through a broken foot Luke I don't I don't think you should be challenging how how manly he is when you're a couch potato but the point I wanted to make is Luke I fought through the emotional trauma to get here not the physical okay the emotion exactly yeah that's right dude the French team has like a gazillion injuries so they've got like plenty of subs in and if you still look at the starting lineup the starting 11 all those fucking guys play for top teams all even the subs play for top teams yeah in europe like i just don't know who's gonna beat them that's because they're paying them to do that yeah it's all dirty recruitment right no it's colonialism because a lot of guys they pull

from places in africa and then they combine that with their academy uh grooming and development teams and the combination of having all that talent plus the academies the world-class academies that's what makes them tough that's exactly how john calipari built an empire luke okay colonialism yeah yeah i mean look at him now yeah you remember how good those umass teams were luke remember that remember at 96 umass they were insane who was the big seven-footer marcus can be harford yeah yeah they had the padilla brothers they had the other little white guy from puerto rico that made threes i mean they had uh dante dingle dana dingle all the dingles okay so like thinking of the –

Okay, so getting back to the question, and we'll move on. So if you're picking like your – I think it was like, what was it, 2007 when George Mason made the Final Four? Remember that? 06, yeah, Jim Laranaga. Under Jim Laranaga, who moved on to, I think, Miami after that. Who is your George Mason in this one? Who's like your fucking real good?

Oh, like when Butler made the Final four that time yeah same thing who's your butler who's your george mason in college basketball i was asking about the world cup but i think you know oh oh sorry i guess i guess that you've you've exited the conversation well i did open the conversation saying i'm joining you in in boycotting this year's cutter world cup out of you know human rights issues and shit you know no i think you're boycotting it because you're one of these americans who doesn't like soccer and you think it's lame well that's that's at least part this part that's a that's that's an additive i put in the fuel that gets me to where i am here also the u.s team let's be honest about this the u.s team even though they gave england a bit of the business they suck i mean they're not good so yeah yeah that's true

probably true i didn't see any of the games that's probably true you know i was real into it sporadically luke 98 right because of that when does the u.s play again i actually don't even know hold on real quickly uh i'm probably gonna tie again right do you can they get in with three ties luke i don't i think i don't know oh they play iran next tomorrow at two they play iran tomorrow too are you gonna watch that is that a rematch of the first golf challenge luke oh no that was kuwait yeah uh they speak farsi in iran not arabic yeah um they're not the same they're different people they're persians they're not arabs i'll watch it because you want me to so let's do it luke okay actually i'm not gonna watch it either so

it's okay uh all right that's it yeah the dogs bc okay all right now let me say this one more time it's time for bc's feces i cannot tell you how many times this degenerate look at that smile on his face biting his lip like he's gina carano sittingide. He has told me this is like an epic dose. No, I said I got a really good batch of shit this week. I've said that before. Let's see it. I scoured the globe yesterday. The highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly,

and the in-between from over the weekend in combat sports and much more from beyond. Shout out to Gaff Pierre for digging through this shit. It's BC Species. Let's do it. All righty. Oh God. Okay.

PFL championships from the MSG theater. Luke, uh, Rob Wilkinson and Omari Ahmed off for the middleweight championship put on a bloody war. Wilkinson Luke gave us another one of those feel-good redemption stories from his own being cut from the UFC and making this comeback, but both of these guys

it only went two rounds until Akhmedov's cut brought an end to it, but damn. Yeah, you're saying it's a war, and don't get me wrong, like, Akhmedov put in what he could. It was a little one-sided, dude. True. A little bit one-sided. Akhmedov really tested Wilkinson's chin, too, with some right-handed bombs.

But, yeah, it became a drubbing. And, damn. I mean, they gave all, Luke, and I was really happy to see that. Kicked off the card in style. Yeah. Well, Luke, they had the battle for the name rights to the Maraich family. Shaman wins by knockout, but the bigger story here, Luke, is how many more times are we going to allow ourselves to watch

Hammers destroy Marlon Maraich? It's already been too many. He's trying for a deep half there, then sits up. I mean, dude, he was winning, too. It wasn't like he was looking bad. He was looking good. But his ability to take damage has just been severely compromised, man.

How do you tell a 34-year-old? I guess you do. You've got to tell them. They might be surprised, Luke, but some people have been able to take that cue and turn it into empires in different areas. You just want to see Marlon healthy and him taking on very talented

guys is not going well anymore. It's just not. No, it really is. I felt terrible. I was like, dude, he's going to pull it off here and then. You mentioned a potential hammer of the month. How about 24-year-old Brit Dakota DeCheva? Yeah, dude.

Look at this young lady. Fucking firecracker. 7-0 now with his first round KO. It definitely didn't get their attention in the crowd. It got my attention, though. Woo! No, she looks like she can thump a little bit. She looked good.

You know who proved a little thumpage was the grandson of the greatest, Biagio Ali Walsh, brother of Nico Ali Walsh, the boxer, made his MMA debut here. And he needed just 45 seconds to bring the heat. That's that Ali power. I think it is, Luke. He's got some swagger, too, just like his bro. I mean, he looked like he belongs right there, right now.

Who's the other one in boxing? Nico Ali Walsh. Nico Ali Walsh, that's it, yeah. Yeah, unbeaten middleweight, I think. But, you know, that was a highlight reel performance there. We'll see what else he has. Wholesome moment here, though, from Brendan Locknane, as we mentioned. Here's the finish of him

realizing the $1 million with blood flowing down his face. Look at that crowd reaction, Luke. That's his family. That's his family. He even said he brought his mom in there, which was very touching for someone like me. And then he said, I told her when we didn't have a pound in the bank i was gonna make it and uh sure enough he did he is one million dollars richard he's also a world champion i think he changed that narrative of first reference he's

no longer that guy from that series luke he's a world champion now so shout out and not to be undone here is olivier albin mercier who had his own path to redemption here with this lightweight championship and he delivered the boom via the right hand yikes what a right hook i mean just perfect time this perfectly too from the tips of hell just the tip wow just just a touch there switch stance and then fire the right hook just beautiful all right that what a what a holiday weekend there for oam he gets the win luke dominance mma spent their holiday weekend in a different visit uh in chechnya as a guest of uh ramzan kadirov here is geichi usman and sahudo former uh champions of interim or full renown in Gwadarmos, Russia, at a special forces facility sampling weapons for the holidays.

You just can't believe stuff like this, huh? So they were a special guest of Ramzan Kadyrov. Luke, why do you have issue with that? Well, you mean the guy's a murderous dictator? There's that. I mean, guy's a uh a murderous dictator uh there's that i mean here's the thing i think if we just sit here and we lash out at these guys they're just gonna tune us out you know truly i mean that like i'm not trying to lash out and we've interacted with justin gaethje i've never interacted i've interacted with kimura a little bit i've never interacted with henry directly but

i've interacted with those other two guys and i like them a lot i don't think they're bad people but they're making a real i would ask ask them to please, please reconsider doing this. Please think longitudinally about this. Is this... Correct me if I'm wrong. It's a different scenario, but is this the same thing of Tyson Fury posting that video that time ahead of booking the Dillian White fight and thanking Daniel Kinahan and everybody being like, we're just blatantly doing this thing.

Is this the same thing or no? I mean, there's just a lot of funny money in combat sports generally. And you go back to, you know, even Ali engaged in sports washing, like Muhammad Ali. Like, it's been going on for a long time. It's just the issue for me is like, not so much about like, hey, did Anthony Joshua get a big purse from the Saudis? You know, I really don't care. I mean, I don't love it that they fight in, you know, Saudi Arabia or whatever, but I can kind of sort of rationalize that a little bit.

The thing that I think these guys should reconsider is how they're being used. They're being put in these promo videos by Kadyrov. And what does he use them for? He uses them for, you know, propaganda. He uses them for sports washing. He uses them also to burnish his appeal. And frankly, it helps him strengthen his hold over Chechnya, which then leads into all of the other human rights violations.

I mean, dude, it's supposed to be illegal to do business with this guy. I don't even know how this is happening. So I'm not going to go ahead and be like, oh my God, how could these guys do it? Because I don't think they'll listen. But please, guys, you have to think long term you are being used but for purposes here and I'm sure they're getting a big bag for it but they're being used I mean is this here that can only age poorly yeah I mean this could be Epstein Island I mean this could be it could age very poorly Luke this is also the part two is like

dude MMA media have you noticed they don't say shit about this nothing it's like dude the next time someone comes out and again you don't have to go out and condemn them because you're trying to find the way to get them to listen I don't know what that is but we're trying but like the next time someone comes through and says something like the MMA media you know um they get attacked for something and then they want to defend their practices, you can fucking stop that now. Now. Every critique that people make of them is toothless. And here's what's kind of funny about it.

Well, is it them? Is it always them or is it parent companies just making a decision? Sure. I mean, there's a lot of actors. Maybe, yes, the fighters should make better decisions. And what's the UFC doing about this? And is this even legal?

Like, there's all kinds of questions involved here. Fair enough. And what's the UFC doing about this and is this even legal like there's all kinds of questions involved here fair enough and what's the media's role like you know if people like well should they meet with the president the American president and I'm like well you know I don't know but here's what I definitely know if they were taking money from Joe Biden to then appear in propaganda videos with him I'd probably have something to say about that too for sure so it could definitely cut both ways I mean let's be clear about that but i think the thing i that sort of just goes back to me on this whole thing is like dude the role of media like none of us have the right answers right we don't know what we we can only present the facts to the audience and then they can make a determination about it and that's fine but to not say anything to not say anything you're yeah you need a hero who's will

lucas basically saying i need a hero who's will luke is basically saying i need a hero who's willing to confront and accost these people and make them answer for what they're potentially doing it's not all what i said i mean are we tough enough to go up to suhudo and blame him for turning it into cringe neo luke i don't know but there was someone willing to answer that call for a hero and his name hasbula mago medoff here's footage to prove it luke hasbula went right up to suhudo like what are you doing bro damn dude dude suhudo is kind of a i'm sorry not suhudo hasbulla is kind of a menace bro kind of did you watch that interview he did with the barstool guy look it was amazing dude he just goes up and

assaults people yeah pretty much i mean on site luke you know when he's got a grudge with you it's on site no question about it he loves kitty cats and firearms let me ask you a serious question what happens when someone's like yo i've had enough of this shit and they actually swing on him i think that person could be mcgregor seriously that could go in a distasteful way. I mean, imagine if like McGregor cold cocked this guy or kicked him in the face or something like that's not that video is not going

to look good, Luke, right? That's going to. I don't know, man. The guy is begging for it. Also true. But, you know, there you go. Hey, let's go to happier times here, Luke.

Israel Adesanya, the former champion. This was like a day or two after losing his belt, showed up on the set of Hot Ones. And here is him tasting the final called the Da Bomb

which is like that ridiculous nuclear one Luke. Yeah, I've had it. It's unbearable. Here's Izzy's reaction. Ready. Mmm. I think this is where it starts to ah. Yeah. This is a it starts to. Yeah, this is a different level.

My precious. you gotta feel it don't fight it no he's wrong with it damn look he was speaking in tongues there it seemed like that was like fifth round against gastelum level shit he pulled he pulled deep for that did you ever see the episode with dj collard yes where he outright after two of them was like you know what not gonna play these reindeer games don't need to you played yourself right i'm out of here say dude like i so i've had the bomb and i've had the one that they make the last dab i've had the last dab a couple of times it's bad but it's not like it's bad it's but it not horrific. The bomb is horrific.

Izzy took it pretty well. It's fucking terrible, dude. Dude, I have no stamina in this department. Luke, I talked to you about it. If I'm hanging out in the eighth row and I order the takeout Thai food and I get the balls to go up to medium, there's a wide range of medium, Luke. There's medium where I can just pull it off sweating and dripping. And then there's the KO medium.

I couldn't imagine stepping up to that. Imagine doing this show. I'd be like Bob Saget, RIP. Like his episode where he was like hallucinating and falling apart. I mean, it's a great game. So you're allowed to have, you see it there on the thing. They give you a pitcher of water and then they can bring you milk. And the milk is the only thing that's really going to help.

The watering, I'll do all that much. You would just have, like, a keg of milk there, wouldn't you? You know how badly people want you and I to do this type of weird stuff? Like, I won't do that one-chip bullshit, Luke. I think that's just like, here, BC, stick your finger into this socket. You know what I mean? I would do the hot wings thing. All right.

Maybe we can work trivia into that or something. I don't know. Yeah, I would do it. We could do our own. Like, we're never going to be famous enough to be on the show,ings thing. All right. Maybe we can work trivia into that or something. I don't know. Yeah, I would do it. We could do our own. We're never going to be famous enough to be on the show, so we could just pretend. Yeah. You know what I mean?

And make the staff do it. And then we could make Phil be like Sean Evans, the host of the show. I bet you that guy Tristan, our camera guy and security guard, because until he turns on us and kills us, I bet you he dominates without even making a facial expression. Oh, he wouldn't even. It would be like the buzzing of flies to him.

Yeah. All right, Luke, let's roll on here. Pay-per-view boxing from Carson, California, the Dignity Health Sports Park, also gave us unbeaten heavyweight, Bakadir, the big Uzek, Jalalov. He improved to 12-0, did Jalalov, excuse me, with 12 knockouts, Luke.

He was the gold medalist at super heavyweight. He headlined a showbox card recently, but he looks to be the real deal here. This was the fourth-round stoppage against Curtis Harper. You in on this, Jalalov train, or no? A little bit. You've talked him up a little bit to me, right? You've personally told me he's pretty good but i don't know well fighting curtis harper can always be an adventure let's rewind a few rounds before the big oozbeck got the finish check out harper

going right after the headbutts in the clinch oh oh dude that is is, again, once again, this Cochino referee put some latex gloves on. You 19th century dentist. What are you doing? Jack, Thomas Taylor is jacked. If you know the name Curtis Harper in boxing, it's of two reasons, Luke. One, that early PBC brawl he had with Chris Areola, which is worth rewatching. Or two, this moment. Luke, do you remember when Curtis Harper and F.A. Ajagba

were about to face off in a heavyweight tilt? Oh, he just walked out? Yeah, yeah. Good old Curtis Harper just was like, you know what, guys? Not doing this. Peace out. You played yourself.

I think I interviewed this fucking guy on my radio show. I just forgot his name. Yeah, yeah. Curtis Harper. He walked out before this fight ever happened, claiming he was low-balled with the pay. I got to tell you, if I had to fight a jock bot, I would also just walk out. Would you do like a DX crotch before exiting the ring and just be like, fuck you? No, I probably wouldn't walk, though.

I'd probably sprint to the fucking Uber waiting to take me home. A job is terrifying. Also at this pay-per-view card, Real recognized Real in the locker room as Houston-born Jermall Charlo showed up for Rougarou here in the locker room, Regis Progray, who's now residing in Houston. Dude, I can't ever tell if the Charlos are happy. Well, how do you decipher

this interview? Jamal Charlo then rolled up on Dimitri Bivol. Here's the results. To recap here... 168 168 168 to recap here middleweight champion Jamal Charlo who we all want to move up to 168 to enter that field went up to the unified

light heavyweight champion Dimitri Bivol or I'm sorry one belt he's gonna we hope he's gonna face better B for all the belts and said let's fight we don't even need the title on the line then b-ball said no the title needs to be on the line and then jermall said well let's do it at 68 is no one was talking about this is this a thing or jermall just just making headlines out here i think he's just making headlines i mean don't get me wrong i'd love to see it i actually think highly of jamal but um no i don't uh-uh i don't buy that dude i don't have the video here but b-ball got mobbed with love from the uh from the fans there in southern california because let's not forget

he had just beaten canelo and and uh zerto in succession so they were like yelling canelo's dad canelo's like in spanish Look, they were shouting him out. He turned a corner, dude. He beat two well-liked Mexican fighters, basically. Right. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how that that Jamal fight happens, but I like Jamal saying stuff like that, though. It gets me gets me fired up, gets me excited.

But yeah, big weekend there. Big life. Big year for B-ball. But Luke, let's see the finish on this Regis Progre win. It was a close and action-filled fight. Technical at times, but in round 11, finally, he hurts Zepeda, and this is Regis Progre taking care of business. Oof. And closes the show.

Dude, Rougarou, I'm telling you, man. I was worried about the state of his career the last three years because he had a lot of acclaim before the Taylor fight and then just kind of hit a cool spot in his career. It was kind of weird. And I've been waiting for him to do a little bit more, and I think this is the start of something great. I really like Rougarou a lot.

He's one of my favorite boxers to watch. This is not like a vacant title against a nobody. He's a pay-to-b battle tested, to say the least. So this is a big win. Grilling season is almost over here, Luke, as we head towards winter. So we won't see many fails like this anymore. Oh, fuck. That's not.

That's not. Oh, young lady, pull the fucking thing up. Jesus. Yeah, yeah. I'm waiting for that to just explode like a bomb. You know, Luca, that's not good. At least she had, I think that's a... Oh, she's on her pool.

Pardon if I'm wrong, right? Yes, that is, that is. I mean... Luca, we've seen footage before of uh habib doing that rest that basketball wrestle basketball uh combo thing that they do in dagastan do you see this new thing putting up a hoop in the octagon or in the cage as if it's like a basketball hoop inside your pool could this catch on whoa watch out daryl dawkins chocolate thunder luke here in the uh yeah there you go yeah this just looks like i'm not sure what's dumber this or uh slap fighting what about car fighting with the seat belt and the uh car jitsu

you're not into that i think yeah i mean that's just too stupid to even comment on you know okay uh luke you ever imagine what it would be like if a celebrity walked by your house and then their dog shit in front of your door and they didn't have a dog bag to pick up the shit so they rang the doorbell to talk to you. Hey, let's watch this, Luke. Hello? Hello? Hello, Luke.

My dog's just had like a sloppy shit outside and I was just wondering if you got some water. I don't want to leave it outside. Stop talking about him. Ah! It is. I'm five minutes away from him. Don't worry, I'll clean it.

You sure? I just, I feel terrible, you know what I mean? No, it's all right. It's just that the proper sloppy shit and I can't even pick it up with a poo bag, you know what I mean?

Don't worry, I'll clean it when I get in. Thank you very much once again. I'm sorry about that. I hate doing stuff like that. That's why I knocked on go on we'll see you later hey

that's a good dog owner I hope that's the only time a fan has allowed a sloppy shit from from Patty the Batty Luke we don't need any we don't need any Cleveland Steamer i mean come on we don't need any cleveland steamer stories luke but that was you know he's being a good citizen here okay very good i'll tell you what there's a lot of people that just let that shit slide quite

literally in my own neighborhood there are and i'm sick of it all right uh also boxing this weekend have you ever walked your dog i've done this before have you ever walked your dog and for just like just just accidentally forgot like the poop bag oh yeah or purpose and then they and then they took off they took a monster dump what do you do if you can corral enough leaves that have fallen to kind of build a little cradle to to like scoop and throw but that's risky dude i don't know i might walk back and get a bag if it's a giant one i'm not gonna touch it right so i mean i just keep it i just keep it moving yeah yeah i've left some killers but that gets around in a neighborhood luke though yeah

yeah you can only do that a couple times before you start getting a rip in the rain though yeah 100 luke you know the rain's just going to take care of that for you my dogs won't even walk in the rain so i don't even have to your dogs are bitches luke all right let's go to uh yeah let's go to windham new hampshire some club boxing this is javier torres he was making his pro debut but they had to delay the fight too as the referee forced him to remove his nipple ring i believe this is the first time this has happened in boxing history your thoughts luke um why the fuck do you have a nipple ring nobody picked up on that in the walk i mean you know to the ring i don't know i mean i guess you could have a shirt on but that's uh that's some some

some i mean you know yeah i understand it they make you trim me i mean obviously in boxing it doesn't matter as much because the full hand is covered but like you know you've seen the whole bit where like the referee checks them at the prep pot prep prep spot and then it's like oh let's they get the clippers out and they clip their nails and shit you know they're checking like you can't be having that stuff i mean boxing's got strict rules on beards you know like for for you to be allowed to fight with a big beard your opponent has to approve it and the commission has to approve it and all that so um interesting i don't think they do that in mma though luke roy nelson was allowed to do whatever he wanted with that big sweaty belly you know the commission has to approve it and all that. So, um, interesting. I don't think they do that in MMA though.

Luke Roy Nelson was allowed to do whatever he wanted with that big sweaty belly, you know? Yes, I know. All right. Uh, speaking of boxing,

Luke, the shout out to the rise podcast, they had tank Davis on and the topics of both future fights against Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney came up. Let's hear his response. That I think that could be 10. That would be Devin. That would against Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney came up. Let's hear his response. That I think that could be Tank. That would be Devin. That would be Shakur.

And Tank Davis himself. Tuck. Yeah. Right? You got the last one right. That's the only person that could beat me. Javante Davis. That's the only person.

Them niggas cannot touch me at all. They all been in the ring with me. They all been in the ring with me. They all been in the ring with me. They all been in the ring, and I cracked both of them. I cracked both of them. I feel you, but check this right there. Okay, so you're telling me you cracked both of them, right? But I was

also told that Devin got the best of you in the last scoring session. He didn't get no best of me. He didn't get no best of me. He did not get no best of me. He jumped right off the best of me. He did not get no best of me. He jumped right off the plane and sparred, damn it. Right off the plane. He didn't get no best of me.

Okay. You know I sparred him twice. I sparred him twice. Right, right, right. And Bill took him out the ring. And Bill admitted that. Bill and Dan both said that. I was knocking him out at Floyd Gym. You may not get moved by stuff like this in MMA,

but in boxing when we at times can only dream about the big matchups, although we're getting closer to this Ryan Garcia one, this got me. I was moved hearing this, Luke. I love hearing power players talk about other power players because Shakur's been, who I love, has been talking a lot of Jay about Tank on the old Twitter. And this, what do you think when you hear Tank come back and be like yo i i put it on both of

them already you know what this podcast needs it needs more people that's what it is uh i i saw the i didn't this is the first time seeing the video i saw the news articles written about it so i had heard what he had said haney and uh stevenson they did do you have the response because they did not like that shit at all i don't have it handy what would they no they were both like your cap in which apparently is the thing that young people say uh and this is all bullshit and he's not telling the truth and they you know he was getting handled like stevenson and haney were like bullshit now who's telling the truth? I have no clue. Dude, I reserve the right to be as giddy and optimistic and romantic

as possible to the idea that these four, not four kings, but as Karen Mulvaney calls them of the Showtime Boxing Podcast, the four princes, if this group of Haney, Ryguy, Shakur, Teofimo also in that, and Tank, if this group of five guys or four guys however it plays

out can all fight each other and keep moving up and wait with each other this is this is what this is this is the air that i breathe as a boxing fan okay so to hear these guys now talking about each other and starting to grind those gears luke yeah let's do that shit right let's do that son inject me in the bag baby yeah all right hey lu right. Hey, Luke, rate that tat. Let's get into the good stuff right here. You know this game. Cody Garbrandt has a new sideburn tat. Your thoughts and ratings.

I'm not getting a clear view of it. Let's see. There's the stencil. It looks like he's got a heart tattoo on his cheek. That is correct. I'll say it looks like she's single needling there as well it's a well done tattoo it is a well done tattoo it's especially hard to do a face like that um in such a small amount of like real estate there that's actually really well done the question there would be do you want a tattoo like that there it's kind of cool how it gives you the full definition of a thick 90s style sideburn though

like if you put a hat on with that that looked pretty cool right i actually like his his uh blasted neck that's actually really well done because you know luke until really like my early 30s i couldn't grow anything reliable facial hair wise i'm not kidding luke it's just you know it's the way i was put together or maybe the water that i drank in the factory look but uh you know i gotta tell you i don't i like the tiger uh sideburn i don't well i mean i mean just to let me actually tell the point of what i was setting up there look you're like bc this joke's gonna suck so i'm just gonna cut right through yeah i was just gonna run over it yeah uh you know luke i i at certain points in my 20s would have been willing to get a to go one cycle of steroids if they can inject me in the

cheek or if so the idea of a tattoo that gives you the image that you can grow a manly beard that you have enough testosterone in you are you gonna be like that like 70 year old woman who's got tattooed eyebrows yes i'm gonna get a tattooed, Luke, because it's not working out for me. I can't do it. Dude, in Colombia, you see all kinds of places like that for women's beautification or whatever that do permanent eyebrows and shit like that. Bad news. All right. All right.

Let's keep Rate That Tat going. Here's a Nick Diaz fan tat that the head of the Diaz army shared on Instagram. Well, this is just, I mean, this is a zero. This is a terrible tattoo. Which fight is that, Luke, in the great career of Nick Diaz? That's the Nick Diaz Takanori Gomi go-go plaza from Pride. Oh, it looks like a creative fighter from the first UFC video game. In this tattoo rendition

takanori gomi has a monster right butt cheek it's amazing yeah uh right that tat takes us to philadelphia here's welterweight contender sean brady big you know we love him here luke i hope he doesn't hold it against me that i remember the name but what do you think about this back of the neck tat here uh that's excellent so that is a american traditional tattoo now again there's a question of would you want this and would you want it where it is placed right so that's a separate question but in terms of yeah in terms of tattooing skill that is very good i love the colors that's menacing looking too and since he's all in i mean he's already told us about the ass cheeks look i disagree with that lifestyle choice but you know he's since he we know he's already all in, this is pretty badass.

Well, Luke, it's not our tattoo of the week. Let's go to this random Uber driver and we'll play the volume to go with it. Here's your real tattoo of the week and I'm going to need you to rate it. Your driver has a tattoo. Y'all want to see it? uh luke uh rate that tat please oh my fucking god rate that tap pole right there wow i can see his like driver has a tattoo y'all you can see like the fat part of his

fupa sticking out there right look at that i mean yeah can we not keep playing it i mean i think i mean this is uh that first of all first of all i i'd like how like the like the hog go go back no no we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna lean into this one go back please look do you think it's do you think it's size look at the hog which, do you think it's sized to real specs? Look at the hog, which is supposed to be a well-designed hog. And then look at my man's shriveled arm. I mean, just two different kinds of people there. Do you know how old his balls must look?

His balls must be... His balls are the worst balls. To borrow from Doug Stanhope, his balls sag like the cheese on a pizza when you're pulling the slice away from the pie you know what i'm talking about wow did you see that guy's balls they were weird wow this guy has one thousand percent one thousand percent run from the cops he has had his car repossessed okay but here's the important question is that to scale i because if it is you may have to you may have to give him a thumbs up if it is okay if it was to scale he wouldn't have a tattoo would he this guy's probably dickless let's be honest wow all right uh well speaking of dick luke i got a whole segment for this

uh what do you think of this cake? All right. I mean, there's a kid there on her fucking Apple Amazon fire or whatever the fuck. And they're doing this. And he's got nipple rings. Oh, my Lord. Oh, my Lord. All right. You may want to take that down, too.

Okay. There you go hold on no oh my oh my lord okay i mean again really we may where where did you get you are a disturbed person i didn't create it look i'm just like the conduit the middleman unfortunately dude there's a child next to him okay can we get it off the screen then? Can we be, can we, you know, not in front of the kids, please here. All right, Luke, you want to build this stuff in private where the adults go like in the bathroom. Luke, what do you think about this toilet paper holder? What country is this where it's slang? Poppet. the look at the sign i don't know luke but look

at the unit on that holder all right there you go uh luke let's go to your favorite band for our final piece of of cock art this week we have a request this song is about shooting blood i mean how the how the hell are you gonna stand up for this despicable art luke i mean you're kidding me he does this at every stop of the tour he did this in uh in here in dc as well how do you stay how do you i mean're going to stand beside that, Luke? What are you doing? The song is called I Come Blood. What do you want to say it's about? That's what the song is about.

Yeah, well, you know, okay, all right. I guess we... No matter what, we... Wow, I don't know how to come back from that. How about let's go to Bob Sapp footage. Here's 49-year-old Bob Sapp, who no one's going to say isn't ripped to the gills, but working out in Crocs and, like, mittens. Are you okay with this? Let's go to Bob Sapp footage. Here's 49-year-old Bob Sapp, who no one's going to say isn't ripped to the gills,

but working out in Crocs and, like, mittens. Are you okay with this? And there's a dog with a harness in the back there, too. First, can you comment about his abs, Luke? They're tremendous. I will say that. Him and the other bro, they're fucking tremendous, man. Are you okay with working out in Crocs and mittens like that?

Are you good with that? The Crocs, I can let slide. But the socks with the Crocs is a bit much. And then the gloves are unforgivable. Yeah. That picture screams Florida, doesn't it? Yeah. South Florida.

Yeah. Yeah. Let's go to our regional KO of the week, Luke. It's Shamil Gassenbakov with the... Oh, we got spinny shit. Yeah, let's watch it. Oh, shit. Damn. I don't know what promotion that is, but damn.

Dude, these Russian guys, they're just next level, man. Yeah, they're also in a hurry. Wow. Damn. Yes. Luke, speaking of Russian heroes, Zbigniew Magomed Sharapov, the greatest UFC featherweight of all time, posted this curious video of him just working the mitts with the boxing.

Your thoughts? He looks frail. Yeah. Does it mean? Or he looks like he's moving real slow? I wasn't impressed, you know? I was going to say, though, that's Abe Lincoln. Abe Lincoln got hands, player.

Yeah, yeah. You know, if Wilkes Booth was a man and wanted to challenge him to, like, a duel, like that should have been, that should have been like Burr and Hamilton, Luke. Abe should have been given that shot, right, to fight for his life. Yes. Show us what you got with that boxing, Luke. Abe should have been given that shot, right? To fight for his life. Yes. Show us what you got with that boxing, Abe. Yeah, the coward. You know, coward got him. Here's your Scorpion of the week, though, Luke.

These are always fun. I don't know if he walked again, but you wear that outfit, you play those games Luke, you're gonna It's like, dude, you wore white fucking pants and some kind of 1970s shirt to whatever the fuck this was and then you pulled off the worst flip

and you just paralyzed yourself in the process Congrats to this Darwin Award winner Thank you Two more for you,ke we've done the pleasure of ordering you room service um here's what you'll be eating from now on on the road the blue vape that you asked for on a napkin thank you your blue vapes uh this is uh cranberry watermelon do you know how often i have those

moments when the great people at malcolm are like hey run into the store you guys need anything it looks like yeah i need a purple rain uh mischief pink colored energy drink to go with my watermelon iced vape yeah it's just like wow dude does that does that come with a homemade tattoo and a divorce look what is that? And your car getting repossessed. Don't forget that. But hey, I own my own piece of land, Luke, somewhere in Europe. All right.

Finally, Luke, you know you love gender reveals, okay? Does everyone die in this clip? Otherwise, I don't want to see it. You shot down the one of the guy, Duncan, on the alley-oop from his girl to find out they were having a boy then what are your thoughts about this okay that's beyond disturbing uh Luke I think it's a boy I think they're having a boy okay you're you're like a pro you know blue blue confetti would have done the same trick or they're gonna have a girl with a giant dog either way i don't i think these are stupid okay sorry luke you know i thought i i knew i had a chance that this would hit big but you know i was like i don't

know if we're watching morning combat here or the crying game this is really hard to tell all right uh thank you thank you that's all the shit I've got this week okay well that is it for us today probably the last show we're ever going to do Showtime's going to look at this and be like well let's call it a day who could blame them if you are still interested

in getting merch while it's up you can go to morningcombat.store we got a 20% off sale Black Friday is your code word you can get a bunch of stuff there uh let's see showtime.com label that page you go to showtime.com get a 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you may bounce don't forget the fan subs and dead wrongs they are back morning combat at gmail.com will be the place to get that bc any uh how was we didn't even talk about this before we go how was was Thanksgiving overall, the overall experience?

So good. So good. You know, with the pandemic and then I went on vacation last year during Thanksgiving to meet Usain Bolt for my son, so I didn't have that experience with those group of people for three years, so it was wonderful. The backyard football game, even though we lost in OT, a lot of big moments from some key players.

You know when that kid in your backyard family Thanksgiving football game comes of age at age nine and makes the big tip interception and goes the distance? Moments like that, Luke. It was like the PFL finals, to be fair. It was just men growing and women too. Yeah, mine was pretty good too. The traffic on the way down was not great but not terrible.

There was zero traffic on the way back was not great but not terrible there was zero traffic on the way back which was awesome and um my brother he took he brined the turkey and then uh cooked it a little cooked it basically for the internal meat was was cooked then chopped it up and the way he cooked it was he sous vide it then chopped it up and then egg washed it and and then deep fried it. So we had deep fried sous vide pieces of turkey. I bet it was tremendous, Luke, to be fair. It was unbelievably good, yeah. People in your family, when they do things, they tend to do it well. That is true.

That is true. And their Cal Ripken streak of not asking about my show is alive and well. Well, Luke, come the first week of december if we win yet another award why don't you just tell whoever's giving us this next award if we win it send the address to one robert thomas you know just make a little little mix up in the mail and then you know he'll open it up and best podcast of all time my son you know like luke we could kind of mess with this a little,

you know? No, he'd be like, people are sending me junk mail. Now just use it as a paper holder or chuck it in the garbage. Yeah. All right. Well,

that is it for us. BC, any final thoughts before we go? I hope as well. Our great viewer hood viewership, even beyond my cousins listening right now. I hope you guys all had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday run reconnecting. I know they don't celebrate this elsewhere or you have your own version,

but it's not as, you know, I mean, look, you know, Naugatuck was up 10, nothing on Anzodi at the half, trying to get back to back wins over that behemoth for the first time since 1982 and they lost 18 to 10. So that was hard to swallow at home too. But you know, you don't really care about the 122nd meeting on thanksgiving day between those two powerhouses that's valley football hey did you see logan paul was at the milford connecticut thanksgiving game too wild right i did not

connecticut in the forefront you know connecticut is the foreskin of the country at this moment luke the kind they cut off during circumcision no no no no no the yeah okay maybe maybe we should just end it right yeah we should probably just end it we're gonna get fired all right well this is the last one we did we had a good run for brian campbell i'm luke thomas thanks to showtime cbs sports as well as malco we'll see you guys on wednesday in studio don't forget and until then may all of your gains be loyal