MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Poirier-BSD | Oliveira-Tsarukyan | Ngannou-Joshua | UFC's Anti Doping Program | Morning Kombat 534

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

On Episode 534 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian some recent fight announcements. First off the guys break down the announcements of Dustin Poirier vs. Benoit Saint-Denis and Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan. Then they discuss the news that Francis Ngannou will be fighting Anthony Joshua in March. What is the significance of this fight? Will Francis Ngannou ever fight in MMA again? The guys also break down Tony Week's terrible stoppage over the weekend and what Vergil Ortiz's future matchups could look like. Then the guys are joined by Erik Magraken of Combat Sports Law. Erik and the guys break down the UFC's new anti doping program. What should we know about it? As always we close out Monday's with Dm's from Donks and HYSTS. (00:06:00) - Dustin Poirier vs. Benoit Saint-Denis (00:20:30) - Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan (00:38:30) - Francis Ngannou vs. Anthony Joshua (00:53:00) - Francis Ngannou's MMA Future (01:00:00) - Erik Magraken Joins Morning Kombat (01:27:00) - Weekend Combat Sports Recap (01:36:00) - Dm's From Donks (02:00:00) - HYSTS Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Reveille, reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our life.

This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah. We don't hope. We wish.

It's Monday, Biatch. I'm hosting. I don't know what day of the week it is, Luke. I'm all kinds of messed up here. It's Monday, Biatch. I'm hosting. Sit back down, good sir. I will be in charge today. Good bc look at that face red yeah put on those gloves put on those gloves junior

hi everyone i had a whole bed plan too come on man damn save it for wednesday save it for wednesday there we go hi everyone welcome on this eighth day of January to the least coordinated show to start things off on the eighth of January. Tell people what the last 20 minutes look like for the show. Please don't tell anyone, Luke. Okay, good. Also, is it me or is his mic sound a little bit off? Mikey, is that me? Yeah, you're on the computer, Mike. Let's fix that up here real quickly. Hey, everyone. Welcome to Morning Combat. My name is Luke Thomas that's brian campbell we're the host of this program i joined you from the capital of astatis unidos right here in washington dc he joins you from uh the butt crack of connecticut what part of connecticut would you say you're from bc i'm from uh suburban hartford greater hartford suburban hartford there you go well no i'm not now you said i reside there i'm from the noctuk valley

people know this about me, Luke, okay? They know this. The last 20 minutes before the show were a lot of BC being a Karen. He was being a Karen this morning because he was having tech issues, but we worked him out. Look at him. You sound great. You look great.

BC, how was your weekend? The first four letters are Karen or care. I just want to remind you of that, okay? With a K, though. With a K. That's the kind of that's the yeah just like our show yeah yeah all right bc how was the 18 inches of snow did it match the 18 inches of cold outside luke i removed eight of it yesterday that's all we got

it was uh you know a little bit backbreaking the old snowblower how to work ot but i'm here i've gotten through my own self-imposed tech issues my mic is fine and everything's going to be all right guys baby it is cold outside but luckily luke we got these hot ass mma and boxing takes coming right up right yeah we certainly do all right so let's talk about this for just a second here on today's show we've got well relatively breaking news i would say about ufc 299 ufc 300 on friday after the show there was big news that broke about francis and ganu we're going to get to that and then at about uh at about an hour or so we're going to be joined by eric mcgracken a attorney

out of canada who runs the combat sports law website, to dissect and better understand the new UFC's anti-doping program, plus DMs, plus have you seen this shit? Quite the packed show here today on this Monday morning. BC, I want to remind folks they can get shirts like mine at morningcombat.store. Isn't that right? That is, that is. In fact, if you want to take it the next step further,

if you want to consummate this relationship even deeper for percentages off, how about using that code live 10 right now, get 10% off all of our fantastic merch at morning combat.store. RJ is waiting for it. Look, I don't even know who RJ works for. No, I'll tell you. He works for us. Okay.

Cause he's pushing that merch out the damn door right now. Okay. He works for number two. That's who he works for. Who does number two work for Luke? All right. So there's that. Of course,

if you want to reach the show morning combat at gmail.com to email the producer, the producers don't no longer exist, but the producer certainly does. Hey, the producer was great on tech support this morning when I had that meltdown over, you know,

I mean, he's a super producer, but he is just one man. But you can email him, morningcombat at gmail.com. You see, we do have a lot to get to. So then, oh, yes, the socials right there. Look at all that. Morning Combat on Insta, on Twitter, on TikTok, and everything in between. And you can follow us there.

Anything else to say before we get started here? No, I'm ready to absolutely deliver. I thought it was Wednesday this whole day, Luke. I'm just an absolute walking mess. You know, it's great. It's great. You know, winter depression, Luke, is one of the worst things that's ever happened. That seasonal thing that kicks you right in the right in the front hole. You know what I mean? Look, right. You know what I'm saying? Just just gets its foot caught up in there. And you're like, what do i do next i can't move i'm stuck to this thing you know last last question on this did you stay true to the game when it came to your responsibilities to continue working out i got here directly from the gym to do this show today look that's why i'm all red-faced okay

all right very good what'd you do with the today, which good luck to the rest of my family. You know what I'm saying? Leg day is so real. Leg day is a bitch. I'm going to be honest with you. Especially when you don't work legs for 20 years, it's a real bitch. Yeah, it'll tear your ass up, quite literally. All right.

With that in mind, let's get this party started if we can. Topic number one as we kick off this Monday show. So Dana White made an announcement at about like midnight or maybe even one in the morning East Coast time and it went something like this. Dustin Poirier was going to be back in action, not at UFC 300, there is some news about that, but at UFC 299, which by the way I will say is starting to look stacked and here is part of that reason. Dustin Poirier in a 155 pound fight will take on dot, dot, dot Benoit Saint-Denis. BC, my question to you is very simple. While this fight is fantastic and I do want to talk about why it is fantastic, did Dustin Poirier make a mistake in accepting

a fight that is very high risk and very low reward? On the surface level with the information we have, it feels like a yes. Now I say with the information we have, because was he guaranteed a certain big fight he was coveting and needed to accept this fight to get there? That would be understandable. Or could you take it even further and wonder, had he been trying to get the sort of big name matchups where, look, we worry he's at right now Poirier he's in that Rich Franklin phase of his career could he still contend for a title probably yes but he's also a celebrity name who you can put in there in a main event a co-main event of a pay-per-view against very big names across it so look was he trying to get other fights and it didn't happen he just needed to come back stay fresh and we know what

Dustin Poirier is about. He's not going to duck big names, even a riser who looks as nasty as BSD. I can believe all that. But I also can say this. I think I echo what a lot of the fans on Twitter, at least in the immediate response. Very shocked that this is the fight he did. So I'll say without knowing the full details, I do feel like this has that potential to be the wrong kind of crossroads fight for that aging name who still got it, but as always, you know, can be vulnerable against big time sluggers. Is this that type of crossroads fight where he could end up effing around and finding out that the new generation is here? Very well could be Luke. I think we do need

a little bit more information though, about what his true motivation was. Yeah, no doubt about it. First of all, let me set some of the parameters here so first of all this is the co-main event of UFC 299 that's the first part about it and as a consequence it's also going to be four five rounds this will not be a three round just regular fight even though there is no title on the line so this actually has a little bit of stature and BC when you look at the UFC 299 card, I mean, my goodness, dude, there's banger after banger on this. Obviously, your main event, Sean O'Malley taking on Morchito Vera for the Bantamweight title. This fight, Poirier taking on Saint Denis. Now is your co-main event. Gilbert Burns versus Jack de la Maddalena. Kevin Holland

versus the, I wouldn't say returning, but the matriculating anyway, Michael Venom Page, Curtis Blades versus Jelton Almeida, Mateusz Gamrot, RDA, Peter Jan, Song Yedong, Pedro Munoz, Kyler Phillips. I mean, there are tons of interesting fights. Side note for me, BC, because it's not really what we're talking about. Side note for me, I actually think there is a very good chance 299's card could end up better than 300. That is a little bit unclear. I don't know that to be the case, but I'm starting to get that vibe a little bit. I'll put that aside for just a minute, but let's stick to this. I mean, I will say this, BC,

January 19th is actually a pretty important day. It's not the day of UFC 299. That won't be till March 9th. By the way, the greatest rapper of all time died on March 9th. January 19th is when Dustin Poirier turns 35 years old. BC, I have to tell you, 35 years old, we know statistically anyway, that can be a bit of a Grim Reaper demarcation line. And then secondly, coming off that head kick KO, although he was performing well prior to that, but when you add in all of the time which he spent competing, all of the miles he's accumulated, all of the injuries he's had to deal with, and all of, frankly, the trauma that he's been through with two Gaethje fights and the Max Holloway fight and the Eddie Alvarez fight. I mean, he's had so many blood and guts fights. This is what is so interesting to me about it. BC, I love

that he is doing this because it is creating an incredible matchup. And while St. Denis, if he gets a win over Dustin Poirier, even with these circumstances that I have mentioned, it would be a huge feather in his cap. It would be a monster move up the rankings at a time when, you know, to go from Matt Frivola, which is a nice win, to then Dustin Poirier, former interim champion, a guy who's been sort of a perennial top five for the last several years, that is a gigantic leap up. So I actually want to commend Dustin Poirier for taking a fight like this because he doesn't get a whole lot out of it other than to say he's still relevant as a lightweight he doesn't necessarily move him

I think all that close to a title shot although that remains to be seen but it does give the fans something absolutely incredible to look forward to but to answer the basic question BC did he make a mistake that depends on what he wants ultimately out of this experience it depends on how many fights he has left it depends exactly what kind of course he's trying to chart or charter, I should say. But at the same time, BC, if I was advising him, is this the fight I would have advised him to take? Unless there was basically not a lot of other options, the answer is probably no. This is a tough one for me to say he can get a lot out of it even with a win but there is a lot he can lose in the event of a loss it's an

interesting calculus he has made yeah and when you're in that spot i call it the rich franklin spot because that's where he was at the twilight of his career where he could bounce across multiple divisions be a last minute fill in for a title shot or a main event. I mean, that's where Dustin Poirier is at. But, Luke, an interesting note from Dana's speech when he revealed this on social media was he said BSD has been saying that he believes he's the new BMF of the UFC, and he'll have the opportunity to prove it against Dustin Poirier. That was part of a Sports Illustrated story recapping the announcements in which they actually went with the headline, Dustin Poirier booked for five round BMF eliminator fight. So Luke Thomas,

here's what's interesting about that in trying to figure out what this fight means for Poirier. I do have to be reminded often that he just recently was in a BMF fight and lost, you know, via violent head kick in his rematch with Gaethje. It doesn't look like he was in the cards to get a trilogy fight with Gaethje. It doesn't even look like he was in the cards to get a fourth fight with Conor McGregor because McGregor's comeback stalled and there's other names that seem to be closer up. I wonder, Luke, if this accomplishes two things. Maybe it's framed to him as exactly how Dana's quote said it. There's a new badass in town that thinks he's of this ilk, that he's, of your ilk. And then you flip that with maybe Dustin's looking around, realizing some of those big

money tickets. He's either already fought these guys or it just didn't line up in terms of making these fights. Maybe this turned out to be the best path because he's still at a point where title contention is not completely out of the realm. I mean, when he beat Michael Chandler two fights ago, we were wondering if he would sort of parachute in and use that star power pass to get in there for a title shot. I'm wondering if he looked at the lay of the land, realizes, okay, this is probably my,

my shot to get back into a really big fight, given who's available. Oh, I got to go through this young guy who's not yet quite fully proven himself. And it's a co-main event. I'll get paid for it. It probably all came together, But do you buy into what Dana's saying, that this is some kind of, you know, BMF number one contender bid, or maybe that's Sports Illustrated saying that. I buy less into the BMF side of it. I'm just wondering at the end of the day,

did Dustin Poirier look at the landscape and go, they are offering me this young guy. If I beat him in a pay-per-view co-main event, maybe I'm getting Islam next. Maybe I'm getting whoever I want next. Sometimes, Luke, you got to go back and prove it again again let's not forget he is coming off of a head kick knockout on the pay-per-view level okay here's the interesting part about this bc let's just look at the numbers at the rankings right what everyone else thinks of them this is what they are

as we speak today so obviously islam is uh unranked in the sense that he's the champion number one is charles olivera we will get to him in just a minute. Two is Gaethje. We're still kind of waiting to see what happens with him, potentially at UFC 300. But again, Poirier just lost to him, so that's not going to be a thing. Three is Poirier himself, so he's sitting at three. Four is Saryukyan. Again, we're going to get to him in a second. He's got a fight lined up. Five is Chandler. Chandler's kind of in the McGregor sweepstakes. And of course, they already fought. Was there any real need to run that one back? Not really. Six is Gamrot. I guess they could have gone that one, although Gamrot has another fight already lined up for $2.99 as well. Darius coming off of a loss. I'm guessing that Poirier didn't want that one. Then you have eight

is Fazeev. I don't know what the story is there. Nine is Hooker. Ten is Jalen Turner. Eleven is RDA. RDA is facing Gamrod, as we mentioned earlier. Twelve. Twelve is Benoit Saint-Denis. BC, how many times have we seen a guy at number three give a shot to someone at number 12? Sure. First of all, and make a good fight out of it, which they did, which speaks to the quality of both guys. But this is what I mean about Dustin Poirier.ier again i want to commend him for taking this risk we actually need guys to do stuff like this when they otherwise wouldn't necessarily do it i'm not in any way upset that

he did it i am curious though and that's what you've been alluding to i am curious about the calculus when you've got that much of a gap between them. What were the other options that fell apart? Because you're asking, you know, to what extent is the BMF number one sweepstakes sort of involved here? It is if the UFC wants it to be sort of as the short answer. But short of that, like, why would you take this? It's very, very risky. But like another celebrity fight you could have made was Max,

but they fought twice already, and we've seen what happens in that matchup. You're not going to get Conor now, on and on. So maybe it came down to Luke. This was just the, I don't want to say the biggest fight available because as good as Benoit Saint-Denis looks to be, you know, he's not quite there yet. He just had the Frivola win.

This is a leap. This is a leap in the rankings too. But sometimes, Luke, you know, you do have to look at the landscape. You don't want to sit around for long periods. I do wonder, and we're going to get into Oliveira and Saryukian next, but over Oliveira and Saryukian fighting each other removes Islam from that. Is that more to do with Ramadan? Or is that meaning the idea of was Poirier told some level of

you get by this young stud on the rise here in this big fight set up at 299 post Ramadan? Could you be that guy again for Islam? I'm not really sure, Luke, but it is interesting to think about either way. It's a crossroads fight. We're going to find out if the old guard here getting oh so close, as you mentioned to that stat of death there for welterweight and below 35 and over can he hold off a guy who's coming on or is this the the passing of the torch i guess in some ways luke it's not completely different to when gaethje fought rafael fazeev a few fights back it was his way to remind us that he's still super elite after some big brawls after losing a couple title

opportunities maybe for poirier that's the way to do it. Because while you can, as an aging celebrity fighter, and although Poirier not a former full champion, former interim champion, you get these close enough, you can sometimes ride that to be selective, get only big matchups and big opportunities. But if you want to stay active, if you want to climb the ladder and go after something, sometimes you have to do a solid back for the company.

This could be a little bit of that. Either way, you got to expect fireworks here. I think the big question here, though, Luke, is Bono Sandanae ready for all the fire, the ghost pepper fire that this hot sauce Louisianian has to offer? Because every time I think Poirier may have taken too much damage, maybe too vulnerable, he comes out with the type of performances he did like the one against Chandler,

and I shut the hell up and move on, Luke. Here's what I think would have been more interesting. It would have been a Dan Hooker rematch, but Hooker is injured, so you can't do that. I honestly feel like, BC, you're asking about whether Benoit Saint-Denis is ready. Maybe. I guess that is sort of the operative question here.

But if I'm thinking about why Poirier took this, obviously Gamrot trains at ATT and already had a 299 fight locked up. But again, they could have moved that around if they had wanted to. It's just because I think the guy will bang with him, honestly. Isn't it as simple as that? You just know if you're Dustin Poirier, what kind of fighter you're walking into. If you're going to give somebody an opportunity who's ranked outside of the top 10, again, very rare for someone outside the top five to give someone outside of the top 10 a shot. It's going to have to be because you really believe either you have

to take this fight or stylistically, it's the kind of fight that you would want. And I think, again, this speaks to what the fans advantage is in all of this. You're asking how the fight might go and whether Benoit Saint-Denis is ready. I mean, here's the thing, dude. Again, some of this is numerically overstated, some of it, but not all of it. He does take punches a little bit too easily for me. Dustin has a great jab. I think that's going to give him some problems. Wrestling could become a part of it if he wants to mix it up. I still might favor Poirier to win, even though I recognize, dude, the wind at this stage of his career is not at his back at 35, which he will be by the time this fight takes place, coming off of a head kick KO.

The headwinds are right in front of him at this point, unfortunately. But I do like his chance to win here, and I'll be curious to see what the odds are when they eventually come out. Indeed, Luke. This is a good-ass fight, and I've got i gotta say for all the fear you know we've been through the exercises of trying to create a ufc 300 we got laughed at for our matchmaking skills though luke i'll stand behind my fight my main card every day of the week all you gsp is 42 haters out there but all the all the people who were bagging on my card it's like i don't want

to see tom aspinall versus a potato either. I'm not interested in that guys. I'm just doing a head count. Who's available. There aren't good names. Like, is that my number one way of doing this? No, but given who's available, I don't know what people are expecting, but okay. Yeah.

So I have to be excited though, Luke, that this 2024 is looking strong, and this is a very strong string of announcements, not just Poirier-BSD, but how about topic number two, Luke? I like that fight even more. In fact, a lot more. All right, so let's get into topic number two, then, as it stands. So we mentioned there were two announcements that Dana Whitehead made. The first one, of course, is, as we just indicated, Poirier versus Benoit Saint-Denis. Topic number two is the other announcement that he made. Now, unlike Poirier-Saint-Denis, which was a case where we knew it was the co-main and we knew it was going to be for five rounds, we don't necessarily have that here. We have not actually been told

where on the card it is going, which to me, BC, is actually very interesting because it could change the way you think about this. If it ends up being three versus five, they didn't indicate what it was going to be in this case. But Armin Saryukian is going to take on a UFC 300 Charles Oliveira. Charles Oliveira versus Armin Saryukian. BC. My question to you is very simple. Is this not exactly the right fight to make, not just for this card to give it some nice real hardcore fan oomph, but it's the right fight for lightweight, it's the right fight for Saryukian, and I love this fight for Oliveira as well.

Tell me, what about this fight at this moment on that card could possibly suck? What am I missing here? You're not missing anything. The only thing we were missing was we weren't spec what about this fight at this moment on that card could possibly suck? What am I missing here? You're not missing anything. The only thing we were missing was we weren't speculating over this fight because I think in a lot of ways we were trying to figure out which one of these two would be fighting Islam next. I mean, you could have jumped the cue with Saryukin

because of how dominant and strong he looked in his most recent fight, an absolute breakthrough knockout performance against Darius there. You can see in the picture, Luke, but this guy absolutely looks like a title contender in waiting on the rise. Like he's figured it out. I thought there was a chance he could cut the line and fight Mahachem. You rightfully, when I put up my mock card, we're like, hold on, we got Ramadan coming up. We're not even sure Islam is going to fight at 300. And I do think this announcement really shows the cards in that direction. So how about they fight one another? Yeah, it makes a ton of sense when you look at the rankings right now. Islam, the champion, Charles, number one, Saryukian, number four, and you've got Gaethje and Poirier at two and three,

as you mentioned earlier. So Luke, I, and I got to believe the MMA audience will echo this, love the crap out of this fight. And you mentioned the possibility. We don't know yet where will it fit on the card? What will it be? I know there's been some talk of late about the idea of making all potential number one contender fights, five round fights. To me, this is an absolute number one contender fight, one versus four, both guys really on the verge of busting through let's make it a five-round fight even if it's a second or third fight on the card because we have to find out exactly who saryukian is he turned a corner with that big knockout and the in the really the totality of that performance

very demonstrably coming after it and putting the skills together well the champion used to have a name he thinks that name is going to be wearing the belt again anyone that saw him against darius has to believe what they saw right there that That's why I assumed that he would be getting Islam next, but with the schedule constraints, with the potential Ramadan there, putting these two against each other is insane. It is a great fight. It reminds you how great this lightweight division is, can be, even as it's in the process of sort of cycling out the old and welcoming in the new. This is a perfect example of that matchup, being that Oliveira is still maybe more of the younger of the older group. And then you have Saryukian right here, right now, looking to get that title shot, looking to get that rematch against the champion.

But if he really is the big hulking slugger that he showed to be last fight. This does add a new wrinkle. You're never going to not be vulnerable, potentially, against the two-way finishing ability of the greatest finisher in UFC history in Charles Oliveira. But I feel like Saryukian is entering this fight at the right time, with the right level of confidence, with the right type of fights in which he learned and grew along the way to get here. Dude, this is going to be absolute fire i hope it's very high up on the card because it deserves to be and what do you think about that idea luke let's just go five rounds mostly because i think we

want to see if saryukian's there because if he wins this he's going to be getting the title shot so let's find out right now where that gas tank is yeah this is the only issue with the five round thing and i know i've had a car where you could potentially have all championship fights. I'm assuming that they won't do that. I hope that they won't do that. I'm really creating some options for the fans to pick from because the problem is if you have two or three title fights, then you can't have anything else on there

that's going to be five rounds without running over your potential pay-per-view time. Now, I guess with ESPN, the situation, maybe perhaps now that that is different, I don't really know. That used to be a huge problem that would limit it. So I don't know. How about you just start earlier?

All right. How about we just start early? Like, Luke, can I say something here? This isn't old man, East Coast, 45-year-old dad necessarily, even though, yeah, every year it's getting harder and harder to be spry and alert at 1.30 a.m. when I'm writing, you know, post-fight recaps and doing podcasts. Oh, woe is me. But everyone is saying, Luke, on the boxing side, a lot of smart pundits. Oh, let's be careful about letting Saudi Arabia become the next Las Vegas

because how big could these fights be if they're all running in the afternoon in the U.S. on a Saturday late dinner time? I actually think they could be even bigger. I don't know where, Luke, it was decided at one point that big time boxing and MMA pay-per-views have to peak and close out with the main event on the East Coast time after midnight and sometimes even later. Luke, if we start going in the direction of pleasing the potential largest fan base possible, I get there are certain parameters for both combat sports entities

when you're going up against college football in the fall. Boxing always tends to try to program around that. I understand that. But in general, Luke, I'd actually support more main events that are going off at 6.30 p.m. Eastern, or in this case, talking about a potential of a UFC main card with many five-round fights. I get it.

Nobody wants a marathon six-hour fight card, but even just starting an hour, 90 minutes early, could that hurt? Does that hurt at all? Luke, why does it have to be this way? I mean, there are, what is, there's like double the amount of people that live on the East coast than it is on the West coast. There is an East coast bias. It's population based. Okay. Can we try to help out some of these old brothers on this side of the line? Luke, why can't we do that time why can't the biggest fight because whenever it's anthony joshua in the middle east or in the uk going off at five dude twitter's on fire everybody's awake and ready and watching no matter where they live twitter's not america though twitter is very very unrepresentative all right but you know i had a i

had a i had a shot went out for the old guys out there the people like eric raskin i'm with you like or heating up coffee at you know 10 30 p.. on a Saturday night, trying to stay with it. Luke, do you agree at all, whether it's boxing or MMA, we've seen going to the Middle East, we've seen sometimes these late afternoon start times or whatever. I think the main card probably starts sometimes noon Eastern, which is what? 9 a.m. Pacific. Not ideal. But what about the idea of more people being awake and

alert and maybe seeing on social media the buzz that's going on and wanting to buy in and watch i just i'm no longer willing to believe that the later we push this the more the audience broadens i'm with you that like these things end at 130 i can't actually believe that this is maximizing audiences i just don't really understand that. But the UFC, I remember distinctly when they were like, okay, we're going to now have 9 p.m. start times for our pay-per-views. They did it one time, I think, maybe one or two times. And they were like, yeah, fuck this.

We're not doing it anymore. I guess they had messed with their numbers. But I don't know, BC. We're in a bit of a different age now where, to your point, people watch a lot of European sports. And obviously the Middle Eastern time zones are roughly approximate with some of those as well and so you're just getting kind of accustomed to watching sports when they happen as opposed to like everyone's at home on saturday night or or in the bars and well they are in the bars on saturday night but i guess that's

part of it bc maybe there's a there's the the commercial component right about maximizing your sales in those particular dimensions other than that i don't really know why you couldn't start yeah unless the argument is we don't want to go directly up against the saturday night 8 p.m college football you know two versus four matchup i get that i get that outside of that argument i don't get it that that's where i don't think they're too worried about spring football i can tell you that that ain't gonna that ain't gonna slow them. But BC, getting back to this point, I want to throw you one more little detail.

I'm looking at some of the odds. Now, they've barely started to trickle out for this fight, Saryukin versus Oliveira. How about this one? Here's one of the places that I'm seeing. Our friends over at DraftKings have it. Excuse me, our friends over at, excuse me, FanDuel haven't got one ready yet.

But I'm seeing one place has it at minus 166 plus 140 the minus 166 would be for saryukian surprised to hear that shocked shocked because i look at this as the right fight to make a fight that's about finding out exactly who saryukian is can he carry the momentum of the way that he executed and won his last fight is he really that guy or was that the perfect night, the right matchup, all of that? Dude, I still think Oliveira has, you know, way more ways to win this fight, has the experience and savvy, and hasn't yet reached that point where I feel like the mileage, the tough matchups, the crazy style, which I always questioned long-term, could that lead him to a long title reign

i don't know i don't think he's there yet where i'm fully questioning it how do you explain that luke because outside of the idea of him landing that one big punch which is very real against somebody dangerous like aloe vera who can sometimes leave himself open by pushing that pressure on you i don't know dude i was thinking more like minus 250 in favor of olivera now also people think i'm an absolute idiot luke and we do have to remember when i when i tried to make my own line for that mckenzie dern fight i get it luke i missed it okay i'm not you know i missed it this morning with my what did you say it was like minus 400 in favor of dern something like that well did we not see what see who Andrade was before that, dude?

I didn't think Dern was going to fall off the hill and get rid of Perillo and go in the direction she's going completely. I'll eat that loss, okay? I'll regurgitate it and eat it back up like my dog in the backyard. Yeah, like Barbas did this morning. That's sick, fuck. No problem at all with that. But explain to me why the Armenian Hulk, who you have started,

right during his rise, you've started to turn your back on him, you motherfucker. A little bit, a little bit. Yeah, a little bit questioning him. I would say I'm actually a little bit surprised by this, but not to the same extent that you are. I would have had it slightly reversed. And by the way, these are the opening lines.

Who is to say what it will end up being by the time the fight rolls around in April? Again, this is for UFC 300. But I do think it's approximately that close, BC. I mean, this is why this fight is so tremendous. Saryukian, obviously the younger of the two, Oliveira the more battle-tested of the two, both of them coming off of stoppage wins over Benil Darius.

You could argue that Saryukian's was better, but it came second. Whatever, it doesn't really matter. But Saryukian, not as polished as a finisher, not as polished as a competitor, but a phenomenal athlete, an outstanding grappler, a real go-getter, just has a certain kind of verve that these young guys in their mid to late 20s tend to have. Oliveira, a guy who's made a million mistakes and then come out the other end, as you indicated, the best finisher in UFC history, one of the best finishers in all of MMA history, irrespective of weight class,

and looking for that second opportunity to go up against a guy like Islam Makachev. Also, I'll point out, you see, both of these guys have a history with Islam, right? Both of them fought, and it was actually Saryukyan who gave Islam a much tougher fight than Charles Oliveira did, but we're not playing MMA math with this.

The point I wanted to make was, you've got this raw physical force that's starting to get molded into something sharper, but still I think has some ways to go in Saryukian versus a guy who has done that process, but now the question is, is the game going to catch up with him? Is the next generation going to rise? Is that going to be too much even for a guy who has shown that kind of a polish? One point I want to make, and it comes back to this Volkanovski argument that we have a lot. I don't know what's going to happen when he fights Teporia.

Maybe he goes in there and schools him. Maybe he gets viciously KO'd. The future is quite literally unknowable. But one thing that does kind of bother me a little bit is people don't respect how typically, how short. Speaking of the greatest rapper of all time dying on March 9th, the rain at the top was short like leprechauns. Dude, these guys, they do not last at the top very, very long.

It is very, especially at 155. It is very, very difficult to do. And one thing I think with Volkanovski, one thing I've kind of wondered is maybe that people missed the early rise and now they want to get onto it and it might be too late. We shall see. In the case of Oliveira, I don't feel exactly that same kind of way. But at the same time, this division is so unforgiving. Saryukian, to the point you raised, BC, rapidly getting better fight over fight. There was a point where he was kind of stolen

out a little bit, but that does not appear to be the case anymore. And I just want folks to accept something a little bit. Maybe Olivera goes in there and chokes him out inside of two rounds. You'd be like, oh, right, it's Olivera. He does that to basically just about everybody. On the other hand, if he goes in there and gets crushed in the end, it is a reminder that no matter how good you are, you can literally be the very best finisher

the Ultimate Fighting Championship has ever seen. Your ability to stay on top in this game is super, super, super narrow. Just want to remind folks of that. Yeah, and it's a constant refreshing wake-up call every time that we question odds in this case or every time we think that the older fighter has that one more you know great great performance left and they get humbled but like the great ones like aporia for example can constantly re-event constantly rebound that has been a big part of olivera's reputation that ability to do that switching weight classes and

finding that full potential i just don't think he's done yet i mean is it this does this line play into did he pull out of his last fight look i'm trying to remember recent history i'm better like you know i've got better long he was supposed to fight at fight island and then and then uh uh withdrew if i'm not mistaken let me yes i want to remind myself of the exact details of that i'm wondering if the line is playing into that at all or maybe it's just the momentum that Sariukin's brought to the table. That's an interesting thing. Alright, so remember, he was scheduled

to face Benil Dariush at May 6th at 288. However, he was forced out of the bout due to an injury, and it was postponed until 289. He won the bout via technical knockout 288. You might recall BC, this was the one that was in Newark. Was that right? And then he was scheduled to book Islam in the rematch.

That's right, at 294. However, he was forced off the event due to injuries and was replaced by Volkanovski. That's how Volk Islam 2 came to be. And so now he's kind of having to prove it again, right? Absolutely. The hardest way possible. But that's sometimes what happens. It's not always

be a famous name, lose your title, get one big win, which he did against Dariush. And then in his case, he did get the title opportunity, lost it. Not fully his fault. That's the game. We'll see if he wins it. He's right back in there. You'd have to think either guy will win this.

You get that rematch against the champ. Quickly to close out the actual champion here, Islam Mahachev. This probably means he's made the decision to wait through Ramadan and then look to book a big fight after but how fully confident I mean they're not going to F around and announce him against Leon Edwards for the UFC 300 main event right right Luke right okay here's here's my best guess my best guess is oh probably not probably not I don't think so um but i i wouldn't rule it out completely that's the way i had a real strong vibe i tell you they're running out of options i mean we've done this exercise multiple times trying to draft up a card but seriously right now what is the main

event if it's not if islam's off the table because if you remember whether you liked my gsp comeback or not i thought charles versus islam 2 was a strong ufc 300 main event until again your ramadan comments really really put me back in my place and put that white belt you know like a headband around my my head here but like is it ashman all against anyone is it i mean what the hell is it dude what is it the hell's gonna be the main and co-main of 300 i have no idea i don't know and i again i'm gonna sit at the top of the show i really truly absolutely wonder if 299 is gonna be better i was looking it up ufc 99 was like in cologne germany it was some nubs card it was not better than 100 199 did have the magic of michael bisping beating rockhold but as a card was not better than 200 even though it did have favor cruise three which i know wasn't overly

exciting but it was a big matchup and then it did have the final 10 seconds of max holloway versus ricardo lamas luke which was you know right here right now let's go that was a great night i didn't know that it was going to produce that kind of magic no i'm just saying that's still one of the best ufc crowds i've ever heard in person that la crowd that night at the forum it was also the night with the brock lesnar announcement ariel getting booted i mean it was a wild night on the job luke but that was a inning an electric crowd that night that went nuts when biz ping pulled that off say no i'll never forget the goosebumps a lot of goosebumps coming up and down on the arms yeah fair enough but this is the point i'm trying to make is like on paper i've never seen something quite like what 299 appears to be in relative to the one

that's supposed to be bigger than the next one 299 is like stacked stacked it's like i don't know what's gonna be on 300 but like even if 300 stacked, BC, like 301 and 302 are going to suck because there's nothing left. They're going to like completely clean out the cupboard to make 299 and 300. Great. After that, you're going to have a bit of a downtime in the sport. Okay. Neither here nor there. BC, let's talk about topic number three. And this was really one of the biggest things that had happened over the weekend in combat sports. I think it was on Friday, perhaps, right after the show. There was an announcement.

News broke, excuse me, from Ariel Hawane. And then it was corroborated in other places. Francis Ngannou, we're not totally sure on the date. Maybe March 8th. I guess we'll see. There's supposed to be a press conference in London this week where we'll get some more answers from this. But Francis Ngannou has headed back to the boxing ring, and he's going to be taking on Anthony Joshua.

Yes, Anthony Joshua, AJ. It'll be in Saudi Arabia. It'll be on pay-per-view. We don't know the rest of the card, although we believe BC. Deontay Wilder could be a part of that card. Some other names as well. We'll figure that all out. Yeah, exactly.

But let me ask you this. What is the significance and relevance of francis and ganu versus anthony joshua in 2024 even though it still has on the surface an undeniable element of crossover of boxing versus mma which which means kind of like gimmick it's not a gimmick fight anymore. I don't know if Francis Ngannou is as good as that performance he had against Tyson Fury over the fall, but because of that performance, he has not only put himself in Ghanou in the driver's seat to potentially be the most well-paid fighter in combat sports over, over a one-year period. Like when you're going to fight in Saudi Arabia multiple times and be featured against the you know some of the most famous boxers on the planet you'll get

that but even more than that even more than gimmick even more than once again in Ghanu not fumbling the bag I mean what uh it's it's comical it's comical now right even more than that Francis Ngannou is a viable heavyweight championship contender. And what is crazy about really combat sports in general, where you're only as good as your last performance, heavyweight boxing in general, which can be so, you know, the trends can go dramatically in any direction because the fights can change by one punch in a more dramatic way than any other weight class. If this fight had been booked immediately, let's say this fight had been booked a year ago, last summer, we would have been like, okay, AJ, you know, it's going to be a minus 1000 favorite. We'll see if Ngannou can last four rounds.

If this fight was booked immediately after Ngannou Fury, when AJ's reputation was now down, despite coming off of a two white fight win streak, we may have saw Ngannou being the favorite from some people but i think the best case scenario did happen aj redeemed himself against auto violin on december 23rd and now looks to be back in the mix and in gano very much is in the mix because of that performance knocking down tyson fury losing by split decision and their non-title but very real fight so what's the significance of here the winner is going to have a huge shot at potentially fighting for the undisputed championship of the world not a non-title one because this is a gimmick fight and we want to see what in ganu has if in ganu goes in there and wins he literally could be fighting the winner of fury

versus usic or the winner of fury versus Usyk or the winner of Fury versus Usyk too. I did mention that I thought Anthony Joshua would be more likely to maybe chase Philip Urgovich to get that world title, to put himself in a comfortable negotiating spot to fight the winner of those fights. But when you've got an opportunity to fight Ngannou for the type of money that I assume they're going to be paid, This fight matters on so many different levels, including the PFL, which we'll get to in a second. But if you're looking just at boxing, Luke, where was the understanding

of what Francis Ngannou can do in this heavyweight division before the Fury fight, as opposed to where it is now? This is not crazy talk, right? Until we see him fight a second time and maybe look as bad as wild or just did against joseph parker as of right now monday january 8th 2024 francis and gato off one fight is a legit heavyweight title challenger and that's what makes this the greatest story

combat sports has seen in in decades in a long ass time i can't believe it, but I'm actually happier, Luke, that AJ is refreshed too, because this fight, we have no idea what to expect. And I think that's always exciting, especially in a heavyweight fight where anything can happen. But there is so much money and stakes involved in this one that my head is spinning. And yet we're going to see it. And according to the rumors,

they might do it on that Friday, the day before the UFC pay-per-view. So this first couple months in combat sports is going to be insane. Luke, this is arguably the biggest fight of the first couple months of combat sports. Seriously, I'm shaking posters over here with excitement. What's a bigger fight? What's going to draw more of a casual look in, whether they're paying or illegally searching? I feel like this one, because that performance

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Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at aircanada.com. Conditions apply. The scales, it changed what's possible. It changed how we look at things. Is it one special man who had one special night? Or is this special man about the about to f things up in heavyweight boxing well we're gonna find out and luke you could tell

me five different outcomes i don't know which outcome to believe i mean could he go in there and get outclassed and knocked out by aj could he go in there and give aj legitimate troubles and drop him like he did fury i don't know but i see this shit. And now that we're talking about the title implications, big, big, big, big deal here. Big deal. Big deal. BC, our friends at FanDuel have the odds currently, and again, this will move over time. They have Anthony Joshua minus 650, Francis Ngannou plus 440.

What do you think? Okay, that's interesting because what I would believe. That's not crazy to me. That's not crazy at all. What I would believe is fueling the line to have AJ as such a big favorite would be the destruction he put on Valin, the intention, everything. That's the exact old school remind us who you still are performance. But even if he brings that performance to Nganou, what's the biggest shock factor Nganou gave Fury?

I don't think it was maybe Fury was out of shape and overlooking him. I think it was how fast, accurate, and powerful the counter punches of Nganou were. He was sitting back almost waiting for Fury to come after him, but his ability in that pocket to come in and counter just lightning fast and unorthodox ways but with the power that moves you i'm wondering if you're anthony joshua if you're starting to question can i walk this guy down like i did valine i'm not really sure and it all plays back to that question luke of isn't god who was good as that performance against fury showed or was it the perfect night the perfect rocky against apollo moment i don't have that answer so I don't even know if AJ's plan a is the right plan a against a guy that potentially dangerous which is crazy as the boxing guy it's

freaking crazy that I'm telling you this that I'm like well dude gotta watch out for that counter shot what that's crazy I know we have another question about about Francis we're going to get to in a moment that's related to the MMA side of things but let's keep it on the boxing side for just a moment BC I went and I looked to see what like you know Jake Donovan and Keith Idak and Chris Mannix and Dan Rayfield and like all these other guys who are if you don't know if you're an MMA fan you don't know who these names are these are some of the bigger or I would say the ones that I look to in boxing for their coverage and I was curious to see what they said and they all seem to not

either be against it or to be generally supportive of it in the sense that one in Ghanu earned their respect. I mean, let me explain something to you to earn the respect of boxing diehards. Very difficult to do, right? Trust me. I've been trying for four years. It's not easy. It's very, very difficult to do. And Francis went in there even in a losing effort and was able to do that at a bare minimum. Number two, BC, no one really seems to think that whatever happens on March 8th, depending on what day this fight takes place, that it will derail Anthony Joshua

from what other boxing responsibilities or more traditional fights he could be taking in 2024. No one seems to think that this will get in the way. Now, we could see that it might. Potentially, there are ways where it could. If somehow Francis scores a thunderous KO, that could really be disruptive. But in general, they view it as a fight that Anthony Joshua should probably win. It doesn't disrupt the more or less typical boxing calendar. And they have respect for Nganou for earning his opportunity both in terms of the promotional side but then also through his performance against Fury in being able to to take

advantage of windfalls cash windfalls and opportunities like this like even they weren't really against it and to me that was a big difference like what you saw the first time Francis fought on the boxing crowd was you know begrudging respect potentially but a lot of hand-wringing about what is this and blah blah blah and waste of time and everything in between dude you don't see any of that hardly this time very very very little he has massively changed the narrative so the significance BC for me and I wonder if you disagree is really whatever Francis makes it I mean the thing about Francis to me that's really incredible about all of this BC is how much his actions and choices end up just defining reality because we go into all of these things and we're like oh well this can't happen

and this is not possible and okay maybe this could happen but not this and then Francis just keeps doing things that shatter it over and over and over again to me bc if he goes there and looks like deontay wilder did in his last fight then you know maybe it is a waste of time but if he goes in there and knocks down anthony joshua if he brutally kosan which i don't think is likely but again who the fuck knows anymore if he goes and does that right he will completely define the significance of this through his performance which is a really unusual thing to say for a boxer oh and one and more to the point for a guy coming from mma i mean this is all so unusual but he gets to decide

exactly what this means in the end well he also gets to decide reputationally how we're going to remember the stretch and what i mean by that is wherever you stand on the you know francis versus dana sort of argument you know and where you're saying well look good for francis to get free because of where fighter pays at and all the hoops you have to jump through and how he was treated or you could be on the other side and say hey francis congratulations but you could easily just sign to fight john and put your legacy first and all that. And there are a lot of UFC fans that are saying that. But what has happened since Francis has left the UFC?

Dana and company have gone like to aggressive odds to disparage or maybe just Dana. I don't mean to say and company, but aggressively disparaging him. What do I mean? That lower third graphic that time that another Cameroonian fighter was walking to the cage. Okay. Maybe that was one mistake, one PA or whatever. Okay. Not even talking about Francis, not having Dana put the belt around his waist after beating God. How about just every time Dana's talking and I've seen Ariel replaying a lot of these post press conference rants that are now hilariously, you know, becoming untrue, but it was all painted as this won't work. You've screwed up. You fumbled the bag. Uh, and gone was never, I'm sorry. Joshua was never going to want to fight

you. He thinks it's a gimmick fight, which is, that was the comment that started a, uh, you know, Francis to start his own gimmick promotion, which was humorous, but Luke each step of the way, as Francis was not only getting defamed by his ex boss, which was in a lot of ways, resetting the public narrative in a negative way. He didn't overly fight it. He didn't come back petty against Dana and talk trash in return. Yeah. There's a couple of interviews where Francis was just like, I don't understand why this guy hates me this much that he's trying so hard to get in the way of me. But let's also be honest about a couple of things that happened to Francis. Anytime he has good news, including this

one, Dana's right around the corner with some really big news to try to draw it out. Oh, and let's not forget what happened a couple months ago when Dana publicly tried to get Tyson Fury to box John Jones in some kind of weird hybrid fight. Why? Because suddenly the UFC is into these gimmick fights that we don't do in this corporation. No, just to stiff arm Francis and keep him away from potentially getting money. And it's, I don't think it's really about, we hate this man, Francis. To me, it's always been more about this guy crawled through the Shawshank hole. We need him as an organization UFC for him to fail so that it proves to other fighters that this can't be done. I get, it's probably more of that, but each time Francis could have come back and been just as petty or tried to out-dirty them, but he largely let his action speak for him.

And what have his actions done? They've created sort of a limitless short season of money opportunities for him across two different sports involving Saudi Arabia. It also has made him, like I said, a legitimate heavyweight title contender. Like this whole season could not have gone in the end better for francis he's got this giant pfl contract that he can activate and step in when he wants to he's got almost like ownership capabilities there as like overseeing pfl africa if that ever becomes a thing oh he also has the freedom in his contract to piecemeal these opportunities and i want to remind people it's like there's extremes.

I think some people are going too extreme by saying, matter of fact, Ngannou got screwed. He should have beaten Fury in that split decision, and he should have gotten a title shot right after. Again, I'm an old school purist. I understand how boxing rounds are really scored. Great performance by Francis. He didn't get the win.

But this wasn't a Chuck Wepner style knockdown of Muhammad Ali which by the way was the fuel for the Rocky Balboa for Rocky one's uh screenplay that right that uh Sylvester Stallone put together watching it and that fight Wepner was just getting beat up he was down on the cards he stepped on Ali's ankle and he kind of briefly knocked him down this was Ngannano in control arguing arguably having the fight direction in control by flooring and worrying fury so he's very much in this but luke he could have responded as petty as possible to dana you know all he's doing is going back to work living out his dreams and the the wave of inspiration that's coming out of this is massive not just for donks

in my basement like me who's going damn i could maybe i should get in the best shape of my life look what francis is doing maybe i should rethink my goals but i wonder luke the ufc's biggest nightmare how much this success by this alien francis is waking up some of the stars across the street and realizing like okay maybe we can't do exactly what francis did maybe nobody can but i have to think there's some fallout from that luke because this is going too well for francis he earned it he deserves it but everything is coming out in ghanu one after another he deserves it i just wondering what the real ripple effect will be i don't know yet so then let's get to topic four here if we can which is related to this one which is very basic question bc very basic

is francis and ganu going to fight mma ever again i say yes because i feel like he will be an honorable businessman he knows what pfl did in putting really so much across the table in his lot, saying, okay, whatever you want. You want to be part owner. You want to be ahead at the table to represent the athletes. You want big money. You want all these things. And to Francis's credit, I do think he has tried to not abuse the relationship.

He tried to set in that his opponents would make a certain amount of money so he's not looked at as somebody who's just coming through and cashing out. But you ask an important question, because if you go back to that Don Davis interview with Ariel at the MMA hour, it was the idea of they needed Francis for their first quarter pay-per-view as much as they seem to need Jake Paul for their second quarter one to close the year. I'm going to say yes, Luke, because I think he will honor his contract. And I do think he will go the lengths of making an appearance in PFL this calendar year yes I just don't know

when anymore and I have to believe that this is potentially quite you know not damaging but potentially a problem for PFL in terms of them wanting to put their chess pieces in play and roll out this year but if he loses this fight, could you see him going back into MMA three, three, four months from now? Probably, right? The real question comes down to if he wins it, because Luke, if he does win it,

you will have gone from like possible, interesting, weird one night only title contender to like a threat to the undisputed championship. I mean, he could go to China and fight Zhang Zhelei for that secondary belt. He could whatever, you know, he could fight the winner of Fury. There's so many ways.

It's going to make it really hard if he beats Anthony Joshua, but I still think he will be a man of his word. He will take an MMA fight this calendar year. I think the question now becomes how damaging will it be for PFL if that one appearance ends up being sort of forced or an afterthought or they can't get the right opponent. Arguments we always had from

the beginning of when this deal was announced. But I cannot imagine that Don Davis and company are sitting at the PFL headquarters, you know, with their arms around the edge of the smart cage going, hey, this is a great development for us. Let's see what happens. No, Luke, this is potentially really bad for that business-wise. I'll say this. Does he fight MMA ever again? Well, that's a big ever. I mean, if he keeps fighting for, let's say, BC four more years, maybe even more than that, he probably does fight MMA again. The question is, does he fight MMA anytime soon? And to that one, I'm going to say probably not. Now, BC has made the argument, and I don't think it's a bad one at all, that like, listen, it depends what happens with the Joshua fight. If he loses, then he probably goes and fights in the PFL. I am not

convinced by that, at least not yet. I am much more convinced by the idea that whatever happens, even if he loses, the question is, what are his most lucrative realistic options afterwards so let me give you an example let's say he goes in there and he fights Anthony Joshua and knocks Anthony Joshua down but also loses another decision you still have the Deontay Wilder fight still out there looming you have a potential Tyson Fury rematch potentially out there looming but maybe depending on what happens they might want to do the Joshua fight back-to-back. I don't think that one is necessarily the likeliest of the two, but the Wilder one is still looming out there.

See, we're so used to MMA fighters who get one opportunity to box as just that one. Tyron Woodley was able to get two kind of by accident in the end. But in general, you get one, and if you're lucky, you get a rematch. We've never seen a guy not just get a big boxing fight, but then create runway for many, many, many more potential opportunities. I actually don't think it matters if he loses. I think only what matters is, is a Deontay Wilder fight realistic, and do people want it? That's one option. Or whatever the PFL has. Whatever the PFL has, has nothing on that.

It cannot compete with that. Folks, I'm going to keep saying this until everyone understands. It is not possible for any MMA entity to compete with the UFC until there is either a mass defection, which I don't view as likely, or some other kind of force of law, a law gets passed from Congress, there is some kind of ruling in a court case, whatever, that makes it possible to compete. It cannot happen. And so the reason why Francis is pursuing these boxing opportunities, yes, is it a lot of money? Of course. Are there big names? Of course. But the opponents in that world have the freedom

to move around and pick and choose. In MMA, they are all locked under contract. They have nowhere to go. They cannot go. Their free agency is either minimized or outright eliminated. And there are no good options for that.c i'll say this what could be kind of interesting and we both know it's probably you know the likelihood of it happening is low but if folks really want to see francis compete in mma there is always the possibility of co-promotion i know that people don't like it when i say that because like oh that's not realistic first of all we're talking about francis and ghanu anything is realistic with francis it seems right that's the first thing but the other part here is this is what I'm trying

to drive at. Why would you try to compete in an industry where you have a promoter who's going to take some of your money, you have no one to fight, versus an industry where it might be hard to get wins, but at least in the short term, it's not hard to get enormous paychecks, and it's not hard to get big name opponents relatively speaking what there is no choice that this is the way that it works now for him by virtue of how the market dynamics are in play and then what he's been able to do for himself so will he fight in 2024 in the pflbc color me as no to that answer i don't think that yeah i think he has to i think seriously just to keep up his end of the bargain to look look good, to not come under unnecessary downfall publicly,

I think he will give them their one performance. My question is, if that one performance comes in December, how much momentum will they have lost with that signing? Look, if he doesn't fight by the fourth quarter in MMA, he'll have been out of the sport for like two and a half, three years. I mean, it is getting to a certain point there but um real quickly i do wonder the timing was perfect for francis if saudi was not here at the level of investment they are particularly in the heavyweight division where they are they're really paying stupid money for these they're making eddie

hearn and and uh frank warren come together like they've been best buds their whole lives and not rivals um i wonder if he would have had the leverage to pick up these many bags and not fumble them across the across the globe. Either way, perfect timing. It's worked. This Francis story is is it's incredible. I cannot believe it. And I'm less less less thing on this. I know some folks thought that like, oh, what did he make in his last fight? I heard some numbers, folks that, oh, it could be 10 million. He made much be $10 million. He made much more than $10 million. But let's just say it's $10 million because that is what he would have made if he had fought Jon Jones in the UFC.

But from what folks don't realize is any subsequent bout to that, the amount was going to be much less in the UFC. BC, what is he going to make for this Anthony Joshua fight? $20 million? $25 million? I think it's got to go up huge from the performance he had against fury because even though you can argue that the pay-per-view buys well that would only be a certain level because coming in everybody maligned that fight i think the aftermath the attention that it brought to saudi arabia the attention that it brought to francis and now aj

is the new brand across from him i gotta believe he's gonna make 30 to 40 million luke they're paying stupid stupid amounts to get people to come there i mean stupid amounts he's going to make 30 to 40 million luke they're paying stupid stupid amounts to get people to come there i mean stupid amounts he's in the right place at the right time with the right momentum it's insane he is gonna pass connor potentially in terms of the take-home pay that he got because he doesn't have to split half of it with his promoter in the end so i mean i just want to point out this one more time, like this has worked out marvelously for Francis Ngannou. And I don't think it would work out as well to your point, if there hadn't been a few other factors in play at the time in which they were in play. But it is also true,

the ability to shop around, see what your services can get on the open market on balance will probably yield a better result than just trudging and slogging through for a single promoter who makes the vast majority of the money that's going to be generated on any kind of event in which you compete. All right, with that in mind, BC, let's now go to our next guest. I used to have this guy on my radio show relatively regularly. I haven't had him on in quite some time. He is an attorney in Canada. He's MMA fan he also runs a great website called combatsportslaw.com his name is Eric McGracken let's get him on the screen now if we can bring in old EM Eminem there he is look at this attorney that's an attorney scowl right there can you hear us Eric

oh we cannot hear you I think your mic is muted unmute unmute your mic yeah McGraken let's settle this yeah you know there you go yeah yes there you go very good hi Eric how are you I'm good Luke sorry I got this stupid microphone and it gives me problems I had to unplug it so we're we're good to go now you sound good don't worry about it before we get into the anti-doping stuff which is why we wanted to have you on very quickly your reaction as an observer to what francis and ghanu has pulled off with this anthony joshua fight i love his whole career arc um i i think francis was basically the biggest story of 2023 and he's carrying that into 2024. So the guy's just absolutely crushing it. You know, I think his success is tied in part to what the antitrust lawsuit has been doing.

And he's shown the power of free agency for MMA athletes. So if you're a world champion, and that's what Francis Ngannou was, And if you're not tied to a restrictive contract, the sky's the limit. And it'd be great to see other MMA world champions enjoy this kind of financial success that he's having. And the fact that he was able to go the distance and even drop Tyson Fury was just nuts. I mean, that was one of the wildest sports moments I've seen. And so I love that he's continuing his boxing success story. The guy, the guy's crushing it.

All right. Let's talk about this anti-doping policy that the UFC has instituted. It's their own in-house version. It bears, I would argue, a fair amount of similarities to the previous regime that they had with USADA. But of course, it no longer is a third party. As I mentioned, it is now in-house. Before we get to some of the specifics that you have highlighted, give me an overview, a broad

overview. We don't know everything yet. We haven't seen how some things will play out. This is very, very early, eight days into January for crying out loud. But based on what we do know, what kind of feeling do you have about this new anti-doping program? Yeah, so you're right. It is early days. I don't even think CSAD have their website up and running, Combat Sports Anti-Doping. That's the new agency that George Pirro created. At first glance, it seems very similar to the old policy, but reading through the documents, there's a handful of differences. I'll give you five talking points. So first, they've compartmentalized things. So

it used to be USADA, and USADA basically was judge, jury, executioner. They ran the whole thing. They collected the samples. They did the results management. They handed out the punishments. They went to arbitration if the athletes didn't accept the punishment. Now they've got different compartments doing different parts of the job. So that's one big wholesale change. The second is they've basically moved entirely. Here, let me rephrase that. They've moved off of the WADA prohibited list. And so they've created something called the UFC prohibited list. And as far as I can tell, they basically cut and paste the WADA list, but there's one key change, which it says that

with 30 days notice, the UFC unilaterally could make any changes they want to what is prohibited. So they've given themselves a whole lot of flexibility for what the prohibited substances are. And then drilling into the details, the things that jumped out to me the most is under this new policy, it looks like it's a lot easier for athletes to get a TUE, a therapeutic use exemption. It looks like it's easier for athletes who retire to return to the UFC and whether or not they were doping when they retired, the language makes it a little bit easier for them to return to the UFC. And the biggest one, I think, is the changed language when it comes to cooperation. So the snitching clause, if you get busted for anti-doping, but you cooperate

with George Pirro, there's a lot of discretion now to reduce the punishment to nothing. And under the USADA system, there was a lot more required to get that leniency. So that's the broad overview. All right. Let me ask you this way. We'll get to some of the specifics of what you had mentioned. This is my personal opinion. So if you disagree, it's your personal opinion. By all means, please say so. When I look at some of these changes, I realize that there is basically two interpretations. One of which is, hey, they have moved everything in-house. This raises my proverbial alarm bells, my skepticism, because anytime any organization does that, they have a way to sort of cloak it in secrecy or some other kind of methodology to

suit their own interests. And I understand that concern. On the other hand, here's the way I look at it. In terms of guys who might be out for a little while who use things that aren't strictly allowed when they're in competition for like genuinely medicinal purposes or to get as you indicated a therapeutic use exemption my view is these things actually should be a little bit easier to come by the restrictions shouldn't be what they are to your point about the prohibited list being able to change it unilaterally with a 30-day notice they should have this kind of nimbleness that allows them to address real-time understanding of changes in science, changes in anti-doping, and frankly, add in a little bit more humanity to what the athletes want. I wouldn't call it a perfect system. I'm sure you wouldn't either. But would you share my assessment that relative to what they had with USADA,

this flexibility could also be viewed as a little bit more of humanity. Yeah, there's always two sides to the coin, right? And I think your opening comments are the best one, which is we just have to see how this new system plays out in terms of how are the TUEs being granted? Are they being more liberal with them? Are they being consistent with them? And how are the punishments handed out as well? So we just need to see how these new players do their new job. But reading the documents, the main thing I can point out is there are some pretty significant differences.

It's just subtle language here and there. But when you add it all up, there are fairly significant changes from the old USADA system. And the devil's always in the details. And we just need some time to see how athletes are treated under this. Eric, there's usually smoke that starts the fire. And if the fire is UFC going to the lengths of creating this new anti-doping program, is it as easy to just say the smoke could be the interesting and unusual journey Conor McGregor has gone on through the Ultimate Fighter to sitting out all of this year? And now we think we have a fight against Chandler just in time, it seems, for this new anti-doping program.

But I guess really, what role does Conor play in his journey in what we saw? Because there was some unprecedented language in how he was speaking about USADA. And then ultimately, it seemed like the UFC supported that. Right. So I can't speak to Conor specifically, but if we speculate, let's just speculate here and I'll show you guys the language here. So if you're an athlete that's under contract with the UFC and you remove yourself, you retire from the sport. Under the USADA system, you had to come back for six months to be in the testing pool. And during those six months, you had to give two clean samples. They remove that language now. So it basically just says you have to be in

the testing pool for 180 days, but it doesn't say anything about having two clean samples during those 180 days. And then moving on, there's another policy that says, if you removed yourself and you were doping when you removed yourself, so whether you admitted to it or whether they believe you were doping, you still have to be back for 180 days. but even those athletes don't have to give two clean samples. They've made that discretionary. So it says that a known doper who's now back in the testing pool for 180 days, the administrator, so that's George Pirro, he has discretion about whether that athlete has to also give two clean samples during that period. So that's the shift of language under the new policy. And whether a specific athlete triggered that or not, I have

no idea, but that's the new rules. I want to know what you thought, if there was any connection here between the larger collaboration of the TKO group holdings, which of course is UFC and WWE with Endeavor running the whole thing when i was a uh fairly prominent pro wrestling journalist for about four years last decade uh the working theory among us as pro wrestling journalists was that the current state of the wwe's doping program which is the same it was then i believe that it is now was we all understood that the wwe had that system more to figure out who was potentially going down a different road. Obviously WWE is scripted entertainment. It's not fighting.

There was an idea that the only people that would get popped and suspended publicly was maybe they had gone too far down that road. WWE obviously in a situation like they had the previous decade before that with so many wrestlers dying, the Chris Benoit situation. It changed the level of control, the level of responsibility that the promotion would potentially have. So what we knew it then in a pro wrestling stance was they had the doping system and they're not necessarily to make sure no one's taking PEDs, just to make sure that no one's crossing a line, going, taking too much, going down a dark road. You did see big names popped out of nowhere. Would it be right for a fan, knowing that this is the new TKO era,

to have the same fears that this would give UFC not just an ability to keep things under the rug, but to really be able to kind of police in a way who uses, who doesn't, and all that? I mean, I'm getting a little conspiratorial here, but if you asked me, do I believe the NFL that they're using? Of course, it's more like the users are ahead of the testers. And I would have to believe the owners, the league, they all know that they want the most exciting product they can have. They don't want people popping left and right. Is there any fear here for a fan? And maybe it's not a fear because maybe fans want this, that the UFC will have a level of control now under the shadows of this that was never there before. So I think, and first I'll say I don't follow the pro wrestling world much at all.

So I've got some ignorance there. But I think with the consolidation under the TKO umbrella, it does make a lot of sense that they consolidate a lot of their business practices generally. So having the same model in place for one and the other does make a lot of sense just from a consistency and cost savings basis. But the main difference here to counter that conspiracy is this in-house doping program is still separate from what every single athletic commission does. So if you've got a doping athlete and the UFC is protecting them, but they're going to be fighting in California or Nevada or New York or wherever, they're still going to be subject to the anti-doping protocols of those state athletic commissions. So this is, you know, there's layers to the UFC anti-doping world now. And athletes, just because the UFC

wants to give them a pass, if they want to give them a pass, doesn't mean that state commissions. Well, uh, now of course the UFC self-regulates a lot of events when they go overseas. Um, and there's always going to be conspiracy theories, but I don't really want to speculate. Eric, uh, real quickly, do we know if any of this applies to the slappers? I don't think so. This is just for UFC-contracted athletes, and I hate... If you want to push buttons, you know how I feel about the slap fighting. It drives me nuts that state athletic commissions are legitimizing this brain injury for entertainment. But no, all I know from the little I followed it is a whole bunch of those guys flunked doping tests in Nevada.

It was meth and all sorts of nonsense was caught in these athletes and their rigorous training. But no, I don't think they've got an in-house doping program for those guys. I don't know, though. Isn't that a little bit weird? It's like we want these guys to be treated like, not so much like UFC fighters,

but we want folks to see what we have as combat sports athletes. We regulate or we promote, in this particular case, combat sports. We have all of these rules put in place. We have cleaned it up. We have taken it to athletic commissions, and we don't have any kind of doping controls at all.

I mean, again, I think the whole thing is silly to the point of dangerous, but it is weird that they don't seem to extend this doping control to that side of the street. No. Yeah. And again, just to be clear, I personally don't know if they have a private anti-doping program in place for these slappers or if they're just letting the commission do their thing. But you're right, there'd be a bit of hypocrisy if they do it for one and not the other. I just made a public records request to Nevada. I asked for every single noted injury and suspension from these slap fighters, because I haven't seen that published anywhere, but I've got reason to believe that there's a whole bunch of brain injury going on in those contests. And I don't like the way it's presented to the public.

It's basically downplayed and sugarcoated and three little slaps has less brain trauma than a thousand punches, those kinds of things. But I think I think the end result of that is a whole lot of brain trauma with these defenseless guys getting their brains rattled around. And so I'm actually looking forward to digging into some of the hard data of the injuries coming out of that sport. Ooh, you know what? While we're on this, very quickly, let me ask. We talked about this last week, BC and I, which was this stat where, you know, recently California decided to sanction slap fighting, much to my chagrin, much to yours as well. And there was a stat that they had rolled out, which was the, there are less ambulance rides essentially to the hospital in slap that

MMA. Now you and I both know, like there's a lot of things that that could mean that have nothing to do with health and safety, but just for the point of getting your comments here, what do you make of that? Well, well,

what I'm anticipating I'm going to find from my public records request is that 100% of the slap fighting medical transports are for traumatic brain injury, as opposed to, hey, maybe the guy needs some stitches. Maybe the guy busted his hand. Maybe there's something wrong with the guy's foot. All sorts of injuries take people to hospital

after an MMA bout, but in slap fighting, I have a feeling it's brain injury and only brain injury. When California approved it, what I didn't like is California, they published all the data they looked at. Well, the medical data was just a two-page letter on slap fight letterhead saying that they've got a good safety record. So it was the promoter boasting about their safety record. I didn't see any hard records speaking to it. So I'm hoping to, you know, to get to the bottom of what the actual injury rates are and what kind of injuries are coming out of it. I've talked to some doctors that were concerned about the types of

knockouts that they're seeing in slap fighting, that they're worse than what they're seeing in other combat sports. But, but the records will speak for themselves. So I'll put those up on my site when I get them. All right. Last one for me on this very quickly. Last one, BC last one,

last one. I promise. I promise. Which is this one. You had wrote, written that the new UFC anti-doping policy has a paragraph telling courts to quote, respect if it ever is the subject of litigation, and you called

it bold. What is that? And why is it bold? Well, so so WADA publishes the same thing. You know, I need to pull it up. But but it basically says that, hey, we've consulted with all sorts of stakeholders from around the world. And we're not here to replace criminal law. We're not here to replace civil law. We're just trying to have a very good anti-doping system with integrity. And we hope that the judiciary or other people interpreting this policy could respect that. Well, the UFC just took that and boilerplate repeated it. They just said, hey, we're like the WADA code, so please treat this with that much respect. And so, yeah, I find that really bold that a private multibillion-dollar corporation created an in-house doping program, but they're putting it out there as if it has the same global, I'm not sure if integrity is the right word, but the layers that went into creating

the WADA code and all the stakeholders that were brought together was a massive undertaking. But the UFC just basically says, hey, courts treat us the same way. So I got a chuckle out of the fact that they cut and paste that and are trying to have the same credibility as WADA. Interesting stuff. Eric, I have a general question that I'm interested in your thoughts. 2023 was a year in me covering UFC for, you know, over a decade that I can't really remember.

I've been watching the sport since the beginning, like a lot of us, UFC 4 around there. But yet this year was dominated. I mean, look, you said, what's the story of the year? I might say Francis Ngannou leaving the UFC and PFL and Bellator emerging. And that's the two things, you know, not positively evolving, involving the UFC. It's been about as weird a year I can remember in public headlines, yet it's also the 30th anniversary of this promotion in a lot of ways, the sport. I didn't really come across your work until this year, seeing you comment on a lot of these things across the board.

When you look at where we are outside of the sport in the ways that affect inside of it, the fighter pay. Now we're talking to you about drug testing. Power slap is being used by UFC channels and flooding our inboxes in so many ways. Is this a time that you think we're heading toward major, much needed change, maybe even a down period to get that change? Or is this a time that we're headed that that is? I don't know. I'm getting your opinion in general. I'm interested in. Are we headed toward a dark period? Are we headed toward a bright period? I've never seen a confluence of so many forces coming together that would at the very least with the, with the antitrust lawsuit right around the corner, question the control that the mighty UFC has had. How do you sort of feel in the overall climate as we enter this new year

right now? Yeah. So I think, I think 2024 is the year of the antitrust lawsuit. It's set for trial in April of this year and win, lose or draw that's going to shape the future of the sports. So, so whether there's a settlement or whether, lose, or draw, that's going to shape the future of the sport. So whether there's a settlement or whether they lose at jury trial. And then they've got the Johnson antitrust lawsuit right after this one. So it's not over with the first antitrust lawsuit.

But that could really shake things up because if the fighters get what they want, not only are there billions of dollars in back pay and damages coming the fighters way, but the main structural change they want are limited contracts. So if the UFC is going to have these exclusive contracts that they use, they're asking the court to give a one year term, an injunction saying the UFC as a a monopsonist, can't have contracts for more than one year. And if that happens, we started talking about Francis Ngannou, but that's going to be the norm. Then every champion is going to be a free agent within a year. And every one of those champions then could test the open market. And all of a sudden, the PFLs of the world could bid on their services. And that's going to shake things up tremendously. So I think the antitrust lawsuit is by far the biggest story. And just depending on what happens there, that's going to change the sport or shift the sport a lot in the upcoming years. Do you feel like the sport in general is on a healthy uptick as we enter a new year?

You know, the sport seems bigger than ever, and there seems to be more global dollars funneling into the sport. I think, you know, I think the UFC's profits are bigger year over year. And if you compare what guys are being paid now compared to years ago, they're making a lot more money at the UFC. But I think their percentage of revenues is as bad as ever. And the UFC stranglehold over the sport seems stronger than ever. So it's tough in terms of answering whether it's healthy or not. You know, I guess if I had to say in a word, I'd say it's not until there's some kind of structural change that gives some of the power back to the athletes that's been stripped away from them year after year.

Last question for me, if I can, Eric. Do fighters need a manager or do they just need a lawyer like you to read their contracts? Jeez. So you're, you're good with the loaded questions, Luke. And, and, uh, you probably know my view on it. So, so some managers do really good work and let's, let's look at Markel Martin, who was Francis Ngannou's manager. That's a manager doing great work. He stood up to the UFC, said this dude's going to fight out his contract. He's going to test free agency. I'm sure he had really pointed conversations with Francis and he stood his ground and the UFC machine threw him under the bus, said he needs, this guy needs a new manager, doesn't know what he's doing, blah, blah, blah.

But Francis is getting paid more than anybody now. It's wonderful what a good manager can achieve. Now, if you have a manager and all that manager does is gets you into the UFC because that manager has a cozy relationship with the UFC, that to me seems like a broken system, right? That does seem like a problem. And the other question then is, can the manager change any of these contractual terms? The UFC, you know, they've got floors of lawyers putting these contracts together, 30 page promotional agreements. Is your manager able to negotiate those terms, change those terms? If not, what's the manager doing for you, right? Is the manager able to negotiate more pay if they're taking 15, 20%?

Is the pay they're getting 20% more than you can get on your own. If not, I don't know what the managers are doing. So this again, circles back to the antitrust. Like I hate, you know, it's, it's all roads leads to Rome and I hate to be a broken record, but when you get one promoter with so much power and then they could have cozy, good managers, and then they basically dump on the managers that are standing up and fighting for their athletes. That seems like a structural problem within the sport. So until you change some of the core ways that MMA works at the highest level, I don't think a lot of managers can do a lot of good. And I think managers with integrity would be steering fighters towards the antitrust lawsuit. They'd be steering fighters towards some kind of organization like the MMAFA.

They'd be trying to have a bit more of a united collective voice to fight back. That's the job a good manager can do. And yeah, there's some good managers out there and there's some, you know, really, really lousy managers out there as well. Well, there you have it. If you want more of Eric McGracken, I don't know why you wouldn't, you can go to combatsportslaw.com. What are your socials, Eric? Twitter's my main one. So, so just my name, Eric McGracken is my handle on all my social media, but Twitter's where I waste most of my time. Well, we are glad that you do, Eric. Thank you so much for your insight. We look forward to talking to you again. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. There he goes. Eric McGracken.

All right, BC with that, let's quickly wrap up here with our top five. If we can topic number five, just the reaction to, there was a little bit that happened actually over the combat sports weekend. If we can BC, I'm not sure what to say we had two boxing first round stoppages virgil ortiz scores a quick albeit horrendous stoppage i want to talk about the stoppage in a second over frederick lawson setting up a potential tim zoo fight at 154 pounds but the stoppage bc happened by referee tony weeks this is relevant because tonys had the worst, in my view, the worst boxing stoppage of 2023 in the Ismael Barroso and Rolly Romero fight. And this one, he had another horrendous stoppage. But BC, here's the story with this one.

Tony Weeks takes to, I think, Facebook later and says, aha, well, this guy actually, Lawson, had had two different scans that showed a brain aneurysm, but the commission let him fight when, I guess, we're not even sure another doctor's opinion said he could. He deleted that post since then, by the way, and we've not heard from Nevada. BC, what the fuck is going on here? What happened? He got skewered for that. Well, look, first of all, that assertion that he's making just really, really, really, and this is not a new argument, it's a tired one, the need for a national commission in boxing, the need for not commissions that are, you know, chamber of commerces or promoters themselves to bring in big acts, but commissions that care and go through that. Cause that's troubling to begin with that, that there was potential of a fighter who was pat, you know, failing all of these important brain tests and then gets one that passes and

then he's in. And then first of all, that shouldn't even be a part to be fair of the referees thought in a specific moment. I, I, you know what I mean? Like that's, that's, that shouldn't be, that shouldn't give them a quicker hook. Either a fighter is healthy to compete or not. This was the first round. And on top of that, Lawson was not even eating clean punches. I believe because I hadn't have you seen this shit.

I believe we can throw to footage of the stoppage for anybody that missed it. That's Virgil Ortiz Jr. on the right. Remember, he had come off a long stretch of scary health conditions himself, only fought once in two years. This was him moving up to 154, put a little flurry on Frederick Lawson in the corner. But as you can see, a lot of those getting blocked. Again, this is the first round, and that stoppage by Tony Weeks is troublesome. So let's be very honest here.

First of all, Tony Weeks is one of the greatest referees in modern history. Why? Because like the late Steve Smoger, he is the greatest of being a fan referee and a fighter-friendly referee. He lets them fight, okay? All I have to say is Corrales Castillo won, and Tony Weeks, who authored that, is going to go in the Hall of Fame regardless, even if it was just that one performance. But he has had other great performances. He's known for letting them fight. You remember Mayweather, Maidana, one and two, two completely different fights. He ref the first one when he allowed Maidana to really roughhouse inside.

We got to see a totally different, interesting fight. He's also 67 years old. At some point, that does matter. And now he's also got two major, major slip ups to the level here that Dan Rayfield, who I used to work with at ESPN, Fight Freaks Unite, we all know him, respect him. He's been around forever. He said that is the worst stoppage he has ever seen

in 43 years of watching and covering this sport. It's an unforgivable stoppage, but I think you have to take into account now, age mixed with two major F-ups in big moments. And one more thing, Tony Weeks was the referee when David Merle Jr. fought Eidos Yerbosinili on Showtime in the past couple of years. And remember, Yerbosinili took a tremendous beating over 12 rounds, but showed an incredible heart. And I believe that fight went the distance. I believe it was 12 rounds, but the whole point was he went into a medically induced coma he's come out of it luke for for the

positive it seems but like unfortunately we've seen that story go the wrong direction a lot did that change tony weeks as a referee it's a real normal important question we have to ask but this is a larger issue on the idea that we're rolling out the same names all the time. Is Nevada a reputable commission in this case? We got a lot of questions about them. This guy, as much as I love 20 weeks, he's got to go come off. He's got to come off the routine here. He's got to come off the streets and either get key training or be retired because this is not acceptable.

You know, for guys like Ismael Barroso, who got robbed in that stoppage against Roley Romero. Now, Barroso did come back this weekend and score a huge upset knockout, so we got another conversation to be had. But that may have been that man's only chance there to come out with one big payday and win a world title at the end. So these decisions, while based on the idea of helping the fighter, and that's what Tony Weeks was trying to say, he had information he felt that made him want to protect the fighter. And that's what Tony Weeks was trying to say. He had information he felt that that made him want to protect the fighter. Well, if the if the fighter was in that dire of a spot,

we shouldn't have been having the fight, should we have? You know what I mean? A referee shouldn't be with that mentality of why am I have to jump in even sooner because I'm not even sure this guy should be in there. Maybe the guy shouldn't be in there. Unfortunately, Luke, it's not just maybe Lawson shouldn't have been in there. We're now finding out Weeks shouldn't't be in there. Unfortunately, Luke, it's not just maybe Lawson shouldn't have been in there. We're now finding out Weeks shouldn't have been in there either. And you've been calling for guys that get up in age that start to slip a little bit. Like, why are we wasting time? Kenny Bayless just retired at 73. He's going to be a Hall of Famer and not retire because he was awful.

Just got to the end of it. You get to the end of it. Sometimes fights change a guy. I wonder what changed in Week in weeks but this is not the guy we know and this is not a safe referee right now even if trying to make safety happen was his priority and goal it's it's not a good look luke it makes more people watch the sport and go why am i watching it's all fixed to begin with right but like when you watch stuff like this and it keeps happening who's stepping in and taking charge of this who yeah i would just i

would have one we don't have a national i would just i would just add like weeks disclosing that first of all i want to see that verified and i said that to you guys over over text i was like i i mean maybe what he's saying is true i don't know but i'm not going to believe it just because he says it someone needs to verify that number one number two if the guy was cleared that he was clear that's that you know you you handicapping it in this way is really not the point also if he was clear that's gross by the athletic commission assuming what he says is true i just actually don't believe what he said is really true i think he got some of the details wrong and i don't even know if he's supposed to be revealing those kinds of things that's another they would not want him to say

that publicly look i i have to believe he was sick of the look it's not an easy job when you have a job when you're an official or a field goal kicker or something where we're only gonna talk about you usually when you screw up right you know what i mean like it's not an easy job to have but it's a very important job he's probably getting killed it sucks that you can have like a hall of fame career and then have one or now two blemishes change the way people think of you but look these are pretty important blemishes he's at these these they're serious they're serious the the good news about that 2023 blemish he had where he stepped in and stopped the fight against barroso opposite romero which was we called it at the time that he was that you know

those guys had stolen from ismael barroso like there's no doubt in my mind guys i have great news i have the best news ever so ismael barroso ended up fighting o'hara davies who was supposed to be this kind of like hyped prospect not high prospect but hyped guy coming out of the uk and the winner of that was going to get romero well despite the fact that Davies was kind of like promoted as the guy to be like the next guy 40 year old fuck look at this 40 year old Venezuelan bastard he can punch his ass off can he not he is so heavy-handed and just blitzes this guy. BC Davies didn't land a single punch in this fight. And I want you to pay attention quickly to the reaction of Barroso. Watch here.

He's going to drop him again because this old goat can fucking punch, dude. If nothing else, he can do that. By the way, the back of his trunk says Christ lives. Indeed. Wait till they show him here. Wait till they show him here. By the way, referee finally not being Co says Christ lives. Indeed. Wait till they show him here. Wait till they show him here. By the way, referee finally not being Cochino wearing the gloves. Thank you.

They stop it and watch when they show Ismael. Watch this. He's going to wave it here. Look at this. Look at this. Look at this. Look at this. That is what it's all about, dude.

That is what it's all about. They stole from that guy and he got it back dude he got it back that's like in ghanu crawling through the andy shithole for shawshank and getting to the other side right there and then being like yeah i didn't fumble shit mf first damn dude that was a great moment unfortunately uh we had the uh bad stuff so look virgil artis jr like we want to start talking to about him in big fights and i know he called out which is wild we only saw tim zoo said he wanted it on twitter yes yes he did yes he did all right there you go there we go i knew you would be man there it is so tim zoo had heard the call out he said yo virgil welcome to the 54 club i'm always keen for a modern day classic virgil ortiz jr

saying i knew you would let's do it, that fight would be a war, dude. That would be a war. But like a high-level war. I would like to spend Monday talking more about Virgil Ortiz, but from that fight, there's just nothing to say. What can you say? BC, I kind of want to punt on the Ryan Garcia stuff unless you really want to get to it. No, no, that's fine.

But just to sum it up in 10 seconds for you, Ryan wanted Haney next. It seemed like that's what De La Hoya wants. Ryan changed his mind. He wants Roley next. I'm wondering how much the influence of Floyd Mayweather, who has been on training runs with Ryan, he's been with him in the gym in Miami.

Maybe that's why Garcia put out that shoulder roll against Duarte. That didn't work. I wonder if Floyd is counseling him from a business standpoint that it would be better. Try to fight Roley. Win that title. You'll have more leverage against Haney down the road. road but uh yeah we'll have some of this talk and have you seen the show let's keep it rolling all right well with that in mind it's time now for dms from

the old diggity donks hey first that that donkey sounded like he was doing something gross i never realized that until now ejaculating well well well donkey if you you know what i mean yeah mikey mikey sweating bullets right now all right uh from jayrock t11 bullets mikey put in the chat is aj versus nganu the greatest body fight of all time luke he's this guy first team first team all body yeah yeah we know what kind of porn that he's watching i mean what are you gonna say all right from jrock t11 or however you want to say these random assortment of letters and numbers how many competitive losses can francis have in boxing before

interest lessons as a casual fan? I have Francis winning versus AJ though. What do you think? Um, I think because of Wilder being out there, which is a unique matchup where Wilder has not looked good lately. Um, if, if Francis can do what Luke said earlier, knock down AJ have a credible performance, but lose maybe gets out boxed on the cards. I think he can get another big one out of it. But to the point of this question, ask her you're right. The losses start start adding up it will be diminishing returns each time the key though will be what happens if he wins if he wins if he wins all bets are off this is the most remarkable story of all time if he wins it might already be really seriously but

yeah if he loses let's give him either the wilder or some type of gimmick fight and you know i know, I mean, dude, I don't think it's impossible that they could get him in China against Zhang Zhelei for that secondary title. They could probably get a lot of money for that. But maybe, maybe not. I don't know. All right. Question number two from Joe and then his social security number. What would you two put the odds at for a colby versus sean brady five round fight oh uh sean brady minus 250 yeah two i was gonna say 275 250 um i mean younger stronger i mean better submission to

launch you had failure to launch last time out i mean he did rally late with the wrestling but he didn't turn it into anything so if brady could match him in the wrestling we'll see what brady can do on the feet again yeah i hate that fight though i don't want to see that i don't want to see colby anymore he's got x-pop heat get off my screen uh also the other part too is he did turn it into something which was he turned it into a car wash of right-wing media opportunities to like proclaim that he lost because the judges had bias against him, which is stupid.

Very stupid. All right. Question number three. It's not cage fighting asks, assuming they go under which one championship fighters should be signed by the UFC and PFL and it's only Malik in any of their champions basically. Right. But the thing is,

would Demetrius go back? That's the interesting part, right? I don't think Demetrius would. I think've heard enough interviews like i don't know so he considers himself a phantom weight again right because when you fight in right let me pitch this to you let me pitch it to you bc let me pitch to you at 135 dj versus patchy mix sick fight okay patchy mix is not in the uh in the uh patchy mix is going to be on the other side of the street of the pfl bellator train most likely right we can fucking make a baby all right i thought you were gonna go i thought you were gonna go dj suhudo three

for the title if henry was able to secure it i wonder if that would be the only matchup. Because I don't think DJ, I know he's not motivated by, like, reminding people who he is or adding to the legacy. So, no, he's not coming over. But Malikin would be the number one draft pick, Anatoly Malikin, right? I mean, I would love to see RDR over there. I'd love to see. Yeah, RDR too, yep. Both Rod Tang and Stan Fairtex bring excitement and brawling fever.

But what weight class is old Stamp in? Is that 115 in one or is she in the lower one? I think that's right, yes. Or is she at Adam weight, I think, right? No, she's at Adam weight probably. But if it's Adam weight, it is 115. Oh, fair point. All right, so imagine if we got her into the UFC strawweight pool, Luke.

That'd be wild, luke that'd be wild right it'd be kind of fun yeah i mean there's a lot of good i mean dude again it's not like one doesn't have good fighters not like pfl doesn't have good fighters it's not like bellator doesn't have good fighters but what they don't have is the ability to get the kind of people that the public wants to see them against which enables them to bid on the competitive services of people that can make you money they don't have that. Every time you say that name of that promotion, I'm like, one, oh, one. You know what I mean?

I'm back in my own prison, Luke. The only way is one. I mean, look, as lame as Creed is, and we all know this, you have to respect that first record. It is now my workout playlist, Luke. It is. All right? It's not even as good as Helmet's worst album.

Have you ever heard Creed's My Own Prison record, Luke? I have heard it multiple times. I listened to it in high school like a fucking idiot like you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get to the video. We'll get to the video. Mikey, the video I sent you, we'll get to it at the end of Have You Seen This Shit, if that's okay. Quickly, question number four from Von Beckel.

Von Beckel? Who is the most capable MMA journalist that can handle themselves? Well, BC Fondles himself. Does that count? Do we count Mike Jackson in this, Luke, as a videographer turned? Or how about Stefan Struve? Stefan Struve is not counting the crossover people that we just mentioned who are who have some obvious actual degree of fighting based on the body types and

the toughness of meeting them i mean both both oscar willis and ekc lyden did take amateur fights which have a lot of respect for their willingness to to get to do that would you say like a sean alshadi because he looks athletic luke or I, you know, what am I missing? Who am I missing? The thing is he's got a bad knees. He's got real bad knees. Oh, I thought you were going to rip his hairline. I was like, we don't have to, we don't have to go there.

He has no hair whatsoever. I mean, he looks like Charlie Villanueva. I mean, it's, it's, he is Dunzo for him. Dan Tom out of MMA Junkie, I think, has an amateur. Who? Could the schmo scrap a little? I could see the schmo being like an amateur wrestler or something. Probably a little bit, yeah.

Probably a little bit. All right. I mean, the MMA media is. Back in my 20s, I want everyone to know I would have beaten the fuck out of every one of them. There's just a bunch of Ray Mundys in MMA media these days. Look, real nice guys, right? It's just, BC and I are now included in this, but it's just garbage pail kids.

You know, it doesn't really. Yeah, I mean, I'm a lover, Luke, not a fighter. We know this about me. Yeah. Lastly, but not leastly, Antonio M. Alvarez asks, which two fighters should make a buddy road trip comedy? This is the worst question I've ever heard. How about Chiesa and Felder?

No. Okay. this is the worst question i've ever heard about kiesa and felder no okay they're too they're too nice oh dude dc and habib are hilarious together dc and habib is a good one dc and habib is a good one i was gonna say what about izzy and alex how no no how about Glover and Alex? How about Sean Strickland and Ian Gary? No, no. Not into that at all. No, not into that. No. How about Song Yedong and then like Tom Aspinall or something? Some like totally different size and background and everything else.

Are we allowed to match up males and females, Luke? Or am i like doing adult broadcasting at the moment yeah it's probably weird it's probably unless you're doing like unless you're doing like you know yeah back room yeah in fact i'm removing myself from this question moving forward thank you yeah this is a lot of us want to be like a lot of fans like and understandably they like they want us to treat fighters like like they're our best friends but i don't look at them that way. I don't think of them as like buddy cop duos.

I think of them as just dudes who fight in an Octagon or don't. That's, that's really it. Yeah. True. You want to see some shit? Time for BC's. Boy,

BC is really just. Well, I, Mike, Mike, like it's a fun. Mike. Okay. I'm going to talk and then you could talk. Ready for that? Here we go. Mikey says, it's a fun my okay i'm gonna talk and then you could talk ready for that here

we go mikey says it's a fun question it is a fun question but i'm not a fun person and that kind of hurts me that kind of hurts me what's the question i'm supposed to entertain here the last one which was which two fighters would make a buddy cop comment i gave a lot more effort in giving answers than you did in that luke okay what was your official answer what was your final answer uh dc and habib that is a good one that i that's probably the best one we're going to come up with that's probably that's a good one i agree yeah okay there you go all right with that in mind let's see your feces all right hey i scoured the globe it's been been about a month it feels like since we've done this a few weeks at least the good the bad the ugly the high lows combat sports there better be some elder abuse on this one there is some of that

all right maybe a tattoo to rate too hey let's see this shit already let's go uh luke does own boxing from las vegas we touched on this a little bit earlier we can speed through here though but barroso getting that ko i do wonder if he gets rolly next though rolly jumped in the ring and they hug and embrace but if rolly ends up getting rye guy who is barroso again i'm not really sure can we see this mikey you can i could talk over it right should be able to there it is yeah there we go there's there's barroso one more boom dude look at that left hand dude this old this old goat he's that old tractor that just won't quit running there's so many players at 140 though golden boy just signed jose ramirez he

was on the broadcast like the barroso could get a huge fight against anybody to be fair well done there let's keep it going let's go to the next one mikey here's a slow motion replay of that weak stoppage luke i don't know what you're going to say about this now nothing i mean some of these get through some of these i'm sure were hard he has a good left hook to the body there underneath the gloves that's nice you know um i'm sure the guy was hurt the question is not whether he was hurt the question is why did you stop it like if this is round 10 i would say lawson did it to himself by not throwing back enough it's round one right nothing got through i don't know what are we doing all right uh virgil ortiz and we'll skip the zoo tweet we already saw that let's go to topic number two a lot of weird fallout luke

over ryan garcia changing his mind did you notice oscar twice on the broadcast kept saying we want to make ryan against haney well ryan said this is a this is a collaboration of all the tweets he said i've notified my team i'm going a different route my intent now is to fight roly i pray my team backs me on this oscar make this fight happen that's the move bigger fight bigger business then haney posted and deleted don't ever mention my name pussy boy boy. B-O-I on that boy. Then you get Ryguy coming back and going, you'll be back. And then he did hashtag 30,000 pay-per-view buys, which is what he was saying that Haney did against Rougarou.

And then you go to that next slide. You got Ryan saying, after what happens to Rollies, the Devon fight will be there and be even bigger. Everyone critiquing now will end up seeing it was a better move. Plus he can go get Richardson Hitchens, Hitchens, go do your 30,000 pay-per-view buys. I don't need you,

Dev. You need me. And then Rolly coming back with hashtag spring 2024. Luke is Ryan Garcia wrong that he's now saying, Hey, Devin on the A side, you screwed up by thinking it was Haney versus Garcia um Haney's the champion he didn't screw up at all right that part's lame no it's super late

I mean here's the thing I actually don't mind Garcia prioritizing Romero I just wish he wouldn't have tried it to go through Haney first and then just switched all at the end there that's the part that gets me like I get that I get why you want the romero fight first because then he can have the belt it's a whole thing but yeah well what's weird is you make oscar go after this haney fight then you tweet out before this broadcast happens that you're you don't want haney anymore but either nobody told oscar or oscar's trying to f him because like i said he did two separate interviews on the broadcast and both of them were like we heard what ryan said we can't wait to make ryan versus devon and it's like well hold on dude probably because if you're going to fight roly unless al hayman lets roly jump

to to golden boy you probably have to do that if roly's a champion which he is you probably have to do that on pbc's networks right i don't know if you can make that fight now that we talk about it all right uh luke the fallout even went deeper. Have you seen this shit? Bernard Hopkins, who works for Golden Boy, was talking to Bill Haney, the father of Devin, about business after the main event on Saturday, and then this happened.

Nope, that's going to be bad for me. I'm going to talk to you about it for a minute. No, seriously. I'm going to talk to you about this for a minute. You want to talk right here? Right here. Right here. It's probably mental. It's mental. Yeah, well, listen. Just get mental. seriously you talk right here look what does it mean when you tell another man let's go to the bathroom that means either means either we're going to hang out with George Michael or it's about to go down, right? Hey, you're either fighting or fucking. That's it.

There ain't no other option. Well, then a lot of people are going, hey. It's not fight or flight. It's fight or fuck. That's what you're going to do there. A lot of people are going, hey, didn't Bernard Hopkins just say the same thing in December? So, Luke, they were at the wba convention in orlando the same weekend as jake paul's return fight and then somebody spit in the face of samson lukowitz and then it was the son of elvis grant phillips who makes the gloves so b hop went after

elvis let's watch it he said the same thing just chasing down from the hill. You know what? I take you to fucking school. I take you to school. I take you to school. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no.

No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no.

No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no.

No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no.

No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no.

No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. If you really say who you is, let's go back here. Let's go back here. No, no, no.

I don't want to do that. You don't want to do that? Why? No, I'm not fighting. We don't talk at all. Listen, I'm not fighting. We don't talk at all. We have the conversation.

We have the conversation. We have the conversation. We have the conversation. Let's make it a conversation. We're having a conversation. Let's make you like men. Let's make you like men. Go in the bathroom by yourself. Let's make you. Yeah.

Oh, he's not coming. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, brother. No, no, no, no, no. You come to the convention with disrespect. Your sense is this man's faith. So why are you black? So you talk to him. Go spin this faith. So you said spin this face hold up hold up because they got their cameras out you telling me spinning his face is right you already said hold up hold up you said spin in his face luke uh boxing is such a disorganized clown show it's insane would you be man enough to

go in the bathroom if Bernard Hopkins asked you yes or no I don't want to fight or bang him I don't want to do either of those things well flashback to 2015 boxing publicist and longtime writer Mitch Abramson I searched on Twitter he said I just got punched in the stomach by Bhop in the men's room. Something to tell my kids, Luke, stay out of the bathroom with Bernard Hopkins. Lesson learned. To close, after Bernard and Bill

had this little verbal dust-up, it actually got physical. Watch Bernard closely on this video. I've never had any dust-up in the world, and ain't no dad gonna do what I'm gonna do, and I'm going to go about it. That's nothing. That's nothing.

That's nothing. That's nothing. That's just like I said. For all the dads around the world, you're not going to be bullied by Bernard Hopkins or nobody. I got the best. Okay, Luke, Bernard Hopkins almost got into a fight with Gervonta Tank Davis when he was on the scales with Ryan. What is going on here, Luke? What the hell is happening?

Dude, Bernard is old school Philly, bro. Old school Philly. Is he not? He doesn't give a fuck. He is still about it. About it. Like, you better, you know. Damn.

Dude, we picked the worst industries to work in. Hey, we should work at MMA and boxing. We have great opinion. I think Bruce or Brody got shivved in the men's room in puerto rico that time and never came out worst industries on earth all right hey luke it's time to mess check in on the whites right let's go to this roof trampoline hey let's see how they're doing Luke does he walk away from that or no was that an escape from Jan 6 what was that that was dude run it one more time but don't play don't play it don't play it just yet but I want you to know something it looks like there's a camera switch like you know how like in the 80s they'd have like guy like running off a cliff.

And then as he runs, cause they couldn't do special effects back then they would toss like a dummy off the cliff. And then you could tell it wasn't the guy, but it was supposed to be the guy. It looks like right when he hits the trampoline, there's like a switch. No,

it's just his legs coming outside of his body. Watch one more time. That, that Chewbacca sound was him, Luke, growling in slow motion. Hey, it's time for bumper stickers of the week, Luke. Let's go to the bumper for this one, would you? Honk if you have a fat coochie. All right. That's a nice, classy lady.

This one says, I'm into fitness. Fitness boob in my mouth. And the next one? Captain Blue Balls just cut you off. And he's got blue balls literally hanging from the bottom of his truck. Yeah, that's something. All right, let's go over to... These people should lose

the right to vote i mean i feel like if you have a bumper sticker like that where you're like declaring very loudly a very stupid opinion you have then forfeited the right to participate in our uh democracy look let's go to uh you ever been to like goodwill or savers or you know they got they got used products that make no sense you know know what I'm saying? What's going on here, Luke? Well, for $3, you can find out. Luke, you remember Anthony Pettis' famous Showtime kick in the WEC against Benson Henderson? Did you know that the cameraman also caught it to the pills?

Watch this. There was a camera guy on the fence when i jumped off i kicked him in the nuts and then i hit and then i hit ben henson he i saw him at the ufc fight a two-hitter he was like you know you kicked me in the nuts watch you can see it nuts poor bastard had no idea that ever happened that's hilarious uh spinny shit of the week luke doesn't come from regional MMA where anything can happen.

It comes from a death metal show. This is what Luke Thomas is all about. Wow. Dude, was that a girl he hit? No, I think it's a dude, but I mean, dude looks like a lady, which is fine, Luke, but I think, look at this. I mean, what? How do you defend this? No, that's a girl. But, I mean, dude looks like a lady, which is fine, Luke. But I think, look at this. I mean, what? Bah!

How do you defend this? No, that's a girl. It's just a really heinous one. All right. Wow. Okay, that was unnecessary. Hey, let's go to the NFL, Luke. We got some hot piss and some glory holes.

In that order, let's check out this fan. What would you do if you saw this, Luke? This was me on the lawn of a Dave Matthews concert one time. Dude, again, I'm going to ask one more time. Why would you ever go to an NFL game? Why would you ever go? Although this looks like a college game, in which case I could ask the same question. Why would you? This is what my friend was doing in New York City when he was.

Yeah, let's keep that in. Let's go to our final one. This is Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys. It's a reminder. I too have been here 23 years and it is a reminder. I've been here when it was glory hole days and I've been here when it wasn't. And so i have that perspective you know i'm not okay of all the ways to get your rocks off i've never found that one to be especially interesting okay all right i don't need that level of analysis you put the anal in analysis

right there look but let's move on uh your real mma ko of the week watch this fake injury finish is this legal i love it oh he's like watch me tie my shoes no bitch he know what he did play it one more time oh call an ambulance but not for me ah bitch that's got me hungry Luke

so hungry watch this snow tubing accident comes with a meal deal Luke yeah you get the old choco taco with this one or yeah okay there you go hey somebody was looking for elder abuse let's keep the show going here this is great look at these let's give her let's give her the thing you got to balance on hopefully there's crocodiles in that motherfucker look what country is this i don't know i'm gonna guess southeast asia but i could be totally wrong i don't know yeah could be south florida for all we know i mean maybe it was a bad idea take a dip bitches piranhas they're not the only ones that got wet. Let's go to the next slide.

Oh, dude. Dude, you're going to fucking kill Granny with that shit. Oh, wow. They tried to play a prank on her, Luke. Ah, bitch. Ah, go drown. Go drown, whore. Okay.

Luke, this was me at most college bars, unfortunately. Watch the man in the yellow shirt. That's assault, assault brother and it's all right hey luke why don't we rate that tat it's been enough time check out this eddie guerrero the late wwe star this tat is brought to you by um andrea fiorenza what do you think of this, Luke? Okay, well, that is a very good stenciling. Let's see. I think this is elite stuff here.

Let's see when it's all done. That is an extremely good tattoo. Heck yeah, that's a 10 out of 10. Yeah, that's a 10 out of 10 let's go to steve butcher's artwork luke this is connor and nate you told me that you would never want a connor and nate tat on your body but if you did it'd be this one you did not quite it's not what i said what i said was i'd rather have full-blown aids than an mma tattoo um which is true i'd rather have full-blown aids than any kindma tattoo um which is true i'd rather have full-blown aids than any kind of marking on my body related to mma however if you're going to get an mma tattoo play one more time mikey if we can yeah i mean that's a very good tattoo that's a very good tattoo a little bit right yeah it looks a little patchy a little bit but in general i mean that's

a very good tattoo. Yeah. Alright, let's go back to the future here. This isn't Jay Aaron's leg, Luke, but what do you think of it? Ooh, it's like a new school kind of mesh, back to the future too kind of Rick and Morty thing. That is, I wouldn't want it, but that's a very good tattoo.

Really, really good. Luke, what do they call a tattoo on the lower back of a gen sixer a tramp stamp a trump stamp by the way could your clothes by the way could your clothes fit worse hold on go back go back go back mikey go back you got the worst tattoo on earth number one number two yeah just a mole a mole the size of jupiter on your back get that lasered off you absolute oaf okay and then okay and then last of all dude look at these pants don't fit at all he's got a goddamn cartridge belt that he's trying to use to hold them shits up my guy just listen just just that's the second best tat of the week here's the real best one, Luke.

What do you think about the quality of this one? Okay. Well, that is disturbing. Truly disturbing. NHL jersey of the week time here. I don't know if. Fisted your sister? Number 69 in your scorebooks, Luke.

Yeah, here you go. All right, how about we close with some fun with fireworks here? I think I call these indoor sparklers. You ever do these inside, Luke? No, I'm not an idiot. Oh, Happy New Year. Yeah, why don't you catch it on fire, you absolute fucking mongrels? Why don't you just put it in your mouth and see what happens, right, Luke?

Get that out of here. They're like, get the tree out the house. Yeah, just catch more shit on fire, you dumb fucks. Oh, my God. It's still going. White people be crazy, Luke. Let's go to our second one here. What is this uh this is in that man's bottle rocket yeah nothing nothing can go wrong here probably bc i can't believe he's white it seems so out of care yeah why don't you

look i think we could call the next one crotch rocket right watch this this guy's great okay okay my man my man's had a bit too much to drink i think it's the most action he's had in a long time i'm proud of it probably yeah look at that by the way it says port colombia called julio So that was probably somewhere in Colombia. Make sure the women and children are safely put away before this skylight. These kids, watch this up close. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Run. It's going to be right now. You cannot stick it in the ground. It's not going to work. Who did that? You got to put it in the chute. Oh, my God. one two ten yeah all right dude that was a fucking assault what did they do

yeah they they nearly damn killed themselves luke okay let's keep it going here we got two left you've heard of shoeys luke in australia they want to take it to the next level first he reaches down in for the athletic support do you think tuey vasa would do this i mean what's going on send every one of these people to the gulag where Brittany Griner was. Okay. Okay. Okay.

I mean, that's another person in the crowd. Look at these disgusting oafs. Yeah. I mean, you got to have standards, you know? Wow. Okay. I got one more for you to close. It's self-explanatory.

This is your shit of the week. Luke, you ever bop somebody's bottle and then it explodes like that? I've done that a million times. Oh! Oh my god! Yeah, that's where your money's going luke when toques is ready to take it to the next level secondary i am i am truly frightened about these that day true all right that's all the shit i got uh not bad not bad he had a pretty

good batch i give that batch a solid b plus maybe a minus i'm feeling generous pretty good pretty good there you go uh let's remind everyone about the socials. We got some socials. You can follow us here and we'll put them up here on the screen. Just a minute. We're on Tik TOK. We're on Insta. We're on Twitter.

You could see all the different stuff there. Give us a follow. Thanks to Ernie McCracken for coming by today. Luke, right? Yeah. Big, big earn from big Labatt. Oh, not big Labatt. I'm sorry.

From what's the movie? Big earn. Kingpin. Kingpin. Big Earn. Kingpin. Kingpin. Kingpin. Kingpin. From Kingpin for coming by. We appreciate that.

Let's see. Morningcombat at gmail.com to reach Mikey if you want to do that. And then, of course, morningcombat.store to get merch such as that may tickle your fancy, BC. Anything else? Yeah, you want 10% off? Try that live 10 code. It might just work for you. L-I-V-E 1-0. There zero there you go 10 off tell them bc sent you hey if you got i mean it's winter time luke

if your hands need lubrication you know where to go look at those my hands are all fucked up yeah look what have you been doing those look like knocking fools out and you got like excess you know. Yeah, that's right. I'll let these dogs bark. You know what I'm saying? I know what you're saying. Yeah.

All right, BC, we're out of here for today. We'll be back on Wednesday. We'll see you guys then. Thank you so much for joining me. For the King of Connecticut, I'm Luke Thomas. We appreciate you guys so much. Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.