MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Poirier-Oliviera, Paul-Woodley Aftermath, Dissected | Luke Thomas' Live Chat, ep. 85

Episode Date: September 2, 2021

Today on the live chat, we'll discuss what Charles Oliveira vs. Dustin Poirier might look like, the aftermath of Luke's trip to Cleveland for the boxing event between Jake Paul and Tyron Woodley, the future of technique breakdown segments like Dissected or Technical Difficulties, Joe Rogan getting Covid, the UFC debut of Cage Warriors sensation Paddy Pimblett, the futures of Zabit Magomedsharipov and Khamzat Chimaev, the U.S.'s departure from Afghanistan and much more. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Oh, hi, everybody. Hi. It is the 2nd of September, 2021. My name is Luke Thomas, and this is my live chat, which I do right here of these. Way too long. We have really fucked up the content plan for the month of August when we went on vacation over there at Morning Combat. No one's fault more

than my own and LBCU too. And we are really sorry. It was a bit of a learning lesson with how this was handled. And so I'm sorry about that, but we're back on the horse. We're ready to go. We have a big fall schedule for combat sports and we're really excited the horse. We're ready to go. We have a big fall schedule for combat sports, and we're really excited about it. So first things first, thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe if you are new. Please, if you are new, help us move the chains. Help us move the subscriber chains to our goals.

Our first one, obviously, is going to be 100K, but then certainly beyond that as well. We are very close to the first one, but we need your help to move those chains. If you are a common watcher of this and you want to help, now's the time to share it around. Send it to a couple of friends. Let them know. Repost it on your socials if you can, if you're so inclined.

And we appreciate any and all forms of help. Today on the program, we'll get to, of course, always your questions wherever they may lead. I'm going to guess it's going to be some of the big combat sports news headlines. I'm going to guess it's going to be, you know, some stuff in my personal life and professional life and everything else in between. So without further ado, I'm sorry for the late start on this. I appreciate you guys watching. When I say late start, I mean take this off. So hope you're doing well. It was a, I went over most of this on Morning Combat. It was a, it was a, it was a strange vacation. It was a, it was a decent vacation, but it was not the one we had planned. It's just been a crazy month.

My daughter had an accident. We had to take her to the hospital. She had to get 20 stitches in her forehead. The scar will heal, but that was awful and traumatic. Then had a pet die. Then wife got the whole situation, and we had to cancel vacation. It's just been a real weird run,

and I think we got a little distracted. It's not an excuse. Even with all those things, people have dealt with much worse and still kept their work calendar flowing in the way that it was supposed to. So I let it get the best of me and should not have. So really, really sorry about that.

Okay, as always, we put the questions up in a thread the day before. You can go to the community section of youtube.com slash morningcombat. So, if you go to Morning Combat's YouTube channel, look in the community thread. Click there on Wednesdays. You'll see a thread. And people fill it up. And then, however they ask the questions, we really go from there.

So, let's check those out, shall we? Alright. Let's see. Okay. First things first. Hi Luke, first time, long time. As much as I love MK, I really miss the more technical content you did before on Dissected, Tech Difficulties. In my mind, it's what separated you from the other MMA talking heads and what got me on your bandwagon.

Any chance of getting more of the technical breakdowns of fighters games going forward? PS Party and Holloway are both in dire need of resume reviews. Resume reviews are a little bit different. So I'm saying that's sort of much a technical breakdown. But yes, listen, I know I've said this a few times on the thing, and on this particular podcast and other places. I know if you want to dismiss it because it sounds repetitive without any action, I really couldn't hold it against you.

But believe me when I tell you, believe me, believe me, believe me. My personal YouTube channel is going to get going again. It will not be exactly what it once was at its peak, but it's going to be consistent, and there's going to be lots and lots of tech difficulty episodes on there. I've done a lot of work. I needed a break from everything and I told everyone that, but I'm putting together pieces of a reconstitution so that we can get that going again in a steady kind of way. I think one of the things that I've struggled with, and if you guys want to email me what you think a good response to this would be, I'd actually be curious to hear what you have to say you can always

email me Luke Thomas news at gmail.com I have wrestled with one kind of problem the problem is how do I return to action on the old YouTube channel do I just upload a small video that's easy to make that I could easily put up and there's no real no you know it's it's just sort of a return to action without much fanfare? Or do I come out guns blazing with like two or three dissected episodes? Obviously, if I do the two or three dissected episode, excuse me, I should say tech difficulties. If I do that, it's going to take longer to get back, which is fine, but it just sort of, what I want is a system that is sustainable over time.

What happened when I was at SiriusXM and then Vox and then doing my own YouTube thing all together was that it was completely exhausting. It was totally overwhelming. And I was able to do it because I was pushing towards something. I'm not sure I even knew in my mind, but I was pushing towards something. And then when MK came around, basically in the middle, I mean, obviously it existed before the pandemic, but when CBS Sports came around in the middle of the pandemic, they're like, yeah, we'll just do everything for you. Obviously on their own channel, but you don't really have to lift a finger. It was a great moment for me to reset, but that time is over. That time is over.

So would you rather me wait a little bit? I've got one dissected in the tank. I could put it out. But I kind of want to wait until I have like, if I'm going to do that route two or three and then all in the same day, release them. Or is the argument, just get the ball rolling. Just get the ball rolling.

And if I did, what I would do is a preview tomorrow of the main event for Till and Brunson. If you want maybe even a little bit of a scouting report on Patty Pimblitt. That kind of a thing. So you tell me. You tell me what you're looking for. Just know I can either get right back to work or it has to wait a little bit because those technical difficulties episodes, I do everything by myself, which is no grand feat.

It just means that it takes a little bit of time to do. Let me also say this. If you are in the D.C. area, so if you live in D.C. or you live in Maryland or you live in Virginia, and you're interested in interning with me, I'd even pay a little bit. I would not make you work for free. And you want to intern with me to help me with getting my YouTube channel back up and running, you can email me, lukethomasnews at gmail.com. There are other ways to help me from afar, which I'd be willing to hear if someone has some kind of grand idea. But if you are in the area and you want to help, and you, you know, I guess

I'll pay a little bit, email me, lukethomasnews at gmail.com. This one I'm talking about, like, I'm 1,000% getting it going again. I've just been really wrestling with what the right idea is. The right idea is probably just put something up and then use that momentum to gather itself, but you tell me. All right, I figured this was going to happen, so here we go. Hi, Luke. Are you going to share what transpired between you and Ariel in Cleveland? Were you able to bury the hatchet, and are you on good terms now? Yeah. So we did meet. We did meet. We met after the weigh-ins, and listen, guys. I obviously am not going to be in a position to tell you about the contents of the conversation that's between he and I. It's private. To my knowledge, I have

not seen him share the contents of the conversation, so I can't either. I don't think it's really for public consumption. I don't really want to prostitute my privacy in that way, and neither does he. So that's the... I'm glad we see eye to eye on that. You know, I think the only thing I can say here now is that I thought it was a very productive conversation. There are probably some things that I needed to tell him for a long time that I either wasn't willing or wasn't able or just didn't, that I finally got a chance to. I will say that I found him to be, generally speaking, quite receptive to the things I had to say. I found what appeared to be somebody who was listening in good faith, you know? So I think, you know, are we going to be like best buds from here on out?

You know, I don't know. I don't know what life holds, but, um, I can tell you that, you know, are we in a, are we on a good place? Yeah. We're in, we're in a good place. We are definitely in a good place. We are definitely in a place where I think he, the one that I think, I think I did hear him say this on his show. I could be wrong, but either way I can divulge this much. I think I did hear him say this on his show. I could be wrong, but either way, I can divulge this much. I think both of us are at a point now where we're a little bit older. We're a little bit, you know, we've been in this game doing very different things, but we've been in this game for a long time. We obviously spent a lot of years working together. We've got kids now.

You know, we're not. It's funny I'm going to say this because Some disputes in life are not resolvable I really believe that Some disputes just cannot be fixed But you'd be surprised about which ones you might be able to fix Or at least put out an effort to try and fix it. Maybe it doesn't work.

But in general, I find that some disputes are very easily resolved. Some a little bit harder. And then there are those ones where you're like, it'll never happen. And then you find yourself at a position where it might be able to. And then you're like, well, okay. That went probably a little bit better than I thought it might. So you surprise yourself over time. And then the other part about it too is like, dude, again, I'm not completely letting go of all of the beefs I've ever had with any one person or institution in the world, but

it's exhausting. It's exhausting to just be angry at someone, whether it's your neighbor or your spouse or a work colleague or anything. It's exhausting. And maybe you have righteousness to do it, maybe you don't. But you just have to ask yourself, like, how are you profiting from this particular arrangement? And I think that we probably both profit more from the ability to have a much more open dialogue. And I was able to share some views about some things that I thought was important

for him to hear. Again, he was quite receptive. There were some things conversely that he thought was important for me to hear. I did my best. I hope I was a receptive audience. It seems that I was. And we'll go from there. We'll go from there. So, you know, there's plenty of room for everything. I think, importantly, I want what I have, if that makes sense. Like, I finally am in a position where, you know, a lot of time in my career, this is true of anyone in a lot of different careers, you might be able to advance, but you advance in a way that is not in keeping with your own vision for what you want to do. So it's advancement, but it's not, it's not, and it's nothing you can sneeze at, but it's not exactly what you had planned for yourself. The MK and the

partnership with Showtime is very, very close to something that, again, no arrangement is perfect, of course, but it's pretty close, man. It's pretty close to what I was looking for. It's pretty close to what I want. I don't want what anybody else has. I only want to make better what I have. And, you know, I think it took a long time for me to arrive in this position to elevate myself and get opportunities and get a little bit of luck. And so, um, you know, with the benefit of hindsight and with the reality of just sort of where we're at, it was probably a, I don't know that this conversation could have taken place a couple of years ago, but, but after everything that's happened in the world and in

particular, my life, and I think his as well, it was probably a good time to have it actually. So yeah, we had a conversation. It was long. It was productive. And I'm looking forward to a more peaceful future. I hope. I think so. I think so. Yeah.

I don't know if that answers all your questions. Everyone wants to hear what we had to say to each other. There's just no fucking way I'm going to do that. It's not... It's never going to happen. But if you can find a way to resolve things with people, and again, you may not be able to. I don't think there's any situation where I could ever resolve

my differences with my previous company. I don't think that's really on the previous company. I don't think that's really on the table, and I don't think that they care to either. But I'm just saying, like, I don't think that's resolvable. But you'd be surprised. Sometimes things can be more resolvable than you imagined, and this appears to be one such case. Do I want to get into this one up front? Shit. All right, you put it third. I'll do it third. All right.

Look, as someone who worked in the military, what are your thoughts on the Afghanistan situation and the failed exit strategy? Do you think media coverage would have been different if Trump was in charge? Media coverage will always be different if Trump is in there, for better or for worse. I think we can all agree with that. There will certainly be a much greater examination.

You know, but they've been hammering Biden because there are a lot of, dude, I know personally Raytheon contractors. I know Boeing contractors personally. So you have to imagine this whole area is filled with defense contractors and leftovers from neocon failures and just sort of these forever war proponents, wherever they find themselves in whatever sector, public sector or private or something in between. Intellectual academia folks who are on the boards of Raytheon or whatever.

I mean, they're all over this part of the country. I will tell you that I am, you know, I am greatly relieved, frankly. That was, I was, you know, no one's happy to see the Taliban back in power or exactly, but that it was almost, it was almost, I'll say this is no comfort for the folks who have been left behind. This is no comfort for the folks who now have to live under Taliban rule. But I was almost, again, not because I realize there's a series of moral horrors, no matter which way you turn. But again, a part of me, a part of me was almost glad that it happened the way that it did. Just fucking push them out.

Just be done with it. You know, 20 years, trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, tens of thousands of innocent Afghanis, all dead for quite literally nothing. You guys have heard me say on this very chat, not this particular episode, but I was actually asking about it when I was on vacation. I tweeted about it. Do you guys not remember the story that I told? I mean, if you, there is such a divide in America between people who are involved in these conflicts and people who aren't and people who are aware of what's going on. And our lives are so balkanized and fragmented that there can be these, you know, obviously what's happening in certain hospitals and certain hot spots where, you know, I think they were yesterday, there were negative 84 ICU beds in Alabama.

You know, and how much does the average person who isn't dealing with that, what kind of awareness do they have? Probably very little. In a similar vein, you see the same kind of conflicts with the military. You know, it is very easy to have opinions about what is happening if you are not sort of a witness to what the fruits of the labor look like and what the costs associated are. And going to Walter Reed and spending a lot of time there, do you guys not remember the story I told about the triple amputee

who could not have been more than 20, something like that, 21 at most maybe, probably a little bit less. He was a triple amputee and this was, fuck, this was 2004 or 5 maybe, something like that. I can't remember the exact date anymore. And just the completely, to call his look dejected or forlorn does it no justice. I mean, he truly had no desire to live anymore and you could read it all over his face. And I said on this live chat, like if you're going to do this to people,

if you're American, Afghani, whoever, there needs to be a moral righteousness to it and some kind of objective objective that can be attained and whatever else you want to say about the righteousness of some kind of response immediately in the days following 9-11 there was no capacity to bring this to bear this was a jobs program for afghans that ended up being one of the largest transfers from public to private in terms of wealth in American history. And by the transfer of wealth, I mean to Raytheon, to Boeing, to these other forever war participants, institutions, and allies. That's really what all it was there to do.

I mean, obviously, bin Laden is dead, although he was not found in Afghanistan. You could say there probably was some benefit early on to whatever had happened. And maybe in terms of the capacity to fight the war on terror, there can be some argument about its ability to be helped vis-a-vis being in Afghanistan. But, you know, we basically wasted 20 years. I mean, dude, George Bush's wars ended this week. I remember when they started. Let me tell you something. They did not project an end that looked like this. And here was simply the reality of it

all. There was a study, I forget who was the chief author, but I'm quite certain about the academic institution. It came out of Brown University. And Brown University did a study from, I think, around, not the beginning of the involvement in Afghanistan, but around 2006 or so, up until basically the beginning of the pandemic, to what extent there have been an escalation in drone attacks. From 2006 until that time, there's been a 330% increase in drone attacks. And obviously, as you can imagine, as those drone attacks go up, you kill a lot more of the quote-unquote bad guys,

but you kill a lot more of the sort of collateral damage, as they like to call it. There's weddings we've blown up, kids we've killed who had nothing to do with anything, who just got murdered by virtue of this strategy. And basically what Trump did in his time, I mean, Bush started this all and talked about a Marshall Plan, which was a complete, you know, total neocon dream. Essentially, Obama doubled down on everything. Trump then tried to escalate.

And then he reached a deal with the Taliban. The terms of the deal are certainly worthy of criticism. But basically what Trump tried was like, okay, let's just ramp up as much as we really can aerial attacks. Let's ramp up bombings, drone strikes. And what they found was that they, yes, they got a lot more deaths of the people they were trying to affect, but they got a lot more of the bad stuff. And it really had no, it had no effect on the campaign. It didn't meaningfully hobble the Taliban or anybody else, any kind of other insurgent force in the way that they had hoped. So they were like, fuck it, we have a choice. We need to put troops back on the ground or we can reach a deal. And they tried to reach a deal.

Now, some of the terms of that deal are really, really bad. And it turns out from the reporting that came out that once they made that deal, that that is when the jobs program that was presented as a Afghan army, that's when they all began to realize that this was going to come apart. The Americans were going to leave and you know, whatever else. But I just couldn't believe the disingenuousness of, listen,

if you guys want to hammer Biden for the way that everything was pulled out, I think it was worth noting that over a hundred thousand people were evacuated in a short amount of time, but obviously they fucked that up royally. I mean, they did a really, really, really bad job. But the reality is getting out of there was unequivocally the best call.

And it did not matter what we did. That was going to be the Taliban's to take over the instant that we left. It was always going to end badly. It was always going to end badly. Maybe perhaps not this badly. Maybe badly in a different always going to end badly. Maybe perhaps not this badly, maybe badly in a different kind of way. Sure. And again, this does not in any way absolve how poorly the exit went. The exit went, I won't say as bad as it could have because they did get the 100,000 plus out,

but it went fucking bad. I mean, what do you want to say? Is there a defense of that? Other than they called in some additional troops and the troops got it done for them under the worst possible conditions. So, you know, a complete nightmare scenario. But, but, but, dude, we never had business being there in the way that we did. That was a jobs program for Afghans that benefited nothing but private military contractors, and we have nothing to show for it after literally a generation of Americans went through there. You could have been born after 9-11, ended up in Afghanistan, and died before we ever actually pulled out. What a complete and giant, unequivocal waste of blood and treasure.

And all of these arguments that want to make it just about the exit, dude, these are people that want you to believe that American empire cannot fail. It can only be failed. It can only be failed to them. We could have left some kind of force there. No, the fuck we could not have, certainly not without additional complications. It was either escalate by putting troops back on the ground or it was getting the fuck out. And the answer is getting the fuck out.

And we did in the worst way possible, but we did. We did. I cannot tell you how relieved I am for us to not be there anymore. I've had many conversations with folks who may or may not like some of my views, depending on what they may be politically, but I usually find common ground with them on like, I'm really sick of endless wars. Dude, I have seen the cost of this. I have seen what it does to people. Can you imagine being the widow of somebody? You know, you lost your husband, you lost your source of, or wife, but whatever, you lost your source of income, you lost your partner, you lost the person who was going to help you raise your kids.

For what? For what? Because Paul Wolfowitz and Donald, not Donald Trump, excuse me, Donald Rumsfeld and others had dreams about a brand new Marshall Plan. Those fuckers should be tried in the Hague. Obviously Rumsfeld has passed,

but that's what they died for. And it is incredibly painful to say it. They died for basically a jobs program for Afghans and to indulge the neocon fever dreams of various

forces of the State Department and Defense Department and to enrich private contractors. There's nothing else left. If you look at the, there's been some examinations of the stock prices

of like Raytheon and Boeing and other ones, you know, right around or before 9-11 to now, we're talking like a thousand percent increase. I mean, they have mass, they of course have every interest

in this continuing. And I'm sure we'll continue to put pressure for other forms of military conflict. But I will tell you that I am profoundly, deeply relieved on some level, while recognizing, of course, that the moral horrors continue in any other number of ways. But I will tell you that I am profoundly relieved that that is over. It should have been over a long, long, long time ago. And every single administration, from Bush to Obama to Trump to now Biden, they all bear responsibility in their own ways.

They are all part of this big lie. And it was kind of funny. During the pandemic, Craig, what's his last name? Whitlock, I think, something like that, was a big reporter for The Post. And they put out these Afghanistan papers. Dude, well into the pandemic. It didn't get hardly any media attention. Already, by the way, Afghanistan's kind of falling off the map in terms of news. Now it's all ivermectin disputes.

But it was called the Afghanistan papers. Dude, they had unequivocal evidence from Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden. All of them, and various parties sympathetic to them and in coalition with them, all lying completely to the American people. It's not ambiguous. It's in no way ambiguous. When people are distrustful of institutional power, they're going to look at this, a profound American failure, but one that has finally come to an end.

Luke, big fan of MK. What are the chances of you and Rashad teaming up to do a fight? Fighter breakdowns for Dissected. Your combined insight really paints a picture of X's and O's in the fight game. I really enjoyed the episode you all did together a couple weeks ago. Yes, this has been discussed a number of times. The only thing is, it's a little hard for me and him.

We can do the thing through, I was going to say WhatsApp, no, from Zoom. We can do that kind of thing, but it's been discussed in a way where we'd actually be together to do it, but he lives in Florida, I live here, and it's just a little bit hard to put together. But I would love to. I don't think it's

really in the cards, but it has been discussed, and I think it'd be something kind of fun. Oh, here we go. Well, maybe I won't do a video for this tomorrow. Patty the Batty makes his debut this Saturday. As a highly-touted prospect, you haven't had the chance to watch him at all. Thoughts on his chances and how quickly, if he gets a win, he'll be able to make waves in a historically deep, lightweight division. Yeah, I did do some work on Paddy Pimblitt. Full of confidence, that guy. Full of confidence. But if you're a fighter, you're supposed to be, right? So we can't say anything about them. So I had seen him fight. I had watched Cage Warriors events over the years And he's been a big fixture for them For a long time

But I couldn't really remember There was nothing that really stuck out Obviously if you're in the UK I think he's got a Scouse accent So he's a Liverpool guy Then he holds critical importance And in fact I've had conversations with folks Over at BT Sport

Where they have articulated to me That since the retirement of Michael Bisping, you know, they've been waiting for that next big UK star. Darren Till still has some of that possibility, but it's not been quite the clean transfer. Yeah, I think they really want someone to come out, put a stamp on the map for UK MMA. And he is certainly a name that has been bandied about as someone we should pay attention to. So what does the tape show? Well, I will tell you that, so what I did was, I went back and I was like, let me find his last loss. Let me start there. Don't misunderstand me.

Here's a little rule of thumb. Whenever you evaluate any fighter, particularly if they've got like, you know, 15 or more fights, if there are still 10 or less, maybe don't do this. But you get someone who's got like 15 or 20 fights. I forget his exact record. I have to look it up. He's got, let me see if I can find it here. What does he have? He is, right, 16 and 3.

I've got some Wikipedia stuff up from leftover research. 16 and 3, yeah. So he's got nearly 20 fights. Whenever you get to that, it's a decent rule of thumb where you want to throw out their best stuff and then throw out their worst stuff. Throw out their best fight, throw out their worst fight. Not that it doesn't count. You are what your record says you are, but you don't want to get too locked into what it showed when they have this amazing performance or a really bad one. Nevertheless, though, for this purpose, I was like, okay, 16-3. Let me see when his last

loss was. So I went and I looked. It's a guy by the name of Soren Bach, I believe is how you pronounce it. I'm sure I'm pronouncing it wrong. And so I watched the fight. Here's what's interesting about like Paddy Pimblitt, which is that for the US audience, I don't know if all of his fights are on there, but like a shit ton of his fights are on Fight Pass. You can just go right through. And the good news about him is, sort of an fights are on there, but like a shit ton of his fights are on Fight Pass. He can just go right through. And the good news about him is, sort of an early scouting report, is that he's an aggressive back attacker. He finds the back quickly. He has good ground and pound from the back.

He has good control from the back. He goes to the body triangle from the back. He aggressively looks for from the back and then finishes from the back. A lot of his finishes, whether TKO or sub, happen in the first or second round. So he has generally an aggressive posture. And then on top of that, really works for the back. A lot of his finishes, whether TKO or sub, happen in the first or second round. So he has generally an aggressive posture. And then on top of that, really works for the back. I think it's what you want to look for in this fight, the next one. So I went to the Soren Bach fight, and I was watching it. And you saw some flashes of that. You saw him really go early for the back. In fact, Soren Bach nearly got submitted in the first. And I thought he was kind of going to be

done. But he fought his way out. And you can slowly see the tide kind of turn over time. By the fifth round, he was the one who had Pimblitt's back. So, you know, it was his loss, so you're not going to get the best out of him. But I watched the fight, and I was like, okay, there's some things you like here. But I didn't necessarily look at that and think, like, wow, future prospect. Nothing really stood out at that time. But I'll tell you what I did do after that. Let me look at these. I can't remember the names that I'm on this page. So that was in September of 2018. So really almost, well, actually it was September 1st. So it was almost three years ago to the day.

Now three years in the life of somebody who is now just 26. So he was 23 at that time. Very young in his MMA career. And even then, you know, he had had over 15 fights. So when I looked at the fight he had with Decky Dalton, which I know was a last-minute one, but then he had the fight against, I don't know how to pronounce it, Davide Martinez. I'm not sure where he's from, but I saw a massive improvement, not just from Bach to Deke or Bach to Dalton and Dalton to Martinez. But like, for example, if you watch him in the Soren

Bach fight, even in the first round and second round, he was kind of flat footed. You know, he was kind of flat footed. There was no no real jab. He was kind of just throwing overhand rights. And once he got to the ground, he was obviously a skilled competitor. But you could tell he was a little bit wet behind the ears in terms of some of the other pieces of his game. But then you look at the Dalton fight, and you can see him begin to bounce a little bit. And you can see him jump into range and jump out of range and look for his timing. And you could see it get better and better. And then you go to the Martinez fight. Now, out of range and look for his timing. You can see it get better and better. Then you go to the Martinez fight.

Now, neither of these fights lasted a whole lot. 251 for Dalton, 137 in both the first round for Martinez. But then you look at the Martinez fight. Now, that was in January, March of this year. Dude, he looked much better on the feet. You could see a little bit of shoulder movement. He was rolling his head a little bit, bouncing in and out, kind of jabbing for range and everything else. And he made short work of Martinez. I think he found the back.

Yes, rear naked choke. Found the back on that one. Polished him off good ground and pound. Now, the knock might be that Dalton was there on short notice and that Martinez, you know, I think that was his first fight in Cage Warriors. This is not a guy who had a ton of experience on that level. Okay, right. But he's fighting on the regional level. And what I'm looking for is how does he move?

What choices does he make? And yeah, those two guys were overmatched. But what are the differences between how he approaches that fight over fight over fight? This is the reality about any fighter who is halfway decent, or let's call him good. Petty Pimmel is more than good. I'll get to him in just a second. What I mean to say is, if you see someone fighting at the international or UFC level from 23 to 26, dude, if they're at all working hard and they have a modicum of talent, man, they're going to make a big, big jump. So here's what I would say about him. And I went to look at

some other ones as well, previously to the Soren Bach fight. But this is just the reality about Paddy from what I can tell. As I mentioned, on the good side, aggressive back attacker, both from position, submission, and ground and pound. Really, really is quite good at getting it and holding it. It's actually a skill that a lot of folks don't really appreciate. He is quite good at it. And his improvement on the feet is phenomenal. Phenomenal.

And here's the really interesting part. One, he's only 26. I don't think he's even close to his, as I say on Morning Combat, his upper bound limit. And for 26 to be, what is he, 16 and 3? And most of that 16-3, I mean, he's been fighting in Cage Warriors since what?

2016? His 10th fight or something like that? 10th or 11th fight? Dude, that's a ton of experience at a high-level show, even if they were giving him opponents that were appropriate for that level of his development. Man, you got nearly 20 fights,

a lot of them under the big lights. You've got five round fights under your belt. You've got fights where you were kind of leading and then you lost at the end in five rounds like against Sorenbach and some other ones. Dude, that is like completely invaluable experience. Completely invaluable experience. So listen, are there some negatives you could point out?

No fighter is perfect. I tend to think he holds his head up straight and he gets hit a lot. He tends to back out straight. He probably starts a little stronger than he finishes, at least for now. But at 26, to have that kind of offensive ability, to have that kind of experience, I would say, let's be cautiously optimistic. I'm not like, he's not coming out, shooting out of the cannon, like, you know, ready to take on for the title or, you know, to fight, I don't know who the fuck's in the top 10 at 155. But, you know, if you're in the UK and you're looking at this guy and you're thinking long-term, two, three years from now, something like that, I think there's a lot of reasons to be excited about it. So don't lose sight of some of the things that he's still a little raw in terms of working on.

Now in the UFC, they can do you some favors with matchmaking a little bit early, but we all know eventually you've got to pull your own weight. But I would be cautiously optimistic about him. I really would. I think there's a lot to like about his experience level, his age, some of the things he's great at on offense, just some things that need to be tightened up in terms of resource management in the course of the fight itself, round to round, some defensive striking issues, setting up some of his strikes

as well, but very winnable fight for him this weekend, and another sort of notch in the belt in terms of getting better and better and better for the more difficult challenges down the line. But yeah, he's interesting. Is there some way BC can be physically and psychologically punished? We're talking about WWE for almost half an hour last week. Yeah, we shouldn't do that anymore. But, you know, listen, the guy had to carry the show solo for a long time,

so what are you going to do? Are you going to beat up on your partner for it? I mean, he had to do what he had to do. It's not what I would do. I don't want to talk pro wrestling if we don't have to, but what are you going to do? Poor guy had to do it by himself for a long time. It's not as easy as it looks, man.

Not as easy as it looks. All right. Do you think that if a fight promotion was created that openly accepted the use of PEDs, that it would attract a lot of fighters and also give birth to a roster of enhanced athletes that fans would enjoy watching? Well, we sort of already had that, right? That's what pride was. I mean, you know, we can sort of ask that question with a pretty strong affirmative to yes.

Although, in the modern age, would that fly? I tend to think that it would. I mean, what you basically see from promotions outside of UFC who use USADA is they'll make some kind of overture to drug testing. I think, you know, I don't know what the fuck one does. But, you know, Bellator says we rely on, you know, the Mohegan Athletic Commission and State Athletic Commission testing and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Where, you know, they have enough of a public nod towards policing in some kind of way, drug use, or illicit drug use anyway. And that serves as enough of a defense for any kind of public criticism, and then the

fans don't really seem to care much beyond that, and so you just go along your way, which kind of gets to what you're... I don't know if you're going to get one that's like, we love steroids. Come here if you want to take steroids. I don't know if you're going to be able to do that exactly. That would probably bring, yes, controversy. But then if you had some kind of safety issue, you might get, whether or not it's related at all, you just wouldn't want to dare the system that way. But this is the point I've made previously, and I promise I won't go on a long rant, but this is sort of the argument that I've always made about,

or at least, I don't know if I've always made it, but it's certainly the position I adopt today, which is I understand if there's a group of athletes, particularly high-level ones, who don't want to take drugs to compete, especially if there's an institution and other athletes of a like-minded sort who want to compete in that space. What I don't understand is the argument for is,

well, right, as an observer, and I see another group that they don't at all mind taking it, there are still some health protocols involved about monitoring their overall health. They don't care about it. They're all in agreement about it. They understand about it. And they all still train like absolute fucking savages

for whatever the particular contest might be, why am I asked to say that that is bad? My whole entire argument about drugs is that do drugs play a critical role in all aspects of our lives? They play a critical role in childbirth. They play a critical role in concentration. They play a critical role in treating, in some cases, depression or other kinds of mood and psychological disorders. They play all kinds of roles in killing off of bacteria. They play all kinds of roles in enjoying art and music more. They have a role to play in everything. It is impossible for me to believe that the only

role for drugs that enhance performance in sports is to banish them. I just don't believe that. I don't believe that is true. I don't believe that's what people want. I don't believe that is in any way bad for sports. I don't believe that that is harmful to athletes any more than, I mean, professional sports has really nothing to do with health and safety. It has everything to do with extreme and elite forms of competition that can be quite bad for you over time.

So, you know, can you go out there and openly flagrantly say that we don't care about these kinds of things? I think you invite the kind of scrutiny that might get you shut down, especially if you're in fight sports. But ultimately, at some point, I think folks need to reconcile that, you know, again, in strength sports, it's one of the easiest ones to commonly go to. We already have a test case where we have tested and untested federations, things for amateurs, things for pros, things for folks who don't want to take drugs and then for folks who do.

And it's all great. The sky didn't fall. All of those dire warnings about what was going to happen, none of it did. So I think what we have to do is just wrestle with the idea that the drugs do have a role to play in sports. Not for everyone all the time. But the idea that the only role for drugs that meaningfully enhance performance in sports is prohibition

seems quite obviously ludicrous. It just seems totally ludicrous. It just seems totally ludicrous. Okay, I mean, there's not much I can say about this either, but I'll at least address it. Did you see Ariel talking shit about Brendan? Well, you spelled Brendan wrong. That's between them, bro. That's between them. I've got my issues. I can barely manage my own affairs.

Y'all want to get involved in that? Let them handle it. Let them figure it out. They're two grown men. They'll be fine. Or they won't be, but it'll be... That's between them. Luke, could you bring up Barbosa's resume? I think it's quite...

You spoke quite wrong. Underappreciatedated the list of names he has fought. He may not have fought them, or excuse me, he may not have won them all, but when you see the names he has fought, the who's who and never shied away from any bad stylistic matchups for an entire decade almost, through different waves and eras, and he's still in there at the weekend with another up-and-coming killer. Yeah.

So, I've actually done this exercise before. You know, Eddie Alvarez is another guy who just fought absolute fucking monsters. But look at this. This is Edson Barbosa's resume. And again, he didn't win, excuse me, a lot of these. But this is who he has fought.

I remember his debut, too, when he beat, I think it was Maggie Hendricks' like brother or something, half-brother, something like that. Okay, so he made his UFC debut in November of 2010. He beat, Mike Lulo was the guy's name. Then he beat Anthony Androquani, who was just fucking him very good. Ross Pearson, Terry Adam.

He lost to Jamie Varner. Okay, but he fought Jamie Varner. And that was Jamie Varner back in 2012. He was still pretty good. Then he beat Lucas Martins Rafael Oliveira Who they called Tractor At the time

Beat Danny Castillo Who was a very good fighter For WEC And then Team Alpha Male Lost to Donald Cerrone Then beat Evan Dunham Beat Bobby Green Lost to Michael Johnson

Beat Paul Felder Lost to Tony Ferguson Beat Pettis Beat Melendez Beat Darius Lost to Habib Lost to Kevin Lee Beat Dan Hooker Lost to Gaethje Lost to Fel Felder, lost to Ige, beat Amerkani, then Burgos,

then Shikazi. So I'm going to read these names one more time, just so it's very clear. This is who he's fought, who he stood against the cage against. Andrew Kawani, Pearson, Adam, Varner, Martins, Oliveira, Castillo, Cerrone, Dunham, Green, Johnson, Felder, Ferguson, Ferguson Pettis Melendez Darius Nura Gamayda Lee hooker Gaethje Felder EG Amer Khani and Burgos and Chikazi dude a fucking murderers row tell me the year he had an an off year in the sense of easy competition tell me the year he got to like kick his feet up

I mean just and then how many times like, you know, let's count these. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven of the night bonuses. I mean, just, you know, win or lose. Incredible commitment to facing the best of his generation. Incredible. And, you know, forced into that position in many ways by his sort of perennial top contender status and the way that the UFC match makes.

I understand that, like, some of this is hard to say no to, but, dude, the guy did it. The guy made the walk. What are you going to say? He didn't try to win every fight he was in. He fucking tried to win every fight he was in. He fucking tried to win every fight he was in. Just, I have so much respect for the kind of guy Edson Barbosa is, for the kind of competitor that he elects to be, for the road that he has had to walk.

Here is another guy who probably, you know, he's probably not going to ever hoist UFC gold. But boy, he's probably not going to ever hoist UFC gold, but boy, he put on unbelievable performances. I know he's not done. I'm just saying like, and he took tough losses and he made incredible sacrifices. I mean, what he has sacrificed on the altar of athletic greatness, I use that term all the time, is just, it's so formidable. It's so formidable. I have, I have, I have profound respect for a guy like him. And I think every fight fan should, this is what it means. Like you got to walk that walk as a fan, man. I mean, if you want to be that guy who's like, you know, losses in MMA don't mean as much. Well, dude, you got to put that, um, you got to

put, make sure that that reverence for him is still maintained. And you have to, you have to be that guy who holds that reverence. You have to maintained. And you have to be that guy who holds that reverence. You have to articulate it. You have to live it in a way. You can't just be, you know, that's only the champions that I like. And then he kind of loses fights. Well, yeah, dude. It's going to be hard to win all the fights that guy's been in. I don't care who you are. So a special guy who won't show up in certain ways in which we assess greatness. We can't talk about his many title defenses. We can't talk about the time he beat the number one guy in the world

and got a belt wrapped around his waist. We can't do that, but we can do a lot of other things that tell you this guy had incredible wins, noteworthy losses, but an unbelievable resume of who he was willing to face off with, win or lose.

And that, to me, counts for a lot. Have you considered doing an AMA on the Reddit MMA thread? Anytime UBC or MK show up on there, it's almost flooded with positive comments. I think it would be a good way to pick up some new fans. I've done one before. I did one years and years ago. If there is a market for another one,

I'd be happy to. If not, that's okay too. So yeah, I'd be happy to do it, but I'm not like, I need to do one. I've already done one. Actually, it'd probably be better if BC did one, to be quite candid with you, because I've already done one. Actually, it'd probably be better if BC did one, to be quite candid with you, because I've already done one. Maybe it's time to let him try. Did Showtime contact you regarding

Ariel joining the broadcast, or did it just kind of happen without your knowledge? No, they, of course, kept me in the loop about everything. You've got to understand, there's divisions within the company, right? One of them would be the digital side. I report to the digital side. That's on the TV side.

Like, there's a different level of executives. There's a different level of decision making. There's some overlap between them. I'm sure you've seen that to a degree. But, yeah, of course, they kept me. Dude, Showtime, y'all want me to say bad things about them or something? It's not gonna happen, dude. Like, I've never... Who in my life has done for me in two years...

And again, SiriusXM took very good care of me. But just in terms of like... So I have nothing bad to say about SiriusXM ever. I couldn't encourage you to purchase their services more. And if you get a chance to work for them, go do it. Like, that's the kind of company that it is. But just in terms of two years, who has done more? And Showtime, and I've got to give CBS Sports credit as well,

you guys have never seen me have a two-year run like this. They're not amateurs, man. They know what they're doing. And yeah, of course, they kept me in the loop. But I work on a slightly different side of the operations. And again, there is some overlap. But second question, what did you think of his performance as a commentator in a post-fight interview? Didn't hear much of the commentary because we were in a place where we couldn't hear it for...

Because I did the post-fight show afterwards. Well, we were kind of... It was low. We were talking. But I did see some of the post-fight interviews, especially after the fact online, some of the other ones that were there. Yeah, dude. I mean, he's... You online, some of the other ones that were there. Yeah, dude, I mean, he's, you know, Ariel's an experienced broadcaster, right?

I mean, and you know, he works hard. Like, not that these jobs are easy, but you know, he's not gonna fuck these up or something. So, you know, have you seen Ariel do post, or have you seen Ariel interview guys before? They're not going to be of a low standard. It's going to be a high standard of quality there. Okay.

Some of these have... How much weight would the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of student-athletes versus the NCAA in regards to the UFC fighters lawsuit? I don't think it has anything to do with it. There's more questions about Ariel. Someone's asking about how does it affect UMBC. I don't think it does. I'm sure he'll be back for assignments, but I think that was a one-off.

And again, we work for digital. So I expect to see him at some point down the line, I'm sure. And if not, Cleveland was a great opportunity to do what we did. But dude, me and BC, we're fine. We're completely fine. In fact, you know, we have our own like house cleaning in terms of like the way August went when we just didn't keep everyone informed and the shows were kind of fucked up. And like, I could feel everything kind of getting dragged down. We, I can't worry about what other, we got to focus on our shit. So, and, I got to focus on my own stuff.

Would UNBC ever drink fighter brewed beers on air? If UNBC brewed their own beers, what would they be called? That part I don't know. But drinking fighter brewed beers. I've had Cub Swanson's coffee and it was awesome. It was really good. Really good call. In fact, I was actually shocked. I remember being like, holy fuck, Cub did this one right, man. So it was really good. Really good call. I couldn't believe. In fact, I was actually shocked.

I remember being like, holy fuck. Like, Cub did this one right, man. So it was very good. More questions about Afghanistan. I'm going to skip. Out of Yair, Zabit, and Hamzat, which one is going to have the better comeback? I don't know if Zabit's going to have a comeback. So it'd be between Yair and Hamzat. I'm going to say Hamzat because I think he still has a lot of room to get better.

And there's still, like, there's less known about him so there's like a little bit of intrigue in that way yeah I'll go with I'll go with Hamzat Luke I was wondering if your stance has changed about the crossover celebrity fights with the rise of Jake Paul and the advocacy of fighter pay being the forefront of the topic now.

I mean, obviously, no, not really. And I said this on Instagram the day after. Listen, man. Here's what I think it comes down to. A couple things I would say. When you see the audience at this thing, what you begin to realize is I can sort of see why the boxing institutions are kind of interested. And it was obviously, people say it's a younger audience. It's more than just being a younger audience. It's a completely different audience.

These were not rock-ribbed fight fans at all. And yet, they had this zeal and enthusiasm. And if you're thinking as a fight promoter or a television entity, whoever's in that space to make some calls about this, you're probably looking at that crowd and being like, dude, when was boxing ever going to get this gift of all of a sudden this completely outside younger Demo who is at least in theory convertible to a lifelong boxing fan in some kind of way, when were they ever going to get this?

They didn't engineer this. It fell in their lap. It fell in their lap because someone sent me a video. I forget where it was. Some British guy did the best and the worst parts of understanding the YouTube boxing phenomenon, sort of where it all came from and everything. Dude, they didn't. No one inside boxing planned this or engineered this. They just got lucky.

They just got lucky that this kind of thing all happened. And so there's a real question of like, can you take this? So first question, can you take this and make real money off of it? Obviously. Okay. Case closed. You can make money off of it. Now, how long? That's a lot. That's more debatable, but for the time being, you can make money off of it. Now, there's some questions long-term. How sustainable is it? How far can it be pushed? Then three, what can be done with this audience? I will say, and I said this on Instagram, I'm still skeptical of the idea that these are going to be people who watch this and then go, huh, what's Bud Crawford up to? You know, I'm skeptical of that. And then I'm kind of split on the fighting because the boxing, if you're a boxing purist,

it's bad boxing, right? It's not good boxing at all. But the fans still, for the time being, still seem to eat it up. So like how much of that is just Jake Paul fandom? How much of that is, how much of that can you take someone who's not been to a boxing... I mean, how many of those people who went to that event on Cleveland had never been to a boxing fight before? Probably a lot, dude. Probably a lot.

So how many of them can you get back to a boxing event that doesn't include Jake Paul? And if they like Jake Paul level of boxing, you might think as a promoter, or again, a television entity or some other person in between, you might think to yourself, okay, if they like that, surely they're going to like this. And of course, those things don't work out so neatly, but I can see why there is a great degree of enthusiasm. You have access to a population that of course is younger, is just completely out not completely but in many ways outside of the traditional fight fan boxing never planned it and it came along but

here's the other part about it i said this to bc on on mk and i really believe this is true i don't i'm not saying jake paul wouldn't be where he is um in another world. But what I am saying is, he doesn't exist if MMA isn't here and as popular as it is, and as broken as it is. And what I mean by that is, who could you match Jake Paul up against that would have provided the kind of credibility,

however limited in your mind it might be? And to me, it's very limited what it means to beat Tyron Woodley in boxing, like what that says about you as a boxer. It doesn't say a whole lot, but I understand from a public perception standpoint, you did beat a real athlete, you did get hit real hard, and you kind of sort of moved along. Who is going to give that to you if you don't have any MMA fighters available to you? You could say, oh, you could just get an older boxer, but I don't know how that works. The boxer might have to be way too old or he would still be too good and it wouldn't exactly work.

And of course you have Tommy Fury, but Tommy Fury doesn't have that kind of credibility relationship with the boxing audience either. Certainly not yet. Maybe he will in the future. So to me, it's like, wow, MMA has got striking, which is a cousin anyway of boxing. It's never been as popular as it is today. And you've got guys who are just at the very end of their run athletically. And so there's an available talent pool, somewhat narrow, but they are available. They offer credibility as athletes and on some level as strikers. And then you add in that even a guy as decorated as Tyron Woodley,

who is truly, this is not an exaggeration, I've said it all last week, one of the greatest welterweights we've ever had. Welterweight being one of the most difficult divisions in all of MMA. And yet, his best payday came from this. You know, you got guys, it's under something either outright

or close to monopolistic control inside of MMA, and so you have fighters willing to get into situations that, yes, I do agree that within MMA, you get fighters who have much more of a martial arts competitive spirit where you could say, oh, well, they're only doing this for the paycheck. Yeah, but MMA fighters compete in jiu-jitsu too for either... Luke Rockwell tried to compete in the world. He got disqualified, but he signed up for that shit. He wasn't going to get rich doing that. He just did that. So yes,

there is that spirit of competitiveness, but the reality is these guys are underpaid. They are underpaid. And here is a situation where they're able to take advantage of certain situations or certain realities, I should say, about pay right up front. So if MMA is not there and the guys aren't as underpaid as they are, who does Jake Paul fight to get as far ahead as he has? Tyron Woodley was an experienced foil for him. You know, they were well contrasted.

I mean, that fight was, you can say whatever you want about the fight. And I didn't like the fight. I thought the fight was kind of boring, to be honest with you. But like, the promotion? The promotion of that was fucking first. That was a well-promoted fight, man. Tyron did an incredible job. You can say what you want about Jake.

Dude, the guy is a very... I said the same thing. Jake, you know, I'm not going to compare him to Ortiz in totality. But here are two guys you could easily dismiss. And what I'll say about Ortiz, too, is Ortiz has always been a very, very, very good self-promoter. Very good. Natural self-promoter. That's how he got fucking elected. He had no business being elected, but that's how he got elected. He's a very good

self-promoter. Dude, Jake Paul's a very, very talented self-promoter. And so I think that's what we just kind of have to recognize a little bit. It's like, dude, how would he get here if MMA wasn't around and in the state that it's in. Equal parts popular and equal parts, I mean, also here's another part. People say, why doesn't Jake do the same kind of thing inside MMA? Dude, who's he going to get access to? Who's he going to get access to?

You're going to pull in boxers who are kind of at the end of their run to go do MMA? I don't think it works that way. The boxing industry is set up for powerful names to kind of arrange things around them and make it work for themselves. He told me and Brian to work face. It's more of a business than it is a sport.

You don't get that kind of ability to manage affairs in that way with the same kind of latitude inside MMA. But you can get all those MMA fighters who bring you this credibility even though they're at the end of the run. They may not be that gifted of strikers, but they've got all kinds of other athletic credibility. And also, they're not going to get a payday like this if they don't do this with you. Like, dude, it doesn't speak well of the state of MMA in the sense of how popular it is. But it does it in terms of what it means for athlete compensation and control. But no, like, do I think the fights are good?

Dude, I saw Logan Paul versus KSI. I was there for Paul versus Mayweather. I was there for Paul versus Woodley. None of them were interesting fights. You know, but I don't know what that means for the long term of its viability uh best concerts you attended before or the band were washed for example seeing pantera before the booze and heroin made phil sound like a gnarly southern trucker

um best concerts i've been to shit well i am washed but i i right before the pandemic i saw uh i saw cannibal corpse at the the it's the tla in philly living arts theater i think is what it's called um dude that was that show the best way i can explain that show, and I was on the upper tier with fucking earplugs on, okay? Because I'm old and pathetic now, I get it. I never wore earplugs ever in my life until I hit 40. I'm like, fuck that, I'm not trying to go deaf for, you know, eye cum blood. The best way I can explain that is, you know, if you've never sparred, you'll never feel this way, is just imagine a boxer trapped in a corner and he's trying to roll with punches.

Dude, they don't do a lot of crowd work and they come out and just fucking hammer you song after song after song and their sound is so crisp and the music is so punishing and the pace of the show so unrelenting that is one of the most formative experiences i've ever had but i saw i saw rage at the if you're from the dc area you'll know this i saw rage and stone temple pilots uh deftones and cypress hill all at one show slipknot was there as well at the 2000 hF Festival. That was a huge concert that was here at the time. Rage was just unbelievable. I saw Rage with Wu-Tang and Rage was good again, but Wu-Tang sucked. They were terrible. Although I love Wu-Tang, but they were bad in the concert.

Who else have I seen that was really, really good? You're going to laugh at this, but if you know anything about these two, I think it's like a brother sister combo or whatever. Um, I'll say it like a gringo, Rodrigo E. Gabriela. You guys know them. They're fucking cool. They, they put on an unbelievable show. Um, who else have I seen that was like really great? One of my favorite concerts uh dying fetus was really good obviously um i saw i saw i saw in flames i saw immolation they're not my band but overkill puts on a good show um i even saw collective soul once they weren't Uh, trying to think of like all the concerts. Oh, you know who I saw that was just fucking just bananas. Good outcast. I saw outcast at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. And, um, that was a fun show. They were, they were good.

They were really good. I saw mob deep mob deep fucking killed it. Um, who else have I seen? That was like really memorable. Like, have I seen? That was really memorable. Wow, man, that was fucking incredible. I saw... In fact, I'm taking my wife this month, later on this month. They're not my favorite band. In the 90s, there was a bit of a who-do-you-like-more Metallica

or Guns N' Roses kind of thing. From what I can tell, more people at the time said Guns N' Roses, but Metallica ended up having, can tell, more people at the time said Guns N' Roses, but Metallica ended up having, I think, a bit of a better career. Well, a longer career anyway. But anyway, they toured a couple summers ago, Guns N' Roses did. I saw them at, what's the shitty-ass Washington football team stadium? FedEx Field.

God, the worst field in America. I saw them there. Dude, they put on a fucking show. Oh, you know who I saw? Speaking of Phil, I saw him play with Down. They opened for Anthrax. Anthrax wasn't my thing. I don't really get into that shit that much, but Down was. Dude, they ended their set with Bury Me in Smoke. If you guys have never heard that, oh my God. Phil does sound like a gnarly Southern trucker. Okay, fair enough. But dude, that's a showman right there.

Phil Anselmo. And he's, you know, I understand everything about the whole Nazi salute. And I, you know, I get it. But this was before all that. Anyway, they opened for Anthrax and he did that. It was un-fucking-believable how good he was. And so anyway, GNR at FedEx on that tour. That was one of the best shows I've ever seen. It was un-fucking-believable how good he was. Anyway, GNR at FedEx on that tour, that was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Just because you can appreciate when someone knows what they're doing. When there's a huge budget and everyone's in sync and they understand what the crowd wants and they know how to deliver it. They are experienced performers. You just couldn't take it away from them. It's one of the worst concerts I've ever been to. And since Columbia never shows me any love and I do nothing but show them endless amounts of love, I'll give this one back to them. You know what the worst fucking concert is I've been to in a while? Again, this was right before the pandemic. So he's something of a hero in Columbia. His name is Carlos Vives. If you've

never heard of him, if you know anybody from Columbia, bring up the name and they'll get reverence about him. Man, fuck that guy. You could put that on the record. I saw him at, oh, I saw him at the, I'll bring this up. I saw Alice in Chains a couple times too. They were pretty good. But Carlos Vives had a show at the new, it seats like 5,000 or 6,000. It's right on the water by the wharf.

It's called The Anthem. It's a great venue. Super cool, brand brand new modern like cashless kind of thing and um and i saw him there and you know whenever he performs it's like colombian national pride day like people wear like the yellow jerseys and shit dude he lip-synced the entire thing so what he would do is he had this giant set like he has a song with shakira called la bicicleta like the bicycle what he would do is he had this giant set like he has a song with Shakira called La Bicicleta like the bicycle and he would get on the bicycle and he would ride it around this giant fucking set and then the whole time his songs are just playing on the on the loudspeaker and then he would grab the mic and be like you know in Spanish like giving instructions to the audience

like now this side now this side and like everyone on your feet, you know? And I'm like, wait a second, bro, I paid good money for these tickets. I didn't pay good money to come to like a grand Zumba show. I'm not, I'm not interested in that. I'm here to hear you fucking sing. I have heard a lot about you um i didn't come i didn't come to hear you fucking lips like not even i try to lip sync like talking over his own track singing to the audience not even trying to make an effort at singing yo that was one of i could not believe i was like what a fraud what a fraud and he is beloved down there and his songs are catchy like they're very catchy like you go down there you can't go five minutes without some guy in a cab playing his stuff. But, bro, if you're going to charge $75 for a ticket, you better fucking sing.

And if you can't sing, then call off the show. I don't need to go out there to go and, like, get instructions on stomp with my left foot. Eat shit. How about you sing and I'll sit? here's your 75 bucks okay thank you so fuck that guy don't ever go see him waste of your time it sounds like bc and yourself have been alluding to some trouble in paradise between MK and Showtime no can you elaborate on this or am I reading the subtext wrong yeah you're reading the subtext wrong there's dude no there's none of that um let's put down... Who are your top 10 MMA commentary analysts, past or present?

I don't know if I can name 10, but I can tell you who I like a lot. Commentary. You mean like people on TV? I'll just tell you who I like, whose opinions I respect a lot. And if I don't name them, it doesn't mean I don't. It just means who are my regular go-tos. BJJ Scout is obviously one of my most important favorite ones. I love him. I think Dan Hardy's

great. Honestly, I just talked about it. Tyron Woodley, dude. Tyron Woodley, he hasn't done the commentary thing like in the booth calling a UFC fight. Whenever they ask him into the studio, I always find his analysis really, really sharp. Laura Sanko's good. I like Dan Tom over at MMA Junkie.

I think he's sharp. The Weasel's good. There's a bunch of new guys on YouTube I haven't seen in a while since I've checked out a little bit that I've been back. I don't know all of their names, but you can get some pretty good analysis there. Anton Tabuena over at Bloody Elbow had a good piece today, actually. Connor Rebush is good.

The whole Heavy Hands crew. I know they get bitter with Brian, but they're good. They're good at what they do. Those are the ones I... Yeah. And obviously, dude, you guys might not be paying attention to this, man, but BJJ Fanatics, I talk about this place all the time because it's just, I can't explain to you how good it is.

BJJ Fanatics is this site that started out being like, oh, we've got Hamilobo Hall who's going to teach how he does the knee cut pass and shit like that. And then it kind of expanded a little bit past that to some no-gi stuff. I don't know exactly how they expanded their content, but I can just tell you it started out very, very heavy, intensive. Like, oh, how do you attack from reverse De La Hiva?

Very inside the weeds. And that stuff still very much exists. Actually, now more than ever. But here's the key. They have expanded their reach. And so they do a lot of no, but, here's the key. They have expanded their reach. And so they do a lot of no-gi stuff. They now do, they have striking fanatics.

They've got tons of different instructionals in there. And now they've got, dude, they've got Stephen Neal, the guy who beat Brock Lesnar in wrestling, but then went on to, or whatever the fuck he did. I think he beat Brock Lesnar in wrestling. Whatever the story is. But then he went on and played for the New England Patriots. He's got an instructional in there

now. Dude, I cannot overstate this. There is just an absolute avalanche that has happened in the last couple of years, it feels like. And maybe even the last year. Over at BJJ Fanatics, including that Trevor Whitman stuff that he's got going on.

Who else has stuff on there? Brandon Gibson's got stuff. It's endless. And Habib's got one up there. I'm almost done watching it. Why do I bring this up? It is as if, the best way I can explain it is, I one time went to a seminar. I won't say who it was.

And it was not great. And I didn't like it at all. I thought it was a giant waste of my time. And I was talking to one of my friends who is a black belt instructor. And he was like, listen, man, yeah, sometimes that happens. You're not going to like them all. Just go if you think it's going to have value. And even the ones you like, you won't remember everything from there. But at least go.

I'm not telling you all the videos they put out are everything you're going to love. But what I am saying is it's the closest thing I've ever seen to like, hey, how could you pay money to go to a seminar? And in many cases, you get a lot more from the Fanatics video than you would a seminar. Now, that's not totally true. But like, dude, Gordon Ryan has like comprehensively broken down his game in ways that you like take. It takes eight hours to record. You're not going to eight-hour seminars. You're going to like three-hour seminars. You know, That's it. Man, if y'all

are not on the whole BJJ Striking Fanatics bandwagon yet, dude, get over there. If you're asking about top 10 analysts, that's not analytical work per se, but just in terms of how much you can improve your stuff, it's not a substitute for training and it never will be. But as a way to augment your understanding, it will do wonders for you, just as a fan in terms of being able to watch stuff. So, you know, I mentioned the guys who I like, but I just can't say enough good things about what they're doing over there, the Fanatics people.

Oh, Lord. Do we want to get into Rogan using ivermectin? I don't know what to say. You know, it's disappointing. Well, first things first. Obviously, I hope he's okay. I mean, that's, you know. And it sounds like he is.

Sounds like he is. Sounds like he's fine. I mean, that's... I'm not one of these... Dude, have you seen these fucking, like, radio hosts? radio hosts these like super conservative radio hosts who are like i'm anti-vaccine like they're kind of under 60s and shit some were like out of shape and whatever and then they get covid and they fucking die right and then you look at their last tweet and a lot of times their last tweet was like a little bit incendiary and dude they'll be like i'm not joking

thousands of people filling up their mentions, just fucking dancing on their graves. Look, man, I'm not a guy to mince words about how, frankly, just irresponsible I think some of the stuff those guys said were. But I can't bring it to, I just can't go and do that. I can't. I mean, I can, you know, when evil people die, I get it. But like, A, are they that? And B, it just seems so ghoulish to go do something like that. So like, when I hear about someone who either is vaxxed or not, and they're in the hospital and they're sick, it doesn't matter to me. Like, the first thing I want is for them to get sick. Now, he's not in the hospital, of course. Again, he seems to be quite fine. And the reality is I understand some of the folks who have said,

hey, listen, it's not responsible for the media to present ivermectin as strictly a horse-paced dewormer. It actually has a long history as an anti-parasite in humans, although in different doses in a different kind of way. But that's true. It obviously does have that role, but it has no known properties as something that attacks parasites to attack and be good as an antiviral. I realize that there are studies that are about to tell us one way or the other whether that works or not. I understand. So we'll see. But it feels to me very much like this is hydroxychloroquine, take two, a little bit. But can I say definitively that ivermectin doesn't work? Of course I cannot say that.

I can say that the existing evidence doesn't tell us that it does, but we'll see if additional studies either support or refute those claims. Still, you guys know my opinion on this. The vaccine, at least in terms of the consumer, is free. And whatever else one wants to say about the values of ivermectin, there is no evidence, certainly, that it is even close to being as powerful as the mRNA vaccines. The only thing I would say,

and this is just an argument for folks who have tried to be like, oh, I don't need the vaccine. Because there's some people like, oh, the vaccine is the most evil thing in the world. I don't know what to say to those folks. And then I see a lot of folks actually inside MMA who don't adopt that position. The position that they adopt is, hey, if you want to get the shot, that's cool. It's not for me. Now, I disagree with that, but I think you can work with somebody for the most part on that.

I mean, I have some real substantive disagreements with that, but I don't consider that to be like hardcore anti-vax because I think Rogan even said like his parents were vaccinated and he didn't seem to have a problem with that. Like he didn't think it was unsafe. It just, he didn't want to take it. But here's the only thing that I would say as a challenge to the argument about, let's assume for the record, it's not, I don't know that this is the case. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's not the case. In fact, I'm pretty sure everything Rogan has said he took in that video combined isn't even close to being as powerful

as the Moderna vaccine that I took. But let's sort of make an argument here. Let's assume that they're equally equivalent, right? Let's assume that. You can't actually make the argument that what he has done, and I would tell him this if he asked, you can't actually make the argument that that is a better way to go about it if what you're

talking about is scalable solutions for the broader society, right? The broader society has to have access immediately to the monoclonal antibodies, to ivermectin, to the Z-Pak, to all the things he listed. And he also talks about daily all the things he has to take to keep his body in a position to either fight it off or prevent it outright. Dude, that's a lot of work. That's a lot of work about things you have to take every single day. And then once you get sick,

the immediacy of the access to care you might have the kind of the the lack of impediment to financial resources to to bring that to bear like it's if you have Joe Rogan's resources perhaps you could make an argument that the way in which he has handled it is probably okay again I don't even know if that's true, but again, for the sake of argument, he is a person, given the resources and time and the commitment to his version of health and fitness, that he can bring about. But that's not scalable at all. You could never ask broadly of society for people who live in remote places, for people

who have... Remember, there's been a decline in the last... for people who have, remember there's been a decline in the last, ongoing, but there's been a major decline in terms of access to rural hospitals. For folks who live in West Virginia or in other places like that, there is just a lack of money. There's a lack of, to afford these things, there is a question about how do you get effective dosing for the kind of ivermectin that goes to people versus the kind that goes to horses.

This is not scalable. You can maybe argue that the individual person here or there could do that. Again, I don't know if that's true, but I'm at least at this juncture without further evidence about ivermectin. At least willing to entertain that as a possibility. But it's not a scalable solution. So this is the thing I always come back to with folks about this. It's like, dude, what? I promise I will leave this alone after this. I promise, I promise. But the thing I just want you to, and I'm trying to make an argument in good faith, I swear to God. The thing I want folks to understand is if you're going to say we're going

to, so we can all agree on one thing. COVID's here, right? It's not going away in terms of like HIV is here. It's not going away. And to an extent, even measles is here, right? It's not going away. But these things can be suppressed with the kinds of interventions that we have introduced. And they're all very different. Obviously, you can get the MMR shot. I got one as a kid.

I think I've had a booster since then or however it works. But I'm up to date on my vaccinations for measles, mumps, and rubella. And everything. I got a bunch of vaccinations in the military, and blah, blah, blah. The thing you have to ask yourself is, if you're going to say we can adopt things broadly at scale, some kind of intervention to make an impact at not eliminating COVID, but controlling it meaningfully so that our hospitals are not overrun, what would those be? And a lot of folks have been like, there's a little bit more mask, I won't say adherence,

but people aren't quite as uptight about it as they used to be. But people fought us, or fought everyone who was trying to get folks to wear more masks. And yes, emerging science has been pretty clear that the cloth masks don't do a whole lot. I have switched almost exclusively to the surgical mask or the K95 or the KF94. Because those are just, you know, they're just better. But, you know, the reality is when the masks were asked to be introduced, people fought them.

When lockdowns, which is not an elegant solution, they are quite harmful. I understand that. But they fought those. In understand that but they fought those in social distancing they fought those at every turn what you have noticed is just no including now to the vaccine and so i'm asking okay let's assume that we're wrong about masking let's assume that we're wrong about uh lockdowns let's assume that we're wrong about the vaccines when i say wrong i don't mean wrong to implement them the way they do, but that they meaningfully do not work. Let's say that you want to make that argument. Okay. So what is the proposal now from the other side to limit the spread of COVID? Ivermectin, as I speak today, there is no evidence it is scalable that way

whatsoever. And you could do the kinds of things that Joe has done on a personal level to, again, to prep his body and then to treat it once he got it. That's in no way scalable. You cannot in any way, oh, here's vitamin packs you need to take every single day without fail, without missing it. And then once you get sick, get this immediate kind of access. It's not scalable. It's not scalable at all. It doesn't work in any kind of way as an intervention socially introduced with medical oversight that we can meaningfully attack COVID.

That way you have to introduce something that can contain it, not eliminate it. That's not really possible at this point, but to contain it. And so what I've seen is just no to everything and then yes to things that have far less evidentiary weight in terms of their efficacy and effectiveness. I understand that this is probably all rooted in the fact that our elites and institutions have failed Americans for so long that they now exist in a place where even when they're trying to give them a free cure might be a strong word but a free free measures of help they reject it precisely because it comes from institutions i think that's really what it all boils down to i don't really think that the case we'll see there might be some modest help with ivermectin i don't't know. I literally don't know. But my hunch is that it's

hydroxychloroquine part two, which is that really what this all boils down to is a distrust of pharmaceutical profit motivations and institutions of oversight like the Food and Drug Administration, where they just don't trust the oversight, even if the evidence to a neutral observer is quite clear. I don't know how you fix that problem. I'll do one more or two more MMA questions. Joe Rogan has said it's weird that MMA organizations use names and not just Showtime MMA. Do you think Bellator would do better as Showtime MMA?

Probably a little bit. I don't think people are wedded to the Bellator name so strongly. But if you had to ask about Bellator's strengths and then now you're asking about its weaknesses, would switching the name meaningfully fix that? No, I don't think it would meaningfully fix that. If you change the name to Showtime MMA, are they going to do 5x the ratings they've been doing? No, that won't fix it.

There might be some coherency in terms of like or I should say visibility issues you could fix maybe by changing the name a little bit. Get folks a little more easier to understand. That might be something to be said for it. But modest. Modest, I think, the kind of improvements that would be there. Whatever is ailing Bellator, a name change seems like exactly the wrong kind of fix. I mean, yeah, you might benefit from it, but that doesn't really address, you know, whatever their issues may be.

No. So, yeah, I wouldn't, like, if they changed it, that'd be fine. But, like, would I wouldn't, like if they changed it, that'd be fine. But like, would I be like, okay, they changed it. Sweet. So now Fedor versus Timothy Johnson is good now?

Like, no, that's not good matchmaking. I don't, I struggle to find anyone who has said it is good matchmaking. That is, yeah, it's not good matchmaking. Would you guys do a fight companion sometime?

Yeah, but we got to be in person for it, right? I don't want to do a fight companion over Zoom. I don't want to do that shit, man. I've talked to Brendan, by the way, about doing the Calabasas one. We don't have any formal plans yet, but he's pretty clear he wants me on it. I would love to be on it, so we'll see how that goes. If a fighter wanted to be released from their contract, but the UFC was reluctant to do so, could the fighter strategically fight out their contract and create a situation where the UFC would find a release enticing? Examples,

have their corner throw in the towel, quit on the stool, or give uncomfortably obscure media showings. Yes, you could do the sabotage angle, and maybe some have. But if you do the sabotage angle, it's not like you're setting yourself up for the future. Like, oh, this guy didn't show up to press. He was totally out of shape, and then his corner threw the towel after one punch. Dude, what promotion wants to sign him or that team? You don't want to work with them. They're utterly unreliable.

So, you could take the sort of suicide pill here if you wanted, but I don't know what good that does you. So, Luke, if there was a 165 pound weight class

to debut starting in 2022, who would be your top five ranked fighters? And who would you match up for the title bout? I've done this exercise. Go on my personal channel and look up a video I did. My old producer, Mike Russo and I, on my old radio show, The Luke Thomas Show, we did a 165-pound draft.

And the rule was we'd have 155 and 170. And the way it would work is we would draft people to 165. So he would go and then I would go. He would go and I would go. And we did it so that we had a filled out top 15 in either way. And what the lesson that showed me was I don't know the UFC could just open up 165

and then move Welterweight to 175 and then just say whoever wants to come and go, do that. I think it might create a little bit of disorder. But if they want to do it from a controlled perspective where like let's give priority to the folks who've had weight cutting issues like a Kevin Lee or potentially even a Chiesa if you want to go 165 versus 175. I don't know, but let's say he's on that list. You could do it. You could do it in a managed, orderly way. And then once the divisions get thriving, then you could probably just open up the reins and

let folks do what they want to do. But it's very, very doable and you would still have stacked 155, 175, and 165 pound weight classes. It is entirely doable. Last one. Luke, hope you're well. I'm a 22-year-old from Ireland who's about to move to London for a new job. While I'm excited about the move, I only know a couple of people there. Dude, you're already in a good place.

And I'm leaving behind all of my friends and family in Dublin. Dude, you're going from Dublin to London. You're not going from Dublin to Singapore. I mean, chill out a bit. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nervous or anxious about it all. Do you have any advice for a young guy in my shoes where if you're in the same position at my point in your early 20s? Yeah, dude, I moved to New York. I knew two people. I knew two people. So what? You cannot, under any circumstance, allow this to deter you from whatever it is you're trying to do. First of all, Dublin and London are not far apart.

I realize they're different countries, but they're fairly close, I think is a good way to... How long is the flight? Let's do this. Dublin to London flight time. Let's see. How long is that flight? I mean, it's an hour and 20 minutes. Folks,

that's the distance from here to Cleveland. Not far, number one. So you're always never far. That's the first thing you should center yourself on. Two, London is a big city, and like New York, it can be intimidating. There's lots of things to look back on and maybe perhaps look forward to and be a little bit concerned. Dude, this is a world of action. Let me just wake everybody up. This is a world of action. Go there and take time to just get involved in things, involved in organizations, involved in clubs, involved in sports, involved in societies, involved in something, involved in an MMA gym, involved in a jujitsu gym. Go train. Go meet people. This is the best and only way forward. Dude, this is a world of action, which is why the contemplation about my own YouTube channel has

just been utterly fruitless. But you get the idea. It's just about go, go, just go and do stuff. And dude, you will find over time, listen, maybe London's for you, maybe it's not, but there's only one way to know. You are 22. You have no mortgage. You have no kids. You have nothing that ties you down. You should be thrilled, nervous too, but thrilled about moving to London, especially if you already know two people. You know people I know who've moved to cities who didn't know a fucking soul? Like you should be, you're not far from home. You already know a couple of folks and you're 22.

Dude, go kick ass. Go kick ass. Don't sit around waiting for London to come to you. Go to it. Not just moving there, but all the things that it offers. Dude, London's a phenomenal place. It's big. You will find plenty of other people you want to hang out with, whether they're other Irishmen or not. Couldn't recommend more that you take the bull by the horns. This is a world of action, so go act. Okay, that's it for me. I appreciate everybody watching. Thank you so much.

Reminder to, first, subscribe. Yes, subscribe to the channel. It helps move the chains. We're back tomorrow at 11 a.m. Me and BC will get you ready. My email, lukethomasnews at g you ready My email Email me about what your preferences are About what you want to see Because I'm ready to get back on the horse

I just need a little kick in the pants from some of you So thank you for watching I appreciate it