MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Poirier vs. Hooker, Jarrell Miller, Israel Adesanya | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 49

Episode Date: June 29, 2020

On episode 49 of Morning Kombat, Luke and Brian recap, Dustin Poirier's epic win over Dan Hooker at UFC Austin in a fight of the year contender. The boys also discuss Jarrell Miller's boxing career, UFC fighter rankings, and talk about Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa potentially being the coaches in a return season of The Ultimate Figher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

it is Monday the 29th of June 2020 and and it is time, donks, for Morning Combat. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the show. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo. You know me from many places, Series XM, as well as this one. And you know the gentleman to the other side of the screen. From CBS Sports, he's the conspiracy, to my theory, my friend and yours, the one and only Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian. Top of the morning to you. Thank you, Luke. I'm the butt to your stuff. I'm ready. I'm fired up. A new week, no limits. Fourth of July, holiday week upon us, you know,

where we can celebrate the nation's birthday, crack a couple cold ones, and maybe tip the cap to people like you, Luke, who fought many a desert war to keep me safe. Yeah, except I didn't do that, but okay, fair enough. And also, you can just celebrate the place that we call home, Los Estados Unidos. A lot to get to today on the program. First of all, as always, please give the video a thumbs up if you like it. We have a big show planned for you today. Hit that subscribe button. We've got to keep that train moving in this direction. I appreciate everyone who, of course, already has subscribed. If you're new to this place or if you've been around for a while and you're trying to recruit some friends, send it around.

Let them know. Hit that subscribe button with that notification bell. We always appreciate that when you do. And, of course, this program is brought to you by the good folks at Showtime. If you want to get a free trial, you can go to Showtime.com. And I don't want to forget, starting this Sunday, this coming Sunday, July 5th, Showtime is going to be releasing a multi-part documentary series called Outcry. It's a true crime, real docu-series on whether or not there was this crazy case involving all kinds of heinous

crimes. Allegedly, was the person innocent? Did the justice system do them wrong? It involves a sports angle as well to a degree. So, Outcry debuts this Sunday on Showtime. If you want to try it for a free trial, BC, you can go and kick the tires. Keep it if you like it. If not, you can bounce. Yeah, I dare you. I dare you to take. Keep it if you like it. If not, you can bounce. Yeah, I dare you. I dare you to take the test drive and see. And by the way, Outcry, you may think you know what happened there, but you only know the beginning.

You know nothing. Wow, that was a bungled. If that was an actual ad read, that would have been bad. Please, try Showtime. Hit subscribe. The only thing we'll ever ask of you, of course, you've got to promise not to stop when I say when. It's Showtime. Let's do it, Luke.

And if you want some merch, store.show.com, best place to go. I still have not received my merch. Have you gotten yours yet? No, that was a complaint I had with the Showtime staff before the show, just a fourth wall removal, yes. I would like to wear Morning combat gear like a true loser when i do morning combat uh it's like wearing the t-shirt of your favorite brand to the concert of your favorite band right it is i just don't care about those rules anymore i'm 40 and old and

a dad it's it doesn't matter to me anymore you know what i'm saying okay okay hey look did you have a nice weekend i know you normally have no time for small talk but how are things going in your life you week one of that haircut you're holding up well yeah it seems i went all right i'm not sure if we did anything particularly special because you know watching coronavirus tear through the south and southwest made me rethink about you know really indulging in phase two of my city's reopening so we kept it cool staying positive as jim Zorn would say, acting medium. So we didn't do a whole hell of a lot, but I've been, I don't know if you haven't seen this yet. You'll see this on this week's episode of Dissected BC.

I have repainted my studio to make it look a little bit more YouTube ready, so to speak. And it took a while, by the way, because I, you know, I haven't painted in a long time, but we got got it done i'm ready to show that off my friend how about you ask how ask now yeah sherwin williams i like that uh yeah you know just chilling here in the suburbs waiting for uh luke i cannot wait to be back at a fight one day imagine that right imagine that it will happen at a fight it will happen with no three foot long q-tips going out any of my orifices in order to get through the door okay i wait for that day thank you don't you normally do that for other reasons anyway no stop it stop it all right well with that in mind there actually were some absolutely sensational fights over the weekend so let's get to our topic number one bc okay on

saturday in your main event dustin poirier defeats Dan Hooker via unanimous decision. Two scores of 48-47, 148-46, but maybe that doesn't really tell you the reality. That is one of the best fights, certainly, of this summer, arguably of the year. Round two, one of the best rounds of MMA action I think I've ever seen. Now, we're going to get to where it falls or doesn't inside the fight of the year debate in just a moment, BC, but we'll start with you on this one. Let's talk about brass tacks here. Let's get down to them for just a second to start the conversation.

Dustin Poirier gets a win. Never lost two in a row in 10 years inside a Zufa organization fight, so that's WEC and UFC. It's not exactly clear where he goes though he's still really at the top does he get a title shot BC with this win no he will not but it is not a fruitless pursuit obviously not only is it a fantastic win one of the better ones of this calendar year and obviously you mentioned how great the fight was right we said coming in it could be the best fight of the summer it was better than we thought it could be.

This victory will be the equivalent of that because there is still a little bit of a stoppage at the top of this division. And let me just say once again, said it before, I'll say it once more. This is the greatest division in the history of the UFC at any one time. I know the light heavyweight division about 10 years ago

had so many Hall of Famers trade in that belt every few months, and it was great, and we love them, but the quality across this top 10 is sickening. All-time great quality. The fights that we are seeing are just incredible mixes of technique and strategy with so much damn hunger and toughness, and what Poirier accomplished here was obviously holding serve we said this was a quasi crossroads fight coming in right if he lost two in a row to two of the best in the world he wasn't going to go to the back of the pack but it would take a longer time to get back up he just held serve he kept himself at the very top of this division so what I mean when I say he'll get the equivalent of a title shot, you have to believe, Luke Thomas,

if you are handicapping the matchmaking over the next year, that names like Tony Ferguson, Conor McGregor, are most likely to be offered to him first. And obviously we know this, Luke, we know this one fact. It's true outside of COVID season, and it's double true right now. The best way to get a title shot in the UFC stay healthy stay willing stay by the phone you never know with travel illness and all that what's going to happen Poirier is right on the outside looking in of either a backdoor title opportunity

or at the very least the equivalent of a pay-per-view main event must-see fight yeah I mean the reality is there's just too much uncertainty in the UFC generally with all of this COVID nonsense. As you pointed out, who's going to be able to travel, who might get injured, who might have any kind of reason to not take advantage of an opportunity that they ordinarily would. So that creates uncertainty. Plus, there's just a couple of names in front of them, and you don't know exactly where they are either.

But all that tells you is until this general process is sorted, you can't move forward. Which is to say, Conor McGregor, Dana says he's retired, Conor says he's retired, but none of us really believe that he's actually retired. And I'm not saying he deserves to be slotted in front of Dustin, but that doesn't mean that he won't necessarily be. So he is part of this process, number one. Secondly, you have Tony Ferguson out there. Now, he took a bad beating at the hands of Justin Gaethje, but it would be foolish at this point to write him off. He still has, I think, probably a lot left in the tank. So what you're looking at here is if something happens to Justin, and Tony obviously wouldn't get that

opportunity because he did lose to Justin, but there's kind of Connor floating out there. Maybe, maybe he could slot his way in, as you indicated, with an accidental title shot again against Nurmagomedov, but that was the last fight he had before this one, and he lost that one, Luke. They wouldn't put him back in with Habib this quickly for rematch, you're right, but you could stumble into an interim opportunity out of nowhere. Possible, yes, it's possible he could do that, and again, he said that a lot of times guys get these interim titles and like, oh, it doesn't mean anything to me. It meant a lot to Dustin because he's never had an easy road to anywhere he's gone.

He's had to really and truly earn it. And so if he got another opportunity, I don't think he would balk at that one either. I think he would go right after it. So fair enough. Fair point there. I'm saying to get to that undisputed title, the one that is no asterisk in front of it, no interim, no adjective in front of the noun, he is unlikely to be sort of next in the queue.

But I think what's either going to happen is, one, if Conor wants to come back, I know he's probably saying to himself, why would I want to fight Dustin Poirier? I already beat the guy at 145. Now, you and I both know that was a long time ago. It was a different weight class. It was a long time ago. It was a different weight class. It was a different Conor.

It was a different Dustin. Maybe Conor wins today, but it's at least, in theory, a very different fight. And then, if Conor doesn't want that, I think the fight to make is going to be Tony Ferguson versus Dustin Poirier. I mean, that one has action written all over it. Now, you would have to give both guys some time to heal. They were really, really tough fights for the both of them, maybe a little bit more so for Tony. And Tony's obviously a little bit older at 37 years old. But that fight to me would be, I mean, if you couldn't get Tony versus Khabib after five tries, that's terrible. But if the consolation prize was you got Tony versus

Justin BC, and then you got tony versus dustin coming back of a redemptive win over dan hooker i'm not saying that that's the exactly one for one i am saying man that's the door prize when you walk into the party i'm not going to complain too much that's one of those fights that like you know you always try to be careful not to enter the hyperbole zone but like that's goddy ward ish right there only it's not two journeymen that we love they just happen to be potential all-time greats with elite technique yet they're willing as hooker and poirier was which is why we're going to transition in a second to the discussion of where that fight sort of ranks when you are that willing to pour out the entire freaking jug in the center of the cage for the opportunity in

front of you you get the potential i mean you just nailed it i mean poirier and ferguson like oh my god my loins my loins luke like it's just ridiculous but i want to interrupt this gross moment and ask you a legitimate question okay if if poirier gets connor there may be an interim title if he gets tony it's a big-ass fight. He won a lot. Did he also, Luke, true or false, kind of cement his all-time great status with this win? Tell me if I'm going too far here. The run Dustin Poirier had been on heading into that Habib fight, right, and the way he turned his personal life and career and mental game and charity work

and just the transformation of the man was so impressive. And when you look at that run, it's like, good Lord, he stopped Eddie Alvarez, stopped Justin Gaethje, you know, beat Max Holloway in a fight that would have been a fight of the year any other year. It's not that Dan Hooker's better than all those guys, but when you add Dan Hooker to the list and you do it at a time where Poirier was potentially at that crossroads moment hip surgery 10-month layoff one-sided loss in the biggest fight of his career this wasn't just uh you know same old gee you all must have forgot type of moment right there it may have been like

with the with the heart he showed with the technique I mean with the full package I mean it was an insanely impressive performance from Poirier on Saturday night. I'm kind of thinking this happens every once in a while, where it's that one fight that grabs you and says, you know what, we are watching right now one of the best to ever do it. I mean, imagine how talented you have to be to be Dustin Poirier. And when I say talent, I mean talent in all the ways you're describing, which is a certain grit, a certain

mentality, a level of polished technique. You know, I went back and I watched Dustin Poirier's UFC debut against Pablo Garza to watch his evolution from there to then, or sorry, from there to now is, it's shocking. He was obviously very good back then and now he is so much better. It's unbelievable to be that kind of a person in virtually any other UFC weight class. You're going to be an undisputed champion at some point, and you might be it for a while. I think we need to start wrapping our head around the fact that there are going to be cases, whether if it's somebody like a John Jones at the top, who sort of obscures how good some of

his other contemporaries might be because they can't beat him but they're still really talented or when you get a division like the UFC's lightweight division is now which is Dustin did hold a title and it was an interim title and I think that matters but he's never been an undisputed weight class champion yet that may change we'll see but the point I want to raise here is if if someone is operating at that level but inside of that kind of a weight class you need to grade on a curve a little bit there has to be a place inside discussions of who are some of none of our favorite fighters and i'm not saying the very very best of all time but what he's doing is so clearly worthy of not really examination bc but but praise, real, genuine praise. If he was doing this at that level and virtually any other weight class, I have no doubt in my mind at some point he would

have grabbed a UFC title. And because he is in this division, it is way, way harder to do. I think we need to take a moment and say, how do we measure greatness in MMA? Because if we don't have a place for Dustin Poirier to be a part of that conversation, we're just not doing it right. Well said, Luke. Well said, indeed. And he, you know, cemented his sort of pound for pound status at the moment. And I did want to double down on that one thing.

Like, his story was so great heading into that Habib fight because of the grit and the reinvention mentally of, you mentally of where he was in the beginning of his career to where he is now. But if he didn't cement all-time great status, meaning one of the best we've seen of this era, certainly as you tease there, he'd entered into one of our favorites. Every time out now, you're going to have to, if you weren't already, beyond appointment viewing for this guy because you're going to see the everything he has inside of him inside that cage and you're also going to potentially see him in this battle for the title in the craziest division of all time it's just insane look pour pour two out for the lightweight division okay you know i love them women's straw weights and the bantam

weights are hot too but pour two out that every time you get a top five or six elite lightweight fight it's the best fight you could see all year. Okay, so very quickly, very quickly, because Jay is cracking the whip. What is your clubhouse leader now for fight of the year? Is it Poirier versus Hooker, or is it Zheng Wai Li and then Ioana champion? What do you think? I was there in the front row, as you know, March 7th, Las Vegas. I saw what those women were willing to do.

I cannot put this fight on Saturday night as great as it friggin was it's 1b in my fight of the year rankings i think dana said it a few times this calendar year every time there's a good fight and it's fight of the year worthy in the post prester he's like man they picked the wrong year right uh it's the men's fight of the year up to this point luke look that was a title fight the women's fight it was five rounds of freaking fury there were no breaks no rest points and the fight was really up for grabs as you headed into the scorecards i think that's what this fight lacked to a certain degree and uh although this fight had hellacious rounds right one and two as you mentioned and two specifically

is your round of the year. I mean that's one of the best rounds I've ever seen in the history of the sport but you had some different types of ebbs and flows in rounds three, four, and five. Not worse, just a little bit different, right? A lot of submission heavy grappling. So, you know, there wasn't as many switches in momentum

I thought as there was in that women's fight where it was just a track meet, a savage freaking track meet for 25 minutes. Yeah, I'm going to say I think the women's fight is probably the best fight this year. I will say round two of Poirier versus Hooker is my round of the year. The only reason I can't put the Hooker and Poirier fight on par with the women's, I thought in the fifth round of their fight, it kind of fell off a little bit. Not that it was bad. It just didn't have the same level of intensity. Whereas Zhang and Ioana and Jacek, it went down to the absolute last second with fists of fury all the way through. They really were just never taking their foot off the gas.

So for that reason, I'll give it to them. You're talking about pouring out the jug. Hot Ioana was willing to become an alien to try to win back that title. Got quite literally disfigured in the pursuit of a belt. And I thought she won that fight too. The last thing I'll say is Dan Hooker in close succession has had two fights now, 10 rounds, two five-rounders, where they have been brutal, brutal fights. I would really like to see him take some time off.

He'll not come back too quick. He's obviously quite talented. But Jesus, man, that is a lot of damage in in close success or close um there's a time frame there's a part of his style that he's almost too brave and courageous for his own good he knows too well what he's made of and his chin and his toughness and as you saw in that fight he was dragging poirier into the deep waters yet it was Poirier, the more experienced man, who was able to be the last man standing. So tough break for Hooker because he's of that ilk, Luke.

I mean, you saw the first two rounds. He is of that championship ilk. Hopefully he can find a way to sort of take a step off the gas just a bit and maybe learn a little bit more from Volkanovski, right, who does the city kickboxing chess game a little bit more than Hooker's willing to. Fair enough. Okay, so we go now to point number two.

In your co-main event, BC, what we saw was Mickey Gall losing to Mike Perry. Fairly one-sided, I would argue. Not terribly one-sided, but it was pretty clear who was winning that fight. Basically, past the two-minute mark until the very conclusion there. So, Mike perry who famously hung up on you last week um he had no look just be honest he sent me to hell multiple times he sent you to he sent you to hades uh but he had no corner essentially he had his girlfriend there who seemed like a very nice person and she gave him uh water when he needed it and ice in the

back of his neck when he needed it and said nice things it was really again this is not about her per se she seems like a very nice person and mike seems to have a lot of affection for her what do we make of his strategy did he prove something to ubc in the way in which he went about the preparation for this fight and having her in the corner and the way he looked here's what he proved to me that he's not a a complete clown show sideshow and what i mean by that is we knew of his ability he was six and six in the octagon and some of those six wins coming in were impressive we knew he had the potential at certain points since he moved to the ufc to become somewhat of a legitimate contender. He'd taken some back steps. He moved up to face elite competition and got stopped.

But I think what this build of this fight was, including my off the rails interview, it showed you that you had to start questioning for the first time. Like this isn't a show like this man is off kilter. This man's crazy. He's now going to have his girlfriend with no other corner man. Like what the hell's going on here? So I think the greatest victory he did, Luke, against a solid out in Mickey Gall was keep the train on the tracks.

Remind you that even with all that craziness, he's still a viable player at welterweight. I think he's still got a lot of improving to do, and he mentioned that much, saying, I'm looking for the right team. It's obvious that he's had problems in the past with management and coaches and in trust and all that and he you know was spoke openly after the fight about potential irs issues so maybe part of having just his girlfriend in the corner meant you didn't have to pay those other corner men if he had them in there but i think what he showed you luke is is look if he had lost his fight would have been three in a row he would have been pushed down on the card yeah we would have cared from a sideshow standpoint but he's still pretty legit because we thought there

were areas mickey lagal could have success against him and perry was just so much stronger better grappler better experience stayed calm didn't turn into some crazy brawl and while we're here shout out to coach latore baby one and oh your clubhouse leader for coach of the year. Come on, baby. You're looking good. You're looking good, baby. That was what she said to Mike. And, you know, she was right.

I mean, maybe that's all you need, Luke. Maybe we're done with this people daddy-pantsing you in the corner trying to fire you up. Maybe the future is you having your wife on the right, abo on the left daughter on the lap giving you a massage during mk and letting you know good point luke well done i like that oh you're the haircut's not as bad as the fans think yeah my dad nowhere to be found uh okay here's what i would say we learned about this one which is we've learned that mike perry is very frustrating i can believe that his girlfriend who again seems like a very nice person, in this particular case, may have even been legitimately beneficial, which was,

I think Mike Perry is probably better than Mickey Gall, even on a bad day. I don't know that he had one, but I'm just saying, even if he did, I think he could probably find a way to get the win. I did think Mickey Gall looked improved in the standup, but overall, he jumped to the UFC way too quickly, and I think it's really hurting his development. But Mike Perry is very, very talented, and maybe just having somebody who could be soothing, calming, keep a guy like that who is prone to excess centered, maybe that's exactly what he needs. And also, there's sort of an argument to be made about how many different hands in fighters pockets there are and how it ends up making them broke and to what extent they could look around and say how do i minimize my life a little bit where i still have the things that i need but maybe not too much of course i

would say that the answer to that problem is really fighter pay more generally but separate discussion for a separate time but i mentioned that mike Mike Perry is frustrating because he'll go and rant about homophobic things. And he thinks that having a sliver of DNA entitles him to, say, racial epithets. Two percent. Yeah. Well, that's bad enough. But what's really kind of frustrating is I've actually interacted with Perry in person. I found him to be very polite and, frankly, quite nice and a decent person. He comes obviously from a background

that made him, you know, sort of a salty dog in the way that he is. But if you just watch the guy compete, the thing that is frustrating to me is that he obviously has a lot of ability and I don't think he's gotten even anywhere close to maximizing it. Now, is that his coach's fault? Maybe. Is that his fault? Maybe. I don't know. I've not been close enough to the situation to diagnose. And the good news is he's 28 years old.

If he felt like he needed to prove a point with this one fight in a fight that was, again, relatively speaking, low risk, fine. All's well that ends well. But the reality for Mike Perry is he still has time to really figure out who he is and how far he can go he just has to get the right team around him and really center his life if having this person around in the corner in this way for this time was good that's great but what he really needs in his life are people that I think love him and center him and balance him and make him happy and bring normalcy to his

experiences. If they can do that and he can then take that energy from his personal life and channel it to his professional life, dude, he might be something way more than he's already been, which is a pretty good fighter. He might be able to be way better than that. He is naturally strong. I think he's a born fighter. He's not afraid of contact. He doesn't hardly get affected by pain in any kind of way that most normal fighters do. I think sometimes he makes pretty good decisions, but he just hasn't gotten anywhere close to scratching the surface. Look, if Mike Perry ends up being what he ends up being, which is never a champion, okay, well, most UFC fighters aren't. But I honestly think,

I'm not saying he has championship future in front of him I'm just saying it would be a shame for someone that naturally talented to not ever see how far they get by virtue of all these other considerations to me that would be a bit of a tragedy and it doesn't have to be that way there's still time to get it right well said and you were on the verge of giving Jay testicular aneurysms there by taking so long but i did enjoy that hey by the way from my interview with him on the state of combat podcast last week how about this nugget john jones played matchmaker between mike and latore set him up at a bar i said mike what was the pickup line that got her he said john put our hands together i scooped her up off

the ground i said baby let's get out of here. How caveman raw is that, Luke? All right? That's 80s cinematic. Would you let John Jones fix you up with anything? I mean, I'm married. All right. Is that what you mean?

Maybe. Maybe. Like, if we got your brother together to make those burgers. What about, could your brother cook the edibles into the burgers by any chance? Oh, yeah. Oh, maybe. Like if we got your brother together to make those burgers. Could your brother cook the edibles into the burgers by any chance? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. My brother could absolutely do that. Hey, very quickly.

Very quickly. Any other standout performer from Saturday you want to give a shout out to? Oh, yeah. She was so standout I forgot her name. The women's strawweight on the undercard. Kay Hanson. The Rousey clone. Kay Hanson had a hell of a know me now victory in

her ufc debut luke going in there against a invicta former champion even though she was favored coming in i thought it was hella impressive it was pretty badass to see her have had gotten cut right before she got the armbar to see her walk away blood on her face what 19 20 years old uh youngest second youngest fighter in the ufc behind chase hooper uh bright future ahead that was a strong win yeah she's the candace owens fans what's always always saddens me but i'll say this she looks pretty talented that was like politics from fighting please i just i've made a comment and i dip that's fine she had that was a phenomenal it was a it was a phenomenal performance it was almost exactly what dustin Hazlett had done to Josh Berkman,

which is one of the all-time great UFC submissions. So a very auspicious beginning for her. She looked to be the real deal. We'll see how far she can go. I think I would also give a shout-out to Tanner Bosser. I'm not a big fan of mullets, ironic or otherwise, but I'm a big fan of people who look like Canadian hockey enforcers but got a little bit of smarts on them too.

Great job by him finding an opening and then finished off Felipe Lins from an angle. And then doing the post-fight interview, missing a front tooth. I mean, I don't know how you can't love that, BC. That's my kind of man right there. Yeah, I can see that. I can see that.

That was an impressive win. It was a bad card on paper, but it actually delivered. There were a lot of people that went for it, Luke. They went after it, right? They got in that ass. It was a bad card on paper, but it actually delivered. There were a lot of people that went for it, Luke. They went after it, right? They got in that ass. It was a good night of fights. It takes us to topic number three, BC. I cannot wait to hear what you have to say about this one.

I know this guy from the kickboxing world. You probably know him from the boxing world. Jarrell Miller fails a drug test for the third time in a fight. If you count each individual failure, it's his fifth time, he had been signed by top rank. He was supposed to fight, I think, Jerry Forrest coming up here.

And he popped for something that he popped for in the lead-up. I think Endurable is the name of it. Endurable All or something. It was the same thing he had popped for among other ones, which also included HGH and EPO. He was the guy who was supposed to fight Anthony Joshua. And then he pulled out, and that's how Andy Ruiz got that fight. So, top rank, excuse me, at the time, Matchroom just let him rock. And then top rank picked him up.

Okay, let's ask. He is undefeated as a heavyweight. He was a very good kickboxer. By the way, he filled a drug test there in 2014 as well. Now, I have about the most lenient attitudes on this imaginable, but if you're going to cheat, you've got to be good at it. He's a terrible, terrible PED user. He has no idea.

He is literally bad at it. Is his career over, BC? It should be. It really should be. I hope it is and uh you gotta do a lot to piss off boxing to the level where everybody just wants you gone people on twitter the last you know 48 hours from pro fighter to journalist to everyday fan just like get this guy the hell away from us boxing not only turns a blind eye to this kind of stuff normally, good God,

most of the time boxing embraces awfulness and this type of actions. Only you nailed it. The reason why he's getting hate from everybody is not only is he a freaking cheater, he's an awful cheater. And we can't be naive to believe that it's a clean sport, except for the people that get caught. But to see somebody with that much potential, right? Unbeaten heavyweight contender, a guy that is really kind of being sought after as a lower price B-side in big title fights. Why? Because he's an American who can talk and he throws punches in bunches and he's not necessarily a knockout threat.

So he's an exciting fighter who goes in there, big time flurries, brings it. But Luke, you know, the problem is he didn't really get that much of a hand slap when he popped those tests against Anthony Joshua. He, yes, he lost the fight. He lost the big payday. He didn't get a year long suspension. He basically got another job offer from top rank. That's what can happen in boxing.

You can slip through the cracks. People are opportunistic. People don't care as much. At this point, everybody's just like, big baby, get the hell off of here. You see Dan Rayfield, a longtime boxing scribe, outright calling him big dummy on Twitter. Normally, I'm not with, right, going at fighters publicly. But in this case, it's like, what else can you say about Jarrell Miller? He had his opportunity, man, and he blew it multiple times.

I don't know if he needs a better scientist. I don't know if he needs to borrow my urine, but at this point, you're out of chances. It's ridiculous. You're out of chances. If you pop this many times across two sports, dude, you got serious questions you better start

asking yourself, number one. Number two, here's the funny part about it. If you're wondering why, for folks who are watching, if he didn't get public, like why didn't he get super in big trouble in the Anthony Joshua fight? My understanding, BC, is he actually did not have a license at the time. So what New York could do was really limited in terms of punishment. Now, he actually did have a license, I think, in Nevada, and they might absolutely hammer this guy, not just for this particular failure, but for the other ones where he kind of skated a little bit so he could be in big trouble the other part here is top rank

keeps putting on fights god bless them week after week i appreciate they're trying to get back to normalcy i've said when you watch it visually on espn bc it does look pretty good uh on espn and but the quality of the fights is so bad. And here you have Jarrell Miller, who if you've never heard him talk, boy, he can sell it. Go and find the initial face-off he did with Anthony Joshua before that fight fell through. It was pushing and shoving. He was tearing off the sunglasses, BC. They were getting it down. And you could see why promoters want to book this guy because he's a decent heavyweight. as you mentioned. He's American. And he can sell a fight, and he can do an interview. He's got a big personality.

But he's also got a big problem. Dude, if I mention this, you shouldn't cheat. But if you're going to cheat, you have a responsibility to yourself to be good at it, because otherwise, dude, here's the reality about Jarrell Miller. It doesn't matter what your views on drug testing are. If you get caught, they're going to remove you. Here's the point. Dude, how can anybody sign this guy at this point and think that he's going to make it

from training camp to the finish line if there's even a modicum of drug testing at this point? It's not even like USADA is showing up his door at 6 a.m. Some of this, I think, might be out of competition, but very minimally. And the best part about this pandemic was out of competition test BC, we're down 90% across the board, according to many estimates done by researchers because of all the different limits about travel and contact and the like. And this dude still got caught. It is unbelievable just how unreliable he is. Top rank hasn't released him, but honestly, it kind of feels like if it wasn't for the pandemic,

they definitely would, and I still kind of think that they might. Yeah, he's staying, no doubt. And you mentioned Top Rank. This is bad luck. That was another main event that would have been good to see, and they've had, unfortunately,

about four or five decent main events over the next two months fall apart in like the last week i mean one of those ivan baranchuk against jose zapata 140 pounds is one of those sneaky good matchups you wanted to see it's been uh people failing covid tests their trainers failing it injuries and the like tough to see uh boxing like we mentioned last week like it's on the verge of a lot of fights being announced and coming back hopefully luke they can start putting things together i want to talk more boxing.

I know some of those MMA diehards are like, I don't come here for the boxing. I come here for the D jokes and Luke's MMA takes. But I love me. All right, step one, right? Open the box. Step three, right? Put your D in the box.

Who was the former Marine who just got COVID who was supposed to be a top-ranked main eventer? I forget his name. Are you talking about Third Degree Burns? Who are you talking about? No, the African-American dude who used to be the Marine who was... Oh, the ex-Marine. The former Marine.

No such thing. But he got COVID and had to pull out of the main event. What was his name? I don't know that in front of me. You killed me. I don't know that in front of me God When it comes to the movie series The Marine by WWE Films Are you more of a fan of John Cena in that role Or The Miz

What? Given your background No You don't know the movie franchise? Jamel Herring Jamel Herring is the guy I'm talking about Oh yeah, oh yeah The Fighting Marine

Yeah, Jamel Herring Yeah, shout out to them Shout out to that champ I love that guy That guy He also had to pull out too. But don't you find it? It's like amazing.

So let me ask you, if Jarrell Miller wants to fight in Russia, he'll be fine. He'll have a career there as long as he wants one, which, you know, I don't know how many opportunities you get for that before the whole sideshow runs out, but he will get one.

How many years, how long is Nevada going to suspend this guy, do you think? I don't know. A year, 18 not 18 months i mean it's boxing he'll he'll fight in europe he'll before you know it he'll be back i don't know i hope i hope it's true i i hope that this guy's got a couple years to figure it out and think about it uh but this has tarnished his name to the level where it's like you know you that it's it's more it's more stupid risk to take this guy on for a fight that matters that you won't see him for a long time all right we move on now to point

number four bc which is that ufc commentator joe rogan on his podcast i think with joe shilling maybe somebody else but in any case he dropped a hint that the ufc might be bringing back the ultimate fighter and if and when they do, the coaches would be Israel Adesanya taking on Paulo Costa. So the question that we're going to debate here is, is this a good idea? I have to tell you, BC, I don't really mind it, I think. And here's what I mean by that. From the UFC's perspective, which is, I'm not telling you the average consumer needs to care, but if I'm thinking about what the UFC might be looking for out of this, it's not a bad idea. And the reason why is because, one, if they get to ESPN, which, by the way, their chances of getting on linear TV,

given the dearth of original, brand-new content across all of sports, I mean, they've never seen an environment like this, which makes the chances of getting on TV way better than it ever has been. But even if they put her on ESPN+, fine. Someone else would be paying for it. Number one, it's this kind of content that is weekly and episodic,

which means it builds on itself. Number two, you put the finales now on ESPN, so then that's more content they could get. Number three, there's no real regional MMA it's kind of at a standstill they actually have to pull fighters off the regional scene and kind of serve in that role we know contender series is going to start back in August so that's going to serve in that role as well they actually have to kind of like prime the pump so to speak to get that side of the sport going so i understand that plus all the fighters

are sequestered now it'd be more complicated than that you'd have to sequester the crew and everything else given all the covid nonsense blah blah blah but it just seems like if you're in a position to do this kind of thing where you can deliver content week after week you can have a live finale maybe the fights themselves could go back to being live i don't know if you guys don't want to do that okay whatever if you're're the UFC, it actually makes a ton of sense. Yeah, so what's your problem, Luke Thomas? Tell us, please. So the only problem is, with all the stars sitting out,

do we really want to push Adesanya versus Costa, which could take place, I guess, what, August or so, September, something like that? Do we want to push that back to the end of the year? I don't think that we want to do that. to the end of the year i don't think that we want to do that so i think that's probably the only real downside luke don't don't speak here i know just what you're thinking and i don't need your reasons here luke uh this is their opportunity as you mentioned within a within the covid where look they're trying to replay anything that can

get eyes they can make israel adesanya into the star he deserves to be he's a phenomenal interview he has everything Luke he has that Anderson Silva style spectacularness to him with some of those John Jones intangibles with a gift for Gab that's sort of unique to the guys that we are used to right the characters like a rampage or the talkers like a McGregor or Sonnen. He's his own unique individual. And this is the right time to stick him inside of a syringe and inject him on the American public. And not only that, you would be hyping up in an old school manner, by the way. Meaning that you're actually using a promotional vehicle, right? A multi-episode TV show to hype up this matchup.

This is one of the best damn matchups on paper you can freaking make this deserves that type of hype up because this is really in a lot of ways the ultimate casual fan fight that jacked brazilian guy who looks like a model against this tough talking african guy from new zealand who can do i think it's it's freaking perfection when you there's not a scenario in which you can have a UL Romero, Adesanya type outcome. This is going to be a balls to the wall fight that I think you would want to prep new fans to get excited about while reviving this franchise that Dana loves and sticks by and says, well, pride never dies.

So that's fine. Do it now. Yes, let's do it. There's no, Luke, you don't have a reason outside of i want that fight now well this just in as much as we cry up on fight island for the bait and switch of it this summer's already loaded with must-see fights like we're getting more than we deserve during this quarantine given how hard it is to put on one of these events with people having the potential to fail tests you have a vehicle here where everybody is already sequestered inside a house, right?

It's like a reality show. You can't leave anyway. You can't talk to the outside world. You can't catch COVID that way, Luke, okay? We don't need masks. Put a lock on the outside of the door. Throw those two fighters in there. Must see TV.

Remember that door that Rampage fricking ripped in half? Let's get a few of those in there. Let's do this. I think the only question you have to ask yourself is do we really believe that tough still serves as the kind of promotional vehicle that you're saying it does towards the end there it didn't feel like that on fs1 but maybe espn is different i mean these frankly terrible top rank cards are doing you know adana white makes fun of it, 300,000 plus on ESPN. Well, okay, that would be like double some of the numbers that Tuff was doing at the very end of their stretch on FS1. So like, if you could do reasonable numbers like that, if you could

actually promote the fight, I could understand why the UFC would do it. But if they just, remember, ESPN2 is a higher rated channel than FS1. No, I think that's right. Something like that. No, sorry, FS1 is a higher rated channel than ESPN2. Whatever the case being made there, they're roughly equivalent. So if they just put it on ESPN2, that's not really much of an upgrade. You'd have to get the royal treatment on ESPN.

I don't know if the interested parties want to do that. If you could promote it four or 500,000 viewers at a time, maybe go forward with it. But if you're just going to be back where you were, you're wasting everyone's time, including Adesanya, including Costa. Yeah. The point of your argument is if it was a year ago, no, it wouldn't be a good idea. Look, the must-see value of what Tuff represented is gone, long gone. But this is the right time to bring it back. This would also be the right time to call up the people that produce mtvs the real world and road rules get a couple more junie brownings throw them in there and just mix that that ish up luke it's time the

eyeballs would be there they want they want real fight how many more documentaries can we do a freaking documentary on the decision all right yeah i know i saw that whether they're calling it behind the scenes or back talk or whatever the hell it's supposed to be called i'm like they'll really have to relive people burning lebron jerseys okay uh last but not least point number five this was a really weird story that kind of it didn't really go far beyond twitter uh in the mma world but i found it fascinating so it was revealed that if you are a uf panelist, that when it comes time to do the rankings, I think it happens before the major fights, you get a bit of a cheat sheet.

I don't mean cheat in the sense of nefariousness, but rather like cliff notes. You get an explanation of matchups, where people are in the division, where they've been in the rankings, what are they up against here, the stakes, which all seem pretty fine to me. But then if you actually read the fine print, there's also suggestions about where numerically folks should be ranked in the event of a win or a loss. And you're like, well, that's interesting. Where do these come from? We don't actually know.

The people who are on the rankings panel say it comes from one of the major MMA sites. I don't know what that means. And the question is, does one of the major MMA sites do it just for their own benefit? Or are they being directed from some other authority to do it? The UFC, I don't think, I don't want to be clear here as they've not been implicated directly.

I'm not suggesting that they have been. I'm just saying it's all kind of weird. It's really sort of my point, BC. Okay, should people who are voting on the rankings, should they care? Should we care about this? How big of a story is this it depends how you frame it when it was originally framed it was like look ufc giving voters the exact way they should vote ahead of this right like heading in

you know berg shane burgo should be out if he loses and it's like when it's when you hear just that like when you only see the 60 seconds of robert drysdale ignoring max roscoff's uh you know saying i want out your natural reaction is to say what the f then you hear the the the truth right you hear max saying no i want my coach to put me he was right in this case look um what they don't want is voters who don't care or don't pay attention so if they're putting out potential notes or guides to let you frame let you have a better frame and understanding of what's at stake in this fight and how it relates to the rankings i don't think that's a bad thing does it look like they went too far in it yeah it looks like it's telling you exactly who

to vote for but after the initial outrage i did see uh certain media members on twitter who are part of the rankings crew come out and say look in my whole time there ufc's never gotten back to me plus or minus one single time to tell me that they disagreed or liked my ranking so if that's only set there as a template as a you know in case you haven't been watching or whatever then i'm fine with that look i I've been a member in the past of things look like the Boxing Writers Association, which those are fine people there. But, you know, I've been at the table when they like vote for year end awards. And sometimes you're like, is that guy over there even watch boxing?

So sometimes you got to have those things there just to make sure everything sound. With all that said, do I really care? No. Does anybody really respect these UFC rankings? No. So, like, much ado, Luke, about not much, maybe? I don't know. I'm a little less convinced.

I mean, I'm not here to say the sky is falling. I don't think the sky is falling. I'm not here to say this is some major scandal. I don't think it's a major scandal. Still, I don't understand the point. It's like like first of all the way in which they do the rankings tells me that the people behind the rankings don't know what they're doing i don't know why this is some kind of complicated idea rankings if you're having

a champion separate from the rest of the pack so like the number one person who is ranked is by definition not the champion uh the champion is separate from them the way it's always been done through the history of combat sports typically is that those rankings serve as a way to tell you who is getting going to get the next title shot it is a queue of contenders to establish the order in which we are handing this out not just in a general way who i think is better or something, which is really quite nebulous and doesn't even mean anything. So number one, if you look at these suggestions, they don't seem to understand that general way of operating, which is really the only coherent

way to have a ranking system, number one. Number two, I've seen people defend it saying, well, you can just ignore it. Right. But number one, why are we assuming that there is this overarching position coming from some narrator who wrote this that, by the way, is de facto correct or worth listening to? I mean, the whole idea is like if you're putting it in there, it's that it's supposed to be of some kind of value. But I'm already telling you it's not a value given how wrong the rankings are. Number two, if the argument is, well, they're just supposed to ignore it right but does any other ranking system do this like when they do the ap college poll when they do whatever other it might be for the boxing writers association of america do they actually give you suggestions on numerical placement for people because the appearance of impropriety here where it's like we could be

favoring this guy we could be favoring this guy we could be putting this guy down because he doesn't necessarily do a whole lot of good for x y and z reasons i think it is totally fine to give context i think context is really important and if your rankings are in a position where you have to have analysts who don't know jack that's a problem for you to figure out but i think think once you start prescribing, whoever ends up doing it, once you start prescribing numerical position, the point of having the rankings in this stage is minimal. You are wagging the dog.

And people can say what they want about how rankings panelists should ignore it. And it's just a suggestion. You don't have to listen to it. The power of suggestion is real. If people are too lazy to do their own homework, which is ostensensibly what this is about then it's going to have a much more profound effect to begin with i mean either these people are capable of making judgments or they're not and if they're not then you just have to have them off the off the roster if that means you don't have enough rankings panelists well then figure out a different solution to the problem

because just hand holding these guys is just it's not the way to do it and and i know people say oh you know the ufc rankings who cares at this point yeah i know the ufc will give a title shot to somebody who's not even ranked okay fair enough i mean you know it's not a handcuff in that way they make the title loser the number one contender all anyone who loses the championship even if they get knocked out in the first second remains the number one contender i know tyron woodley tyron woodley was the number one contender for like 20 months and it's like how on earth could that possibly be they do it all wrong but there is still value on occasion and it even takes away what minimal value there is is your fear that that this is a tool to hold down non-marketable fighters is that your fear that this is a tool to hold down non-marketable fighters?

Is that your fear? That this is like an inside tool of helping those fighters lose their leverage when it comes to contracts? I guess this is my fear. I guess this is my fear. There is so much pressure on MMA media, whether it's from all the promoters, not merely UFC. And again, we don't even know if UFC is involved. I want to be clear about that. But from sponsors, from managers, from coaches, from fighters, to just tell a story that other people want them to tell. And it's constant pressure. It comes in every direction.

And they are always trying to get you to say something you don't want to say. And you have to resist that. To have it now as part of the rankings which is just supposed to be your vote and a vote in secrecy to a degree to me is just beyond the pale it's like dude can we leave media members alone for once can we just let them decide for once where they want to go here even if their answers are fucking stupid i would much rather have a stupid, unsuggested process than this wag the dog nonsense constantly happening to MMA media. Would you rather have to wear John Morgan's blue shirt for the rest of your life or have the Schmoe's haircut? Oh, I'll take the Schmoe's haircut.

I like that. I don't mind his haircut at all. It's kind of slick, to be honest with you. I mean, I'm too old to have it but i'd rather have it by the way jay is you would think jay has another job this guy's so so in your in your ear hole today all right well let's crack the whip here as we uh continue it's time now for your questions we always put an instagram post up the day before the show where you can put your questions in it's time now for dms from dogs there we are there's our animation which we cannot hear

all right uh first up bc we'll get right to it from suspect monkey if all champs coordinated and decided to sit out could that be enough to force the ufc's hand when it comes to offering fighters a greater revenue share how How would the company react? Look, it would seem that all champs, Luke, and I'll go first because I don't have a producing credit. It would seem that all the champs would be enough on the surface because they're very big names.

But I do think you'd need a little more than that because, you know, could UFC just create a secondary interim title belt until those champs come back to this side of the picket line? Maybe. But I think the whole point is you would need a group that would have that much leverage. So maybe, you know, champions don't always have the most leverage given their star power. If a large group with giant leverage that the UFC depended on for pay-per-view sales and all that got together to try to make a little change right

not not to make a union not to make you know uh you know guaranteed 10 million every fight but at the very least luke to do things like we talked about in recent weeks to give a higher bonus for fight of the night when you do what poirier and hooker did on saturday night you know you've talked about it in all your other uh shows in in twitter of like you know the effort by dan hooker to get whatever he made in that fight or the effort by emmet or burgos or whatever it's like it's deserving of more so should be the baseline for co-main event main event title fights etc um yeah you would need a group that large but they would also have to be willing to take whatever would come if UFC stood hard. I think what you really need is you need small increments of change.

And I think it would take a stand that large enough. Just the champions? Maybe. But you would need to get involved, the people like Conor and those who have giant leverage. Yeah, I mean, first of all, you have to be careful about this too because independent contractors don't have a right to strike. So they could technically not take fights, right? So they could do that, but I don't think they could legally coordinate to do it.

So if they're doing it what they're doing now, which is like Jones does it, and then Masvidal and then Conor, and it's sort of like this unofficial contagion, that's perfectly fine. But they couldn't collude in that way. So you have to be careful about that. Now, if they decide to have a formal reunion and then they get relabeled as employees, well, then you have a right to do that. So that would be different. So let's say if it was just the champs, they wrote

coordinated, but let's just say they didn't coordinate. So they didn't run afoul of the law and then just decide to sit out all at once. they do that and what would happen i think the ufc would still press on because there's always going to be enough scabs right to just cross the picket line even if the even if all ufc fighters stopped working all at once there's gonna be so many hungry regional fighters they would just like draft the entirety of lFA to put on a card. But at that point, the press, the negative press would be so overwhelming. It would force a negotiation. It would force them to do something else. So just UFC champs probably affects change. But what you really need is the entirety of the workforce in conjunction to just stop the trains

from leaving. Because if you just think about the UFC benefits from, and what they look at, look for in fighters, it's, they want to keep the train on the tracks. They want to produce content. I mean,

they, the thing that bothered them more about COVID was just, they couldn't get the shows out. Like they're constantly churning content. So if you can interrupt that, yes, it will have an effect, but the way in which you do it and how long you do it

and the manner by which you have made a process, they will make a big difference in terms of how the UFC would respond, I think. Fair enough. All right. From CWarman41BC, this person writes, I listened to an interview with Helwani and Paige Van Zandt talking about the main card fighters, talking about UFC 251, are having to fight at 6 a.m. in the morning

on the Fight Island pay-per-view. And by the way, if you saw the interview, Paige Van Zandt was like, seriously? Are you guys, she didn't know. Are you guys surprised this hasn't been talked about more? Now, BC, I had Amanda Hibas on my show, who is fighting Paige Van Zandt. She did, and she was like yeah

that's crazy but uh i'm looking forward to it what do you think uh we got some freaks on fight island getting it on and they can't fight until six in the morning luke so what you want to do uh look you know what's most important here for ufc is is primetime viewers on not only espn for the undercard but obviously the pay-per-view so that's an uphill battle for them um that they can't win it's part of the deal so yeah it sucks of course it sucks but uh you know unless the ufc is willing to go on in the afternoon which wouldn't make sense when there's no other major sport i mean okay i know golf is back nascar is doing some things but there's no other direct competition sports at the moment. You can't miss that window.

So it is what it is. Sorry, Paige. By the way, Luke, they are viciously cashing her out because this is a fight she can't win. Yeah, I mean, they are giving her. This is what they did to her. Well, do you remember when Orlovsky got booted from the UFC the first time and they gave him Jake O'Brien on the prelim card? Now, Jake O'Brien was supposed to win that fight,

but they were trying to just absolutely bury him, so he had no negotiating value afterwards. They're at least putting her on the main card, which will give her some visibility, but it'll probably be visibility en route to a bad stoppage loss. Okay, I would say a couple things. One, the fighters are always like, what? There's a difficulty in front of me? I'm too tough to succumb to this difficulty. Whereas boxers would be like, look, bitch, we're partners in this. You ain't doing shit without my approval. So it's just a really totally different mentality that the fighters have in MMA versus boxing. If there was a fighters union, they would never allow this. And by the way, it should be noted the first couple of times actually the first the only two times they've gone to Abu Dhabi they had afternoon fights the Khabib fight and then the um Silva and Maya fight so

they've done them both in the afternoon but you know they got some coin to make uh in terms of all the difficulties they've had with COVID and the loss to the gate so my thought is if they want to do it at 6 a.m and by the way these other like prelim card fighters are gonna be on at 4 a.m just compensate the fighters a little bit but I don't think that they're to do it at 6 a.m. And by the way, these other prelim card fighters are going to be on at 4 a.m. Just compensate the fighters a little bit. But I don't think that they're going to do that. So here's why they're doing it. Because they can.

It's the short answer. Because they can. I don't want to keep going down the road of this bait and switch fight island thing. Because again, these cards are awesome. It's just Abu Dhabi. But what a dick tease from Dana the other day on Instagram. Putting up a picture of that damn octagon on the beach we ain't doing that you're the guy who made fun of us for believing you that we might do that so like just what are you doing i know they're still calling it fight

island can we stop calling it that it's just abu dhabi that's it that's all it is all right from uh at dip 3886 this one is interesting because i did an interview with submission radio saying i thought for sure he'd say something after the fight he did not what do you make bc Dip 3886. This one is interesting because I did an interview with Submission Radio saying I thought for sure he'd say something after the fight. He did not. What do you make, BC, of Conor's silence following the Poirier and Hooker fight? Good question. I don't know.

That is a great question because I do believe when Dana says, I haven't talked to him at all, I do believe that. I do believe when Dana says Conor's't talked to him at all. I do believe that. I do believe when Dana says Conor's made so much fricking whiskey money lately that there's even more motivation not to come back. But sometimes silence obviously speaks a lot more. We've seen many times Conor, whether he's, you know, praising guys or ripping them after big fights, trying to steal back that spotlight. We can all imagine him sitting on the couch and his underwear with a glass of whiskey just you know talking ish when he doesn't speak that does lead me to believe that um maybe things are happening maybe he's in the gym has his team

calling trying to figure out and i mean look the best thing that can happen for the sport here luke let's be honest is that connor has the hunger to take a little bit less money to come back and i say a little bit less because yes there's no live gate which is the whole reason why connor can say i'm retiring and why we're having this whole issue but let's not like discount what abu dhabi's presence is in this like obviously they're giving a large site fee that's the reason why ufc is going there dana has said this fight, these fight cards, they are separate from that actual deal that they cut with Abu Dhabi over five years to put on cards there.

So in theory, Luke, even if we can't get people back in the stadiums by February 1st, 2021, as we've argued, you know, could you get a large enough site fee from Abu Dhabi or whomever on the international circuit to do this? Maybe, could you get a large enough site fee from Abu Dhabi or whomever on the international circuit to do this? Maybe, maybe you could. So the best thing for the sport would Connor looking at this going, okay, Poirier looks really good right now. I can't fight Habib right now. So I'm going to fight Dustin in a rematch for the damn interim title. I've knocked him out before. I'm going to come out there and do it again. That'd be the best damn thing that could happen

for the sport. I don't necessarily believe that that's happening but i do wonder if the wheels are turning and we're not seeing it of just coming back in general and trying to figure out if and how it's possible because um does he want or need another like year off no he i don't you know he's already done that he's already taken the large gaps off to make money or rest or or let you know create leverage like that's over he's got to start getting busy if he's going to be serious again luke about actually being a champion man i gotta tell you like would connor want to go to abu dhabi or saudi arabia given some of the things he said about khabib and uh his wife i don't i don't know how safe that is to be honest with you. I mean, Abu Dhabi is...

Call Kinnahan. Call Daniel Kinnahan, right? Yeah. I mean, Abu Dhabi is, from a government standpoint, quite repressive, but socially a lot more open. So maybe that would be better, and Saudi Arabia would be completely not possible. I don't know. But if I was him, that would be something I would explore.

I cannot imagine that that would be no security implication from saying some of the things that he said number one number two the other component here is i gotta tell you if you saw the news i think last week it did not get shared a bunch but remember irish press cannot name people who have not been they've only been uh they've not been formally uh charged with a crime they're just in sort of an investigating investigation standpoint or even convicted, I think. But there were reports that the famous Irish sports star was not going to be charged with rape. And it's all sort of believed that that is around Conor McGregor.

So we can't really say for sure what that is, but it looks like that might be past him. Which if it is, and he's really free and clear to just pursue his professional and personal life as he sees fit the fact that he did not tweet about this i gotta tell you kind of bums me out because it might actually mean he just was bored by it and he just wasn't interested in it which means there's nothing about it that's not possible though okay listen we're all i mean your mind reading is no better than mine on this one i'm just saying usually if he's got an axe to grind or there's something that really want to makes him insert himself into the conversation he will he didn't even insert himself into the conversation on his own terms it was as if nothing happened that is that is unusual do you think there's a chance he watched how great poirier looked and he's like well i don't

see a weakness there right now and i'm not willing to get into one of those freaking wars do you think there's that chance this is a who, when he is in the zone, thinks he can beat all of them. He thinks he's the GOAT on par with Anderson Silva, despite his losses. Like, no, I don't think he saw that at all. I think he's bored by it, or at least unmoved, I should say, by it. And that, to me, is a bigger problem.

Let's say I create a scenario in which I told you he is willing to come back and the money would be there somehow what are the fights do you think he would accept right now okay so khabib obviously justin for the interim title uh anderson i'm gonna say this without knowing i'm gonna say jorge masvidal i'm gonna say jorge masvidal i'm going to say jorge masvidal um nate i don't know nick yeah nick um do we think he ought to sign yeah that's i mean that's crazy but i'm saying if they offered it he'd take it uh mike mike perry no no he's not coming back for mike perry so something like that something like that. Something like that. A big-ass B-side.

Dude, if I'm him, I'm sliding into Coach Latorre right now. I'm stirring this pot up because that's a fun little fight there to stay busy with, Luke. Pay-per-view main event. I don't know. I've got to say, it was weird. It was weird. I thought for sure he'd have something to say.

Nope. All right. This is an interesting one. At Rodriguez works with a Z. BC, did you tilt your phone away from your wife when looking at the new Gina Carano Instagram pic? Or did you just share because you're all out of Fs to give? What do you think?

What did you do? Luke, as I sit here with my hemp-infused Kalo seltzer, can I pour one out for the GOAT Gina Carlson? Wow, I don't even know if we can show that, Luke. More to come. Not from her. Luke, this was a seminal, the right word, Instagram moment. I take Luke. I got to tell you, I think a bunch of you guys are like horned up 13-year-olds,

which is to say the following. I am not here to say that this pick is anything less than a 10 out of 10. It's 10 out of 10. She's a 10 out of 10. She was great in The Mandalorian, by the way, which was a phenomenal show on Disney+. She was great in The Mandalorian. Very good.

I'm not here to poo-poo this at all. I'm just saying, if what you're after on instagram is tna dude the rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than this you know you're missing it you're missing it you're what am i missing it would be this this goes back to the showgirls discussion why would i get a group of 30 horned up dudes and fake ids even on some of them to go to first showing friday night of showgirls because it's jesse spano this is gina carano come on luke it's not like oh well if you've got a cell phone and you're looking on it you could be seeing much better ish than this no luke there's there's certain

protected species in this world okay i get it i get it i just gotta tell you. Listen, I'm not here to... No, no, no. Don't say anything, dude. It sounds like I'm bagging on it. I'm not bagging on it. I'm just here to say, dude, this is great. But if you like this sort of thing, let me show you. I don't know.

Have you seen Urengatang on Instagram? I mean, dude's got like eight million followers all he does is shoot pictures of women who've lost dental floss up their rear end uh or victoria lombana or miss dolly castro or i mean i could go on do you show up this is not that hard do you show up at peter luger's steakhouse and be like well you know that gas station on the corner's got beef too it's you know if you're looking for beef, if all you want is beef, right? I got, I'll find you a couple of taco shells to hold that beef, right? I think it's the other way around.

I think this is you showing up at, I don't know, like a nice sort of outback. And then me being like, I got Peter Luger's over here. If that's what, you know, if that's what you're into, I'm not above an outback. I'm just not saying, I'm just not saying the buck doesn't stop at outback luke this is one of those times like did you think you were gonna wake up yesterday and and this would happen like gina crown is just gonna decide you know what i'm going for today no this this is this is a seminal moment luke for a reason okay so back off get out of here is it seminal is that what it off. Get out of here. Is it seminal? Is that what it is? Luke, get out of here, okay?

I mean, let people enjoy their lives, by the way. It's fantastic. I'm not backing on it. Listen, if this is what makes you take your pants off and go touch yourself inappropriately and use the bottom half of your body as an amusement park at the bus stop, listen, that's between you and the local authorities. I'm not here to stop it.

I'm just saying. Luke, there's something about the way the hair falls in her face, all right? Listen, the lip-biting thing is great for most of you. Didn't work for me. You know that my weakness is Latin American women. I just respond to a different set of incentives. But listen, she's a 10 out of 10.

This is an amazing pick. And I'm looking forward to season two of The Mandalorian. So in the TNA debate, you just took A, apparently. That's fine. You know, that's fine. I guess by default, I kind of did. All right. And then last, but certainly not.

Please leave your man card in that lumberjack shirt on your way out, all right? Thank you. Listen, I will show you the ways of Instagram, and you will regret all of these points you are making. No, Luke, there's still, look, it's like, yeah, I can go in the woods and find a deer or I can go to the zoo and see this, you know, there's only 22

left of these species in the world and it's got a green tail. Like, come on, Luke, you know what I'm saying? You're overstating how exotic it is. It's more like, you know, tigers are cool to see, but Joe Exotic had a bunch of them all right uh i have a smell donato line one for you luke if that's the direction you're going on this all

right ibp underscore three says how do you tell your parents that you are in a boy band i don't understand this question oh i think they're they're referenced jay do you have that picture handy i'm sure you do of jay's uh no escape band that he tried you guys have to understand we love jet well it's a love hate it's a love hate oh jay all of a sudden misplaced the asset jay has a shameless pursuit of fame and i give him credit he's got a great documentary about back to the future called back in time check it out but uh jay maybe this is where jay needs a live mic i need to jay when you told your parents lou i got uncle lou has has put me in the back of the camper uh michael's

back there there's a llama back there too and uh you know he says we can make it in this world you know what i mean jay you have a live mic or is that illegal i don't know all right all right yeah your parents were not into it i get it i get it you know what i mean yeah how do you tell your parents that you're in a boy band boy that is right up there with uh i'm dropping out of college to join a hippie commune that is boy that is i mean that's just if you know that's when you have to look at your parents and tell them i have failed you and then they have to look in hindsight you failed them in hindsight of the great you know late 90s 2000 not not discounting new kids on the block but the late 90s early 2000 boy band trl era is there any band that was redeemable any

anyone inside any of those bands that you're like that guy was cool but the rest of those guys they were they were lame because i'll i'll stand by 98 degrees i'd hang out with those guys see people always say justin timberlake but i've always been a believer he's an overrated sack of shit who has just leaned on the black artist he borrowed from from day one yeah we got a great artist on our show named maniche who's who's about to take timberlake down yeah thank you so to me he sucks and he's also kind of flagging although he is here's another one. Isn't he married to Jessica Biel for now? Like, you know, can't hate on him too much.

Is there one that's redeemable? I don't know. I need degrees. Those guys were all right. Come on. The question is, who made money and didn't blow it in the end? Did Nick Lachey make cash and then, like, hold on to it? Or did he end up being, like, a B-list?

Like, oh, help, I'm a celebrity and I'm trapped in a lava. What? I want to hear about the tail, okay? He's B-list. Yeah. See, here's the problem. I think Jessica Simpson got all the cash on that one. The problem with those boy band deals is that they took all their money up front.

They were always bad deals. Now they got a tour in their late 30s and 40s to make the cash off sentimentality that then they didn't ever made back when they were you know prime targets in their 20s industry rule number 4080 luke right record company people are shady yeah backstreet boys are still on tour uh that's why backstreet's back all right because they need to be okay thank you they have no other they have no other job or skill let me ask you this what's a bigger town old town could hang what's a bigger failure being in a boy band or getting a face tattoo what do you think you know i once asked mike perry in december actually i said how you know you got a lot of

tats how bad do the face ones hurt and ones hurt relative to pain that you suffer in MMA? His response was, I don't know. I haven't had feeling in my face in years. Dude, he's a hard charger, man. People clown Mike Perry because he says crazy things, but that dude is another level of tough, bro. He is out there i'll say uh i'll say getting a face tattoo is less reprehensible than jay's roohypnol infused boy band you know no escape which is really just sort

of ominous and weird of a foreign name he has no master tapes of their recordings too i bet you there were no recordings i bet you yeah yeah it was you know this may have yeah okay all right let's keep rolling here before before it gets gross all right uh with that in mind bc steer the show good sir your chance oh hey hey hey look you know what we do here play the intro there jay go ahead yes we scour the globe for the highs and lows, the good, the bad, and the ugly in combat sports and beyond. It's have you seen this ish? Luke, we always start out with legitimate combat sports and legitimate one-way tickets to hell.

Luke, have you seen this ish from a leg lock? I don't know what country is this happening here, but we a backfish ko from the man being leg locked vadym rolich is is uh the man who could submit here ivan buktoriav has him in there luke it's tap time no go to sleep leave your soul and that was a terrible that was it wasn't a heel hook that was a terrible straight ankle lock which is just it's it's just, it doesn't, um, it's just a pain submission. It doesn't actually break anything. See in pro wrestling, if you're getting figure four leg lock, all you have to do is roll

over and that reverses the pain on them. He decided, Luke, I'll just back fist him. I mean, that was kind of a weak KO, right? That's super weak, but dude, hey, listen, if it works, it works. That is wild, man. Oh, ACB. Of course, it's somewhere in, uh, hey, listen, if it works, it works. That is wild, man. Oh, ACB. Of course, it's somewhere in Eastern Europe. Yeah, the Baltic region, maybe.

All right, let's roll on here. Let's go kickboxing. They do nasty things. The Baltic states are Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Well, that's where my people are from. This is Le Sitmonchai. He got kneed in the balls, and his response, Luke, was to chop down the tree. How vicious are these leg kicks, Luke?

Oh, those are the Rob Kamen across both thighs. Remember Rob Kamen when he was training Brandon Vera? So watch this. See how it's in front of both thighs like that one. Oh, Jesus. I was going to say he's going to have to squat to pee the rest of his life, but he ain't squatting with those injuries, Luke. Oh, dude, that is.

You can see the back of the white dude's leg, too. He was getting, you know. What do they call them in Thailand, farang? They call the white outsiders farang? Oh, Taiwan, yeah. All right. Well, this wasn't the fight of the week, Luke. The fight of the week took place on a street corner.

Somebody call up Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Ho! What the hell is this? This ain't on the list. Oh, sorry, Luke. This is somebody's freestyling here. What's happening here? Let's just see what happens.

All right. Someone's trying his elbow. Oh! Oh, it's a double KO! It's a Muay Thai double KO! Look at the referee double counting look at him he just look is that guy a referee or is he conducting a symphony we have a rule on this show if there's a double knockdown or a double ko you make the show i forgot i had this

on there muay thai in the house look at this anyway this is great the the white guy has an elbow he throws and then the the black dude just has a punch. Oh, that is brilliant. Look at this. This is great. Block him. Watch the rest. This is like the ending of Rocky II, Luke.

And this is where the clarinets come in, and now the elbow. I think if you stand up, you win. That's how that works. Yeah. By the way, you and I were both cage side for Bellator MSG. You do remember. I'm sorry, Bellator MSG. You do remember. I'm sorry, Bellator NYC.

You do remember Mitrione Fedor. That was a moment, Luke. That was a moment in time, bro. All right? Yes, I was not cage-side for Bellator Monosodium Glutamate. But, yes, I was. Thank you. It's my favorite additive.

All right, let's go to the street corner. This is your fight of the week, Luke. Oh! Did you see this-ish? There's two, well, at least one bum, at least one vagabond. And we got it. We got it. Let me guess.

The white guy is an all lives matter dog. It's two by four. Watch out for that partition, Luke. Oh, God. Convenience score guy walking him down with the two by four. Oh, wow. Yeah. This guy's like, 2x4. Oh, wow. Yeah. This guy's like, all last matter.

Block him. Oh. Oh, God. That is. Where is this? Brooklyn? Where is this? This is Queens?

It looks very Philadelphia-like to me. I don't know. Oh, that is just great. Could be D.C. I think that's actually your street, Luke. That's great. No, that's ain't D.C. This ain't D.C.

I can watch this all day. Hey, let's go to the tailgate. Hey, Luke, you ever been partying at the tailgate before a game? You know, you're blowing bubbles, you're doing shots, and then a fan man flies in out of nowhere and hits the back of the bumper. What the hell is going on here? Dude, what the fuck? This is in Russia?

I don't know where. The account is look at this russian yes wow there were kids on hand there luke that's uh he set off the alarm too that's that's fantastic luke it does bring to mind a classic moment in combat sports history you know where i'm going here right oh with uh the galata fight no riddick, Evander Holyfield, part de. Do we have footage of that? You remember when Fan Man... What was the guy's name when he just parachuted in? Oh, yeah, when Fan Man landed and then got the ish beaten out of him by Riddick Bowe's extended team.

I mean, in hindsight, Luke, boxing's bizarre enough. This was like the biggest, most important fight of the year. I mean, this is like the rematch for the heavyweight championship between two hall of famers and this guy's like no let me just fly in let me just let me just interrupt this and then look they beat them they beat the dog out of him they beat the tar out of this man yeah yep this is uh again i'm gonna say i'm tougher than riddick bo bc because he lasted one week at marine corps boot camp i lasted 13 so i just want to point that out wow he would fight you for very little money if you really want to test that in the ring uh remember he had that really sad kickboxing video by the way i remember news reports after this they

were like no one was injured in the fan man uh incident except for the fan man himself he was badly beaten and hospitalized yeah who took an epic beating yes Yes. All right. Hey, shout out to people, Luke, like people I respect, like Showtime's Brian Custer, who got me to finally man up last year, right? When I turned 40, turned 41 and get that prostate exam. You know what I mean? So Luke, friends, don't let friends miss out on prostate exams because it's important, including this friend in our next video, Jay, if you can hit that button already there. There you go.

There you go. I don't know what's going on or where it's happening, but I think we got an oil change here on line one. Oh, my God, Luke, what is happening there? At least lube him up first, Luke. Is this the dude that puts the wine glasses in front of his dong? No. I love that guy, though.

That guy is a regular on this show but uh yikes that is a surprise luke surprise yep okay he's not happy too he's going after him luke what what would you do a friend that did that to you um i don't know bc have you tried and i don't know about it or something are you making a i i don't i don't i'm not really into that stuff luke i'm more of an instagram you literally started the show by saying you were the butt to my stuff you are quite obviously into it no no i get mislabeled often on the show luke believe me believe me okay uh hey let's go from here uh check out abuelo this week luke i know there's a lot of stuff going on with covid should we wear masks abuelo trying to get into this florida walmart they no mask and they are not having it oh god

somebody so can we get a porter to aisle one to scoop up the old guy luke he is not happy that's it he just fell on his face one time well and they are still telling him sir you need you need to wear a mask i'm sorry sorry. The COVID cases are rising. Luke Thomas is out of his mind. Sir, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You're going to have to. I'm sure I'm out of my mind with COVID now.

Worse of an outbreak as it was before in April. He's like, I just want my laxatives. Look at Abuela go after it right now, Luke. You okay with this? Bro, this is just an example of how fucking stupid some americans are that this is so hard for them unbelievable but this isn't even the best one you missed like the best like anti-mask loser moron well there's a lot of karen videos yeah a lot of karen videos of uh ladies you know screaming and shouting about their breathing problems when they're

with their major problem is either a stupid or, or B, morbidly obese. Well, yeah. We don't often get into politics on this show. Luke, what do you have to say? BCS, the best part. It's not really political. Just wear your fucking mask. It's not that hard.

Luke, I'm generally, I don't believe the left or the right. You know me. I'm apolitical. So when you see the Clay Travis types on the other side of you luke who are saying like this is just misreported yes the numbers are up but they're all young people the deaths clay travis clay travis also thought there would be only a couple

thousand deaths total in back in march not a gentleman i would listen to if i were you i the answer is what i'm saying is in the middle somewhere between clay and luke right in the middle okay that's where i'm not the i'm not the opposite of clay i know you'd like to believe i i adopt some kind of extreme position here uh i don't i operate the position that the epidemiologist operate which is this shit's going to be with us for a long time if fucking morons like this just don't mask up all you gotta do is mask up Super simple solution. We can all go back to normal. Okay? Call up your abuelo.

Mask him up. All right, let's roll on. Let's go to the MMA cage. Sometimes you get an aggressive referee looking to save people's lives, but sometimes they jump in, Luke, a little bit too late. Hey, nice idea there, guy, but you're not going to be needed here. What is this, Luke? Come on.

Dude, the referee needs saving from the guy who knocked out the other guy. Yes, yes. Look at the guy with the knockout. He's like, okay, all right. Yep, the fight's over. Thank you very much. Jesus Christ. All right. What's he doing?

I think he's trying to save. He's trying to stop further punishment. Some Dan Henderson-like UFC 100 shots. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, fair enough. All right, all right. Luke, let's mix two of your favorite things to mix together, parenting and alcohol. It doesn't always go right here, Luke.

Here's a toast. Oh, boy. Oh, come on, guy. Come on, Dad. I mean, we're going to shotgun some beers while... Dude, that is child abuse. What is doing yeah yeah is that your brother oh my god that is yeah no my brother's name matt are you allowed to matt thomas all right i'm gonna get him on this show i'm gonna get some answers on no you you absolutely will not get him on the show. He will not listen to you. If you think I'm ornery, whoa.

Okay, okay, okay. So, you know, dad with the papoose hair, not a good idea. But how about there's other ways to carry around your children. Luke, check out this guy. You know, you finish an 18-pack. You got an empty box. Why not just, all right, we're all out of order here we're all out of order all right well hey this was a uh look this was uh yeah this was a different one

altogether here luke uh you got to be careful you know this is the new trend you just you just bounce a basketball with alcohol on top what's the goal the goal is to catch it and drink it right is that is that a partial birth abortion we just watched? What is this? I was going to say, you might F around and get pregnant doing this, but maybe you're right. Maybe it's the other way, Luke. Oh, wow.

Is this like a backwoods Planned Parenthood? What are we looking at here? That's assault, brother. Yes, that's, yeah. Oh, that is awesome. at amy schumer's hair here what is she fucking yeah what are you doing here all right i don't know if we have that other one here i should have checked these let's just keep rolling here we love drunk chicks drunk chicks make it on this show a lot luke uh wait let me not set this up you know what the worst

combination is drunk chicks in actions lu, let me ask you a question. You going to hang out during that? Dude, what the fuck? Wow. Holly Holm's got to be careful there. Have you done the axe throwing thing? I have not. There's a lot of things I've done drunk, but I'm a little nervous of that, Luke.

So they opened up one right before the old pandemic hit so i never got a chance to go uh it was this shit that i was afraid of oh you got to be kidding me yeah yeah yeah that's bad that is really bad all right uh let's try to stay on track here i don't know where we are on this list all right let's let's let it roll dude luke you ever hear of a uh uh remember in the 90s when they had drive-thru package stores that got really exciting how about a drive-thru bar luke you into this hell yeah dude this guy is my hero this guy is huge look at the bouncer chasing him out oh this guy is the man not only does this remind you of that scene in ferris bueller at the end when he's trying to run home right and he cuts through the house but luke when i lived in my my wacky 20s i lived

in my home my home factory town over the town green i had a third floor apartment over it luke we had this massive it's almost like it's like a park in the center of the town there's like war statues there's fountains there's gazebos like it's giant many times luke many times i've looked out that third floor window and said i think i can drive the car my car directly across the green uh did you live in hartford no no no no no i lived i lived i lived in naugatuck connecticut back in the day um so luke there were many times that i i never had the the the balls to do it but there were many times that i i was like you know that would be the ultimate can you drive across the town green without getting arrested dude and look at how sad this bar is i mean so the reason why you

can you imagine trying to pick up the bar flies at the end of the shift at this joint wow the reason why i never pulled it off luke is one time i took a wrong turn in new haven after a night out and i accidentally drove across the quad at yale that across the center of campus um on a sidewalk so um yeah i went streaking at uva in my 20s oh nice nice i did that you go to bed bath and beyond the next morning what's it hits the lips luke you know what i'm saying tastes so good uh i don't know what that means but okay okay i'm very old school all right we're gonna roll on here luke um uh it's manziel mafia time shout out to this browns fan going for the backflip look and he got ko'd it's over uh is this is this what the kids call an rko bc

uh no this is what the kids call a metaphor for johnny manziel's professional career look at this the people on the side just watching it no this is a uh shooting star press is what you would call this in pro wrestling if you did this off the top fucking day this is great this is a dude you got to start putting more darwin awards on this fucking thing this is this is my watching idiots get their comeuppance from being idiots is my favorite shit ever look you've never driven across something you've never had the urge to like you know what if i could i pull this off and you're always like you don't want to do it drunk because it's illegal and dangerous, Luke. But you need the balls to pull it off, right?

Nothing. Nothing cool. I one time ran over someone's when I was 16. I ran over someone's yard and then I backed up. And then as I did, it tore out all the grass and then they chased me. But that was it. All right. All right. right that's great that's great okay hey we'll roll on from this luke um i know grip to grip is becoming a thing but don't count

out tip to tip or more importantly flying tip to tip we've seen this before luke but i will never not put this on the show look at the dedication look at the friendship lu Luke. That's got to hurt. Luke, 100 subs? Would you do that for 100,000 subs? Would you? Yes. Yes, I would. They're scissoring. Okay.

Okay. That is just, yes. Yes. Blah. All right. All right. Speaking of grip to grip, Luke, we have a submission this week. Shout out to our viewer on the show, at Release the Dogs on Twitter.

He goes by the name Grandpa Unofficial. Ask how, ask now. It's Sherwin-Williams, and we got a grip-to-grip in the back room, Luke. After this, they swirled the paint with their sticks. Luke, it was great. Dude, look at these two heterosexuals right here. I mean, two different high school prom kings

if I've ever laid my eyes on a pair. Their dedication to our movement and our show, Luke, is fantastic. It's not giving me the movement, but it's fantastic. If they didn't do this in real life, they'd be metaphorically doing it on 4chan. Oh, stop that. Look at these winners. Is that Bob and Neil, or is that what they do? Luke, which guy do you think initiated it? The other guy's like, I don't know if I'm, stop that. Stop. Look at these winners. Is that, is that Bob and Neil or is

that what they do? Look at, Oh, which guy do you think initiated it? The other guy's like, I don't know if I'm really into this. They're like, no, no, no. Get on the show. It'll be great. I gotta be honest. The gentleman on the left looks a little bit more like he's got that come hither look. Doesn't he? You know? Yeah. But the guy on the right looks got a bit more of that Stockholm syndrome. Yeah. Oh, come on. That's hardcore. Um um i respect these men they are people luke these are our listeners these are our viewers okay this is awesome i'm i'm teasing them because that's what we do here but this is fantastic thank you gentlemen um one day one day or let's get that guy outfitted and uh but you know shout out to sherwin williams maybe maybe a future sponsor

luke never know you never i need some i've had to paint my whole goddamn studio. You'll dip in the paint for them, right? Maybe the taint too, right? Yeah, something like that. Well, there you go. Is that it? That's where we're good? No dongs today? Have you seen that? Yeah, you see any of that shit? Yeah. BC, we have been running long, so why don't you give me your odds and ends, good sir?

Shout out to the UFC card over the weekend and heavyweight dad bottler. John Volante has given up Luke. We've known him at 205 many a times in wins and losses. This wasn't his heavyweight debut as a pro. Of course, let's not forget he was an alternate on the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix back in the day. But he moved up and he came in at 255.

That is him back in the day at light heavyweight. The quarantine was rough on our man, Luke. I don't know if we have the actual picture of him. Apparently not. All right. Well, Luke, he came in with, yeah, there it is. Dad bod 101. And then we saw a disastrous loss.

It was like Silva-San in one, only with a lot more girth and sweat, Luke. He had knocked down Maurice Green green he was on the verge of victory and then he basically just fell asleep in the guard luke and fell into the man's what's that uh not an armpit but that gap between your forearm and bicep luke what do you call that the backside of your elbow yeah the airy elbow is that what you called it um the man with two areolas fell into that and it was good night luke um i would like to praise maurice green's toughness but not his submission ability um john volante dad bod and all he he shot his load luke yeah that was quarantine volante there a little bit um not not great by the way i think it was if you look closely he was volante was

was like tucked in his face was covered here i don't think the head and arm triangle was strong enough to do that head and arm triangle from underneath dude you have to be like i cannot explain to you how strong you have to be you have to be very strong and it has to be like really on there i i don't buy that that's what it was i think he pulled him. He basically just took him and then shoved him into his chest and then held him there like a pillow on an old person in a hospital. That's kind of what it was like. If Poirier and Hooker was peak MMA, and it was in so many ways, Luke, it's one of the best fights you've ever seen.

It might be the second best fight of the year. This was the bottom of the food chain, Luke. Yeah, not great. Speaking of the bottom of the food chain luke yeah not great speaking of the bottom of the food chain other odds and ends uh 47 year old oscar de la joya he has announced a comeback kind of on an interview on his golden boy owned ring tv network said um or ring tv.com said i want to come back but i want like my whole career i want to face the very best so any top junior middleweights middleweights how about any top welterweights who want to move up in weight so when you hear that luke you're like

come on guy you know you want to come back and fight old trinidad yes you want to come back and fight mcgregor maybe but stop with the i'll fight anyone how about this luke i got a monday matchup for you sergio martinez is trying to ill-advisedly come back at like age 45 former middleweight champion how about we do oscar against sergio we put it on days in are you down i'll be down wasn't sergio martinez's knee completely shredded by the time his career was over yes but he has he has rehabbed it he got better surgeries he claims he can move again he comes he can punch now, too. He claims he learned how to punch.

All this tells you is, yes, there's a market for this. I don't know how big it is, but there's a market for it. And the reason why there's renewed attention on it is, one, because Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield have been rattling the cage, but also because they can't get actually big- time boxers back in the ring right now. So they're just trying to find a way to get fights with no names into the ring. And this is what we're left with. It is not particularly awe-inspiring, I have to tell you.

Funny though, Cynthia Conte, who did the interview, asked him when he was like, I'll fight any of the top guys. That's what I've always done. She's like, how about Canelo? Would you fight him? And he's like,'ll fight any of the top guys that's what i've always done she's like how about canelo would you fight him and he's like uh no no no no but for a second you saw the glimmer in his eye luke he you know he was you know the old oscar's still in there okay he's still in there canelo would do very bad things to oscar de la jolla uh okay for my odds and ends it's it's not bad news.

It's not good news. It's something in between. And the reason why I'll say that is because the bad part of it is that Roberto Duran, a manos de piedra, has been hospitalized with COVID. Now, the hospitalization was only preventative. His son took to Instagram to explain the only symptoms he's really had, Roberto Duran, by the way, 69 years old, so he's kind of in that cohort

where COVID can get pretty serious, has only had sort of mild cold symptoms, but they did it preventatively because in 2001, he had an accident that affected his ability to breathe and damaged pretty badly one of his lungs. So they were like, you know what? You're 69, you got COVID.

Let's just take it to the head of the hospital. B.C. So first of all, here at Morning Combat, while it's not great news, it turns out it's not all that bad just yet. Knock on wood. Hopefully he'll be fine and he'll go back to his normal life. B.C., speaking of his normal life, I have been to Panama City in Panama. And I have been to his bar. It is called Duran's.

You can go there. And he has basically built a monument to himself. I'm not kidding. He has TVs everywhere. And they're all showing his famous fights, all of his wins. All of his belts are all over the place. All of the newspaper headlines, all of the trunks he wore, all of his shoes. And he is in the back.

And this is true. You can go up there and see him yourself singing karaoke. He loves it. He's a man of the people. is in the back and this is true you can go up there and see him yourself singing karaoke he loves it he's a man of the people that would be the whole thing the food was terrible it was some of the worst food i've ever had and the waiters i ordered a fried chicken sandwich and like no moss no moss yeah i was like bro i was like i can't eat this and the fries were terrible but roberto duran roberto duran will belt a tune with you for like five bucks. It's great.

First of all, that's worth it. Number two, what did you get on tap there, Luke? Or did you get some weird? What did I get? No, I got a. So in Latin America, they don't do that really here. But in Latin America, when you go to a bar, you don't order a cocktail. mean you can do that but they don't it's not really a thing there for the most part that's changing but what is really what you do is you go and you just buy a bottle everyone just

buys a bottle and then they split it so uh we bought a bottle of johnny walker blue and then my table and i we just we just housed it it was great. All right. Don't drink the water, Luke. There's blood in the water. No, Panama, you can drink the water. It's fine. Don't worry about it. Okay. That's a 90s reference, Jay.

It wasn't a political commentary. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Okay, so I think that's it, which means we have to remind everyone, you got to give the video a thumbs up, you got to subscribe to the channel,

and you got to check us out on social media bc has an instagram and a twitter i have an instagram and a twitter you can see the information there below and you can see on morning combat if you want to get in on dms for donks every sunday we post a i want to hear from you we want to hear what you have to say bc and yeah look yeah go ahead go no no what were you gonna say, BC. Yeah, Luke. Yeah, go ahead. No, no, what were you going to say? I was going to say, look what I found. If you had to pick one, Luke, which direction are you going here?

I can see the NHL one. I can't see the other one. Tecmo Super Bowl or NHL 94? I'm going to go Tecmo Super Bowl. I'm going to go Tecmo Super Bowl. This is the real. Jeremy Roenick, right? Superfan 99.

Everyone knows this is the real. Yes, please subscribe, like, all that stuff um luke i've said it before got big plans we got i mean this if people could have access to the whispers to the plans to the to the destination of this rocket ship right they you know pretty badass luke pretty badass um if this was hockey we would give our three stars of the week luke um dustin poirier star number one thank you um gina carano star number two gino carano star number three thank you all right i won't argue too much with that uh okay so if you want to try showtime and you want to check out this new documentary coming out, multiple part series starting 10 p.m. East Coast time, July 5th called Outcry,

sort of a true crime story, you can do that. Go to Showtime.com right now. You can try it for 30 days. I think there are still some episodes left, by the way, ABC of Morning Combat Strike Force Classics. They did best submissions last

week i think there's one more airing this weekend then one after that as well so knockouts right yep knockouts you could check that out as well a lot of stuff and if you don't like it you can go pound sand and leave a lot of options there for you you can get bent if you don't like it all right so what was your what was your go-to team on NHL 94? This is, this is the real talk. Okay. Ooh, I don't remember. I don't know. It's been so long since I played. Okay.

I was, I was a big Boston Bruins guy, right? You know, oats Neely, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's fine. I probably played with the capitals, but I don't really remember. Ray board.

I have to get out of here, BC. All right. I have to get out of here. If you want to check out MK merchandisechandise, store.show.com. We'll be back next week with a huge UFC 251 preview. Take care of yourself this weekend. It's July 4th. It's July 4th, so don't get any trouble.

Be cool. Be smart. Mask up. Don't be a donk. Just put it on your dumb face wherever you're going. And then we can all get back to our normal lives as we all wish to do and then we will get you ready for UFC 251 on Monday for Brian Campbell and everyone at Malka and Showtime I'm Luke Thomas until next time may all of your gains be loyal