MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Recap: Evander Holyfield-Vitor Belfort, Silva-Ortiz | Oscar Valdez | EP 202

Episode Date: September 13, 2021

On Episode 202 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian recap Vitor Belfort's win over Evander Holyfield and discuss Triller's impact on boxing. Plus, they breakdown Anderson Silva's W over Tito Ortiz and Oscar Valdez' close victory over Robson Conceicao. Also, they preview the weekend. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

it's the 13th of September, 2021. It's time, ladies and gentlemen, for Morning Combat. Hello, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I am happy to be here. I'm from CBS Sports and Showtime. I am Sans Gato. But the man to my, well, I guess the right of the screen,

but to my left, he is not, he is Kongato. He is also the king of Connecticut and wears the worst shirts known to man, but I love him just the same. It's my friend and yours. It's Brian Campbell. What's up, BC? Luke, 2021 is all about taking, you know, putting the ax down. Stop grinding, so to speak. Okay, Luke.

So we're trying to do that here. That was Zoe the cat who made the quick appearance, but she's a violent lover. So lover so that ended fast but hey great to be back it's monday the 13th which your favorite kind yeah yeah yeah yeah which means anything can happen luke so uh you know as our producers will tell you we just barely made it to the start of this show all right if there was chaos i got loose push pins on the carpet i you know this i could i could perish at any i'm like Habib right before he submitted Gaethje right now, Luke. Okay? You know what I mean? On the razor's edge. Very quickly, before we get into all the things we hawk to our audience to purchase for us on our behalf,

how was your weekend? Very quickly. It was very nice, Luke. Thank you. Thank you. Very good. The weather, tremendous. A little bit of fall up here in New England, so it was fantastic. Thank you very much, Luke. Well, I have to tell you that my wife and I, we knew that it was going to be a challenge, and we knew that it was going to be difficult, but it was even worse than we could have ever possibly imagined. We took our two-and-a-half-year-old to the surprise party I was telling you about on Friday in New York City.

We went there and then on the same day went back so we could be home for a lot of different reasons uh that was very difficult I don't recommend doing that ever did you catch the COVID Luke at all I don't think I caught the COVID but I caught the I want to jump off a bridge and die I'm so tired of chasing my two-year-old around kind of disease um that wasn't very money. So don't do that if you can at all avoid it. But all right. So welcome to the show. We have a lot to get to today.

We have some boxing results that you may enjoy, may not enjoy. We'll get to that. First things first, thumbs up on the video. If you are new here or you've been around for a while, just kind of being a taker, be a giver. Hit that subscribe button. We need givers here. Hit the subscribe button.

Join us. We do three of these live shows a week plus a giver. Hit that subscribe button. We need givers here. Hit the subscribe button. Join us. We do three of these live shows a week, plus a ton more. And as you can see, we are all over social media with analysis, photos of our cats, and a whole lot more. We, of course, talk about fights that air on Showtime. If you want to get Showtime, you certainly can. Go to Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it.

If not, you can pound sand. BC, you are the resident guru, so to speak, of the merch store, which folks can find at morningcombat.store. Anything of note catch your eye today? Yeah, well, you know, we did unveil three new shirts last week that I hope people checked out and bought. Hopefully, Krupp and RJ Grundlemaster will give us an update on that. But the big update today, Luke, is for a limited time, we have the exclusive rollout of the BC Hawaiian shirt

coming to a bare chest near you. There's a little look of it on our website, morningcombat.store. You want to look just like BC. You want to wear my face all over your body. It's time to join the team team join the club of what's going on right here so limited edition i can't stress that enough they will not make more get yours today okay also yeah i mean you put bde on there but i just want to know that if you wear the shirt you are guaranteed to be unfuckable just just so that's clear to the general audience. Your testosterone level will instantly rise.

Instantly. Okay? You may ejaculate upon putting it on for the first time. And by the way, I think we have a promo code for this. Live 10 for 10% off. Now, I need the producers to tell me, I believe what they said was it's only good for literally the next two hours.

I'm told it's pinned in the chat on the youtube video so if you're getting this on podcast you might be boned but you can try it out just the same for 10 off this shirt you can use the code live 10 l-i-v-e and then the numbers one zero live 10 10 off live right now why not right right why. Right. Why not? And then, I mean, look, look, what,

what would be a good reason not to put that BD shirt on and just find out what happens, right? I can think of a few, but listen for the right customer. That's the perfect shirt. I want to point that out. I just want to say,

because I'm willing to wear Joanna on my body today. Do you think she's willing to wear me on hers, Luke? No, definitely not. Well, if she's watching, 10% off, JJ. Okay, let's do this, please. We'll save you 10%, Joanna, just for you. All right, BC, and last but certainly not least, I mean farthest thing from the least,

DraftKings, MK, partnership made in heaven. It continues. Now, week one is over, BC. I don't know if you saw the Washington football team play the Chargers, losing basically, I won't call it the last second, but, you know, giving the game up basically late. And then a pipe burst at FedEx Field, spewing, and I'm not exaggerating, raw sewage.

Now, it's true that the Redskins slash Washington football team has been shitting on their fans for 20 years, but BC, this takes it to a whole new level. I really was. I almost turned my fan card after 40 years on this earth. Did they trace that pipe back and found out it came directly from Daniel Snyder's owner, Sweet Luke? Because that would be a propos, as they say, okay?

And he actually is like he's like no no the pipe didn't burst that that's the feature not the bug but okay the games continue there is monday night football tonight by the way ravens taking on the raiders the brand new sort of new look ish raiders john gruden here finally making some moves on the roster that i think he's wanted to for a long time and of course everybody knows b. You can go to the DraftKings Sportsbook app right now. Place a bet of $1 on any week two game to receive $200 free bets instantly.

BC, they're extending the deal. It wasn't just a week one deal. It's now a week two deal. And of course, there's other cash prizes with Daily Fantasy and the new customers get put in line

for a chance to win millions in prizes. I mean, look, we talked about the deals put in line for a chance to win millions in prizes. I mean, look, we talked about the deals you could get as a first-time customer here. $200 worth of bets for, what, $1? I mean, you know, come on with that deal. And if this is not available in your state, you still have plenty of reasons to get involved

in DraftKings Daily Fantasy Contest, a chance to win $1 million. So, please join on what's going on with MKDT, get a little in on that Bukake, and we can really compromise our integrity while consummating our relationships and taking this forward. Can't wait to see where this goes.

Luke, love me some DraftKings. Thank you. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Use the promo code COMBAT, that's COMBAT with a K if you are listening to the podcast, to receive $200 in free bets when you place a $1 bet on any football game from week two. That's promo code COMBAT this week at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. OK, BC, we have a lot to get to today.

So without further ado, let us do it. It is time for our five topics. Let's go topic number one here. Well, it's not the prettiest of topics. It's not my favorite to discuss. I don't even really want to lead the show with it, but we just kind of have to because it's what everyone is talking about, at least in the combat sports world. Evander Holyfield fought Vitor Belfort and lost inside the first round pretty quickly. Fell over on a left hook that he had actually thrown,

I think been knocked down, and then the ref kind of waved it. He wasn't really looking for a whole lot there. BC, what can you say about the fight, number one? And number two, I don't mean like what is their next fight because maybe the answer is there is none. So I'll ask it this way. Where does each of them go from here? Oh, God. Hopefully home, Luke.

Please go home. up take a take a cold shower i mean look you know the the best tweet i probably could offer it was sort of like you know how do i wash this shit off that's what it felt like luke this was grimy for so many good reasons coming in of why you may have wanted to avoid it or just be morally you know know, apprehensive toward it because Holyfield should not have been in there at age 58. And I'm not here to debate whether that stoppage was right or wrong. Like shout out to Sam Burgos for being the only, the referee, the only adult in the room. I mean, was it a good stoppage in real boxing? Probably not. And did Holyfield maybe get more of a slip push than a maybe, but the whole deal is here this fight never should

have happened they never should have commissioned shopped they never should have deceived the public on to whether it's an exhibition or a probe out there's a lot of they shouldn't into this and i think as we talk about the greater celebrity crossover bubble it's one big bubble for a while you know for the most part it had been fronted by the Paul brothers and the YouTubers, but don't forget Mike Tyson coming back was a big part of putting air in this bubble. You know, we said, could there be a debacle that blows that bubble? Could it just be a Paul brother losing? Could it just be a string of non-competitive, non-fun fights? There's a lot of ways this thing can go bad. I kind of feel like it went all bad Saturday night, meaning we got enough of a bad taste in our mouth altogether that unfortunately I think everybody in this bubble

kind of has to suffer because even though, Luke, yes, we can talk now about who should fight who next and there are some potentially interesting creative matchups and let's not discount at all what Anderson Silva did in the co-main event. But Holyfield shouldn't have been in there. It was obvious from the beginning when he couldn't even, you know, collect his footwork and he's fallen all over the place. It was a merciful stoppage. The win means next to absolutely nothing. He had a bunch of inebriated folks in the ring afterwards, supposedly Triller executives throwing around the ideas of 30 million like like their pockets are filled with it uh what a freaking debacle luke and that's not even bringing to end the the the trumps and anderson silver and all the

other you know announcers drinking on the set i mean there's just like it's the kind of thing luke i feel like some of these little elements when added to a fight that's being billed as not completely serious, can be fun or can be different or can be interesting. But when you flood the TV screen with about 16 of them, and you have legitimate health concerns, and there's seemingly no adults in that building to protect anybody, and you have moments like Belfort cutting a make America great again speech as he's heading to the ring. Like he's 1984 pro wrestler opposite iron chic. And, uh, you know, I mean, there was

just enough bad taste in here, Luke, where I know we can make the argument. We have at times with the Paul brothers where this is a separate lane from boxing. There's room for it. It'll be here until it lasts. But I think I got enough of a bad taste for the whole bubble that while I respect that Showtime at least presents the Paul brothers in a legitimate sense, I'm quickly I'm the gas station food guy and I'm quickly losing any taste left for this type of bullshit. Why can you as I wrote for CBS Sports, can you put more lipstick on a pit? Like, boxing is boxing, bro. It's fucked up, okay? I mean, we can talk about Friday night's top-rate card. There's a lot of bullshit in boxing.

I'm not trying to say, stop this or my favorite sport's going to become, you know, the laughingstock of the land. But what we saw in Miami with Triller was just a big hot bowl of shit. And I kind of want it out of the sport now. I'm done. You know, did it take maybe the Holyfield fears and the grossness of that to push me over the edge? Maybe. Maybe that was the final straw for me personally and my taste. Maybe you or other viewers want more of this.

But, Luke, I'm the guy who tolerates the pro wrestling shit in the gas station hot dogs more than any. And I'm like, kind of had enough of this okay hey boxing real boxing let's let's get our shit together let's not have a room open for this type of stuff anymore are there some matchups i could want with anderson silver the paul brothers again maybe but as i saw saturday luke like fuck this shit enough of this that was gross and we are lucky that Holyfield walked off on his own power and had an argument for a bad stoppage because you know what could have happened if that fight kept going? He could have had a 60-year-old man out cold in the center of the ring.

For what? Bro, for what? You got a bunch of liars. You got a bunch of crooks, which is most of the people running boxing. I'm sorry. But again, Luke, have you ever seen one night where there's been this many things coming through your TV screen that are just like,line, if not outright, MAGA rally, or that a woman had to be escorted when they did a 9-11 remembrance moment of silence, or that the fights were weird.

Forget about the Holyfield one. The David Hay one, fighting his friend, was just a sort of weird exhibition, or the guys are a little bit older. Forget all that for just a second. If it was just about the fun side of it, know even kind of the raunchy side of it that would be not for everyone but I don't know we would be up in arms about it'd be a little bit skanky and you would just sort of say it is what it is but when they use that at least it felt like up until we discovered that the that drawer had been basically lying and calling these pro uh

bouts when they turn out to be exhibitions when we thought that they were that and even just putting Evander Holyfield in the ring, if you want to do raunchy, it all has to be entirely safe or in some way palatable. But when you bring in the safety concerns about having a guy who is, I think, almost 59 here in a few days, basically 60 years old, then what ends up happening is the one tries to work

as a camouflage for the other. President Trump was brought in, yes, to generate ratings, to generate buys for any number of different purposes, but also to move the conversation away from the fact that Evander Holyfield had absolutely zero reason to be in there. Now, to your point, there's a couple of pieces of silver lining here. One, Holyfield did walk out on his own power. Thank God. All right. So that's great. Number two, as I heard Eric Raskin argue, or at least, you know, sort of note, I want to borrow from him here if I can on the Showtime Boxing Podcast, you know, these were later discovered to be exhibitions. Triller couldn't

even be honest with the audience and they can say whatever they want after the fact. Look up multiple reports from Mike Coppinger, from Mark Ramondi, from several reporters who had noted that the top brass at Troller had told them this was a pro contest. Turned out none of that was true, but at a bare minimum, this won't go on Holyfield's record. We won't have to necessarily relive this moment when we go back and examine what it says in the Wikipedia entries for whatever that is worth, but everything else about this was beyond the pale dude listen we'll talk about this when we get to point number two here what we can say about Triller in general but the reality is this

it is perfectly reasonable to not really question but if you wanted to conclude that these are just people that don't really care about boxing right these are not people who are in boxing they might like it they might like it. They might enjoy it. There might be certain favorites and I don't know that they necessarily have it out to like damage it. I don't think that's, that's the case, but do they love it in a way where they feel a natural responsibility in whatever role they play in the sport to not just promote it to as many people, but to take care of it. Because those are two different things. And people often conflate size with just, oh, if it's a big event, it must be a grand

event. And if it's a grand event, it must be a good event. Not necessarily. And here you can see a huge, big bifurcation. Dude, in the end, they hit the parachute and they made sure these were exhibitions and they got a referee to stop it very quickly as he should have. I completely agree with you. But let it be known what risks they at least want to take and at a bare minimum even if they aren't willing to go all the way with those risks they want to tell you that

they want to go all the way with those risks for a titillation factor dude these are people in my opinion who should not be trusted i don't trust the word they say i don't trust a thing that they do ryan cavanaugh straight up lied to mike coppinger and you can question coppinger's reporting in this instance although if he says he's got multiple sources whatever that you know they also reached out to obama and there are negotiations about obama calling the teofimo card and we all laughed on twitter when that was you know researched and found to be completely false it's in in this case though luke in terms of the first topic here, it's not just a full damnation against Triller.

Can we also just drop a giant-sized doogie on the Florida State Athletic Commission? It's not that this is the first time we've had a lax state committee. Look, Texas has been a laughingstock of combat sports for a long-ass time here. But Florida's, at the moment, even Las Vegas, obviously. Nevada, at times, has been completely ridiculous as well. And this is sort of par for the course at the highest level in fight sports. But, I mean, Florida, between this and the masks and COVID, I mean, they're literally that parent who lets, you know, high school kids come over to their house and shoot heroin. You know what I mean?

Like, that's where we're at with this. I mean, so this is just, again, like this could have been so much freaking worse if Holyfield got flatlined. Instead, it's a laughable stain. But like, I mean, even to see Vitor Belfort, Luke, afterwards, not that we expect a ton from this guy, right? But to see him afterwards, like, you know, cut a promo on Jake Paul and call him a bitch and say, Canelo, you're ducking me at 185 and dropping all these swears at his kids and wife or smiling around him like this is this great moment

in his career. Just, like, just fuck off. And I, like, see, like, Luke, I've had enough. I entertained this. This is like you and I having a house party. And the people from across the tracks came over. And we didn't want to be rude and tell them to leave.

But they're stealing our beer and they're trying to take our ladies. And then, you know, it's like. Hold on, hold on. These aren't the kids from across the tracks, BC. These are the preppy kids who came in across town. No, no, these are the guys on the motorcycle from Weird Science. That's basically what's happening right now,ke and it's up to us i don't know if that means you and i or us meaning regular boxing to stand up and be like the hell out of my house okay again no one's trying to sit here and act like boxing has any type of uh reputable uh recognition you know reputation

at this point but we don't need this shit anymore i don't need this shit anymore maybe we should just stop talking about it because it's gross. It's really gross. It really is. We kind of got into it, so let's just jump into point two because we sort of bled into it already. I mean, where each guy goes from here,

I'm sure Vitor will get another fight. Evander needs to stop immediately is the answer. This is insane. Please stop. But for point number two, they've held what? I mean, I can't quite keep track of it because they haven't held the fight with Teofimo Lopez yet, although that's coming.

And they've had some Triller vs. events and some concerts. But I think I've counted, BC, correct me if I'm wrong, three big boxing events, the one with Mike Tyson and the one with Jake Paul and Ben Askren and then the one last night. Maybe I'm missing one in between. But basically those are the three big ones. What can you say that they have done in the sport of boxing? If I may be, see, I just want to, I want to establish some context here. People need to understand what Triller is at its core. At its core, it is an app. It is an app that's been around since about 2015 that was initially

designed as like an AI video editing software, but basically what it is now is a TikTok competitor. And it does have a broad amount of users, relatively speaking. It has done okay. But Triller, absent everything from last weekend and everything before they even really got into the combat sports space, there were multiple reports, including a big feature from Business Insider, that had said that they had inflated to a gross extent the amount of users that they have. And in fact, I've got the report up right here, BC, if I may.

Let's see. And what they had said was that they had 13, this was back a few years ago, but they had 13 million monthly active users and 60 million app downloads. The Business Insider story talked to six former employees and found out they only had 2 million monthly active users and just 448,000 monthly active on Android altogether. They had between 1 and 2.5 million in that range relative to what they were saying. They had, again, allegedly, according to the report, exaggerated.

They had been hit by another analytics firm. I also have that up here. Third-party mobile analytics Apptopia estimated that Triller had only 52 million lifetime installs, short of the 250 million that they had tried to sell to the public. At least tell them about it. Listen, folks, you can like this old man fighting, although to me, what Saturday sort of shows is that to get any kind of product out the door there has to be sleight of hand and they got to cut corners that's just

the reality they're not going to get a lot of commissions to sign on they're not getting a lot of fighters to do this they have to change the rules up it's a it's a total mess but more importantly I don't know the entirety of what the truth is neither BC nor I are omni-competent but between what happened on Saturday and then you go back to them having these multiple reports about them grossly exaggerating how well their app had done it's a basic question bc why on earth would you believe them why what have they done to make you think what have they said and then backed up in a way to make you think that this is all above board and that our concerns are alarmed?

I just don't see it. They have, last thing on this, I'll pitch it right back to you. Last thing, BC, my answer to the question is, here's what they've done. I think that they had created at least one fun event, the first one. And I do think that what they were doing around was that they kind of showed that, I mean, listen, these guys, these bigger names in the box and they need to get together. There is something missing that this hole is filling. But they have gone so far down that rabbit hole they have gotten lost and they're trying to bring us with them caution you not to do that yeah that's that's the best way

to say it they went way too far there were elements that they've done along the way that were either refreshing or interesting like let's lie. The first broadcast that you mentioned, from the joyous ways in which Mike Tyson came out and kind of repaired some of the demons in his own past by getting in great shape and kind of winning an exhibition that was, I know it was a draw. There was a lot of shenanigans there. But that mixed with the announcing that night with Maura Ranallo and Israel Adesanya and Snoop Dogg.

That was a home run. That was like, hey, look, we're doing something a little bit weird, a little bit different. And I think it bled into parts of that Jake Paul second card, Luke, where you had the skits with Pete Davidson. You had some things. But that night, as we talked about ad nauseum, I thought it went way too far to the point where you're just shitting on real boxing. And again, if you're going to have a show that's anything but real boxing then be anything but real boxing have 50 cent and snoop and pete

davidson as your announcers you know don't bring in like you know they ran a little snippet on saturday night of some of their greatest moments and they got pete davidson blown weed smoke and al bernstein's face and i'm just like oh, oh man, like poor Al. And I'm starting to be like, poor Sean Porter, poor Ray Flores. Like, I mean, I don't damn anybody to cash a check in this business, Luke. Okay. At all. But I feel like they have gone too far. They had some good ideas or little good moments that maybe they could have expanded upon. And you know, you can always argue, Luke, that when you bring in fresh artists musically who are hip it does have a chance to bring in a different audience with the the main product you're trying

to show but they've they've gone way too far in every category to where they're turning off uh hardcore fans I think they got to be turning off casual fans too you want to put up a fun old guy fight with a rap battle maybe that's your lane but you got to stay out of the real boxing lane which is throwing a shit ton of money at Teofimo Lopez Jr. and then laughably almost being unable to put this card on and then the egregious stuff with the super old guy fights Luke at the very least as long as this bubble is going to last and I feel again Saturday night was another major hit to the overall bubble I think there's an opening here if they want to stay with it if they say okay let's cut

the shit but we want to put together capable retired boxing and mixed martial arts fighters that still want to fight that we believe can go in there safely and kind of just let their hands go for a round and a half and see which one falls fine I thought Anderson Silvatino which I think think we're gonna get into you know what was

fun instead of trying to bring in a paul brother i kind of want to see anderson silva against vitor belfort in boxing is it a little bit of a shit show yes but like if you want to stay in that lane like trying to get mike tyson in one more fight with somebody where it's kind of competitive and safe and fun that's fine but you can't be everything all at once because then you're a complete shit show so their impact has been a disruptor yes buying that purse bid for Teofimo big disruption point but unable to build on it and Luke we make jokes every week but you know when's the 30 for 30 coming on where's this money coming from because who was that you know drunk stone guy who stumbled into the ring and interrupted everybody's like no i'll raise it to 30 million like that's not a good look at all luke so i think they got to

figure out who they really are and what they're trying to do if they want to be completely entertainment and nothing less than be that but i'm done i'm done here luke can we move on i'm done uh yeah last thing i want to say on this then we i'm happy to go talk about anderson silva which is a very very bright spot on this card last thing i'll say is you know you hear how the way that this is all marketed and it's sort of unique to triller it's less about the boxing event which is that they want to do boxing and music culture and internet culture and you culture, this sort of melding of all of these different cultural forces all in one. Dude, that's, I mean, it doesn't work, number one. And number two, it's just Limp Bizkit 2.0.

Oh, we're going to take a little bit of rap, a lot of teen-aints, and a little bit of rock, and we're going to put it together, and this will be a thing that people think is really hot and cool. We're going to break shit. It's going to burn the fuck out. Luke, we're going to break shit. That's what we're going to put it together and this will be a thing that people think is really hot and we're going to break it's going to burn the fuck out luke we're going to break shit that's what we're going to do it's really what it is yeah and it's really and i don't think they're going to break boxing certainly i don't know where am i suggesting you said that but i just mean like i know it's a song reference i'm just saying bc like for me it's like dude this whole thing is

kind of incoherent there are a couple of bright spots here or there and they just never really follow up on them so let's not do what triller does and let's follow up on him. So let's not do what Triller does, and let's follow up on the good spot. Let's go to number three, if we can here, BC. Anderson Silva. I mean, what do you say about this guy? We all knew he was going to win. That part is not in any way remarkable by itself. However, the way in which he won and the ease with which this part of his career is coming to him

tells me that there is something big on the horizon for him, number one. And number two, dude, nobody is shining in the post-UFC, I'm in my mid-40s, I don't know where to go, BKFC, Bellator, or whatever the hell I'm going to do, than Anderson Silva. BC, let me ask you. A, what did you make of the win, given that we knew he was probably going to do than Anderson Silva BC. Let me ask you a, what did you make of the wind? Given that we knew he was probably going to win relatively easily and be more importantly,

how, how far can this go? I think this made him the new face of this, of whatever's left of this bubble, meaning the competitive part of this bubble, right? Like say what you will about Jake Paul, but he was in competitive fights and getting knockouts and climbing the

ladder. And we're sort of like, OK, we want to see how far you can take this. In that silo, not the Evander silo, Anderson just jumped in front of everybody, Luke. Because he has the legitimate combat background, but because his skills have translated so perfectly to boxing where his footwork is legit. We all knew if this fight went more than, you know, longer than it did, he's going to mop up on Tito. Tito doesn't have hands, you know, he's washed. It is what it is. But for him to take it next level, like he did Luke, lure Tito into the corner and then leap in with sort of a check hook and complete, I mean, it was spectacular. It was another, like the Chavez decision win moment where we just bowed down to the legend. Talk about being able to repair the

ending of a UFC career that, you know, had some dark moments with the drug testing and the injuries and the consecutive losses. I think he's repairing a lot of that. But, Luke, he's very viable, not just competition-wise in this space, but I think commercially. I think he's going to get and will deserve a end-of-the-road pot-of-gold payday here.

And you know what, Luke? Remember we talked about coming into this fight? He may not want to do too good because he may scare the Paul brothers away. I am more interested than anything if I have any interest left in this bubble, and I know Jake Paul's going to be on Ariel's show today, to see will the Paul brothers react to this? Will they have a legitimate interest in this fight?

Because I think what we've seen so far, Anderson could have his way with both of those guys, yet that could be a very big fight because there's going to be legitimate competition in there. I mean, Jake could come out and want Tommy Fury next, and there's some fun elements to that, and that could be built up, and maybe you and I will be a part of that. But I want to see Anderson Silva now, if he wants to keep doing this, in a legitimately tough fight in boxing. Could that be Vitor Belfort? No one's talking about that for some reason.

In fact, everybody's calling out Jake and Canelo for crap's sake. That might be that. But if not, Luke, would you like either of the Paul brothers' chances against Anderson? Because that might be the real fight to make if you want to find out how good these guys actually really are. No, I think that's a terrible fight for both of them. I mean, obviously Jake might find ways at times to maybe, maybe, you know, slow the fight down a little bit, wrap up, not get too damaged. You know, I think there's a way for that to maybe go on for a little while.

But skill for skill, no, I don't think either of them would have much of a chance although depending on one's perspective that might be the perfect reason to make the fight I guess we'll see I'm with you too I'm like yo you know like Vitor and Anderson when they fought the first time it wasn't in Brazil but in Brazil when Brazil was watching that was a huge moment for MMA down there there was a ton of brazilians as i understand in the audience on florida there's a lot of them in florida florida still you know is a place where you can stage a lot of fights because the people who run the regulatory agencies there are you know what do you want to call them absentee landlords but the point being is this

like uh there's a lot of options there for that but let me just say like what is it about what anderson is doing that is just so great it's not that he's winning again although that's nice dude when Anderson Silva was in his prime and you and I lived through that and of course he's not fighting the same guys not even close but when he was in his prime what made him special was moments of magic that's what it meant and in the case of Cesar Chavez it was this moment that you knew he was going to win it wasn't any round per se or knock down or anything like that it was just sort of the accumulative effect of what he was able to do when he was kind of forgotten by a lot of people and against Tito that was just that was just Anderson dude that was like that's what that

is one of Anderson Silva's quickest knockouts on par with Chris Lieben. I'm not saying Tito represents that. I'm just saying the ease and the speed with which he was able to just dispatch a terribly overmatched opponent. That's Anderson Silva magic. That is what we all inhaled. That is what we lived through. That is what we lived on as fans for all that many years, or media people, and we kind of were both in many of the same cases

dude he's bringing that back and he's bringing it back in a way where you're like wow man like okay we know we know for a fact based on the end of that UFC run he cannot beat top guys it's not possible it's not in the cards forget about it but are there other people and in relatively interesting fights and in ways that can bring back safely of course all things being equal in ways that they can be in combat sports can he bring back Anderson Silva magic once more dude you have every reason to believe that he could obviously the devils are in the details but this is what makes this moment in his career so great it's a reminder of all of those moments that everyone enjoyed that made us realize this

guy might be the best we've ever seen he's not the best we've ever seen right now but he is something still very special and i am so glad that he's had a chance to be on this kind of platform but to answer that question on the screen of how far should he go i don't think he should go to like real boxing like you know he kind of pulled a fast one, getting a perfectly washed and uninterested Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and then beating him, right? And like, but we're not talking about him going to real boxing. I'm saying in the silo, he's the player right now. He's the guy.

He's the boss at the end of the video game. So, Luke, I got a couple quick rapid fire questions to wrap this up that I want you to answer for me. Can Schriller, the quickest thing they can do to repair their reputation right now after this past weekend, is it to grab Anderson, Vitor, JDS, any one of these guys with names who are no longer with the UFC and just focus on putting them in competitive bouts? Is that the best way to go to save this thing? I don't, I mean, the answer I think in the short run is yes yes but I don't think this is long-term

salvageable like their their business model can't scale and so as a consequence you see them cutting corners in the way that they are I do think it would repair a lot of the damage from Saturday but ultimately it makes no difference in the long okay number two after what we saw with Vitor for that 90 seconds whatever Oscar De La Hoya would have gotten hurt on Saturday. And I know Vitor's manager or trainer came out and said, we believe Oscar's faking. We believe he went into the hospital and filmed a fake video. I mean, come on, I don't know about that.

But are you with me, Oscar, who never fought above 160 and really wasn't effective at 160 going up against 185, jacked up Vitor? This could have been a bad night for him, Luke. You know what? I had put that out of my mind. And I'll say this about the phony video. My wife had to go to the ER this past week.

She's fine. Her toenail got completely ripped off. There was blood everywhere. It was a whole thing. Yeah, it was a show. She's fine. It's not a big deal. But the big deal was, this was like a Monday or Tuesday.

No, it was Tuesday because it was the day after Labor Day weekend. And we had to go to three different different ers because they were all filled i don't know how de la joya sneaks into a hospital puts on the gown and he's like you know kind of agonizing over there over video i tend to think he probably had covid he probably had it pretty bad that being said that's a good point you make i don't know i don't know i the problem was you know vitor knew what was the problem at 42 when he fought larry donald holyfield he didn't throw back there was just no volume dude they had to know that he was not going to throw back so if you just blitz him in the way that you did he was going to get overwhelmed would the same thing work on de la jolla bc we don't know he's 40 what seven or something yeah but he's done a lot of bad things to his body over the past 20 years luke

he's he's an old 47 you'd have to guess yeah yeah but he's definitely not as washed as holyfield right you agree with that it would i don't know it would have been interesting i'm just think oscar may have dodged a bullet and finally in closing that's fair because the trump thing was a big thing and i did watch more than half of the commentary, so I just want to say this to people. I think it was a really bad look to do a, well, to do this on 9-11, first of all, to do a 9-11 tribute, again, like you mentioned,

which has a lady who needed to be dragged out screaming, which obviously isn't Triller's fault, but to then throw a live microphone over the whole arena to Trump, I don't know if that's the best look, but I will say this, Luke, and it maybe shouldn't be a surprise because before being president, Donald Trump was a celebrity who knew how to talk.

I watched the crap out of the celebrity apprentice for years and was entertained. It wasn't that bad, Luke. I'm going to give a positive there. Todd Grisham did his best to keep the show moving, and I actually thought once Junior Dos Santos got in the booth, him and Don Sr. kind of had a good rapport. And it was a lot of, like, 90s boxing history, a lot of incorrect facts. But I didn't hate it, Luke.

It was a shit show full with a lot of shit. I don't know if you saw the Trumps at all, but it was interesting at best, I'll say. It wasn't a monster failure. I didn't see... I mean, listen, anything Trump does is just going to be so polarizing, right? You're going to get all of his supporters who tell you it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and you're going to get all of his detractors who say that he's one step away from being an orangutan. I didn't hear it.

I take your word for it. You usually are a good judge of these things. If you liked it, there probably was some value to it. For the right kind of person, there is a good opportunity there. And by the way, I will say this. I'm not one of these guys who tries to... You work in combat sports, everyone is morally complicit in some kind of way. I mean, for us to be like,

oh, everyone who took a check from Triller is a bad person. I don't think everyone who took a check from Triller is a bad person. I don't think everyone who took a check from Triller is a bad person. And in fact, to that end, I think Todd Grisham is just a great guy. And if you say he did a good job, then I have every reason to believe you. You know, I'll put it that way. So last thing on this, Anderson Silva. If it's not Jake Paul and it's not Vitor Belfort, do we have any idea who the hell else it could be? And if it's not Logan, Paul, I don't know.

I don't know his contract situation with Triller, because if I'm looking to make the biggest fight, Luke, again, I'm taking a Paul brother and putting against him, you know, on Showtime pay-per-view. I'm not sure. It says a lot. It says a lot that you didn't answer MMA in any way. Like, he seems just done with mma completely done well look that post-fight interview was weird and the the announcer i forgot her name she made it

seem like he kind of said he was going to retire i think he just didn't understand the question spoken broken english i i feel like there's a payday out there for him um it's probably gonna end up being vitor right because i don't think the Paul brothers are going to bite on this. I'd be surprised. I'd like if they would. But if not, you've got a hungry and willing Vitor there, and you throw those guys a couple million each, Luke. That's a good payday.

They already fought each other. They're not afraid of each other. This is a boxing match. I don't know if it sells a ton, but it would be interesting. Last thing I'll say is you could do those Paul brother fights. You could do them. You could do them. And again, if it's Jake Paul,

I think there are ways he could slow the fight down, tie up, you know, extend it longer than just being what Tito did. Tito, you know, I'll give a credit to Tito, dude. Tito went after him. And that wasn't advisable

for obvious reasons. But Tito didn't try and slow the shit down he didn't run he got right in Anderson Silva's face and he paid for it but he came to he came to compete for at least well I mean you can argue with the strategy but he didn't he didn't uh he showed courage he showed he also called out Logan Paul after and said I lost my last fight you lost your last fight let's fight each other. Luke, poor old Tito. He got in great shape.

By the way, he missed weight by five pounds. They didn't mention it once on that weigh-in broadcast. Why would you? Do you think anyone at Triller gives a fuck that he missed weight? Okay, let's wash ourselves clean and move on. Is there any other real sports to talk about, Luke? Yeah, there actually is. All right, so first of all, Luke? Yeah, there actually is.

All right. So first of all, we have fights coming up this weekend. We'll get to in just a second. This is the other part because you had a tweet that I retweeted. I think it was Saturday night. It was after Triller, but it was in reference to larger events, not just what happened on Saturday, what happened on Friday. So we've been covering this story.

I don't know. MMA fans are like, where's the MMA coming? There wasn't a lot of MMA talk about over the weekend. There was a lot of boxing. I would hope people understand that plus this story is very interesting we all knew that Oscar Valdez was going to compete against Hobson Conce Sao on Friday night on top rank on ESPN plus it was a fight that had been booked for a while but what had happened was in the week or two leading up to it he as you may recall had tested positive for fentermine which was banned under the voluntary system he had been using for anti-doping. But according to WBC and the larger sanctioning bodies and the commissions, they didn't really more or less

care about it. They didn't think that it was a relevant thing they had to worry about for a lot of different reasons. So there's this complicated scenario, but still he goes into this bout bc under this cloud of suspicion he beats con se sal but here's what happens first six rounds he was behind or at least you know the first four or five and then the tide begins to turn and then he kind of puts it on uh con se sal late and there's also a weird situation where con se sal gets a point deducted but round nine or ten for a rabbit punch that looked the lightest rabbit punch you've ever seen and then uh valdez hits con se sal with a rabbit punch it looks kind of hard and there's no warning or whatever either way doesn't matter he wins so the first question i have to ask you is do you think the pressure got to him it seemed

to me absolutely whatever his denial he was wearing the weight of the world in the early part of that bout oh absolutely and this this there was gonna it was it was gonna be hard for him to come out there and put on the best performance ever you can't discount the stress he did endure luke if he's completely clean and this is all a you know misunderstanding slash not a big deal which i disagree with, then obviously that's double the pressure on him mentally and the stress that that caused. Also, he's in there against a taller, longer opponent, an Olympic gold medalist who beat him in the amateurs,

who had the best performance of his career, especially through six rounds. Look, through six rounds, Kensei looked like mixture of like Muhammad Ali and Guillermo Rigondeau? I mean, he was just like so accurate and he's putting a little sizzle on the end of every punch that he lands just to kind of sell it. But overall, Luke, I said that my tweet was

this was really a rough weekend for boxing. This whole thing, I mean, Saturday was a shit show, but it was a different variety of shit. What happened on Friday, like, it's really hard to digest this, okay? Let's give the few pluses, okay, here. One, a plus from Valdez to adjusting

and changing his game plan and coming on late and having a chance to win that fight. Yeah, I'll give him credit, Luke. Not a solid performance, not great, but he did what he had to do in a rough situation they sold a sellout crowd there of like 5500 this was his homecoming to his you know adopted hometown there of tucson and i also want to shout out the espn broadcast for not only not avoiding the drug talk situation but almost coming at both the wbc into it and oscar valdez

including tim bradley who as we praised the other day, I mean, he had nothing holding him back. And I love and respect that. Shout out to also Bernardo Asuna for filling in for Joe Tess and holding that broadcast down in that regard. And also, BC, just to interject very quickly, I'll give it right back. The guy who did the ring interviews with the older gentleman with the beard, dude, he asked questions to valdez right to his face about this stuff and they didn't hide from it at all he deserves credit as well so that's

that's up front again very good but overall luke like this is another one of those kick to the balls of boxing should this fight have gone on we argued no then you get into that fight as you mentioned can say sal's point that was taken away with no freaking warning was a two taps to the back of the head off the break as the ref is breaking them apart. He tapped Valdez on the back twice and then tapped him to the back of the head. Should he have been warned? Yes. You don't have to run with rabbit punches. You don't hit on the break, but he's tapping. Ref takes away a point. And to your point, Valdez wound up and landed a full flush right hand to the back of the head and got a soft warning for it.

So you're already dealing in a fighter's hometown, in a fight that maybe shouldn't have went on. And then the reason why I can say so doesn't have a big argument to complain about the scorecards is because he faded in the second half. He faded pretty badly. He was doing way too much running and celebrating. Then he was fighting. And again, Valdez made the move. But Luke, I watched this fight a second time to score it closer and also

to write down the potential swing rounds to really get a feel of what the score should have been. You know what I settled upon? My final score is a draw, six rounds to six, but because of the crap point being taken away, it would have been a Valdez win. Or I'm completely fine with Valdez seven rounds to five, which is 115-112 with a point deduction. Yet Valdez won two cards seven to five. And then, of course, because this is boxing, a complete mailed-in hometown scorecard of nine rounds to three. So if you're can say so, Luke, again, there's things to criticize

about how he was a superstar in the first six rounds and then, you know, less than average in the second half. But this is the biggest fight of his life and the kid went for it. He had no chance. He had no chance under the setup, under the rules, state commission, WBC, all that bullshit. When you add all of that up, man, and then you add on Saturday night, we can't get it right in this sport. You don't have to tell me the sins of boxing. I'm part of the family. No one knows it more than me. But, like, I can't avoid being upset about it every single time.

And you know what this also clouded, Luke? This was a pretty fun fight. It was a chess match. Valdez made adjustments. He came back. Cancésa was putting it on him in the first half. In fact, the final CompuBox stats, which don't always tell the full story, Cancésa outlanded him by like 40 or 50 punches.

Did he deserve to lose? If you were watching closely, again, it could be 7-5 Valdez. He came on good in the second half. But there's too many bad parts about this broadcast not to shit on it. And if I can put one more droplet of poop there, Luke, the trainer and manager, Eddie Reynoso, who also, of course, runs Team Canelo, refused to do any media, including with ESPN cameras,

the entire fight week. So I'm glad that when they cut to the corner audio after round one, Bernardo Osuna put it in there and put his finger in the sore a little bit and said, and here's the first time we'll hear from Eddie Reynoso all week. That's bullshit. Stand up and take accountability

and get in front of the microphone. I do nothing on this show but praise Team Canelo because Eddie's an incredible trainer and Canelo is doing mostly all things right here in boxing. Luke, this Friday night, it was tough to take. And then you had that co-main event where the kid's trainer and father

Let me get to that because that was the one that bothered me. It was the whole night. And also, I asked you, do you think Valdez was feeling it? There's no doubt he was feeling it because Canelo was there in attendance to provide all kinds of moral support, yelling at him. I mean, obviously they're stablemates and friends or whatever, but he showed up in a very public, prominent way to put his hand, so to speak, on the back of Oscar Valdez. But you noted that there was a fight between Flores Jr. and Lopez.

I forget their first names, but it was that co-main event. It was a 10-rounder. And basically what you found was that Lopez was getting the better of the younger kid in Flores Jr. But Flores Jr., his corner man was his dad, and he was getting tuned like a guitar, okay? To the point where after the ninth round, even before that, they were just saying, we're going to pull it, we're going to pull it. You got to show me something, show me something.

And he sort of stood on his feet and said, I'm going to keep going. They absolutely should have called the fight there. Timothy Bradley was incensed. The referee didn't step in either. And then here is the really tragic part about it. Flores Jr., as you can well imagine, like goes out like a man that he is,

even though he's a young man. Takes another savage beating, although Lopez took a little bit off the gas in the 10th round. But it was bad enough where with about 10 seconds left, Flores Jr.'s corner, his dad throws the towel. Okay, well you wait until there's 10 seconds, but at least something. But he doesn't do it where the referee can even see it. So the referee doesn't see it and the beating just goes the final to the bell. It was a fucking mess. It,

the whole thing was a mess and I don't blame the referee per se, although he should have stopped the fight. I do. I do believe that, but I don't blame him per se for not seeing the, the towel. He was sort of focused on the sky getting beaten, but dude,

it, this was not boxing at its best. And I should point out that as much as we kill triller on the show for all their missteps bc even the people who claim to get it right to do it the right way we're we're gonna have a show with actual referees and young fighters and we're gonna have a you know in shape and proper weigh-ins and blah blah blah even they allowed this sort of situation to take place both in the co-main event where the officiating was terrible the corner advice failed the young man and then in the main event should the fight

have even happened it took place as you pointed out one of the judges absolutely mailed it in never had a shot the people who claim to do boxing the right way they also don't do boxing the right way not the same as triller but to be all high and mighty if you're in that camp they they should have a long look in the mirror too and look if you're one of our many MMA fans who hate when we talk about anything boxing or Paul brothers and you're like hey guys you're almost an hour into the show I haven't heard a second of MMA talk I get it when we spend this much time essentially shitting on boxing now you know again I know the sins of this sport but I can also come out and be Paulie Malignaggi after the Juan Diaz fight and say, quote,

boxing is full of shit. I used to love this sport. I mean, that's one of my favorite quotes ever, because this stuff happens. It's just, there's a lot of stuff happening. We got commission problems, too many belts, judging, refereeing, everything. Again, shout out to ESPN, at least for, for Mark Kriegel for getting in there and asking questions to the, the fighter, Gabriel Forrest Jr., that you mentioned, putting his dad on the spot, although his dad basically blamed his son for not listening to him. But, Luke, you're not going to see 51 minutes of MK opening with boxing anymore if it's going to keep going this direction. This has been a really bad year for the sport, mostly due to so many good scheduled fights falling apart.

But when you mix it with all the other bullshit, and the fighters not willing to fight each other at the highest level in certain instances um you know i'm not going to be here to write the i'm not going to be like that la times columnist you know that guy luke who every two months he writes boxing's dead right every two months right let me that guy i'm just going to say like gotta get our shit together all collectively here this is this is this is not good it's not good with in mind, let's close the book on boxing for the day, BC. But we still have a topic to get to, which is, what are your favorite fights coming up this weekend?

It could be boxing if you want, but there are some MMA fights this weekend that are worth paying attention to. And as the week progresses, we will lean into them. First and foremost, Friday night on Showtime on Bellator, Yoel Romero is supposed to be here. The Cuban Muscle Crisis taking on Phil Davis. There's other fights that are pretty good on that card. And then also, BC, you have the UFC card

that's going to have Anthony Smith taking on Ryan Spann. I'll give you the floor first. Fight you're looking forward to most this weekend. Yeah, look, it's not a great weekend for fights. Boxing's pretty much dead, and maybe that's a good thing coming off of this weekend. And as you mentioned, they're outside of that main event of the Bellator card.

I mean, I know you love yourself some Anthony Smith, and I'm not going to try to make you get off of the things you love, Luke, so maybe I'll leave that fight for you. But that ain't a main event where I come from. I am, though, very interested in seeing this Yoel Romero fight. So I'll take the fattest apple hanging low off the tree here. Of course, we want to see Romero against Rumble. This is a big signing for Bellator.

The eye injury delayed that. There's a lot of questions right here with not only Romero moving up in weight, but the time off, the age is always going to be a question in terms of when will he stop being this freak superhero alien and actually be a 44-year-old guy, right? Well, I don't know. I think, though, Luke, what's most interesting about this is Phil Davis is nobody's walkover, even though he's in his late 30s. He is still as tough of a now a technical striker who can wrestle you,

that this is going to be a great test of what's left in the tank for Yoel. Because if there's a good amount left, Luke, there are big, spectacular, fun fights you can make under the Bellator banner that i hope we do with yoel across really to be honest a couple different divisions should he want to but the worst thing that could happen is him come out and not let his hands go and maybe potentially lose a a technical you know outs on the outside boxing match that could be akin to Romero's fight without Asana. As long as we don't go down that road, we could be in the fun business here under the Bellator banner

with Yoel. If he comes out there and can win and finish Phil Davis, which no one does, obviously there's much bigger things available to him like a world title after this Grand Prix and all that. But I think, Luke, to find out what his identity will be at this weight class

is what I'm most looking forward to. I think there's enough reason where you have people saying, stop calling him a wrestler. I know he's got those wrestling skills, but he don't wrestle like this at the highest level. Will he need to at light heavyweight? I don't know, Luke. Is he going to come out there and just be a slick boxer?

I'd love to see him come out there and be the explosive destroyer that we know him to be. But nobody looks great against Phil Davis. So I think there's an interesting level of theater here coming up on this Saturday night Bellator card on Showtime that you've got to be there. You've got to see what happens next. Yeah, sorry. I had stated it was on Friday.

Let me correct the record. It is on Saturday the 18th at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. A couple of things I would say. One, dude, Joel Romero hasn't won a fight since 2018 and hasn't competed since March 7th of 2020, just before the pandemic really kicked into full gear here in the United States. So we haven't really seen him in quite some time. And obviously he is not a spring chicken.

So there's some questions there. BC, let me pitch it back to you one way before I tell you what fight I'm looking forward to most, which is that I have seen a criticism, and I don't think it's necessarily misplaced, that yes, you've got Phil Davis, high-level light heavyweight, you've got Yoel Romero, high-level light heavyweight, and for one reason or another, both are no longer in the tournament, although who knows, they could be reinserted at some point if there's an injury or whatever. And so it makes sense to put them together. On the other you know if it's yoel romero's first fight at 205 the tournament has moved on why give him a fighter who i'm not going to call phil davis boring but

what i am going to say is he is a very careful manager of risk and exchanges and that isn't necessarily an ingredient for star making it isn't an ingredient for thrilling action there's a lot of ways in which this could go wrong did bellator get the wrong opponent for this first fight at 205 for you well romero i think that's a very fair question i'm glad that you posed it because it's it it emphasizes some of the fears that i just mentioned that nobody dominates phil davis nobody controls him in fact if you're gonna beat him you're gonna have to be very technical. You're going to have to be what Ryan Bader did in one of the worst fights we ever saw at Bellator NYC.

You're going to have to be like Davis' last bout, Luke, when he went in there against Nemkov for the title in their rematch. And both of their fights were decisions. And I thought Davis fought a lot better in the first one, but he wasn't manhandled in the second because he's hard to do that against. Despite his late age, he's got the length. He's a very smart fighter. I think Phil Davis has been his own worst enemy at times for not being willing to step on that gas pedal. But yeah, again, there's a potential to see Romero out of Sanya all over again.

Luke, that would not be good in terms of Bellator trying to make noise. Signing Yoel Romero was a make noise, bang the drum. We've got this really exciting guy that you love. I just wonder what would have happened. Luke, nobody wants to hear me say this, but I did score Romero 3-2 over Adesanya. Our boy Izzy left that back door open and took a huge gamble, doing just enough.

What would the world have looked like if Romero had won that? Luke would have gone right into the pandemic. Who knows if they would have rematched right away. But here we are all this time later, and should they have given him a schlub? He could go in there and knock out. You could argue that, Luke. But I don't know if it would have been as exciting to me coming in to see what's going to happen next. And I think that excitement is really what's driving me this week.

I want to see if he can compete at the title level, because if he can, and if he beats Phil Davis, he'll prove it. But if not, look, he's just going to be an attraction who you hope can knock people out. Also on that card,

Neiman Gracie is back in your co-main event, excuse me, against Mark Leminger. Also BC Columbia in the house, Alejandro Lara, a Sewell is taking on Deanna Bennett, longtime MMA pioneer, Laura, for folks who may not know, actually it was from Columbia, lemminger also bc columbia in the house alejandra laura asul is taking on deanna bennett longtime mma pioneer laura for folks who may not know uh actually is from columbia but lives in mexico

trains at the same gym as you know uh irene aldana and all of the sort of women you know alexa grasso all of them from that same gym so it was a smart move she's been there for a few years at this point but smart move of her to go over there. So you can look at those two, Georgie Caracani and taking on Saul Rogers on the card. BC for me, I'm going to go to the UFC card. Obviously in your main event, Anthony Smith taking on Ryan Spann. Anthony Smith looked good in his last fight beating Jimmy Crute. Before that, Devin Clark, he's in a two fight win streak. Ryan Spann kind of stumbled against Johnny Walker, but against Misha Surkinov, got the job done pretty quickly. Also got a performance of the night bonus. To me, Smith is the much more polished of the two. I think Spann is probably more of a physical powerhouse and is well-trained. He's a guy who knows how to bring out the best of the people who come through his door, but Spann kind of gave away that Johnny Walker fight, dropping him twice and then going for the takedown when he didn't really need to, and then just getting hammer-fisted into a stoppage.

It was a weird contest. So the guy's got a lot of ability, but has some things to clean up with the management of what strategies he uses. I like that. Plus, Violence Queen Arianna Lipski is back. But the big one for me, BC, aside from that main event, the guy I've got my eye on, someone was asking me the other day, name top five prospects that are maybe ranked or just outside the rankings that you think in five years

are going to be in a completely different position, and by that I mean a superior one. And one guy on my list is Armin Saryukyan. Armin Saryukyan is a very, very talented guy. He gave Makachev a bit of a rough time. He lost the bout. He was overmatched when he fought him. But he has been a bit of a rough time. He lost the bout. He was overmatched when he fought him.

But he has been a bit of a bulldozer. He hasn't been in the octagon since, let's see, January of this year when he ran over Matt Favola. He beat Davi Hamosh as well. Needs to work on finishing fights, getting closer to a stoppage. But in terms of wrestling control, gas tank, pursuit of positions, always working. He is very, very good. I got my eye on him as well.

Joaquin Buckley and Impa Kasangane in separate bouts on this card. Luke, just run them back together. Let's see some more spinny shit, right? And also, Pani Kianzad, one of the most improved fighters on the entire UFC roster. Take it on Raquel Pennington on the prelims there for UFC. So another one to kind of pay attention to. Rocking Pennington back deep, buried deep on there?

Yeah, that's what I said too. You know what? She might be at the end of her contract. Who knows? Hey, Luke, you did dust over quickly that this ain't a great main event. It's not that Anthony Smith and Ryan Spann doesn't have the potential. No, dude, you are a perpetual critic of Smith in the most unfair ways. It's not that it doesn't have the potential for fireworks,

but when it's not a great card to begin with and it's an in-between fight night i get that but this ain't a main event i'm clamoring to see luke okay fair enough but let me read you this this came from a writer from bloody elbow trent rain smith who writes of anthony smith's last 10 fights eight have been against either ufc champions former ufc former UFC champions or UFC title challengers in that span he went four and four now does that tell you he's the world's best fighter no it doesn't necessarily say he's the world's best fighter but it says he's fucking good he is a very very good fighter and he is in my judgment worthy of much more respect than he receives

yeah but look this is just not it just not like a main event worthy fight. I just want you to admit that. I just want you to admit that this is a disappointing main event. I don't know that it's the best main event I've ever seen for the UFC. That is so Switzerland. You scared mother effort.

Just say it, Luke. Usually I can tell you this by virtue of the rankings. So where do they sit in the rankings? Anthony Smith. I don't need scientific data to tell I can tell you this by virtue of the rankings. So where do they sit in the rankings? Anthony Smith... I don't need scientific data to tell you that this is not a good main event, Luke. All right, fine. Anthony Smith sitting at six.

Ryan Spann sitting at 11. Smith, to me, is must-see. Spann is still very much unproven. So in that sense, I don't think it's got a lot of sizzle, per se. But a very good test for Anthony Smith, I think. I don't know if Smith is must-see, Luke. Like, see if there if he's the b-side to a good fight but that's fine you don't have to like you don't have to like everything that's okay that's all right

I try to help you know what can I mean you want us must see Luke here's a fighter who's must see who you want a champion for some I mean can we get back in there jj please please uh all right with that out of the way it's time now for our next segment dms from dogs this is where you jabronis ask us a question and we answer it allegedly all right i think this comes to us from our friend over at the mac life one of the hardest working guys in MMA media, Oscar S. Willis. Yes. Asks.

Hi, guys. I showered for six hours after watching the Triller show, yet I don't feel clean. What's my next step? Luke, you got any of that carbonic acid left that you're always talking about? Luke? I know. Yeah. Maybe instead of showering with water, just use bleach.

I don't know. I really can't. I'm with water, just use bleach. I don't know. I really can't. I'm not. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. I mean, look, I don't mean to belabor this because I didn't love Floyd and Logan, okay? Sucked. But this is almost an irresponsible level of suck.

It's gross. I don't want it. Okay. No more. No more. No it. Okay, no more. Dude, for real, here's what I would say. If you watched it, it's Ace Ventura with a plunger in his mouth

afterwards kind of thing. It's Ace Ventura's ass cheeks talking, right? It's his sphincter. Let me ask you a question this is except except except you know for folks out there just next time someone's like do the revolutionizing boxing just tell them to shut the fuck up please just do me a solid all right uh from at g Greg Leach 99.

Judging by how good Anderson Silva has looked in his recent boxing outings, kind of went over this a little bit. How successful of a career do you think he could have had? No, we didn't go over this at all. Should he have been boxing all along? It's a little bit different. And let me just say, BC, for the folks who may not have seen it, Devin Haney, one of boxing's young, bright stars,

tweeted on Saturday that Anderson Silva may have, should have considered doing boxing all along, given how well he's doing now in this sort of like moment he's in. What do you think? Would he have had the same level of success he had in UFC? No, no, not the same. But he's showing you to have this level of speed and reflexes, again, against this level of competition, but to still have this at 46 and to make the transition in footwork so easily, obviously he had two pro fights before this one in 98, one in 2005, but to do that,

that easily look and to look back at his biggest UFC moments and just see, as you mentioned, the magic, the ability to rise above and almost be a fricking alien in there. Yeah. He would have had some kind of success in boxing he's showing you that he has the size understanding of distance movement reflect just sick all-time great level reflexes like roy jones level reflexes i think he could have been a boxing world champion yes could he have been one of the go you know the greatest of his era i'm not sure because let's not forget that you're doing that in mma especially you know 10 15 years ago against people who just don't have the same level of preparation and experience with with the hands

but clearly luke if he had made a career out of this he's world champion level there's no question i mean he's a special athlete and uh you know he's a freak he's a freak dude i mean a freak. Dude, I mean, obviously there are different situations and they're fighting different kinds of guys in different weight classes. But, like, if there's a place for Clay Collard to have a little fun in boxing, there would easily have been a place for Anderson Silva to do well. I'm with you. I don't think he would have been one of the best of all time. But a world champion in his weight class?

I don't think that's out of the question. I think that's absolutely in play. And, you know, when you've got boxers being like being like okay i see that this guy's got some skills i i take that very seriously because you and i both lived through an era we could have shown them the very best that mma had to offer and they never would have said that and here they are just offering it up willy nilly like it's quite obvious and so tells you a lot about dude anderson silva is a fucking great ambassador for the sport we should just say that man he's over there whatever the fuck he's doing and i don't

know what's going to be next for him but dude do i feel like mma is well represented whenever he does what he does every time man every time every time he does something out there feels like it's like the one thing you can kind of trust silva may win or lose depending on what happens or how long he does this. And maybe we'll have to change that if he keeps going too long. But for now, he's a great ambassador for MMA. I'm very proud. In light of the reactions to his win over Chavez and this one,

who do you think, what's the current power rankings, pound for pound rankings, on most beloved MMA fighters of all time. Do you think he's the most beloved? Like there were, you know, Randy was the most beloved for a long time. And then GSP was so fricking beloved. And I mean, is Anderson the number one? Like I think John, John Jones is the go, but he's not anywhere near that folk hero. Just like people love, maybe it's the Bushido spirit the calmness the the the generous nature of of

always giving back anderson's got to be pound for pound number one most beloved correct probably right now you're right i lived through an era where it was randy for a while i lived through an era where chuck was that guy for a while yeah yeah um matt hughes even prior to the train wreck. But yeah, yeah. Silva might be out there. Again, because everything with the way the UFC ended, and we said it before, we're not bagging on UFC when we say this. We'll save our criticisms for UFC when they're merited. We'll retract them when they're not.

They're just not built to give a guy like that an exit that matches what he can do or should be doing. They're built for the other end of the game, and they can't really change that. That's just who they are. So someone else and some other opportunity had to come along for him to right the ship, at least as much as it can be, and it did. And so you're beginning to see all of these feelings.

That will change too. You know, dude, the memories will fade on Anderson, but right now you're asking like the current sort of stock account. I will change too. You know, dude, the memories will fade on Anderson. But right now, you're asking like the current sort of stock account. I think he might be number one, dude. I think it's a good point. Yeah. I mean, some have said that that's where I sit right now in MMA media in terms of just most, just beloved.

Like, just people just cheering for this guy to succeed, you know? All right. From at CubbiesFan80. this is more for ubc but what's your mount rushmore of songs that mean the most to you lyrically wow that's that's a that's a deep cut luke i can't wait for you to pull up to pull out ip blood or uh or i was gonna go with fucking hostile by pantera but we can go other directions all right that's a great question because i've i i've always been more of a lyric guy than a than a you know grooving guy that's why you know there was a time luke and you know where i

specifically saw it i mean i'm a bob dylan guy right if you're a bob dylan guy then you are into the poetry of lyrics and what what the words of a song can mean to you. Alright, my favorite song of all time, Luke. And I can argue it's my favorite song of all time because Dickie Betts' three minute solo in the middle is just freaking incredible. But it's Blue Sky by the Allman Brothers and certainly lyrically it's uplifting and it's incredible. That's a big one, Luke. There's certain songs that have lyrics about overcoming that Walk by the Foo Fighters. You know that one?

No, I don't listen to them. It was sort of a 2010-ish era one for them. It is one of the more inspiring songs of all time. There's an acoustic song that Pearl Jam has that Eddie Vedder wrote that is really maybe, it's off of that, hold on. Look, you talk. Let me look it up real quick. Yeah, I mean, I don't have, I'd have to really think about this

because there's two songs. They're not even really my favorite songs by any stretch of the imagination, but they kind of resonate a little bit. The first would be Wood by Alice in Chains. Obviously, the lead singer for the youngins who might be watching, he died tragically, OD'd, and they didn't find him for a long time.

And Wood is about his struggle with the resurgence of addiction after long bouts of sobriety. So that's a good one, lyrically. I might throw Angelus by Elliot Smith in there, maybe. Wow. Elliot Smith gets dark and deep, Luke, okay? I might go that route.

But in funner ways too like music to a degree supposed to be fine that's not supposed to just be heavy dude i could list for you any number of bars from all the various rap songs i've heard over the years that i've just gotten so much joy from hearing you know i think the hook for me do i prefer melancholy music in this category in terms of what lyrics move you the most normally so look i'll put anna begins by the counting crows in there without question one of the just deepest lyrically just hits the right tones i've been there i've been in that failed relationship i know what that's like uh first day of my life by bright eyes luke i'm sure you don't

get into that indie emo stuff is uh is incredible and certainly has as a spiritual connection if you read it that way um in your eyes by peter gabriel is one i think the most beautifully lyrically written songs of all time also just these are all sappy you don't have anything kind of like manly just breathe by pearl jam was that acoustic what i mentioned i i mean i think that's eddie vetter's best song ever wrote i mean i'm not even fooling around i mean look there there you know you get a you get a potential one that just moves you that you can just you know spout tears upon hearing it and the way it hits some songs only have that one line some songs it's a whole thing but you're looking for something manly Luke um do those manly songs

hit me in the same way where they oh how about this I'll tell you this um hold on I'll tell you this this one we might share lyrically again we We're not talking about the whole song and everything else. Lyrically, one song I've really enjoyed. Two songs I've enjoyed. From the drive-by trucker, Gravity's Gone. I love the lyrics of Gravity's Gone. Yeah, Luke. Yeah.

In fact, I want to pull them up because this one is just, there's a, man, if you've ever been at the bottom of a bottle too many times, you know, I don't know what to tell you, but let me read the lyrics here real quick. Are you talking about Women Without Whiskey by the Drive-By Truckers, one of their best songs? That's another good one, too. That's another good one, too. But here's the chorus. By the way, the opening line of that song is,

if I make it through this year, I think I'm going to put this bottle down. That's an incredible opening line. Yeah, yeah. And here's the chorus for Gravity's Gone. Quote, so I'll meet you at the bottom if there really is one. They always told me when you hit it, you'll know it. But I've been falling so long, it's like gravity's gone, and I'm just floating.

I mean, dude, if you ever heard, I heard that song maybe at like the peak moment of like numbing through alcohol in my life. Yes, yes. And that one hit like a ton of bricks like cooley the the uh the second league guitarist wrote all those we just mentioned from the dbt and obviously i mentioned before jason is bill's elephant which is off the southeastern album that we reviewed for homework that time is probably the deepest song of all time i mean that's just move you want to get moved you want to cry during a song you want to feel the ache

even someone's pain that you don't even know you know hold on dude what's the other hold on what's the other song by drive-by truckers they use it for the car ad um oh yeah yeah yeah uh lookout mountain lookout mountain that's not lookout mountain but i don't think that's the same song but that is a good song look out mountain drive-by truckers is that what the name of the fucking song is well that's that's one of their songs but i don't think that riff was lookout mountain that you did i can't yeah it is for sure that is i mean i mean it's not sounding great over zoom but like listen to this when they this is one of the the one of the paragraphs of the the verses from the song if i throw myself off lookout mountain no more pain my soul to bear no more worries about paying taxes what to eat what to wear who will end up with my records who will end up with my tapes who will pay

my credit card bills who's gonna pay for my mistakes um bro i gotta tell you that's a fucking great that's just that's just poetry i don't know what to tell you you know that is great uh like a rolling stone and desolation row by bob dylan are in this category luke what to tell you you know it was great uh like a rolling stone and desolation row by bob dylan are in this category luke and also uh do you know that song hail hail by pearl jam no i don't i don't which has that which has that incredible line um are you woman enough to be my man bandaged hand in hand anyone ever have been at the uh at the bottom of a failing life and failing relationship and uh you know that that one stings that's a stinger that's a but also just you know i had a lot of good times on music too like i'm listening to the coffin now off the cornerstone

cornerstone of the corner store album by vinnie pads and it just opens with uh the four fifth symphony lift him uh lift you it'll spin your head around like a rotisserie chicken i mean you just have good times with simple bars about killing people with a gun that you that you called me out said you know is there anything manly i don't know if you could get that same feeling of the lyrics in a manly hard rock song luke it's kind of i you know i mean i don't know if i want to encourage people to listen to elliot and stab themselves in the heart, but it's kind of got to be a, you know, dark counting crows sort of, you know, guilt over decisions I made in my life, depression setting in. Those are the ones that tend to move you the most, right?

Yeah. Last thing on this. I can't. I would be. I disagree because I would be remiss if I didn't bring up Sean Price, one of the best emcees in my lifetime ever. And this is just one of my favorite uh 16 bars he did sean price boot camps best give me the number two pencil watch me take

the test shake your set break your neck competitors flee who the fuck rhyme better than me nobody dutch in my air oe in my palm i freddy krueger your face michael myers your moms you're bothering mine that's what i'm sparking the nine. Pull out the thing. Flang them on like clobbering time. Fantastic flow. Connect the concepts. Broke with new kicks. That's my projects. My man's like, Ruck, you ain't

teaching the kids. I stuck my hand out and three-pieced his wig. I'm doing my thing. You new to the game. Don't hate celebrate, Paul. Cool in the gang. I don't have a big crew. Just druids to rang and a couple of loose screw dudes boosting your chain bro this is the shit that will nod your head for a lifetime that if when i think inspiration luke i i hear uh those lyrics in my head by the way you're a fucking hater you're such a hater you have to and you think it can only be mopey white guys talking about it really can't i mean it really can't okay it really can by the way uh tupac died 25 years ago today luke okay so uh

yeah you know he you know he could talk about a bitch but he also could be inspiring luke right i guess all right from your mama you are you in fact are appreciated right uh maybe so from at jake xx bird merch 2.0 is the shit so far but can we get some mk rash guards in the shit wow take that crap wow the merch 2.0 really really shitting up my inbox lately wow okay uh that's not what he said he says it's the shit not some shit oh i thought he meant the shits as in it sucks okay good, good. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Luke, I don't know. What would sell more? MK rash guards or MK lifting gloves?

Lifting gloves. But you couldn't sell them for the same price point is the difference. Okay. Okay. Also, my daughter has returned from the park like Conan the Barbarian with several heads in tow, wanting me to see her trophies. Okay. From Jonathan Todarian. barbarian with several heads in tow wanting me to see her trophies uh okay from jonathan toadarian i don't know who suffers more from i'm an artist syndrome bc or jay well both have the same level of delusion about it uh no that's not true jay has much more delusion about it

significantly more as a matter of fact uh pennington james you mean uh yeah pennington james is living on in his own on his own island in his own world but luke i think you do have to get up to a point with pennington and we shake our head a lot at producer jay for rightful reasons there is an unabashed passion to get, like to get something to click. He's a struggling artist who's got his brush dipped in a lot of different paint varieties, Luke, and he's just throwing shit at the wall trying to get something over, Luke.

I mean, look, the Back to the Future doc, it was pretty good, right? It wasn't bad? No, it was terrible. These Pennington James hits, they're something um i mean look you know i just understand my art i don't mean my painting that's more of healing but luke you know but one day luke one day people will realize that you know i'm i'm not in this for the

for the for the hot takes luke okay okay i, you know, what we created here is a sitcom. What we created here is a community, Luke. What we created here is love and peace and joy. Okay? This ain't about fights. That's what got people in the door. Oh, okay. Gotta hear your taut takes on Triller, buddy.

No. Fuck off, okay? You're here because it just feels good. And in that regard i'm your willy wonka all right brother you know what i'm saying luke okay you know what i'm saying i haven't listened to a word you've said in the last five minutes just want you to know that okay i do love you though thank you augustus gloop you'll end up in the chaka river believe that all right that part i believe actually all right with that in mind good sir it's time to watch elder abuse right Triller

you know I might have a few of those this week it's we wow we're there already okay Corey's like yo can you guys get out of this topic please we gotta go home okay you know what we do we search the globe for the highs and lows the good the bad the in between the ugly all that good stuff it's called

have you seen this shit oh god alright the in-between, the ugly, all that good stuff. It's called. Have you seen this shit? Oh, God. All right, Luke, from two weeks ago, check this shit out in Invicta FC. Emily Ducati KOs Danielle Taylor to win the strawweight championship. Luke, this was some brutal-ish right here. Did you see this shit shit this is one of the

best ko's of the year bar none stops her dead in the track with a right over the top and then sits her down with i mean you guys hung out to dry luke right like a marionette emily ducati is someone who i've been following for a long time she was in bellator for a while and i thought she was going to be a champion within a very short order and listen she had a couple of bumps in the road although she's been winning as well but to me this fight and what she's been doing in Invicta of late she's really rounded a corner she is a

very talented fighter this was for a title by the way that was a heck of a combination with the punches and then of course she had the free shot with the head kick wow Taylor a UFC vet wow alright let's go to Cleveland, Luke. We got some leftovers from the Jake Paul, Tyron Woodley card that I haven't made the Have You Seen This Yet.

Check out this fight, Luke, and the crowd. I like to do with the backwards. Dude, this crowd was like a gathering of the Juggalos. Can we blow this up, Corey, please? Look at all these Fortnite players just going at it, Luke. This is great. They threw more punches than I think Tyron and Jake combined. Is that Brett Okamoto letting go of his hands there?

Wow. Brett will throw hands with the Juggalos. Don't think he won't. Oh, shit. Now, the kid that got knocked out, he's getting back up. Look at this. He wants a little bit more. Also, I don't understand how this guy on the left is dressed.

He's like, it's like a UCLA tie-dye thing. Oh, yeah. Oh, look, that kid's running away in the red shoes. He's had enough. All right, good shit. A lot of dudes with skateboards who want to fist fight each other. Luke, we saw some hate in that arena that night. We also saw some love.

How about this for a heartwarming moment? Mom versus mom. Mama Woodley and Jake Paul's mom just celebrating the fact that neither of their sons were carted off after this one, Luke. Yes, and I gotta say, if you've ever met Mama Woodley, she is about as pleasant and wonderful

a human being as there is. I don't know Jake Paul's mom, but she seems quite nice as well. Would you wear that Problem Child Cavs jersey that Jake Paul's dad is wearing right there? No. Alright, let's keep it going. Hey, regional MMA, Luke, anything can happen. This is from FCR9. Check out this KO from Loof Alexander.

When it's regional MMA like this and a guy is, like, waving a guy on, I can never tell if he's going to KO or he's going to get KO'd. Usually they get KO'd. He got KO'd from leg drag, too. The head bouncing off the canvas, got a couple extra shots in there, Loof's like, enough of this. Yeah, and look at the guy called him on, too. You call somebody on, then they knock you out.

Luke, that's a bad look, all right? Yeah, yeah. See, he does it a couple times here, and then the dude, let's see what he does, switches stances, and then comes over to the right. There we go. Hey, Luke, you've been very critical of, what do you call that, when you ask somebody to marry you?

Propose? Yeah, public proposals set to video. You've been very critical. Please give me your take on Miranda Maverick's fiance asking her hand in marriage here. Oh, I saw this. I saw this. Can we blow this up, Cor?

So I think he fails on the squat on purpose. He's got a weird setup, too, by the way. Although he's strong as fuck. Let's see. So he drops the weight to the pins right there and then turns around. Oh, shit. I mean, listen.

Luke, I put you in a tough spot because you love you some Miranda Maverick. I do. I think she's a tremendous talent, and obviously these two are quite happy together. I follow her on Instagram. She just moved to Colorado to be with Elevation Fight Team. I wouldn't have done it this way. You guys know my policies, but if she's happy, then that's what matters. She said yes can

we go to the next slide please she did say yes and uh how about the guy getting two handfuls of that that backside there in that video hey get hey shoot you know take it over all right thank you let's keep it rolling here let's go down to mexico luke some wild boxing we got some we got some fat heavyweights this is some crazy stuff right here over I would much rather watch this than Triller. Oh yeah. Yes, I would absolutely much rather watch this than Triller. You ever see that gimmick

WWE does in like Brock Lesnar or Mark Henry matches where the ring explodes? They got like a balloon underneath that pops it. This is real right here. Are you asking me if I've seen esoteric wrestling events? No, I've not seen esoteric wrestling events.

Luke, you always clown me for elder abuse, but I've started a new... Oh, my God. Look at that. I've started a new segment here where elders win. Let's celebrate some elder wins here, Luke. Check out this guy, 89 years old in a mountain bike race oh jesus christ sorry luke that was actually i filed that under the wrong header this should have been under elder abuse wow hey great hey great grandpa maybe maybe you should retire from this sport already okay

age is just a number can we get Can we get Grandpa a fucking Peloton? Wow, that was over before it started, Luke. Yeah, wow. Luke, that kind of looked like your run atop the MMA hour, right? Yeah, a little bit. It dragged out a little longer than this, but not too dissimilar. Alright, let's do a little tip-on-tip here, Luke. A couple weeks late on this, but tough

winners Ricky Tertios and Brian Battle celebrating, Luke, by just the tips, just for a second. You into that? We're never doing that, BC, just so that's clear. Okay. Well, from, you know, touching tips and effigy to actually touching tips.

Check out these karate masters, Luke. What is going on here? This is actually how BC and I met the first time. Luke, could you describe what is really happening beyond the dong on dong action? Did that guy cripple the other guy with the strength of his... It's amazing how much of martial arts, which is supposed to be about like, oh, in real life situations,

you can rely on us for self-defense, relies on religious mysticism and cult-like elevation of authority figures that old guy though he might have a he may have a dangerous dong though luke i mean look how quickly that he just bent that guy backwards with it what if it's just you ever seen those things remember when we were kids you would put like the ring on and then you would shake someone's hand and it would shock them yes yes so you see he's got a he's got a cock ring with that on look is that what you're saying he's got a cock ring that just you know that just pays itself forward you know this could actually be an adult movie we just got

tricked into it luke i'm not sure yet later on they just took the geese off and banged all right luke white people are gonna white and if it involves a roof we'll put it on this show luke check this guy out white people love jumping off roofs oh bro. Oh, God. Wow. Dude, he stiffened up like Terry Edom after Edson Barboza hit him with a spin. Yeah, that is. Wow. Yeah, that's a bad one. All right, let's head on over to the bar, Luke. I think it was 25 set night.

So these two in the corner, Luke, it's their song, and they are getting after it. All right? I can't see it. Can they blow it up? He picked his girl his girl oh boy oh no oh no there's there's weight there's weight limits on these rides luke this is not a good look okay i mean i can't say that i've never stumbled like this drunkenly in similar situations yeah but but if you're gonna pick Z's up, you better make sure you can carry her Luke. Yeah. You got to know,

you got to know what you got there. Like if you're with big country, you got to, you know, you got to take some precautions. All right. Let's head on over to this house party. Luke.

No, this isn't Brendan shops, dorm room in college, but check this out. Luke. Wow. And look at, he gets up like nothing happened.

What the fuck? Wow's uh remember when like you'd see on the news like man falls off six-story building but don't worry he was on pcp so he lived this is like you know you you drink enough natty lights luke you can go through anything and walk away i just can't believe that he's white it just seems so out of character yeah yeah i'm with you on that all right hey let's head back over to the roof luke right we haven't had enough oh it's a white guy right of course right right oh god have a drink asshole there's a bruised sternum luke i feel like i can't tell if we've had this video before or this same house has produced multiple ones of these luke i feel like i can't tell if we've had this video before or this same house has produced multiple ones of these look i think that's what here here's the part that i don't understand watch him leave the roof and note that jumping did him like he didn't

elevate himself whatsoever from jumping he just went down as if he just would normally go down did you know look at that there's no elevation off the roof whatsoever yeah it's a straight shot this motherfucker took the hypotenuse of the triangle right into the drink right to the xiphoid process luke right yeah okay hey let's go over to the street luke you ever been drunk at night trying to rip down a street sign i cannot my attorney tells me to plead the fifth on the they should have followed the instructions on this sign luke you just stop it already oh god oh god stealing signs is a thing that um american male typically white teenagers do and also in their 20s as well it's sort of

seen as like an act of stupid rebellion and kind of fun plus it's always like oh i'm gonna go you missed this part bc like you go into someone's dorm room and if they had a stop sign that they had stolen and put it on their wall or like the favorite one was dumping to get the dumping sign no dumping yeah or or route 311 or route 420 i've seen a few of those that was a big that was a big uh trophy to put in your dorm room, but these two are just... They're actually really hard to get off, Luke. They're very difficult to get off,

and these two are... I mean, we're talking about Darwin Award winners right here. This is great. This is great. All right. Hey, Luke, let's go over... You've been offering people to try Showtime for 30 days, and what happens if they don't like it, Luke?

They can pound sand. I've seen this. People send it to me. This guy's literally pounding sand. What does this do for you, Luke? It's supposed to toughen his knuckles. Okay, that's BKFC's Reggie Barnett Jr. getting ready for his next bare-knuckle brawl.

Hopefully that works for him. Apparently he didn't like Showtime. Should've watched Billions. Let's go over to this guy, Luke we got another guy who uh unhappy showtime customer all right that's that's uh yep keep going dude okay all right hey we haven't had any weightlifting weirdos in a while besides miranda maverick's uh fiance luke check out this uh russian piano lift luke now this is gonna be weird looking at but please comment on the strength of this guy because unless there's some like you know magical mystery stuff going on here this is probably the most impressive thing i've ever seen in my life can we go full screen please we got this we got to take and he's

gonna decline bench this with a kid on top of him just well i don't understand what that kid is doing he's smelling the ass of the other man well put go go back go back he watched the every okay he is what now roll it he's just gonna go like sir i'm here to i'm here to smell your ass i just just go with it sir just can i toss your salad with syrup or jelly i'll say this dude for you to bridge like that you have to have incredibly strong legs hips ass muscles low back you know there's gotta be a lot going on there to make that work let's go to the next and you have to have a guy who sniffs another guy's ass on top of you. Yeah, absolutely.

Hey, Luke, in this next one, these boots were made for lifting, and that's just what they'll do. Oh, these guys are trying to get hurt. I mean, this is just – I know this guy from Instagram. He's a good dude. But these boys are trying to get hurt, man. So, BC, you won't know this this but if you grip the bench press let's see if i can show my hand if you grip it like this let me get it yes if you grip it with the

thumb on the outside so the bar sits like this it's called a suicide grip because that shit will slip out and land on you this is basically like a suicide grip with cowboy boots now is this considered the same as gloves luke or do you give this guy more respect he certainly is taking more risk i can put it that way okay hey luke october 2nd celebrity boxing is going to give us lamar odom versus riddick bow it's also going to give us paulie malinaggi against cory B down there in Miami. And here's the press conference from two weeks ago. Security had to carry Paulie away before he put it on that radio host and TikTok personality. Did he win? The fight hasn't happened yet.

October 2nd. October 2nd. We got to find a way to end that card, though, Luke. We can't see Riddick Bell getting hurt like this. We can't. I mean, Lamar Oum's going to put it on him, Luke. Yeah, I don't want to see that. That's fucking – I'd rather just see more, you know,

Travis's jump off of roofs. Yeah. Luke, I was playing hoops in the driveway with my son yesterday after 21, and I hit a fadeaway bank shot in his face while calling glass to win 21-19. But that's not as ridiculous of a game winner as this shot. Let's blow it up to really get the full effect because this is absolutely ridiculous. From way downtown, Luke, bang.

Bro, he won not just with the bounce shot, but he nutmegged him at the same time that is do you get three points for that or is that a two-pointer because it hit the the ground inside the arc luke fuck if i know i think it's two but i don't know that's incredible wow well luke we're really here not to clown all old guys. Check out this incredible setup from this old guy on the ghetto soccer pitch. Was that the Galatasaray jersey? Oh, shit. Blow that shit up, please. Look at Kyrie.

Bah, the assist. The celebration is great. I'm sure this guy's real fun to hang out with luke i'm sure but look at i mean look at these other fucking math team rejects he's playing against you think those wind pants have ever been shitting before luke i mean come on be honest this is i mean these guys left the quidditch field to come play soccer so old man pianist here you know it's impressive but let's be let's be honest. Two more for you, Luke. You got to be careful when you're playing Wii boxing that the kids don't get in the way.

I hate showing up. Bah! Oh, God, that's not good at all. That is not. That should be the sales point for the Oculus Rift. Hey, you can beat the fuck out of your kids. Is that virtual reality, Luke? The reality is you got knocked the F out.

Wow. Bah! Yikes. All right, we try not to show too much kid or animal violence on this we usually just show old people getting wrecked luke i said to close you that i wasn't gonna show this guy anymore i said i wouldn't but luke this is ridiculous please cory can you blow this up this is this is this is you every time someone sends you a DM being like, yo, Art. So I don't want to give this guy the pub, but Luke, this is ridiculous.

This is BC after looking at a girl at a bar who's a solid three. Whose family roots are in Eastern Europe. Yes, Luke. Yes, you're right. You're right. Everything about this micropenis loser is the worst. Luke, he is rock hard with emotion there. You got to give him that.

Wow, Luke. Yeah. I hate him, and I hate that you make me look at him. Yeah. Well, that'll be the last time, okay? That'll be the last time. Unless he crosses over into running and jumping off of roofs anytime soon. Luke, that's the weird shit and the wacky this week, okay?

I hope you saw it. Thank you. All right. It's time for odds and the wacky this week, okay? I hope you saw it. Thank you. All right, it's time for odds and ends. Real quickly, if I can, BC, I'll go first on this one because it's a little bit of a bigger story. Conor McGregor had a bit of a dust-up yesterday at the VMAs, I believe, which, by the way, was at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. So, just for the record, the Barclays is not a great place for Conor to act in accordance with normal human

behavior but in any case the reported story Brian Campbell is that on the red carpet I guess Conor McGregor was a presenter at some point had asked MGK Machine Gun Kelly for a selfie at which point he was again reportedly rejected and he did this of course, we all know it is true that Conor McGregor wanted to buy the old man in the pub in Ireland a shot. The guy refused, and Conor punched him in the back of the head. So it is in keeping, at a bare minimum, with the kind of behavior he has exhibited previously. Yeah, he threw a drink at him.

Look at Conor in that nice pink jacket throwing a drink at that rapper, Luke. Is he a rapper? That's a strong word. I don't know. Luke, I don't know. Does he have hard bars? Is that what he does? Still a thing.

I mean, this is... Well, first of all, why is Conor there? Look, let's give a state of the union on Conor. on Connor. His post leg break Poirier trilogy loss has been a a thriller level shit show of like even in his best moments, he's riding around

on a scooter with his leg up giving like a TED talk on optimism and life and then like a day later giving tweets that look like they're cocaine fueled coming at people's wives and really, and this has just been an, like this,

this last stretch since July when he, when he lost it, like that, I compared it before in the past, Luke to like, when we look back post breakup, like that year after when you were like really hurt and you called your ex a bunch of times and you talked bad publicly.

You're like, man, I wish I could take that last year back. I wish I would have just bitten down hard and taken this like a man. They should have kept the social media and all microphones away from Conor. Luke, where is he going right now mentally? Because his stock is just, I mean, it's just every day. It's just going in the wrong direction, Luke. Two things occur to me. One is, who knows what happened between them.

But, like, you have to ask yourself, what would it, dude, acting normal in public is not that hard. I mean, I'm not a celebrity. I don't live his life. But I didn't see any other celebrities throwing any drinks at anyone else at this event. This was the only one that I saw. And I'm sure, I mean, think about it this way. Like, LeBron James probably has people waiting on him hand and foot at all times but like LeBron has never ever been in trouble and I don't know what the reason for that is I'm sure he's gotten lucky a couple times

as all people do including me and you from time to time in our 20s but the reality is like you don't think people have said fucked up shit to him personally like when he was out somewhere tried to test him or something you don't think he's been in a club and some shit went the one way and or it could have gone much worse and he just avoided it like there's a reason why connor gets in trouble it's because he seeks the shit out like more than he should i'm sure some of it seeks him out too okay it's not his fault in that sense but he definitely plays a role in taking a bad circumstance and making it much worse than it needs to be that's the first thing i would say. The second part I would say here, and by the way, LeBron James, more famous than Conor by a mile. The second thing I'd say, BC, is dude, if you're a Conor McGregor fan, you got to ask yourself a

question. When was the last time he did anything where you just had a lot of fun? And yeah, maybe there was some pre-fight stuff that happened, but like in the totality of a McGregor experience, can you honestly say people are having fun in the way that they used to? Like in the run-up with the first fight with Poirier or with Aldo in the world tour? Dude, we're so fucking far from that, it seems almost unrecognizable. And I'm not saying his life is easy. He has challenges. While he does have money, he does have other pressures and challenges that I'm sure we have difficulty comprehending.

I get that. But at the same time, it's like, dude, just look around at the state of things. Everything feels ugly, dark, boring, and kind of clownish. And it used to seem a little bit clownish, but on the fun side, plus it was backed with all of this grandeur from the stakes being raised and the accomplishments that were happening. It's just, it seems like a distant lifetime ago i mean his ego is out it seems out of control that he has no sense like i said you know remember when i praised him briefly after that third fight i said like you know he's fighting manic he's fighting

like a maniac and that that might be good to keep alive his career and fights that you know he would lose if he fought more cautiously but he he's living life that way now, too. You can tell he's on tilt constantly. I mean, and also it is a close-up and a sobering close-up to where his brand's at that, you know, Machine Gun Kelly's just like, nah, brah. Like, you know, you could take a walk, dude. Like, I don't need a selfie with you. I don't need to rub brands with you. He needs a big win, Luke. And he's not helping himself at

seemingly every single turn since this fight. And I don't mean win in the cage. I mean like a PR win, right? He seems to be in a really bad spot, Luke. I'm not here to, you know, follow up on the commenters on Twitter of all this. It's going to be a bad ending where, you know,'m not here to, to, you know, follow up on the commenters on Twitter of all this. He's going to be a bad ending where, you know, he, you know, he's going to, I don't, I don't know how far it is to a bad, you know, to a quote unquote bad ending, but, um, it seems to, to not be in a good spot, Luke. And maybe it's may, you know, to, to armchair quarterback this for a second, the best we can, maybe it's having difficulty as we talked about after that third fight against Poirier, coming to terms with where he's at. If you're not that same badass,

does it become obviously harder to talk yourself into believing you are? But do you have an identity outside of the fight game? That's a sobering reality for all people when they are forced to retire from their job. And while he's not at that retirement point, he's at this key part where losses and injuries have piled up and the idea of the aura. The aura used to be enough to kick ass on its own, right?

The aura's not even there anymore, Luke, and maybe he's having trouble resurrecting that aura. And also, just lastly, dude, this is not the thing that's front of mind, but if I was healing from an injury that was, if not treated properly potentially the end of a career like if you don't do the things you're supposed to do this could be a very very severe injury right like this is hard to come back from and be at all the

same i wouldn't be engaging in public scuffles where you could get stepped on trampled is a strong word but like you know some big fucking dude throws you around you have a walking cane obviously shit is still fragile i just wouldn't want to be in any situation except a calm peaceful one to facilitate that i don't know where his head is at these days man i don't know i still think he's got a big win in him i still think he should be taken seriously but this is just it's just like dude what the like what the fuck are you doing at this point you know yeah your odds and ends triller would love him that's a perfect marriage at this point luke uh my odds and ends are can we finally talk about something good in boxing we might have something uh the even though the purse bid was

uh delayed for all things welterweight title w WBO, Terrence Crawford, the unbeaten champion against Sean Porter. Bob Arum of Top Rank, Luke, I don't know if this was to take the attention off the bad juju over the whole Oscar Valdez card, but he said Friday night to the media that he feels we're not going to a purse bid. He plans on putting that fight on pay-per-view November 20th in Las Vegas. So that would make me assume that there's been some talks and contact between top-ranked ESPN and Fox and PBC and Al Heyman

for some type of joint pay-per-view. Luke, as much as boxing of late has really irritated me, we do have, get ready, Wilder Fury 3 on October 9th. We've got Anthony Joshua, Alexander Uua alexander usic the what the week before that and if we could get sean porter terrence crawford november 20th it's a good strong way to end the year so let's hope that this is all legit and it's going to happen because terrence crawford for as freaking great as he is and is, we need to see him against a legit elite welterweight. I hope that Aaron's Errol Spence is going to bounce back and be the same guy from

this eye injury. I don't know, but this will take us closer to really finding out who's the best welterweight in the world in this era of post Manny and Floyd. So let's get there. Let's, let's, let's make this happen. So I'm excited. I'm really excited to be out. That's a great fight. I'm really excited about that. Should be good. All right. Well, that is it for us today. As you guys know out there, we do this three times a week. We'll be back Wednesday, 11 a.m. in the East. We'll react to everything from Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series. We'll lean into some of Friday, or I should say some of the weekend's fights

and a whole lot more. By the way, quick note. This is true. The producers are telling me this, BC. So if you want to go get it, now's your chance. MorningCombat.store. MorningCombat.store. BC's shirt is almost sold out. There are just a few left.

So you have to go to MorningCombat.store. And, of course, we have the Live 10. L-I-V-E, the number one, the number zero, all together. Live 10, 10% off. You got to go get it now. It's not going to help you get laid, but it will make people afraid of you at the bus stop. It will.

It will increase your testosterone instantly or your money back. Thank you, by the way. Thank you to the folks out there for jumping on this keepsake, which will not be around for long. So get it while it lasts. Love all you guys. I know this wasn't your favorite episode probably but we're in an in-between lull period for mma we are back

this weekend let's keep the chains moving it was necessary business luke we had to attend to on the boxing side we're a combat sports show i'm sorry it is it is what it is let me let me just tell folks i have been an editor at a big mma site and you can you can take things where you can just look at the metrics and you can say hey everything take things where you can just look at the metrics and you can say, Hey, everything that they like, we're just going to focus on that and nothing else. And it turns out if you do that, you'll get a bad product. Yes. We need to pay attention to what the fans care about the most. I understand that, but you have to give them some things that have newsworthy value. Triller was that for this weekend for all the wrong reasons, but you're

right. Wednesday, we transitioned forward. I want to remind folks, by the way, for Saturday's Bellator card, one way to see it, that's going to be on Showtime. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can pound sand. You can like this video. You can hit subscribe. We're all over social media. Morning Combat's name is consistent everywhere. It's the same no matter what, but BC and I have slightly different names between Instagram and Twitter. And last but not least, BC, as you know, we now enter, we're still on the end of week one here, but we're entering week two for the NFL and DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL, is going to give new customers $200 in free bets instantly. All you got to do is bet $1 on any football game.

Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Use the promo code COMBAT, that's COMBAT with a K, to receive $200 in free bets when you place a $1 bet on any football game. Promo code COMBAT this week at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. Also, I want to make an announcement here, Luke. A lot of people are saying, like, I used to love this show, MK. All the things I love about it, where have they been? This Wednesday, two days from now, the return of the Wheel of Death.

Oh, shit. I was enjoying its absence, but you know what? It's due, so what can you do? We'll get to that. All right. I want to thank everyone at Showtime mulca cbs sports for the king of connecticut that's brian campbell i'm luke thomas see you on wednesday and until then may all of your gains be loyal