MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Recap: UFC on ESPN 36 | Bellator 281 | Charlo Stops Castaño | Jaron Ennis | Ep. 302

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

On Episode 302 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian recap a packed weekend in the combat sports world. The boys break down UFC on ESPN 36, Bellator 281 and Jermell Charlo vs. Brian Castaño 2. Is there anything to take from the UFC on ESPN 36 main event before Rakic's knee injury? Did MVP deserve the nod in the Bellator 281 main event like Scott Coker said? What changes did Charlo make this time around versus last? The boys close out the show with some DM's from Donks and HYSTS. (10:10) - Jan Blachowicz (26:30) - Rest of UFC on ESPN 36 (41:20) - Storley gets decision over MVP (59:25) - Jermell Charlo becomes undisputed (74:35) - Jaron Ennis (83:00) - DM's from Donks Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, reveveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat.

Back like a bad habit on the 16th of May of 2022. It is time for episode 300 and whatever the F right here on Morning Combat. Hi, everyone. I am merely one half of your hosting duo. My name is Luke Thomas. I join you from the capital, Estados Unidos, right here in Washington, D.C., joined by the Viceroy of Connecticut. He's got a haircut straight from LFO, the ban in 1999.

Chinese food also makes him sick. It's my friend and yours. It's Brian Campbell. What's up, BC? Luke, I love it. I love it when you dip into the 90s, Luke, like that. It makes me feel good in my in my loinage right there. Thank you.

Just like MK, Luke, it's something unpredictable, but in the end feels right. So I hope you have the show of your life today, Luke, because I'm ready. I'm fired up. Okay, look at me in that white crew neck right there from J.Crew. Oh, God. Wow. I wouldn't say that's Prime BC, but, you know, that guy's a finalist, okay? Finalist of Prime BC.

All right, BC, speaking of finals, man, there was a bunch of games over the weekend, which were pretty cool, but we're not going to talk about those. We're going to talk about all the fights that happened. There was, of course, a UFC event, a Bellator London event, and then there was Charlo Castagna, which was, I don't know, pretty incredible, to put it mildly, and an amazing, amazing fight. So we'll get to all of those. Thumbs up on the video if you're watching on YouTube. Please hit subscribe as well if you are watching on YouTube. If you are listening on podcast platforms, give us a nice review on whatever platform it may be. I want to remind

folks, if you want to reach the show, morningcom combat at gmail.com is the place to do that of course if you had showtime over the weekend you got to watch bellator you got to watch charlo castagno best place to do that is going to be at showtime.com you can get a 30-day free trial if you like it keep it if not do something else with your life bc i see you're wearing some of our fine merch which folks can get at morningcombat.store yes they can luke and if you're watching us abroad hope you get lucky right but no if you really are um if flat rate international shipping is not a thing at morningcombat.store so you, you know, outfit your mates in the best damn combat sports wear you can find. Thank you.

Yes, very, very good. BC, was your weekend good otherwise? Yeah, you know, it was very relaxing, Luke, okay? A lot of time spent outside in the backyard. It was, you know, spring's here. So, you know, I think I have sprung eternal myself, if you know what I's here. So, you know, I think I have sprung eternal myself,

if you know what I mean, Luke. I don't, but it's probably some vague reference to your genitals. We're only four minutes into the show. It didn't take that long. I mean, vague, vague. Don't give me too much credit, Luke. It was very direct, okay? Okay, very direct.

BC, I want to tell everyone that there's a product out there that I use every day. It's called Athletic Greens. I know you use it as well because I want to tell everyone that there's a product out there that I use every day. It's called Athletic Greens. I know you use it as well because I want more energy. I don't like taking a bunch of pills. It's pretty great, right? I mean, it's fantastic. And it's one scoop a day of this miracle powder into your water, into whatever drink you're looking for.

I put it in shakes as well, Luke. And the thing that it does is it tastes healthy. It makes you feel great. I use it literally every day. Let's see. You've got high quality vitamins and minerals, whole food sourced superfoods, probiotics, adaptogens, starts your day right. Tons of good stuff packed into this. And what does it do for you beyond making you feel good? How about it helps you with gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy recovery, focus, and aging. And it's not like it takes up a lot of room on your shelf.

Okay, we got travel packs too for when you're on the road. It's just a part of your lifestyle that, you know, you add it, you'll see results. It's lifestyle friendly, whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, or gluten-free, it contains less than one gram of sugar, no GMOs, no nasty chemicals, or artificial anything while still tasting good.

You know, and you want to talk about the price, less than three bucks per day. That's called investing in your health, and it's certainly cheaper than your cold brew habit. Taking Athletic Greens is a small micro habit with big benefits. It's one thing you can do every single day to take great care of yourself.

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Again, that is athleticgreens.com slash morning combat to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Now, BC, before we transition to our top five topics, I want to actually hand this over to you because you hosted the first one of these. We have a big announcement for the audience. So why don't you tell them, A, what the announcement is, and then B, who it involves for the first of these things. Take it away. Yes.

We have been teasing for some time that Room Service Diaries, one of the favorite vehicles in MK history of our P1s, it's going to go under a new look. It's going to be something new with the same spirit of old. We, this week, Wednesday, during and in place of your normal Morning Combat episode, this Wednesday, 11 a.m. Eastern time on youtube.com slash morning combat. We will debut episode one of Room Service Diaries, your new look interview franchise from the folks here at Malka CBS Showtime. We call it Morning Combat. Episodes one guest, Luke, how about we stay in my home state here

and look for royalty? And we're talking about the king himself, light heavyweight champion, Glover Teixeira. Yes, he's going to make that first title defense in Singapore in a few weeks, but we got him for 90 minutes or so on our couch, Luke. Yes, on our couch. So why don't we throw to a little teaser of what you can expect this Wednesday, 11 a.m. Eastern time. I'm always all about taking shit to the next level. And that's really what we're going to do. We're going to launch our interview series, Room Service Diaries.

That's the couch that they fell into in uh what are you expecting out of this interview with brian and lou i don't know man it's um just going uh get excited about it you know i'm ready man yeah let's do it the champ is how are you all right champ is here. How are you? I can't believe it's a pleasure to meet you, sir. Hi, Glover. Luke Thomas. How are you?

Try the Brazil map, you know? Yes. They are. They are. In Europe, they all say Rodrigo. But like, his name is like voice. Voice, right. Voice, not voice.

We're about 60 seconds out. That looks pretty awesome, bro. I got to admit. That was very well done by our team there. And it seems like everybody's got an interview pod these days, Luke, specifically. So we figured, why don't we just make the best one? Yeah, and it was great. I mean, Glover was extraordinarily candid and thoughtful and interesting. He tells you about all the good parts of his life, all the down parts, all the successes, all the failures, and all the in-between.

And it was eye-opening. It was really fantastic, actually. It's like when you create the foundation for these type of in-person long form interviews, you never know. It's based on the you know, it's based on the subject, which direction would go. These went into some very deep sort of like, damn, I respect this man in front of me sort of situations there that that mirror both his fight journey and of course, his life journey to get to this point. So huge recommendations for everybody. Thanks to Glover as well. Wednesday, 11 a.m.

Eastern. It is episode one of our new series in place of your regular morning combat. There you have it. I cannot wait for that. 11 a.m. In the East as BC said on Wednesday, but for now,

BC, let us start the show with our top five topics. Okay. We'll start with UFC. BC. This was a weird one. Um, it was a tale of two different rounds and then a round that we should just kind of throw out all together.

Jan Blachowicz did get the win over Aleksandr Rakic and did look pretty good, especially in the first round and I guess for as long as the third round lasted. Rakic having a pretty strong second round, but having a really bad injury. We're not exactly sure what the extent of it is and when he'll be back, but Rakic falling to the ground, grabbing his knee in pain. He was not hit in that knee. It just kind of buckled under the weight of movement.

So Blachowicz gets the win, BC. I guess my question is, what can you really take from this Blachowicz win, even though it ended so weirdly and so matter-of-factly. I was surprised, Luke, by how much in the end I could take from it. You know, I didn't watch this live because of the competing boxing match at the same time. Heard the result, assumed it was this abbreviated, like, oh man, we were just getting going. And that certainly is true. Two very fun rounds.

This looked like we were on our way potentially to something big. I mean, they were letting their hands go, but also, you know, tons of strategy and technique. But here's what I learned in the end, that although this is just bad luck for Rakic and, you know, he's already vowed to come back and he's going to be scarier and better than he ever was. And no doubt, Luke, I think as long as he's not compromised by this injury moving forward, I think he's going to end up getting his title shot and proving to us how good he is. But what we learned that Jan Blachowicz is still that dude. You know, that was not him against Glover Teixeira.

We've talked about that many times. Lost the belt. It's always tough, especially given his age, to bounce back against a killer who's looking to get his own title shot. And I thought he looked great. Yeah, he got that stiff jab that cut him below his left eye too early in the first round. And even though it was a pretty competitive fight striking-wise, those leg kicks in particular, dude, it looked like he was chopping Rakic down. And it seemed also that when they did land big power shots,

that Jans was, you know, showing more damage or showing to be harder potentially. I learned everything that I needed to see that this guy could still win back this championship and that he's still the same dude, Luke. How about you? I mean, it's hard to know exactly how that fight would have gone because could Rakachev continue, again, injury notwithstanding, could he have continued to get the takedowns, maybe won that way, maybe there's some kind of opening up of a brawl in the fourth or fifth round or

something like that because to your point like they were throwing pretty actively pretty consistently this was not a it was a technical fight but it was not a reserved fight by any stretch of the imagination but dude I'm with you a little bit on this one like there was a lot I did like from Rakic I've been high on Rakic for a long time I really respect his game his wrestling looked to be on point his top control is good like. Like if he gets you down, you know, there's a good chance you're probably going to lose that round. He keeps guys down once he gets it. And so that second round, you saw a lot of evidence of that. And I also want to say that I thought that he was doing a little bit more on the feet to try and find, he wasn't being too reserved on the feet either. He was actually trying to land. But dude, to your point,

Blachowicz is still very, very, very tricky on the feet. He destroyed the lead left leg of Rakic. It looked like he had been hit with a pan that had been heated up first. So not only was there the impact of it, but there was this weird bubbling that grew on the front of his left leg. It was terrible. And by Blachowicz, even though he was eating a lot of leg kicks, he was checking a

lot of them. He didn't have nearly the same amount of damage. He did get cut over that eye, but this is the point I wanted to make. Rakic still seems like he does the majority of his best work with his boxing, and Blachowicz simply denied him that. So on the one hand, I can very much understand Rakic's position, which was, hey, this fight was just getting started. It was pretty even. All true. All 100% true. But it also looked to me like Blachowicz was in a rhythm,

was feeling it, looked a lot better than he did the last time, even though he was dealing with apparently a car being stolen and all kinds of illnesses and everything else. And his asshole too, Luke. Yeah, he had some serious problems apparently. I'm just trying to point out, dude, he looked like he was dialed in and ready to go, and I agree with you. I think if he can, we'll see what happens with UFC 275 with Glover and Yuri.

But if Glover wins that, to me, even though Glover kind of ran over Blahovic the first time, I don't know that I would expect that the second time. Yeah, and I like to see already that Glover, who we interviewed, you can see that on Wednesday, already tweeted out, and he doesn't tweet often, Luke, something he told us during the interview, or at all, it seems, but he did tweet out that if Jan got that win against Rakic, and they mentioned on the broadcast that he would give him a title shot if he was able to get past Prochocka.

Yeah, and I think it's deserving because this was a win technically, even though it was an injury, but it was also a win, as we just mentioned. And Luke had this fully evolved into that brawl that you said it looked like it could be heading to. I think it was going there because of the leg kicks, and I think Jan would, even without the leg kicks, I think if you stand in brawl with Jan, the Polish power will kick your ass because it's enough technique, it's good timing, there's enough hand speed there despite his age. I don't think that was the type of fight Rakic was... I think, obviously, you saw that he was going to have to be more balanced, but I think he was getting pushed into that war and I think the stoppage

was potentially going to be there for Jan, but either way, I think we can all say this was a win. Yeah, yeah, dude. I think he can all say this was a win yeah yeah dude I think he made you know he he I'd rather see him fight for the title off of this than have to run through Ankaliev also Luke you know what I'm saying let me stick with the fight for just a second how much improvement did you see in Rakic's game we knew his take was good we knew he had some good striking but did you see what did you see i liked a lot of what i saw in fact i like the combinations that he threw early they were

hard they were accurate they you know they popped i do think though that he was i mean obviously the leg strikes were a big part of it but even separate from the leg strikes when he got himself into exchanges with jan um i don't think he could wear the damage as well. I think that it compromised him. I think that at times it's slow, you know, it forced him to shoot. And while he did have success getting the takedown, you know, he wasn't able to do too much with it. I like the well-balanced effort from him, but I think he's still figuring out the recipe, so to speak. So even though this, again, has potential to be a disastrous injury, depending on the recovery and the severity of it, but if he comes back and is that same guy, I think he's got stuff to add and it's the kind of thing we said

you know would he come out in this fight and and and drop the the safe boring label that sometimes he gets whether it's fair or not and and let his shit go for the most part he did and i liked a lot of what i saw but i still don't think he's ready yet i still think we got to see a little bit more that's where i came down as well on this one he's obviously a physically totally he's ready yet I still think we got to see a little bit more that's where I came down as well on this one he's obviously a physically totally he's physically quite ready quite ready for the championship level and I think his wrestling is ready for the championship level but the thing that kind of got me and this is not like wrong I don't I don't want to suggest that it is the thing that I walked away with though is in the first round it was pretty even through the first half I'd say Blachowicz still got the better of it, but it wasn't like Rakic was out

of it. And then as each minute kind of wore on, you began to see that Blachowicz was pulling away is a strong word, but clearly being like the to me, the first round was Blachowicz's round and it was more true in the second half of the round than it was in the first half, but true in both. And then in the second

round, you get the takedowns. Here's the thing for me about this. It's like, dude, if things aren't going well for you on the feet, having something, and not that they were going super poorly, but again, that leg was getting torn up. But the point I'm trying to make is going to the wrestling, having that secondary gear, that's a great thing to have. Please don't misunderstand me. In fact, it won him that round.

And if the fight had kept going, it is at least quite conceivable it could have won him the fight. The point I'm trying to make, and I think it's what you honed in on, is he still has, he has not reached his potential yet. He has not really fully maximized his game yet. And the part that kind of got me was, while it's nice to have that ace in the hole of the wrestling, the part that I've been waiting to see catch up a little bit is the striking. And I did see some of that growth here. Obviously not enough because the fight got called short due to the injury.

But the point I'm trying to make is, I did not see quite as much growth in the striking. Not so much that he couldn't win this fight. I think that was still in play. But to really win the title, to really be that guy in this division, no, I think there's still some work that has to get done. And his coaches probably know that. I'm sure he knows that as well. So while I did think he put in a very very commendable effort

and again won a clear round against Blachowicz it's the idea that the wrestling has kind of become his game when it I don't know that it ever really fully was that way and what I would want to see is if he really wants to be a title contender the striking is by no means bad there's nothing bad about it but it's not quite where it needs to be for it to match the the dominance that his wrestling brings to the equation absolutely and he's so well-rounded that sometimes you can show warning track power across the board in each category when you're so well-rounded that's why he's going to take him time to put it together but when he gets it all together he still has that opportunity to be fucking great i mean it's in him

for sure luke uh i don't think i've put um this fellow rackage on the uh the uh tattoo truth chair but do you like his aggressive thigh sort of ferocious animal matching tats that that creep out under the venom gear there well he's his tattoo i will say this about his tattoos he's pretty consistent about them they're all black and gray which i kind of like if you're going to go black and gray like just stick with it and one of the things he's very good at is picking um he is very good about complementing human anatomy so if you look at his tattoo sleeve it goes all the way up and it covers the chest right along the pec line and then the back of the shoulder right along where the muscles grow like it kind of naturally fits on versus a lot of people with some of my bad tattoos like the ones I have here and on my back a little bit they're just kind of planted on top they don't match human anatomy so

like do I want those tattoos no they're not for me they're not for me but they are well placed and so for that reason and because there's a consistent artistic theme across them i kind of i kind of dig them to be honest with you would you put your navel tattoo in the uh good or bad category oh i haven't oh bad that's bad yeah it's bad um it's not good uh it's gonna get covered up eventually you know me calling it that has produced a bunch of just not ready for tv very dirty military-based jokes from people in the other armed services against you. Yeah, but who cares? They're losers.

You think I give a fuck what an airman's opinion is of me? Motherfucker, your boot camp was six weeks, and you guys sit on your fucking ass. What are you going to say to me? Oh, shit. Get fucked, loser. That's what I would say. Yeah, you're not even...

The Coast Guard is cooler than you. Yeah, right? Dude, the Coast Guard is cooler than you yeah right yeah the coast guard is significant coast guard is dude coast guard's tough as shit people don't people don't get some connecticut shit right there that's why luke okay yeah you think i give a shit what the air force has to say about me okay um all right but bc you talked about on khalayev so here's how it's gonna go we have 275 light heavyweight contest, Glover to share a taking on Yuri Prohodzka. We kind of have on Kalaya floating out there,

but remember his last fight against Santos, it was a win, but it was a dreadful win. So you've got Blahovic, former champ on Kalaya. And then you have this other two. Would you like to see Blahovic fight on Kalaya? How do you see the title picture working following UFC 275?

That's what I said before we cut out there before, that I would rather Blachowicz go back to the title. I think he, look, again, I learned what I learned from this fight. If you can take as much as I thought I did, I learned a lot. So I would rather that. Does Uncle Anteayev have Anthony Smith lined up? Is that a correct fact, Luke? I don't know if it's fully.

I'll double check before I say something stupid. I think that's in the International Fight Week card, right? I'm going to look right now. I'm going to look right now. If Uncle Anteayev gets through that, he would be without a major reward. It could happen, Luke. It could very well happen. I think, though, UFC can go either way

and I don't think they get criticized either way because, you know, former champ going back in there in a rematch or the former champ going back in there against a Prohotska who just, you know, kicked the door in against Deshera if it goes that way. Either way, Luke, I could see why

that would be the stronger matchmaking choice. Not that Jan's a giant draw, but just I think that would be the better direction right now. But let's see what Ankalayev does, Luke. You never know. He may blow away Anthony Smith to a degree that we're like, oh shit, that guy has to have the next. This is why you watch the fights. I love this show, Luke.

I like how your viewing of the potential future is only Ankalayev potentially blowing away Smith and not the other way. Although I certainly, I would grant that. No, no. Anthony Smith has been known to surprise me inside that cage. Look,

okay. Seriously. He's, he's, he's well-rounded and gritty. And, and, and I would love to,

to, to meet with him personally, Luke, and talk about that. Uh, BC to answer your question. No, it is not international fight week that on Kalia has a potential,

uh, fight with Smith. It is, however, still in July, July 30th, UFC 277, Ankalayev versus Smith has been knowledge of the promotion's plans, confirmed MMA fighting. I don't know if it's official, but that's the way

it's looking. So there you have it. Okay, so you have that, and then you have, yeah, I mean, I guess, well, okay then, but I'll be seeing, hold on, we're not answering the question. If Ankalayev and Smith fight and you have that and you have, yeah, I mean, I guess. Well, okay then, but I'll be seeing, hold on, we're not answering the question. If Ankulayev and Smith fight and you have Blachowicz, I'm not, like, who gets, you would, I mean, I know Blachowicz is the former champion,

but dude, if Ankulayev wins that and it continues what is basically like not an undefeated streak, but it's been one since the Paul Craig mishap or whatever you want to call that, dude, wouldn't he be your runaway number one candidate? would depend how you know if he blows away Anthony Smith and blows your doors and he easily could I think though knowing UFC's matchmaking history they would run the former champ right back in that's all I'm saying you know what I mean and make him have to wait once more yeah and also I don't know how you would else do it because you wouldn't have blachowicz fight the

winner of smith and on khali it would be like like blachowicz would get it and then the winner of that would get it they wouldn't meet again right there would there you wouldn't have that so um okay fair enough any other thoughts on the main event well this division which is in transition of course and these names aren't the you know the household known across the main event well this division which is in transition of course and these names aren't the you know the household known across the board but dude this top five are all hammers right now at light heavyweight how many of them do you think could beat john jones at 205 right now well first of all i thought reyes beat him to be clear about that i've said it before so one time i've scored it for him so glover probably not blahovich no because of the wrestling uh prohachka is a weird one i don't know how to

answer that one brochka is a weird one rakic you know who rakic is not rakic is the kind of guy that john jones could leave the back door open to and lose 3-2. You know what I mean? That won't be tough. Ankalayev, I think, beats him. Ankalayev, I think, beats him. So you're that high on old Ankalayev. You're real high. Yeah, dude, he's real good. He's real good. I don't think that the

Santos fight was a great demonstration of his, to bring up the term back, upper bound abilities in this case. I thought it was a very, you know, I thought it was actually more the middle slash lower end of his game. And so for that reason, I think he beats Jon Jones at 205. Now, who knows? I mean, Jones could come back at heavyweight

and be like completely rejuvenated and whatnot. I don't know. I'm a little skeptical he's going to come back and not be good, but just be the dominating force that he was. But yeah, I think on Kalia beats him for sure. Luke, are we like leaving money on the table by not having RJ make upper bound limits MK merch T-shirts, Luke? You have a better read on that stuff than I do, but probably. Probably. All the little stupid catchphrases that we have on the show.

We should probably monetize those if we can. Not that we see a dime of it, but certainly someone else does. Let's make money together. All right, let's make money. All right, BC, point number two. Let's move to it now. We stay with the UFC card. I'm going to read a list of names.

These are all winners. I want you to tell me which of these winners on Saturday at the UFC event had the biggest of the wins so these again these are all winners Ryan Spann Tetsuro Tyra made his UFC debut Michael Johnson or who beat Alon Patrick or Virna Janjirova who beat uh uh Angela Hill what do you think? It's almost weird to answer it this way, but in a low-level way, the stakes were super high for Michael Johnson. That's the only answer here. It's the only answer.

Oh, see, I looked at it more as sort of the hipster potential best answer, but kind of curve it in from the outside. You're saying, no, it's obvious. Well, either way, Luke, I mean, this was a return to form, and this is such a dangerous time to be in when you've lost you know four in a row and your win loss record over the last five six years is is is real bad yet you're always dangerous yet you tend to always find a way to come up short and that's sort of been michael johnson's run and this just looked fresher pinpoint the power is obviously still there.

I mean, look, that first power shot, he landed sort of changed the tenor of that fight right away. And, you know, obviously it's weird to have a guy with basically a 500 record who has three or four wins that, you know, any hall of famer would want on the resume. And he has those, but this looked like he could buy himself some time. Like this looked like he may have one more run in him. And what does that run mean? If it's just a run of being a tough out against big names, even that, you know, is something there, but there's no talk after this in my mind of, okay, you know, this guy could be BKFC tomorrow. I think Luke, he could have one of those late career Jeremy Stevens type runs, you know, where you kind of put it together for three, four fights. I saw that spark in him. Who knows Luke, but I saw

that spark. Dude, I completely agree. I mean, listen to these names of who he has beaten in the UFC. Okay. He's beaten Tony Ferguson, Danny Castillo, who for folks who may not know was a very good fighter. I have team alpha male is now a coach over there. He beat Joe LaZon, Gleason Tebow, Melvin Gillard, Edson Barbosa. By the way, those four in a fucking row. And he beat Melvin Gillard in 2014, which was still a late stage with Melvin Gillard in terms of being good. But you get the idea. Dustin Poirier, Andre Feely, Artem Lobov, and now Alon Patrick. Dude, those are all super legitimate wins.

But then you look at the losses and of course they add up as well. And Miles Jury and Reza Madadi and Nate Diaz and Benil Dariush. And then he lost three in a row to Nurmagomedov, Gaethje, Elkins. Okay, fair enough. It's the last one that made you lose confidence, right? The last losing streak, because it was Josh Emmett, who's very good. But then it was Stevie Ray, who I don't even think is in the UFC anymore. I think he's over in Bellator. Tiago Moises and then Clay Guida back in 2021 very late stage Clay Guida and you thought okay well that's got to be the end for Michael Johnson folks have asked like how can his career be so up and down so weird in this particular way the answer is dude like here's the truth about Michael

Johnson his upper to go back to it his when he's at his best dude and he's firing with the hand speed and he's moving with his phenomenal footwork and he's firing with the hand speed and he's moving with his phenomenal footwork and he's in and out of range and he's changing angles on you yeah dude he'll light anybody on fire go look at that Dustin Poirier fight how did he beat Dustin Poirier Poirier led with an uppercut and Michael Johnson reacted just like that fired a hook and knocked him out he was just incredible like. You can't make mistakes against Michael Johnson in that particular way. On the other hand, BC, even Alon Patrick was able to rock him in this fight

a couple of times. He got him kind of wobbly there a little bit. It wasn't like he served it up for him, no problem. But then how did Michael Johnson win? Four-punch combination, off an angle change, got it, dropped it, two hammer fists, closed the show. Dude, Michael Johnson, the thing about him that's so amazing is his offense is very, very, very good.

But his defense just has, it carries with it a lot of problems. It just carries with it a lot of weight. And so it was hard to know which one you're going to get. Fight to fight, the four in a row told you that maybe this was kind of the end of it. This was a huge win for Michael Johnson rallying past being rocked getting a clear and concise finish reminding people what he can do when he's really dealing out there I don't know if this proves that his problems are behind him BC which I think is a separate question but in terms of the to your point the magnitude of this win, man,

five in a row is usually walking papers in the UFC, not for everyone, not all the time, but usually this was a monster win by him. Yeah, that would, no, seriously, it would have been BKFC on line one had you not won this. And yet it wasn't just the knockout. He looked fluid throughout, which was the thing. Luke, do you think that the stigma of going, you know, from being cut by the UFC directly to Bfc on the last stop in the desert uh is the equivalent of like finding

out your buddy's new girlfriend used to strip is it still have that like level i don't even understand that your buddy's new girlfriend used to strip why would you care well maybe you're a less judgmental person than most or maybe that bit of news could have excited you it's like dude why would i even care what my buddy's girlfriend used to do uh you know you're like is she still working now that's the question it's like bc you used to work at you know the worst places on earth i haven't held that against you i've editorially married you you know what i'm saying okay so what stigma is what luke is ultimately bc what do you make of that idea though that like michael johnson has a very dr jyll and Mr. Hyde kind of game his offense is

phenomenal but his defense just keeps getting him in trouble right absolutely I mean it's and it's not like you know I always try to like boxing a mere con equivalent it's not like you know it's because of his chin he just finds a way to lose or isn't well-rounded enough or focused enough or whatever it was that against really good competition are now in the last most recent lost streak, as you mentioned, not so elite competition. You know, sometimes guys hit these ruts. The thing is, a lot of times guys don't recover from these ruts and then they're fighting in the carnival tent with no gloves on and that happens. But good to see him back. Fun guy at all times but luke who else on that

list do you think is in this conversation that jumped through your screen from this card i mean this is a tough one right because ryan span he got mounted got out of it got taken down got out of it and then threw on a triangle it's not a triangle excuse me a guillotine on an overzealous opponent in the way that Kute Laba, we have known him to be. So it's a very solid win. Just for me, it doesn't match up to what Michael Johnson did. Tetsuro Taira had a very, I would say, good performance, but it was his UFC debut.

This is not the same kind of stakes overall, although he showed pretty strong overall ability. And then Genji Roba, like, dude, I really respect, I mean, I have a lot of respect for Angela Hill and I think she's been robbed, not robbed, but you know, the judges didn't get it right a couple of times in her career and I think it's affected her record. So that's a super solid win by her. And you know, Angela Hill has tightened up some of the defensive liabilities in the grappling department that she once had, like Jenji Roba had to earn it at the same time though. Um, you know, just with the, with stakes that michael johnson was facing here it's just hard

to put that on the same level as him that's where i come down on those names do you disagree no i agree with you on that one i wanted to actually add to this conversation just shout out everything surrounding that chukagian uh he boss fight because luke i remember questioning the why are we making this fight again but in the end not only was it a really fun fight and worth your time but I really love how both fighters kind of looked coming out of it it's like Jukagian you know she just won't go away and she got the new deal and she's won what like four in a row against elite names and she's still number one ranked and you know this was a fun fight and aggressive and a hard fought one.

And she fought an action style, which she doesn't normally want to do or typically do. And, you know, she showed that her technique, her timing was the difference. And she probably does get back into that Valentina conversation, even though, you know, there wasn't anything to watch in their meeting, but it's, it's going to be hard to deny her on the other side. You kind of, you know, you could, you could have question coming in why he boss did this. Was it an opportunistic sort of one-off?

Hey, if I could beat the number one fighter, I could suddenly be right there for a title shot that from that standpoint, I have a lot of respect that they took this fight and that she emptied it and went for it in the way she did. But Luke, unfortunately, cause I love Amanda he boss.

I learned that she's got to really tighten up some elite parts of her game that are not elite. Like she's got to tighten up the defense. And and they mentioned it on the broadcast. You know, Chukagian's shots were just so much just better technique, you know, right to the point A to B. Hibas can can be moving, open up her guard. She can loop in shots. I think it's still there in either division for hibas to be someone and to be someone big maybe but she's farther away than i think i realized in this fight really exposed that to me although it's her moving up in weight and sort of you know going for it and also her father was apparently saying she had here's the thing like i'm not

saying that he's wrong but like correct me if i wrong. Did her dad not say that she had a full biceps tear in one of her arms and still fought the entire time? I didn't hear that. And double check that. That could be a big part of it. And also, I don't want to miss that it was a split decision and that there's a lot of people that thought Hibas won. I think you can make an argument, but I guess my point is,

even though this would have been a monster win and could have put Hibas in position for a title shot at 125, I can see how great she has the potential to be. I don't know if she gets there, though, Luke, because she got pieced up in key moments in this fight. Okay, so listen, I'm no medical doctor, but apparently her father says she suffered a total rupture of the biceps tendon. Wow. Well, here's the thing about that. Like, again, dude, I'm not a doctor. I have no idea if that is true at all.

Please, like, let's see whatever the doctor has to say about that. And I'm also not saying she didn't have an injury. Here's the only thing I would say about that. I've seen a lot of bicep tears and, like, what it does to someone. Matt Serra has that, where it completely misshapes the bicep because you get a tear here the bicep tendon is that one at the very hard one right at the crook of your elbow or in the center of it where you bend and if that tears the whole muscle comes up a little bit because there's

literally nothing holding it to the bone her arms look normal so I don't know if it was like a partial tear in which case by the way would still be a very commendable effort or I just don't know if it was like a partial tear in which case by the way would still be a very commendable effort or I just don't know what I'm talking about which is also quite possible I'm just saying like I've seen a bunch of them and it's very obviously different it looks malformed her arms do not look malformed whatever that is worth yeah interesting that could certainly play a big role in it and look I mean she fought a gritty effort you know I just it's uh got some things to fix but we'll give her time I mean look fought a gritty effort you know I just it's uh got some things to fix but we'll give her time I mean look do you agree though that like there's something about

Chukagian maybe it's the fact that she went to decision so often but it's like no one really wants her to get back in this position but she's here Luke and this was a problem for the UFC to listen to her wins she has wins over Lauren Murphy Irene Aldana uh let's see Mara Romero Borella I don't know how you pronounce her name because she's Italian, I think, whatever, Alexis Davis, Joanne Calderwood, Jennifer Maya, Antonina Shevchenko, Cynthia Alvijo, Vivian Arujao, Jennifer Maya again, and then Amanda Hibas. Granted, this one was a split. Almost all of these are splits. Let's see, or decisions, excuse me. Yeah, in fact, I don't know if she has a UFC stoppage on her

record, as a matter of fact. Yeah, she does not, I don't think. So to that point, that's why people aren't necessarily high on her. But BC, here's the basic question. Is she capable of beating routinely elite opposition? Yes. Yes, she is.

She matter-of-factly is. The record is not ambiguous in that regard. The record doesn't say that she's the very best in this weight class, but it does say she is she matter-of-factly is the record is not ambiguous in that regard the record doesn't say that she's the very best in this weight class but it does say she is a fucking handful for basically everybody else so it's got to figure out what to do with that it's definitely the decisions and i think the other part of it is like for somebody who's proving to be elite herself because she's beating everyone else who's trying to become elite she we don't give her a chance against valentina and that's also, you know, rough time to be climbing the ladder

when you have an all-time great ahead of you. Like, Valentina's freaking amazing. But Luke, she doesn't have a path to victory, like, at all. Like, you know what I mean? Like, not even in ways that, like, Jennifer Maya competed or that Andrade, you know, we thought could have,

although she got demolished. Like, I don't think you can really give Chukagian you know much of a chance against her is that being too harsh Luke I mean I don't think it is dude it's like okay so this one was a fight of the night because this was a great fight so you you like that she's upping the ante a little bit but it's like okay so since she lost since she lost to uh Valentina she beat Antonina, which I'm sure broke your heart. Then she got TKO'd inside of a round by Jessica Andrade.

And then, of course, she beats Cynthia Vivian, Jennifer, and then Amanda Hibas most recently. So, dude, that's a super solid four-fight win streak that she's on. But it's like, what in the course of that told you things would be different the next time with Valentina? I'm not saying that it wouldn't be, but I personally didn't see anything that would make me believe a second fight would go a whole lot differently if you didn't. If Valentina was so dominant that they said, okay, instead of defending your title against one,

there's going to be three fighters. It's going to be Jessica Ai, Lauren Murphy,uren murphy and chukagian and they each fight one round against uh valentina and if they get finished they just go to the next round of the next opponent does uh valentina valentina go three and oh that night luke probably probably i think she's just that much better than all of them which is which is crazy because those other women are great but uh, good enough anyway. And, um,

no, no, I think, I think Valentina, I, I, I mean, I think it is possible for a number one contender to take a round from her,

maybe even two. If it goes to a decision, that's it. That's the most I could grant anyone else in that division at this present time. It's crazy that we're saying that because we just watched Pena upset Nunes in a way that like, dude, of any scenario. Shevchenko is so much more careful than. No, I know. But like in any scenario, if you were like, oh, yeah, Pena is going to pull the upset and she's going to stand and brawl with Amanda until Amanda, you know, goes down and succumbs and kind of just taps.

No, I never would have believed that. But yes, I think Valentina is just a little bit different. Damn. She, I mean, I don't know. People hate goat debates. Valentina may end up the goat is one day is all I'm saying, Luke. Okay. Fair enough.

All right, BC, let's move to point number three here. Now, this was a weird one. I didn't hate this as much as everybody else did. Maybe it's because I've been high on Logan Storley for a little bit longer than some folks, but Michael Venom Page and Logan Storley fought in the main event of Bellator London. This was on Showtime on Friday afternoon. Logan Storley wins. Now, of course, what this means is he'll have an eventual rematch with Yaroslav Amisov,

who is the reigning welterweight champion. But there's some dispute about this, BC, because Bellator president Scott Coker afterwards saying, well, I actually thought MVP should have won because, yes, Storlie had much better wrestling. About that, there is no debate. But the argument would be that he didn't do enough ground and pound or positional advancement with the ground and pound to really make it count do you agree with scott coker is mvp the actual rightful winner of this contest yeah he is luke and i and i'm somebody who it took a while for me to come around on that

what do i mean by that i was somebody who comes from boxing and we're kind of judging mma fights with a boxing mindset where some of these categories are more even and you're looking at sort of five points of discussion rather than a descending order with aggression and damage as your, you know, number one focuses. And in that regard, yes, MVP should have won this fight. Coker's right. Aaron Bronstetter and Sean Sheehan, everybody else on Twitter who's going nuts about it. They're right. They're right. I came around. I realize it now too. MVP did enough in the beginning of most of these rounds to have that argument because when your boy Logan Storley took him down

and it was the right strategic move, but there was just no intention to inflict damage. And sometimes, Luke, people just feel activity, whether they're on the top or bottom, just to show the judges, look, I'm doing something. There wasn't even that. You know, I know that he was trying to advance positions to set that up. I get that he's not just out there thinking lay and pray is the only way, but it got lay and pray-ish and we are on the title level

here. So this disparity that we have in rule changes in MMA and the way it leads to judging and, you know, I finally stopped being ignorant and came around like we got to get every commission aligned and every judge's mind and training aligned and even those in the media and fan subset as well because you know i never wanted to agree with it but they're right logan stoller did shit with the position he got luke you can't win it you can't win a fight on that let alone the i don't think he did shit but i would agree that he didn't do enough. The argument that he did nothing is not quite true. I mean, you could argue MVP was busier on the bottom offensively than Logan was with that position.

Maybe in certain rounds. Except for round five, Logan was good in round five. Aggressive, middle of the cage, intention with the ground and pound. There's no debate over that round. Right. That one was good in round five aggressive middle of the cage intention with the ground and pound there's no debate over that round right that one was a good round and round four was clearly mvp's round it's the first three where you're like well which way would this go now i'm i'm gonna like scott coker's in an unenviable position because dana gets killed for this too but i don't know what the right answer is supposed to be like what do you want from the promoter do you want the promoter to back the guy the hometown guy and just take his you know take his side and then promote it or do you want the promoter to be honest now in this

case the two could be aligned or depending on one's perspective they could be not aligned but like what do you want from a promoter when the wrong guy wins what's the right answer for what they should do you want honesty it's just you you typically assume you're not going to get it because promoters are you know professional used car salesmen and their whole setup of everything has to be calculated and with the intention of selling and you know and attracting attention and all that but i think why people tend to really like scott coker is because for the most part you feel like you're getting honesty and i think this was just him being honest i I don't think this was, well,

corporately we would have preferred, you know, MVP to have one, and then we can do MVP Amosov and it'd be a big deal. No, I think he was just being honest. And I think those are the moments that people just chase from Dana and so rarely ever get Luke. Okay. So there's two big stories here. As far as I can tell, one is the scoring, and I agree that in general, the positional control of Storlie was admirable, but insufficient by itself or with whatever fairly minimal ground and pound he was able to get. I don't know if I would give all three of the first rounds to MVP.

I'd have to go back and look, but certainly I grant that there were three rounds for him there, and that should be quite clear. So that's one part of the story, but BC people are missing the second part of the story, which is, I hope you dullards out there can learn to appreciate Israel Adesanya after this different organization, different weight class, but look at what he does. Two significant differences. Number one, his ability to break off the fence and reset the fight in the middle of the cage to make it a striking contest again is, again, different fighters, different organizations, different worlds, but vastly superior to MVP's ability to do that, number one. Number two, even if he gets taken down, his threat off of his back with either sweeps or attacks from submissions either creates space or he gets on top or whatever the case may be. He is so much more dynamic in these positions. I know everyone wants to make the story about Logan Storley didn't do enough.

Fine, I wouldn't even disagree with you. He didn't really do enough, but okay, it is what it is. The other part of the story, though, is that MVP, this was this was his what 21st or 22nd MMA fight and BC I think it's pretty clear as we said on Friday that there is still a reputation that I don't think fits him because he has vastly improved since the days where he was fighting nobodies he could easily beat like he gave he he arguably beat Logan Storley who was a very very good fighter I think that should be recognized if If you're complaining about the scoring, what you're saying is MVP is better than this guy, and that other guy is extremely good. So that whole can crusher thing, I'm not saying it didn't

happen. I just don't think it represents the reality now. But even with that BC, I hope people can look at the UFC middleweight champion who has a very similar frame and gets attacked in very similar kinds of ways. Look at the difference of what he is able to do to extricate himself or weaponize the position in ways that mvp who is as good as anybody else that what bellator weight welterweight division simply cannot do that to me is somewhat being lost a little bit here well the spirit of what you're saying in the end is right you're right i mean we're not comparing mvp and adesanya and in the points you're making on what adesanya has done to separate himself in some of these situations he's grown and learned from it but he also had to learn from it luke in my opinion

because adesanya left you know said to the judges against romero here's my art project judge it all you want decide whether i'm keeping this title or not even then like people people disregard the leg kicks like mvp doesn, he leg kicks a little bit. No, no, but your point is Adesanya versus MVP, you win the debate. But the Adesanya argument still had some holes. I wanted to point that out. And I think that why I need to point it out

is because that's exactly what MVP did in this fight and that upset me. He did what I said I saw Adesanya do against Romero, which is, look, it's the title fight. It's the biggest fight of your life. You can't leave no doubt. And I know, well, BC, how do you say that? He's getting taken down.

He can't get up. Okay, I get that. I get the obstacle he was against. But even in the starts of the fourth and fifth, and I know this is why people make the argument for open scoring, so that at least the fighters can know. And I'm saying, hold on. I still want my entertainment and the suspense and the unknown. But shouldn't the fighter also realize the stakes and realize what he needs to do to prevent this from happening where he loses such a close decision?

I didn't love that overall lack of urgency. I know that some of that is just his style. You know, it's like I'm going to do my art project. It's up to you to decipher if you can understand it. I get mad at some Cuban boxers sometimes who are so beautiful, but they don't put the pressure on with it. I just, as much as I thought Page should have won, even if he had won, I still think we would have come out of this fight going, I don't know if we really learned everything. I'll just say this, too, as like a general rule.

If you really want to win at the elite level, and I would consider MVP and Logan Storley elite fighters. You can say wherever they would fall in the UFC's welterweight division, but they're good. They would beat good fighters in that division somewhere along the line. You need more than one way to win. You need more than one way to win.

I've knocked UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya for that a little bit, but he is able to make it work, especially at middleweight, obviously where he's undefeated, by virtue of these facts that I have brought up. He has excellent takedown defense, for the most part, certainly today. He can extricate himself off the fence.

He has good clinch breaking, and then underneath, he has good guard attacks and sweeps and whatnot. He really gets busy with that. And so you can see that that has weaponized these other positions that MVP has not. But Logan Storlie was able to strike his way through Neiman Gracie. That was winning a different way, and he sort of wrestled his way here. For the elite fighters out there, you should really pay attention to this.

Who is able to win a fight genuinely, genuinely, in multiple different ways? This is why Charles Oliveira is such a fucking threat, BC, right? We're talking about a different fighter, different organization. But, again, it goes back to it. He can beat you anywhere on the floor for the most part I mean we'll see about that but you know certainly he is very gifted there on the feet now is very gifted in the clinch is very gifted dude he's just a complete offensive machine in all these dimensions and you're seeing now today BC very good fighters elite ones guys able to get very far up the list but they've only really

got one way to win the guys who are going to separate themselves from the pack are going to be the guys who are the ladies who have genuinely multiple ways to win a fight against even other elite opposition and i think if they're missing that they're going to have some problems although you could make that argument about logan storley i was just going to make the argument i was going to put him under that same microscope and say that I think your breakdown is perfect. In regards to Storlie, though, was it a case of not having that second way to win, or was it a case in your eyes, not mine, in your eyes, of Storlie looking at the equation in front of him,

if he stood and traded with MVP and he didn't get pieced up enough to get the feel of what's coming, that he wouldn't have a chance to win the title so was this just the smart strategic way to go even if if i thought he didn't do anything on top uh i i wonder that could be that could be i also wonder like the neiman gracie fight was pretty brutal and it was not that long ago i wonder if he's still feeling the effects of it a little bit like how brutal it was and how long it was and how difficult and how many times he had to kind of dig deep and like you know like you can't do that all the time those are special moments for a reason you can't just be automatic with it I kind of wonder if he was feeling good because this this was not the fight that they had scheduled we all sort of know and you know Amosov was supposed to be the guy but

um I wonder if he's I wonder if there was a little bit of, I'll say this, was there a little bit of Neiman Gracie brutality of that fight hangover a little bit? I kind of wonder about that. Like, I'm going to do just enough of what I need to win by virtue of how MVP fights, and also, like, maybe he was still feeling a little bit. It's hard to say.

We'd have to ask him. The bad news is, and this isn't me hating on Logan Surley I love the guy but the bad news is you know the difficulty of the striking and the opponents you face will get a lot worse than Gracie you know for the most part from here on out although he fought Amosov like nobody has before so if our reward for all this is the Amosov rematch then then Luke, that's fantastic. I still think MVP can regroup, get himself back into a second title opportunity. But, you know, this is still going to be a very fun road because their first match, as we gloat about all the time and say, I mean, it's one of the best fights in Bellator history for a damn reason.

I'm excited that it's just in principle about what this rematch could be because when Amosov does come back, you know, to just assume that, you know what I mean, you transition from the front lines back to the fight game, it's just going to be, you know, with ease, it would be ignorant. Who knows the time frame, you know, on making that transition back and the mental, you know, journey of that as well. So I hope we get it soon, but, hope it. Luke, so this is Christmas. War is over, okay, Luke?

Please. Last thing on this, though. I remember watching the Amosov fight with Storlie when it happened. It was super close. Please don't misunderstand me. It was very close. But I remember when the fight was over, because I was kind of thinking, like, oh, Storlie, the four-time All-American, he's going to win this.

Dude, Amosov beat him there you know what I mean Amosov I remember when I think what I way I had it was I had Amosov winning the first Storlie winning the second and then Amosov winning the third and it was like because it was only a three-round fight this is before they had made all the changes or wherever it took place in the car and it was only a three-round contest but the point I'm trying to make is I remember when that fight was over I'm like I think Storlie got out wrestled dude this is the point I'm trying to make like we'll see what happens with Amosov coming back from the front lines and what this all does for his development but the reality from the first fight was like dude you the wrestling wasn't enough it wasn't enough Amosov was able to

match it and then slightly exceed it through the course of three rounds this is what I mean going back to you need you like it's very easy it's very very easy for me to say you you need multiple ways to win a fight, because if you're thinking about building your game, it actually makes a lot of sense to kind of drill down on one, you know, major aspect, and all the little intricacies therein, like just standing, or, you know, just grappling or whatever, and then to build a game in that way but the reality is with Habib for example it was just one way in the sense of it was just mostly grappling but he had submission threats and he had ground and pound threats so there actually was a couple of different ways going on there with with Logan Storley wrestling is everything that he does but like you can't rely on that either against Amosov because the first time they met Amosov was it was slight but he was the better one of the two it's not like that's an ace in the hole that's going to be here for them for him anyway no I agree with that indeed Amosov was, it was slight, but he was the better one of the two. It's not like that's an ace in the hole. That's going to be here for them, for him anyway.

No, I agree with that. Indeed. Amosov is a badass dude. Absolute badass. We'll see Luke going forward. Is there anything, anything else in this card that we missed? I mean, there was some bangers. Shout out to Fabian Edwards getting that, getting that big Leon's brother, getting that

big knockout Luke. Yeah. I was going to say that was the Fabian or Fabian Edwards just bulldozing off the clinch break Leota Machida hitting him with a vicious elbow in the clinch now I gotta pull up Machida's record here I don't have it just right now I'll find it in a second but um here actually I'll pull it up now uh Leota Machida is by the way 43 years old he was born before me if you can believe that. That's how old he is. And he's on a four fight losing streak. He lost a split to Gegard. No big deal. Then lost

a split to Phil. Okay, no big deal. Then lost a decision to Ryan Bader, which okay, three in a row is not great, but not the end of the world. It was a split decision. No, it was unanimous with Bader. It was unanimous. Okay, I'll take the L there, I guess. And then he gets crushed by Fabian Edwards.

Now, Fabian Edwards, I admit on Friday's show, I underrated him a bit. That was really great, what he showed, and I will adjust my opinion accordingly based on what he turned in. But four fights in a row, BC, 43 years old. You could say, oh, he wasn't getting blown out before, but now he gets blown out.

What are you supposed to make of that? No, I mean, it is what it is. The age and the consecutive defeats, it's against this competition, it's over. And it might be over overall. It probably should be. But this was about Edwards bouncing back from those two defeats

and reestablishing himself as a tough out. And it was good to see that. It was good to see the emotion come out of him afterwards and hearing him talk about the journey to get back here but this was a big win and and even if it came against the guy who's who's not only on the way out this is probably it luke it's still a you know a big name on your resume in the in the manner in which he did it uh it was a good bounce back but um you mentioned from this card by the way as well uh denise kilholtz losing via triangle, which was somewhat surprising, I've got to say.

Paul Daly ending his career with an absolutely vicious KO over Wendell or Wendell Giacomo, BC, at 4.09 of the second round. You've got to be kidding me with this one. Did you see that? It's a storybook. Yeah, it was a storybook. It was like Kobe going for 60 in his final game. You know, RIP, Luke. It was like Kobe going for 60 in his final game. You know, RIP, Luke.

It was like, this is the most Paul Daly thing to do. Go down on the cards against a guy who's trying to use your name to make himself, and you rally and land the big blow. And it wasn't one punch, it was two, but it was just so perfect and so brutal, like only Paul Daly does, Luke. Semtex always had, you know, supernatural power mixed with the desire to go through anything against anyone. And it's produced so many memorable fights, even if, you know, you look back, it got a raw deal by the UFC, never being allowed back in. But, you know, considering the, the, the, the, the, the missteps of others,

but he put together one of those, like, damn, do I love and respect this guy type of careers, even with what, like 20 losses, basically in the end, it doesn't matter. Luke. Stop sitting on your arrow plan points and get big savings. So you can be somewhere you actually want to be like on a beach right now, you can save up to 25% in AeroPlan points when you book a trip to one of 180-plus Air Canada destinations worldwide. So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd.

Book at AirCanada.com. Conditions apply. No, I've been looking at this finish here. Golly, dude, that was just... I mean, you know what? It wasn't just a spectacular win. It was vintage Semtex as well, you know? He's a little bit more of the left hook guy, but still just the same.

Just, you know, blasting someone. They fall face first, and then he walks off. You got to love it for him. And I'm glad Scott Coker found a place for him, even though Dana White couldn't after the whole Josh Koscheck incident he has been a fixture of my MMA fandom and experience and

he had a great career he had you know a lot of ups a lot of downs but he had a great career the whole way through so shouts to Paul Daly also BC I'll just add real quickly Daniel Weishel beating Rob Whiteford 112 into the first round via TKO Daniel Weichel beating Rob Whiteford, 112 into the first round via TKO. Daniel Weichel, the consistent measure of whether you're elite or not

at Bellator, still out there turning in quality wins. Yeah, 37. Even on the prelim card. 37. He's doing some Jim Miller-type stuff right now. Shout out to him. That was great to see, Luke. Also, that was not a buggy choke in the Oliver end camp.

It was an inverted triangle so absolutely no there was there was some good stuff on the on the undercards they're leading up to it and it didn't seem like a good aggressive crowd luke belt or knows how to how to uh you know build the events in europe well but um i definitely doesn't this car feel like it was two weeks ago just because it was friday it really does it really does all right let's move on here to point number four let's talk about a little bit of boxing that happened over the weekend. Incredible fight. Incredible fight.

Jermell Charlo stops Brian Castaño in the 10th round. He not only unifies the belts between them, he is now the undisputed single belt holder. All four belts. First one in the modern era. Obviously, Winky Wright in the three belt era, but since Winky Wright, first one in the four belt era. Incredible. So let me start the conversation this way bc charlo got all four belts in this weight class by stopping his opponents in all

four of those bouts does he belong in the pound for pound rankings now i think he does this was the performance that a lot of us who have had him in the honorable mention or other receiving votes category as it is to the top 10 of the pound for pound rankings for a long time. We've wanted this. We've needed this because we've known it was in him, Luke, the well-roundedness. But what this time went with that well-roundedness, look, Jermell Charlo always has the snarl. He always fights with the chip on his shoulder.

But this was different, dude. This was grown-ass man shit, Luke. This was that gear we needed to see so he no longer gets entangled in the loss to Tony Harrison that was very disputed. And boy, did he come back and avenge that by knockout.

And now the draw, the first time around against Castaño, which we all kind of thought it was a Charlo loss. This is how you fix that issue. The issue is never about the ability, even if he's become more slugger than Boxer in his prime run here. But Luke, he didn't out-hustle or out-box. He out-fought the bully in Brian Castaño here.

And that's the difference between what happened the first time around last year and what happened right here is he pound for pound ability yes I think now he has the win where you want to put him in there 9 10 wherever you you know you feel yeah he's of that ilk now Luke he's one of my favorite fighters in this game to watch even if he can be a roller coaster of emotions and sometimes performances. But this seemed to be that dialed in performance that, that frankly, we've been waiting for. Even with the knockout of Rosario to Unify Belts, you still been waiting for one of those start to finish. Like I'm going to go in there and handle my business.

The thing is, Luke, I think I've always thought he's been better than he realized. And that sounds dumb because like he talks a big game, right? Both Charlos, they're, they're very good marketers and they're they boast a lot but the belief in every part of his game was was the reason i think he won this fight it was next level dude you know what's amazing to me is if you show the highlight one more time of how that's about what just a brilliant short left hook i mean super. Because if you look at the hand of Castaño, it's up. It just comes right in front and then tags him along, like maybe the side of the face, even the temple line.

But that's not even the point I wanted to make. The point I wanted to make was look where the fight was at that moment in time. Castaño had backed Charlo up to the ropes, and Charlo was trying to fight inside. But the difference was he was fighting on the inside. He was brawling rounds four to six, right? But at this point in the fight, this is round 10, what you see from him is much more scientific fighting on the inside.

At times, wrapping up with Brian Castaño. At times, pushing him away. Much better about lateral movement. This time, he got trapped along the ropes, and he was constantly looking for that left hook over the top, dude. Or, you know, in this case, it was right in front. But he was constantly looking for, he was waiting to feel the right from Brian Castaño so that he could come right over the top of it.

Remember, it hurt him in the second round of the first fight. Dude, this was, to me, Charlo won the first three. I agree with Steve Farhood's scorecard. He won the first three. Castaño won the next three. I agree with Steve Farhood's scorecard. He won the first three. Castaño won the next three. So you're through six. It's about even. Charlo could have won that fight with the way he won from seven on,

which was jabbing, keeping distance, slowing down the output of Castaño. But he did. He was winning the rounds. But in this moment, Castaño was trying to reassert himself. And Charlo was still better. Charlo beat Castaño in the phase of the game where Castaño is considered to be his best. Throwing combinations, high guard, backing you up against the ropes.

That is where Charlo took his belt from him, at the very center of where Castaño excels. I mean, if that doesn't put him on the pound for pound list what the fuck does I mean and that's the thing man the intention what I said Logan Sterling didn't show enough of the intention I went back and re-watched this fight Luke the first two rounds it's like Charlo stood there and basically said without saying to Castaño that when you cross that line and try to pin me to the ropes, I'm fighting my way out. That type of consistent infliction of intention was not there in the first fight. It was Charlo at times trying to, like always, like he does,

look for the perfect shot that could change the fight. This time it was Charlo not worrying. Look, there were times he threw poorly technique hooks because this was a fight. The fact that he committed to the fight part of it and the commitment of that intention, you're right. He stood up to the greatest skill Castaño had and said, I can still beat you heads up with this.

And he wasn't doing it to show off. That's the way you have to beat bullies like this. You got to stand up to them and show them that you can take what they have, but you're going to be better. And Luke, he was better. I don't know how. I saw Coppinger had Castaño ahead at the time of the stoppage. I had six rounds to three.

I don't see how you could. I think all judges had Charlo up at the time of the stoppage, if memory serves. I don't see how you could have Castaño up, even though I really loved his effort and his adjustments, and I loved everything about it. But, Luke, when you really look at the replays after each round, Charlo's ability to do things like sidestep and throw the hook to the body, there were nuances added to his game along with that added aggression and intention. And anytime the play didn't work and it was time to fight, the fact that Charlo stood in

there and banged. I mean, the end of round four, that 10 seconds was like an aphrodisiac, Luke. And then the end of round four that 10 seconds was like uh you know i mean that was like an aphrodisiac luke and then the end of round five they did it again for like 30 seconds they both dug in committed to what was coming at them but charlo's defense was really good i know he ended up going on a huge rant at the press conference about this it was aimed at coppinger more on that to come and have you seen the shit but part of that ran he killed cop and juror too i didn't see this oh my god it was it was uh it was a murder but uh part of the rant was you know he looked at cop and juror was like you're a fan boy you never been in there you don't realize that i i'm i'm you know moving with these shots and luke i really focused on

charlo's defense on the rewatch and a lot of those exchanges man castanho's just not touching him clean and charlo's coming right back with bombs so even though the punch stats showed Castaño was more aggressive landed more dude Charlo won almost all of these exchanges except for you know a couple of them in the early rounds I mean dude he he just outmanned him and you love to see it Luke but he outmanned him in this fight you know it's amazing bc you go back to this one he loses to tony harrison comes back and avenges the loss and had the draw with castagno and then comes back and then gets uh the win so you had these two performances the harrison fight

or the i should say the harrison rematch and the castagno rematch where you saw granted you know harrison was having his moments in the rematch too but the point I want to make is sometimes the Charlo's get they get criticized for having a level of they have this desire for acclaim that sometimes you'd say well you're very good but you haven't quite shown us this these rematches with Harrison and Castaño it clearly shows that when at least in the case of Jermell Charlo when he really buckles down and he really trains and he talked about the fact that he was like way underweight for this one you know when I say way I mean like a pound or two but still you know underweight for this one because he had put in so much work it almost shows that the critics are a little bit right about them which is that yes dude you guys

are crazy talented. But maybe, just maybe, not that they're lazy. That's not quite true. But we don't always get the best out of them. What was so magnificent about this one is even in the rounds that Castaño won, rounds four to six, Charlo was in that one, biting down on the mouthpiece, not abandoning the game plan, not panicking, really firing it off, and then getting back to the game plan and then finishing off his foe. Dude, when these guys actually give what they have to give, when they actually give what is really truly inside them,

it is magnificent to watch. So I don't want to say that the critics are always right about the Charlo's. That's not what I mean. But I do mean to say that Derek James pulling the most out of him, it was a sight to behold. No, you nailed it without being rude. You're still correct. And that's that, you know, do they get hate that's disgusting and wrong?

And yeah, they, you know, they're public figures. They probably get a lot of bad shit. But I do agree that the critical critique, the stuff that they get super mad about at times, it is driven in the idea that we see the greatness in there. But sometimes it's selective on when it comes out and the fact that charlo fought this way against castanho and won it doesn't mean that i expect him to fight this same way every time out it just means that he's showing you now that he can do this and he's willing to when needed and it's going to be needed at times but you, you know, the difference between this and how he avenged the loss to Harrison was that, you know, he was facing a more pure boxer in Harrison than Castaño is. And even though I was, you know, at times I said, look, I still didn't think Charlo threw enough punches in that fight.

And I thought he was down on the scorecards at the time of the knockout against Harrison. He's still showing you that he can literally win a fight in every way. That's how damn well-rounded he is. So I don't know if he's needed the two, the loss and the draw to really fire something up in him to get that extra level of focus. But whatever he did to harness this performance, whatever he had to do to get right or prepare or whatever it was, you know, sometimes it's a spiritual thing. Sometimes it's just a, I'm dialing in more than normal. Or sometimes maybe I'm just working harder than normal. I'm not sure what it is.

But he's pound for pound great when he dials into that. So, Luke, it's going to be really interesting, in my opinion, where Jermell goes now that he is the undisputed champ because he did throw out that tease of potentially wanting to go to middleweight in the post-fight interview. But, dude, I still think there's business at 54 at 54 big big business if he wants to hang around so i don't know who would be next you have a better sense of that but i do well i do want to make sure we make a point in this conversation to say something about derrick james derrick james is of course

his trainer and for folks who may not realize boxing fans know this but for mma fans who don't that's the trainer of errol spence errol spence b and I were just at that fight in Arlington Texas we may have been in the bleeders BC but we were there and we saw what Spence did to Jordanis Ugas who is a supreme talent dude Derek James let me ask you this right now pound for pound rankings not of fighters but of boxing trainers. Where is Derek James, dude? Yeah, I'll tell you. I'll say it as fair and honest as it is. It's either him or Eddie Reynoso right now as the best trainers in the game. And it's not to me about, you know,

how many great fighters you have, because we've seen it before. Trainers become Hall of Fame great, like a Freddie Roach, and then suddenly they have this factory and everyone's trying to run to them to get rescued. I like that Derek James is almost more like a if you want to make an MMA comparison like a Trevor Whitman he you know he's only got a select few couple of clients but they're super elite although I'm sure he's working with younger fighters and always on the lookout but it's you

know it's it's Spence and Charlo are the reasons why we know him and he takes their greatness which is them but just figures out that the tiny wrinkles or whatever he has to do to you know to motivate or get them to focus on the part of their game that they're not seeing that they need to either clean up or or you know enunciate more and yeah luke i think you know you want to make the argument right now that he's the best in the game the the proof's in the putin as Floyd would say Luke uh he's got two of the 10 best fighters in the game right now operating on high high cylinders and it's great to see because Derek James used to be a fighter himself but you know never had some super big moments to to be in your living room necessarily but you know he's he works hard he still keeps a full-time job he he he loves this game and it's

good to see him getting in that respect now. All right, so in terms of next fights, what makes the most sense for Jamel Charlo? All right, if he wants to go to 60, you know, go for it. It's fine. I know his brother's eventually going to move up to 68, and there's a lot to chase there, but there's much more to chase dollars-wise, storyline-wise, attention-wise at 154. I know when people get the four belts, sometimes they go, okay, I've climbed the mountain, let's move on. But think about this right now,

Charlo has two mandatories and I think they're both huge events depending on how you set them up and play them out. One is Tim Zhu who, who beat, uh, uh, who did he beat? Uh, Gaucher, Terrell Gaucher in his U S debut and really showed us, okay, maybe he takes more damage than we thought he should, but he's on this this level luke if they want to do charlo versus like tim zu like that's a potential event like that's a great fight on paper and if you wanted to get australia heavily involved i mean that could be an event but then there's also sebastian fondora who knocked out erickson lubin and is such a fun attraction of his own. Almost 6'7". The Tim Zufi is interesting to me,

but let me just interrupt. Doesn't Charlo absolutely torch Fundora? So in theory, yes. But look, I would have said the same thing about Lubin. I would have said the same thing about everyone I've seen him fight. You know, Fundora doesn't use his size, doesn't move his head a whole ton.

He just stands in front of you and throws so much volume, but he lands clean and he hits hard and he's almost 6'7 for a junior middleweight, which is ridiculous. And he kind of just wears you down in the brawl that, dude, I'm just talking about as an attraction fight, Charlo versus him for all four belts. I think there's money to be made there if PBC wants to get involved in that

and convince Charlo to stay if, if they're convincing is needed. But Luke also think of the names that are still around, like, like a Jared Hurd, if he can get refurbished, like a Julian Williams, you know, former unified champions of this division that are still here. Um, Terrence Crawford's probably more of a long shot, but that's also, you know, was teased and rumored, uh, after a potential Spence Crawford fight. I think there's more business at 54 because 60 is a little bit more splintered to other networks and other promoters but you know he did just climb the mountain luke so i'm sure the decision's on him and also

jermall charlo the bigger of the two moving to 168 this is a canelo bid as well i mean canelo still with his own contract but even eddie hearn is like yeah he's probably going to be gone when this contract is up, right? So part of that is the Canelo sweepstakes, right? Yeah, but plus I also think it's time for Jermall to move up because he's kind of beaten everybody he could get in the ring with him, and I know he's got Maci Selecki coming up on Showtime this summer and a guy who's tested a lot of these elite guys.

But if he goes to 68 after that, you're talking about David Benavidez, Caleb Plant, Canelo, much bigger potential for names here. All right, let's move to point number five, and we'll wrap up our top five here on Monday's show. BC, we stay with Showtime Boxing. BC, we've been warning everybody. We've been telling them. I don't know if the message is getting through, but it better.

Jerron Ennis, dude, Kustio Clayton is not a joke, but this idea of making Jaron Ennis fight the Custio Claytons of the world or whoever taught the Tomas de Lorme or whoever, it's a waste of his time. He dispatches him in less than two rounds, made it look absolutely effortless. This now officially makes him the number one contender mandatory for the IBF title held by Errol Spence. So my question to you is not, BC, is Jerron Ennis as good as we think he is? He appears quite obviously to be that.

My question is, dude, they're going to avoid him. I want to bring up a quote that I saw my guy real quick. They already are. Yeah, yeah, real quickly. My guy, Boxcutter Pazzi, Vinny Paz from Jedi Mind Tricks, he posted about this over the weekend. He's from Philly. He's a huge Jerron Ennis fan. guy real quick they already are yeah yeah real quickly my guy a box cutter pazzy vinny paz from jedi mind tricks he posted about this over the weekend he's from philly he's a huge geron and his fan he brought up a quote that joe lewis told to marvin haggler which was you have three strikes against you uh you're black you're southpaw and you're good they're gonna avoid you like the plague

now certainly it's a bit of a different circumstance in today's boxing than it was back then but it's the same point is geron ennis going to be able to get the fights that we want him to be in yes and part of that is because he like spence before him becoming the mandatory for kelly brook and traveling to england while all the stars under his own you know universe and silo of pbc showtime even though he's not a PBC official fighter, we've talked about this before, but he's a Showtime fighter. Um, they don't seemingly feel the need to do it now. They don't want to be the first one, right? That goes in, finds out how great he can be. So he's gone the mandatory route. The good news is by blowing away Clay in it, he's now the number one contender, as you mentioned. So they're going to have to,

it's just when, and you know, is it going to be Crawford first, which, which we would not be unhappy about. But he's already secured, Luke, that side of it. If you won't fight me, I'll force myself in. So it's going to happen. The question is next or if not, who next? I know I've talked about Staniosis, who has the secondary WBA belt. Could just be a, you know, okay, we'll test him against there.

But against this level and whatever you want to say about Castillo Clayton, dude, he was undefeated. And he had never been down. And he had been durable and can test guys. Dude, this looks like the Harlem Globetrotters against the Washington Generals. I mean, at this level, we're done here. And he may do that to Staniosas. I don't know, dude. Staniosas is a tough out.

That could be a fun style fight. But the whole point is, no, I don't even think there's enough upside for these big stars right now to fight him if they don't have to, especially like a Keith Thurman where there's no belt involved. He's not going to fight him now. He'd fight him for the belts, but he's not going to fight him right now. But the good news is, you know, he's going to, Spence is going to have to, I loved, even though there was this long delay on the Showtime broadcast because Castanho arrived late for the main event to the arena. No one knew if he was, you know, doing gamesmanship stuff or just was late. But we got to see Spence interviewed in the crowd with Jim Gray. And, you know, he gave Boots his flowers.

You know, I said, no, the kid's good, you know. And, you know, we got our focus is on Crawford trying to make that fight happen. But, you know, he basically said we're going to have to see him. And, you know, he threw the joke in at the end about, you know, Boots' comment about how he's ready for the big guys and all that. And, you know, be careful what you ask for. But it was Spence's way of showing, like, I know who he is. I'm going to have to do it.

And it is what it is. Luke, that's going to be such. I said this on the post-fight analysis show after Charlo on Morning Combat. If Boots enters his first real elite fight test and we still don't really know, you know what I mean? How great he can be plus are those intangibles for real? You know, the chin, the backbone, the ability to adapt your game plan when someone's controlling you. All that stuff that you only find out at the elite level when you're this much of a freak and you're blowing people away. You know what I mean?

Normally you'd find that out in your first 25 fights we don't really know all that dude if he goes into a spence fight without us knowing that luke or a crawford fight or whomever you know line one hand over ohio how do i how do i walk with this erection luke how do i you know what i'm saying you know what i'm saying luke do you really know what i'm saying okay so let's ask this question what is a mechanism okay so if bud crawford signs with pbc we're confident that that would be next spence versus crawford it's a it's been forever in delays but it appears like if there's ever been a time to make it it's this one what are some possible options for geron ennis Because he is the number one mandatory. Couldn't Spence just drop the belt

and then he has to fight whoever the fuck for it? Yes, Spence could do that. He could play that game. But he doesn't want to because he wants to unify with Crawford. Look, Spence has not been about doing that shit, that shit that you can do when you have the leverage, when you're the unopposed A-side. And I don't mean to say that if you've done that, you know, you're a bitch.

Everybody who's achieved that power has abused it to a degree, from, you know, Oscar to Floyd to even Canelo waiting out Triple G almost two full years there for, you know, no reason but to maybe see him get old. Like, no one's perfect here. But I think Spence is about this, about this life. And yes, if Spence beats Crawford for all four belts, is it possible that he breaks our hearts and just gives up all the belts, Luke, and goes up to 154?

I mean, I guess, right? You know, what if he went, what if Spence became the Undisputed Champion and then only saw Canelo in a catchweight? That was his only focus from here on out. It's not like we'd say, you know, dude, you know, you're a bitch. You're running from boots. I mean, some would.

I don't think he's about that, Luke. Spence has that old school mentality. And that's why this new era is so fun right now when they're making the fights and the fights are delivering, which they are last year and this year. It's why it's so fun. Put your blinders on. Forget about the past. Enjoy this, right? Put your face up against the screen.

Just enjoy it. People don't want to leave their division, their time, their era with questions that they weren't the man. That's old school mentality. Spence has that. So I feel confident that like, cares boots isn't a pbc fighter apparently the relationship works he's a showtime fighter we're gonna make this we're gonna it's gonna happen luke spence ain't dumping that belt in the garbage like riddick boa you know

to avoid lennox lewis not happening i believe luke you don't get a lot you don't get tattoos on your back that aggressive if you're not about that life okay okay? That's fair, BC. That's fair. All right, that's it for our top five. BC, I want to remind everyone, did you know that VPN is great for security and privacy by hiding your IP address and encrypting your traffic? It secures your data from cyber attacks, but the problem is the protection is limited. Yeah, yeah.

Thanks, data. Nord VPN, on the other hand luke offers a brand new feature to the desktop apps providing threat protection and taking your digital security to the next level you should look into it all right so enable uh on your nord vpn app right enable it uh and then it protects you from malicious websites malware trackers and intrusive ads even if you're not connected to a VPN server, bitches. Indeed. Just make sure you have the most up-to-date version of the app on your device.

Go to the shield icon, switch on the threat protection button, and you're going to find out what happens to have real protection around you, like I have with my bodyguard, Luke Thomas. I don't know what that means. That's why I talk shit about fighters, because I got Luke Thomas next to me. I'm not coming to save you. I got Che know what that means. That's why I talk shit about fighters. Cause I got Luke Thomas next. I'm not coming to save you. I got your exclusive Nord VPN deal by going to Nord VPN.com slash combat, combat with a K or use the code combat with a K to get a huge discount off

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I don't know. But NordVPN has your back, baby. All right? There you have it. There it is. That felt good. Yeah. That's it for our top five.

It's time now for the viewers to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from the old diggity dogs. Hee-haw. Hee-haw. Hee-haw. Yes. All right. Let's go first. Oh, of course, this is the first one.

From Tylorians. Thoughts on the Tony Kelly debacle? This would be the incident between, let's see, it was Andrea Lee and Vivianne arujo fighting and in between rounds tony kelly who's in her corner uh says that uh you know you're fighting some dirty uh brazilians you know they're gonna cheat and on and on and on bc what do you think yeah effing dirty look it the quote itself, it was abrasive. In this climate and culture, and I say, what is this climate and culture?

One where we don't do shit like this, it screams horribly. It screams almost racism. And I get his response was sort of like, you know. His response was terrible. Trying to cover it up, but not really. You know, into the letter of the law, could he really have had no malicious intent and was really focusing on the fact that he believes Brazilian fighters cheat? Like, yeah, I guess it could have, but even that,

it just looks bad. It sounds bad. It's aggressive and it's offensive. This is also the fight game, so I get it. And sometimes we allow trash talk between fighters when it gets super personal and aggressive because it's heightened emotions. But just take the L and do better because it's not it's not a good look at all in fact it's

very offensive I mean is there like is there like in the world of possible interpretations is there an interpretation that is not necessarily good but is there one that isn't explicitly racial yes in the world of possible interpretations, it is possible to come to that. However, it is extremely unlikely. It's a absolutely awful thing that he said only made worse by his absurd defense of it.

Claiming cancel culture that you're not popular enough to be canceled. I'm not popular enough to be Joe Rogan might be, or somebody all in all, none of us not popular enough to be canceled i'm not popular enough to be joe rogan might be or somebody all in other none of us are popular enough to be canceled so like that is not even remotely in play here at all and also like what's so bad about it is not just that he did it it's like dude in what like maybe in syria when they have a team that has a player who's black and then they're the the fans show up with like bananas which is like horrible and the worst shit ever maybe that's worse in terms of like sports but i do ask an espn executive what sport from women's softball to ufc to everything else gives you more headaches in terms of this kind of like retrograde 19th century bullshit,

how much of that do you have to clean up in all the other sports versus this one? And I fucking guarantee you, MMA is at the top of their list, dude. MMA is my favorite sport. But he comes out and he says this, and then he has this terrible response afterwards. And there are, of course, of course,

there's going to be people who say, what's so wrong with what he said? Let me explain something to you. Look at me very, look at me very clearly and listen to me very carefully. If you don't understand what Tony Kelly said is wrong, you have no capacity to reason morally whatsoever. None, zero. Your brain does not work. It does not work if you don't understand that what he said was absolutely reprehensible. And the defense of this, to me, is sickening. And more to the point,

the ubiquity of this is also sickening. The culture in MMA, which, by the way, absolutely gives rise to racist bullshit all the time, is fucking awful. MMA is my favorite sport, and I mean that, but MMA culture is shit. It's trash. It's awful.

I hate everything about MMA culture. I don't like it at all. It's got nothing for me. And this leniency about it, this pervasiveness about it, this ubiquity, dude, you can't go into the proverbial MMA forest and turn over a rock and not find worms. It's everywhere. It's every fucking way. It's everywhere. It's every fucking, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. And it is oppressive and awful. And you know, listen, I'm not expecting, I'm not expecting every person's worldview to agree with

mine. Believe me, I'm in a world where it's the exact opposite all the time. And I have made peace with that, but only up to a certain point point you cannot get on national tv and say the shit he said and then get afterwards and then blame like like it's fucking comical to blame cancel culture it's like no reasonable people just don't want to hear racist shit when they turn on their tvs it's really no more complex than that and in a bare minimum even if you want to call it racial uh xenophobic to the nth degree certainly that as well well that's totally unenlightened no matter which way you want to cross it and if anyone out there is like i'm going to defend this or i don't get what the problem is you are fucking lost the best case scenario is like blatant ignorant xenophobia so it's like either way horrific look um move it out

you know move it on over but luke isn't that twice now for kgb's uh oh man i know it's like it's like even if you like okay well tony kelly made a mistake and maybe he'll figure it out later fine i mean it's entirely possible but i wasn't born with enlightened ideas either i you know not that i have them even now but like you know it takes time fine whatever the point i'm trying to make here is in the case of andrea lee it's like let me see if i understand this she had terrible corner advice uh on national tv and yet this woman is the same one who like didn't fully get why having a boyfriend with nazi tattoos by the way look up why he was in prison to begin with that's a whole other story and then like it was like wow why would we have to defend or why would we have to cover up nazi tattoos because they're fucking nazi tattoos why do you have them at all after you get out of prison

the first fucking thing you do is go and get them covered up if you have even a slight ability to morally reason or care about other people at fucking all this was even this was debated this was like wow why would someone want to do that holy fucking shit next time people have terrible opinions about the folks who like mma which by the way hand raised that's me too don't ever question them about why they have it that way don't ever question them about why they're like why would you have a bad opinion about folks who like MMA? Because there is so much rancid shit coursing through the veins of this sport. And nobody ever wants to say shit about it. Lest you be accused of being a snowflake.

Lest you be accused of cancel culture. No, a lot of you have real shitty ideas about the world. And you have not had this reflected upon you because you live in a bubble. And then when it gets on national TV, all of a sudden the lights turn on and you don't know what to do about it that's the reality here dude the mma is the greatest sport but the culture around it and the ideas that floated are horrific tune in to luke's live chat chat on Thursday where he tackles abortion it just drives me nuts dude it drives me nuts uh all right Lee would take the loss by unanimous decision in that fight let's move on Luke okay at Maddox clan one one one how you how do you think Benavidez versus Lemieux goes? And what's next, given he gets a solid W?

Can't wait. I'll be out there with my boy David next Saturday. Hashtag Team Benavidez. Hasta la muerte. This fight is going to be fantastic. David Lemieux, former middleweight champion, is in the ending, the second chapter of his career here at 168.

But what does he do? He comes in there to bang. The guy's left hook is still a problem. He's always been, you know, too in love with his power, not as good of a boxer against the other super elites, but he can still throw. And when Benavidez brings in that style and they go, you know, mano y mano in the center of that ring, it's going to be fun as crap. It's going to be a wild fight. But yes, one, I believe Benavidez should be able to stop him and make a huge statement.

But really, it's the same statement he keeps making here that, you know, he may have lost his title twice. Both his fault, failed recreational drug test and scale mishap. But he's still, you know, in conversation outside of Canelo as the best 168 pounder in the world. I mean, he's that good. So what would he go next? Hopefully now no more rest stops along the way.

Let's let Benavidez fight a champion. Uh, I want to see him against Kayla plant who I know doesn't have a belt right now. Cause he lost to Canelo. I want to see him against, uh, uh, Jamal Charlo would be a massive fight Canelo. I want to see him against Jamal Charlo would be a massive fight. And Luke, I want to see him against Canelo just like

everybody else does. As long as he gets one of those massive names or Demetrius Andrade who can't get anybody in the ring. I know that's not an easy fight to make. The whole point is it's got to be super elite after this, because even though the mishaps have been his fault, Luke, he keeps doing the penance to earn back the the the standing of where he was when the when those bad things happened yeah i mean when he's on he's on right like when david benavidez is cooking he's great uh it's just he's got a lot of well he's i should say he has had a fair amount of issues outside of the ring or on the scales that have kind of cost him as you alluded to but dude when he's when he's delivering he's delivering all right my vision is still not

great even with glasses from mart c 1910 who do you think is the best mma fighter with a losing record now bc when they say losing record they mean majority losses like i don't know i think they mean under 500 record or i guess they could also mean somebody whose record is above 500 but they've got like 20 career losses right like you know like a paul daly who has like 18 losses randy couture's got a ridiculous amount um andre alarski i think has 20 losses right i mean yeah alistair overeem has a bunch of losses too yeah i mean we forgive losses in mma in ways that we would never do in boxing, fair or unfair. But is there a specific person with a losing record

who carries that? Like, if it was Michael Johnson, right? If he retires with a losing record, you'd be like, damn, that's probably the best guy I've ever seen with a damn losing record, right? Who else jumps out, Luke? Anyone? Well, in the end, God, I hate to say it,

but I think BJ Penn's record at the end was kind of close let me double check that i'm pretty sure he was close to 500 at the time uh let's see so are you factoring in the the two fight series at the lava shack or not i think he went one i might put him under so dude kind of close golly i cannot believe he finished this way but he did 16 14 and 2 16 so it's technically winning but still still, I mean, basically even, more or less. So it might be him, dude. It might be him. Because he's considered like Mount Rushmore or something, you know?

Yeah, or at least the future governor. One of the two, Luke. He missed the debates. Did you see that? No. What happened? There was, I guess, for just the Republicans, that's the party he's running with,

there was a GOP debate for the primaries, and apparently his team missed it. So I don't know what that means, but they missed it. All right. At O'Reilly7402, well, these are very inspired names. Does anyone have a weirder mma record than michael johnson to that point beating and even rocking former champs and interim champs but losing to some less than good fighters it is weird that you knocked out dustin poirier in the first because

like here's the thing bc we've all seen the guys who have like one like really amazing like who who is it that knocked out con breed is prescott right he knocked him out right yeah uh but then breeders didn't have any other con like win no johnson is different now maybe the party one stands a little bit alone but not really like he beat edson barboza early into edson barboza's run so like he's got a few of those high end wins i don't know it's it's i don't know if anyone has a record the quality control by our producers and the variety of questions. Luke is the, is the last one about Michael Johnson as well? No, it's not. Uh, it reminds me of, um, it's rare in boxing when somebody can get, you know, 10 losses and fight for, and win a title. But do you remember light heavyweight Glenn Johnson,

Glenn cough Johnson from Jamaica, Luke, when he,, when he was a journeyman with like 10 losses, and then he like went on this run and won the light heavyweight championship and was like the fighter of the year in like 2004, 2005-ish area. He beat Tarver. I mean, he beat everyone for a while and then went back to kind of being a tough out journeyman. But it's rare, Luke. It's certainly rare when somebody gets to the title level, although the standards of that boxing-wise are much different than the standards of MMA.

But yeah, I don't know if I've got a better answer than Michael Johnson for either of these questions. I mean, Artem Lobov beat Paulie Malignaggi. Well, I think the judges missed that one too, Luke, okay? I mean, okay, but it was still pretty competitive, you know? Yeah, it was. It was something, Luke. All right, from at math. was something, Luke. All right. All right. From at math.u.sale.era.

Yeah. Okay. I love that. Luke Thomas versus CM Punk in an MMA fight. Who wins and how? Probably, well, I guess I'm bigger than him, so I guess I would just win in that sense. But BC, I will tell you the truth. I didn't tell you this yesterday.

I'll tell you today. I was in the hospital yesterday, yesterday morning. What? Yeah. I didn't tell you this yesterday. I'll tell you today. I was in the hospital yesterday, yesterday morning. What? Yeah. I've told you guys this privately. I'll tell the audience. It's kind of funny, given Brock Lesnar had the same one, although he had like a super severe version of it.

I don't have that. But in the last 18 months, I've had three pretty remarkable flare-ups of diverticulitis. And I'm at the point now where the doctor i saw because i woke up sure enough in pain i recognized it immediately so i went and uh they they hooked me up i'm all right i've got a bunch of stuff i have to take now um but the point i'm trying to make is scaring me again okay no no no no well here's the thing even losing all the weight that i did it i still wasn't giving my body the specific kinds of nutrients it needed and now i'm at the point where dude like i

was i've been pretty good about the last week i went two days without drinking a lot of water not that i had no water but not much so the doctor now thinks that um i might have like you know how if you get like heat exhaustion one time you you're more and more prone every subsequent time to get it gets easier and easier to get it. Now I'm at a stage where it's like very easy for me to get it. So I have to go see a guy was a gastroenterologist and and see if there's anything they can do for me because now it's coming back like that, like nothing. Yeah, dude, I had the shit out of issues with heat exhaustion in my prime basketball and drinking days, Luke, you know? I got heat exhaustion for the first time my first week at boot camp, and I've never been the same since, dude. And that was a crazy experience, too.

Dude, I hope you... Yeah, so now Brock Lesnar let it... Dude, I don't know how he let it go so long. Because the version I have is relative to what he had, quite mild. And it's painful, bro. Like, it's real painful well he's that old school bite down and don't complain sort of I'm just saying I'm just saying it's not that you couldn't keep going like you could it's not the pain that I've had is not so debilitating you

you can't just go about your day you sort of can I mean it would be on it wouldn't be great but you could do it but it's like dude like your body is telling you something something's definitely not right like it's very unusual pain how do you ignore that for as long as he did yeah i'm proud of you for for addressing this let's get fixed up luke you know between my various issues the uh the liver i gotta yeah i got mri look i i this is you know i'm only well it also might be related to my gallbladder, which I've not had taken out, so that could be another problem as well.

So it's a few things happening there. But yeah, boy, yesterday morning, your boy was back in the old doctor's chair, whatever the fuck you want to call it. What if you got really sick and you were also down on your luck financially, career-wise? Would you agree to let the MK docs document your entire journey if if like they like you know filled in the gap and paid your bills and got you back up to speed i mean you'd have

an entire journey like you're gonna watch me get a colonoscopy or something yeah like jake moves in basically and it's like you know this is no no no no by the way has jake gone to your house yet no i had to cancel that one time uh because my son was sick and it was chaos here, but I got to get him here because we're supposed to go to the factory town. We're supposed to go to where it all began, Luke. We had some wild ideas

there, but we'll see what happens. You ready for the shit, Luke? Let's do it. All right. Speaking of colonoscopies. Yeah, every Sunday, I scour the globe for the uh good and the bad the ugly the highs the lows the in between in combat sports and beyond and then when gaffney pierre assembles that shit pulls the kernels out and then i ask you luke thomas have you actually seen this shit all right luke uh this is a tip to tip branded show what did you did you get any movement from

friday's ufc weigh-in when blachowicz and rakic were like invading each other's space luke i mean just kiss already right the tension is killing me here yeah this is a bit much i mean it's like i get i get because the whole point is if someone moves into your space you don't move away yeah but i mean this is february 14th if nothing else is you know yep indeed that's that's an eskimo kiss they just did on each other luke oh that's why i forgot about eskimo kisses right yeah yeah yeah uh Luke, speaking of violence, how about we speak about violence? Davey Grant did some violent shit in this three-round band and weight brawl with Louis Smolka until this late finish, dude.

Damn. Yeah, I mean, he could have stopped it here. I mean, he's just like, he's pounding sand, Luke. That's damn. Wow. That's vicious, accurate ground and pound. Good shot from Davey Grant. But speaking of violence, Luke, lightweight Manuel Torres sent Frank Camacho to the pit of hell.

Did you see this, Luke? Frank got cranked right here. Yeah, dude. I used to train with Frank Camacho back in the day. Long, long time ago. I love him. But this is how he fights, that's how it's just win or lose that's what you're gonna he's not it is what it is you know what i mean like that's what you're

gonna get with him and usually it's almost always excited it's always exciting not so great for always winning but it is great for excitement luke didn't you say your wife once rolled with cyborg are we talking santos or or no no, no. With Roxanne Modaferri. She's a fan of Cyborg. She likes Cyborg. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Was Roxanne wearing knee and ankle pads and a scuba outfit? I don't know.

I don't. I honestly don't know. I don't. All right. Luke, we're going to throw to the post-fight interview of Jan Blachowicz, who had, Luke, a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week leading up to this victory. First of all, they

stole my car. After that, I have diarrhea. I cannot train by two days. When I come back to training on sparring session, sparring party caught my eye. Another break. I said, what the f***? But thanks to Daria, my mental ecology survived this b****** shit things,

and we are here in Vegas. Enjoy our life. Luke, what if Jan was one of us? Just a slob like one of us, right? Did you steal his car, BC? Did you steal it? Well, I stole it because I had diarrhea, Luke. So, you know, it's ironic that way.

Alanis was sitting in the backseat. It was great. Luke, apparently this diarrhea thing is going around because a week before on UFC Fight Pass, we had a regional MMA interview gone the same direction but deeper. Let's go to the video, Tim. Last fight, I was tired. I was exhausted. I'm about to launch this NFT that's going to change the fight game.

And I put in 30 all-nighters before that fight. I had herpes before that fight. Two outbreaks in the span of a week. I'm here. I'm healthy. Let's go. Whatever. It doesn't matter.

I fight. Luke, I said diarrhea. I meant herpes. I'm not sure what's worse, BC. The herpes or the claim that the NFT is going to change the game? Luke, I said diarrhea. I'm not sure what's worse, BC. The herpes or the claim that the NFT is going to change the game? Do you think the NFT is of herpes, Luke? Of like, this is how I got it, right?

You know what I mean? Wow. Well, when they say herpes, what they mean is Matt herpes, which you can just get in the gym. It's actually much more transmissible and common than you might imagine. He doesn't mean like sex herpes. He means Matt herpes uh which is you can just get in the gym it's actually much more transmissible and common than you might imagine he doesn't mean like sex herpes he means mad herpes oh mad herpes got it got it yeah i never had that that type of herpes it was real no no i know you're doing a bit but it is real in fact who was it from the the ultimate fighter who got bounced for that somebody did uh luke uh this segment bits this segment's already off the rails fuck

it let's just vape luke you think you're a professional vapor bro here's vaping 2.0 okay you got to get up on this level luke dude what the fuck is he doing are you shitting me that's what i'm talking about this is a superpower if you've ever been hit in the head with a wrench i mean he obviously has this vape thing in his hand right but that's brilliant that's great that's so gross dude like that i can't believe someone did i guess like you know what yes i can't believe someone yeah i can believe it luke i mean vaping's like a real piece of shit vehicle luke okay speaking of you better be careful your grandparents don't catch you vaping. Let's go to this one, Luke.

Where's the vape? You goddamn vaping little bastard. Okay, I'm going to have a second. I'll catch you vaping. I catch you vaping. You know what's going to happen? That vape is going to end up your ass. Where is the vape?

You goddamn vaping little bastard. Okay, I'm going to have a second. Okay, cut it. Cut it. Where is the vape? You goddamn vaping little bastard. Okay, cut it. Cut it. Here's a live shot of the set at morning combat when I pull out the vape. Yeah, indeed. Grandpa shitting all over that shit. It's going to end up in your ass.

Luke, if you stick to it, though, vaping isn't just a white trash dirtbag habit. It can become an art form. Let's go to uh some country's got talent this guy is like the... Okay. That's R. Yeah, he's pretty... I was ready to shit on him,

but I gotta say, that's actually pretty cool. We gotta go full screen on that shit. Can we put up a smaller... Dude, we gotta do an interview with him and he has to teach me some vaping tricks. That's what I'm saying. If you're gonna lean lean into it you better lean into it luke and go professional indeed uh look this one isn't a vape but heck this might be the we might

have uncovered the first prehistoric bong your thoughts is that let me see if I understand this. This lady is smoking the ass of a marijuana brontosaurus. Did I get that right? Yes. Yeah. Yo, my daughter loves brontosauri.

Yeah, she'll love the tail on that one, too, if we can get one of those. If I see my daughter on Have You Se seen this shit smoking a brontosaurus blunt i don't know whether to laugh or cry i learned it by watching you uh luke let's have some mascot fun uh not everybody is interested in dinosaurs just ask these kids at this party. Wait, wait, what? What happened? Wait, where is it? Okay. Oh, no, the kids are shitting their pants. Luke I might be a piece of shit but I would love to be in that costume scaring those kids that looks like so much fun you know I feel uh I feel bad for those kids I genuinely feel bad for those

kids but that shit's hilarious bro that's watching kids laugh at trauma that's not real yeah I hate to say it's funny, but it's funny. If you think I went too far in taking pleasure with that, Luke, here's a kid come back getting revenge on Spidey. Just like some fat Spidey somewhere in South America. Full screen,

please. Oh, just giving him the old honk there, huh? I think that was a pull-my-finger bit by a famous defensive coordinator collegially, Luke. That's awful. All right, let's keep rolling on. Let's play some sound here, Luke. I'm new to this NFL call, but I was fired up. ...by Crabtree's hands and his ability to suck in these balls. ...away by Crabtree's hands and his ability to suck in these balls.

I mean, say what you will about Michael Crabtree. Wait, wait, wait. Play it again. Play it again loudly. ...ability to suck in these balls. ...away by Crabtree's hands and his ability to suck in these balls. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This show's pretty stupid, Luke. Wow, that's great, though.

I've said the same thing about Canela's skin many, many times. Yeah, that is great. All right, boxing weekend recap time. Luke, Jermell Charlo knocked out Brian Castaño, and he feels fucking amazing. Let's go to the videotape here. It feels fucking amazing. You know why, bro? He should.

Because I could count back on who had that IBO belt before you, and you moved up, and you was like everybody in our own lane and i fucking love texas dog we got earl smith at 47 me at 54 my brother at 60 we a fucking trio we fucking the bass brothers the motherfucking bass brothers he gonna get that title next i'm telling you and the money gonna keep going up we gonna feed our family so how do i feel i'm fucking amazing amazing that's what i'm talking about right dude that is he earned that that is a hell of a victory speech i take my hat off to him uh but not everybody got out clean luke uh here's coppinger being sent to hell here's part of the it was like a double sent to hell because he went on a rant after his answer but here's the first

half of espn's mike coppinger stepping to the microphone. Mike Coppinger, ESPN. Congrats on an amazing performance. Keep coming undisputed. Are you sure? You're going to trade that list? We love him. Don't worry about the list.

We love him. We love him. I was on it in the beginning. I know you remember that. Go and ask your question. First, you I was told, get your shit together. You always hate on people and shit. You see, you got to come back to me now.

You got to respect me now. You got no choice but to respect me now. Yeah, I did what I had to do. Yeah. Yeah, I know it. Come on. All right, go ahead. That's your question. All right. Go ahead. All right.

Luke, in the spirit of Glass House... I mean, that wasn't so terrible, dude. That's not that bad. He went on to call Mike Coppinger a fanboy and say, you've never been in the ring. You've never done it before. Hold on. What did Mike ask him? I don't even remember at this point.

It wasn't an offensive question. It was a regular question. But what Charlo didn't know is that Mike had scored Castaño ahead in this rematch at the time of the stoppage. But now to be fair, both Charlos have told me to fuck off and hung up on me over the phone or over Zoom before at different times. And also

to be fair, Coppinger was right. He was like way too early putting them on his pound-for-pound list. But Jermell took issue with something Cop did, and boy, did he drop a deuce there, Luke. But let's keep it going on the boxing side. I don't know if you saw in this trailer undercard, Evan Holyfield, the son of Evander, Young Holy, they call him,

he got upset by journeyman Jermaine McDonald, Luke, and it was pretty vicious here. Didn't one of the Holyfield, oh, that's, oh, Jesus, on top of his own arm, that's a bad sign. Yeah, and it's only like his fourth pro fight or fifth. You know, that's not a good look here, Luke. Didn't one of the Holyfield brothers, or sons, excuse me, play for UGA? Yes, I believe one was like a running back.

Yes, something like that. Yes, indeed, indeed. Frank Gore also made his official pro debut, Luke. He lost that exhibition fight against Darren Williams, former NBA guard. Did you see this highlight, Luke, of Frank Gore's pro debut? Good Lord. Oh! Damn!

Dude, Darren Williams might be pretty good. Yeah, I think Darren Williams is way better than we thought. I mean, who knows this opponent's level, but Frank Gore just sent that man to hell. Dude, when they go face first, that's bad. You don't have to count.

By the way, our esteemed producer, Mikey Mormyle, is saying that the running back who is the son of Evander Holyfield is Elijah Holyfield. Good pickup there. I appreciate that. Luke, Golden Boy's undercard of Zerto Ramirez's knockout of Basil or whatever that guy's name was, had John Ramirez against Jan Salvatore.

And Ramirez sending this guy, Luke, to hell via overnight. Look at this, Luke. Damn. Dude, I feel bad. I mean, the photographer is the one who. So the photographer with one hand caught the back of the head. And I mean, it was a great it was a great move there technically you know he has 20 seconds to get back in the ring which he did and then he was counted out

but you know you're not supposed to have your team members can't help you up but that photographer saved him from uh something vicious i believe we got a second angle of this dude this was wild same thing if you recall that uh right hand stunned him he measures boom straight backwards as he's already backing up let me ask you something is there a promoter in boxing who is known for having shittier rings than the other ones like less well protected not that i'm aware of no because i mean it mean, it's the commission that's going to inspect it, so that's the thing. But still, I'd be curious. Yeah, indeed. That was how Bernard Hopkins in his final

fight when he was like 51 went out against Joe Smith Jr. through the damn ropes. Luke, just, I think it was two weeks ago, Golden Boy had a similar fight go like this. I think it was like four months ago. Let's throw to the videotape. What the hell is going on here, Golden Boy? Oh, boy. That's throw to the videotape. What the hell is going on here, Golden Boy? Oh, boy.

That's a nice double leg, Luke, through the second rope there. Wow. All right. And, boy, Jesus, he's in pain. Good Lord. That's terrible. Luke, Jake Paul is back on the boxing radar. Is he back? Footage broke out of him preparing at the world-famous gym

there in Brooklyn. What the heck's the name of it, Luke? Gleason's. You know what I'm talking about. Gleason's. Gleason's. Yeah, the damn Gleason's. Luke, he says, preparing for an August return. Tommy Fury, do you care?

Anderson Silva. I care if Showtime has it and I have to cover it and get a check cut. I mean, that'd be sweet. Okay. Short of that, listen, I'll say this. I thought after Tommy Fury's last fight on the Dillian White and his brother's undercard, that was the first time I was ever like, I don't know, dude. I think Jake Paul might beat this guy. Because the show he had in Cleveland wasn't a great one either, but he still was able to rock that guy a lot.

And this one, too, he got a little bit on. But I don't know, dude. I think Jake Paul might have something for him, to be honest with you. You know what Dylan Danis had for us? This video of Jake Paul exiting Madison Square Garden after Serrano's loss to Katie Taylor in their thriller, getting soda dumped on him like he's leaving the palace brawl, Luke. Look at that.

Here's your soda. We'll keep the two throwing soda and food at people leaving a sports arena is always a dirtbag move yeah there's a caveat to that though it's always funny yeah it is it is always funny especially since jake's wearing that like uh you know that that sling for his firearm i don't know what that is yeah i don't know what that is yeah i don't know what that was either it's like this is where you're holding your extra magazines i don't know what that's i don't know uh luke wedding bells are are ringing here's carla esparza fresh off her uh somewhat disputed maybe not uh decision went over rosinama unis it was just an awful fight but luke congratulations that's her new husband on the right i believe yes that is that's her no no that's her uh that's her uh manager slash agent brian uh butler on the on

the left on the left of the screen to her right yes yep uh tj dillashaw also wore his belt in his wedding photos and i'm told that uh war machine did the same luke although it was like in prison so okay well i mean dude no one Let me just explain this to you. You do have funny bits. As much as I am reluctant to admit that you do have funny bits. No one does war machine material like you. And when I say no one, I mean like no one else even mentions it. You go back to that well more than anybody else I know. Okay.

Okay. Sorry, Luke. I'm sorry about that. Let's go back to the wedding. I love you, Brian Campbell. Luke, imagine if this was your wedding and they brought out the cake okay what would your reaction be

oh god can we zoom in here and show the couple's face upon the fall oh the Rossies Luke you know well I guess dude you know here's the thing this uh they were so expensive this dude you know here's the reality let me ask you a question serious question how much did your

wedding cost my wife and i paid for most of it ourselves got some you know help little help from relatives and friends who like donated their time for free to like you know shoot it and stuff i don't even remember but it took us a long time to pay it off and it we both even though it was beautiful said afterwards we should have eloped okay how a better question how many people were at your wedding the the uh the hall only held 250 oh dude jesus fuck no it was like a barn yeah it was like a barn yeah no so so me and my wife and this was less of an issue for me because you you know, my family probably had to be begged to attend, but her family, as you can imagine, is quite large.

They had to be lied to. They're like, family reunion. You got to be there, right? All the time. I think I had, we only had 40 people at our wedding, and I think I had, I'm not going to lie, I think eight guests, something like that. Wow.

So she had the rest of them, and even then, then dude it was like we there was people we had to say no to that was like it was a whole thing anyway we paid for it ourselves let me just explain something to you no not only was it the best day of my life because it's my wedding but like it was actually great and then we paid for everything we got like maybe a couple grand from like my dad or something and maybe some of her relatives not not much like just a little bit um we paid for everything ourself we had no debt whatsoever when it was over we went on a honeymoon without having to worry about the bills gotta say one of the best decisions we ever made never regretted it for a day never the only regret i had and it's what made my wedding bittersweet even though it was a great

time it was probably the best dance floor anyone had ever seen because i curated that dj list is uh the hall that we rented was like a barn we didn't know it just we assumed but we didn't know that none of them would be there working we assume that when you rent the hall you get like the you know the staff to you know what i mean like you know you hired a caterer there's catering staff there but you assume there's like a point person that's orchestrating that we didn't know that there was until we got to the damn reception. So trying to be that and the groom who just spilled penne alla vodka on his white vest, tie, and shirt on the first bite.

Yeah, Luke, that was me, okay? Trying to navigate that while, yeah, it was a headache, okay? Thank you very much for listening to my story all right luke let's keep the shit going uh you're already married this isn't your wedding photo but a lot of people dm me this and said if you got in the best shape of your life right now you could resurrect prime luke and this is what you would look like luke here's you potentially looking into a mirror if this is some giant fat person i'm gonna kill no zoom in here please let's zoom in on all the videos here luke that looks strikingly familiar yeah his haircut is better than mine bc i guarantee that haircut doesn't cost thirty dollars i'm just gonna

point out that that's that's the famous dubai barber who's like salt bay basically i'm sure it costs like you know 25 000 to sit there for you I will say, show him one more time very quickly, very quickly. I will say that is a, yeah, that's a distinguished gentleman, I got to say. I mean, look, that could be you, bro. What do you think? I'd have to lose another 50 pounds, which is possible, but yeah, maybe. I have to admit, that guy's haircut's solid. You may need a health condition to get that thin, Luke.

I'm not sure. You know what I mean? I'm working on it, bro. It's a fucking struggle. I'm working on it. All right, let's have fun. Let's hit the golf course. Luke, a lot of people still being influenced by former tour member Happy Gilmore.

Luke, check out this drive. I mean, he crushed it. First of all, why is he bent over like he just had a heart attack or learned terrible news? I mean, that's got to be the most aggressive swing I've ever seen, Luke. And by the way, his hands, go back, keep showing it. We're not done. Could his hands be further apart?

Look at him. He's got one hand halfway down the shaft of this thing. Yeah, yeah. I bet his first sexual experience ended in like two seconds luke oh yeah this is a three pump chomp if ever there was all right speaking of those type of people luke john daly's still uh drawing large crowds to him being ridiculous check him out him hitting a t-shot off a uh off a beer can. Bro, John Daly, I fucking love John Daly. I mean, look at this piece of shit. He is unbelievable.

So he one time called in. He was a guest on my favorite radio station, or radio show, Shouts to the Junkies on 106.7 The Fan. And he was a guest one time, and he had some business where it's like, it's like not water, but it's like tasty water or whatever the fuck, you know. And they were like, why do you have this? Why don't you just drink water? He's like, it's like not water, but it's like tasty water or whatever the fuck, you know? And they were like, why do you have this? Why don't you just drink water?

He's like, man, I hate water. Water tastes so bad. I just hate it. It's like, dude, this guy is like a golf savant who is an absolute real life version of Larry the cable guy. It's fucking awesome. The only athlete I can compare him to who got to that level of both fame and accomplishment

while being that much of like a pos is tanya harding like really like they're like they're like one and one but even tanya was like in tanya was like in good physical condition john daly is a fat piece of trash oh he crushed that he is so good at golf dude he i mean the stories on him are ridiculous and they're probably all true luke i mean he is he's interesting hey luke check out this uh this tee off here at this top golf watch this tee shot closely we gotta go full screen oh dude wait that never happens you ever have that happen with another guy you mean tip to tip you forgot about tip to tip no well you don't bring it up hardly at all you know it's like it's like you know i already put out my country record my jazz record now you know now i'm going back to straight roots now you're putting out your war machine record

yeah yeah yeah it's called from the can yeah okay luke uh the bank is open on this golf shot dude i don't think this is trickery. I think this is legit. I don't know how many shots they had to do to get it, but check out this dude-perfect-like bullshit that... Damn! Wait, I don't get it. Did they chip it in the air,

and then with the backspin, it came backwards, or did it bounce off something? No, they just... They caromed it off that wall right there, dude. Oh, okay, because I lost the ball in the video. I couldn't follow it. You're like, once Michael Crabtree came around, all the balls were gone. Suck those balls in.

Okay, Luke, big week for karate for defense purposes only, but let's go to karate combat. No mercy in this game,ke against the fence good lord damn my man's just chilling that's like me at the beach look that's it i think that's a grounded opponent isn't it i don't know the rules of karate combat to be honest with you they definitely have the coolest sets of anyone but yeah uh i don't know i'm not i just don't have time for more karate but that backdrop is awesome. And I bet you, I basically compare karate combat to the NHL.

If you make me watch it, I'll probably love it, right? But I'm not going to go out of my way. NHL playoffs. Yes. NHL playoffs. Those are good. Speaking of karate combat, this is from a few weeks earlier. Check out, or maybe it's wrong.

Maybe it's from the same card. Check out this running slam, Luke. Oh, that was cool. Okay, I like that. Maybe it's wrong. Maybe it's from the same card. Check out this running slam, Luke. Oh, that was cool. Okay, I like that. That's super cool. I mean, they kind of took, remember BKB pit boxing? They had like a circular area with like the ramps. They kind of took that, but I like how they utilize the ramps in this game.

Maybe I'll start watching. I got to say, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. That's like a Showtime Pettis takedown yes uh let's go to these karate showmen luke bare knuckle shoots the arrow at him you into that or what i mean they're just bouncing back and forth not really and he's got a ufc shorts on like what's that all about who's this all right i can almost guarantee you won't be into this, Luke, when we talk about playing etiquette, right?

This is the 1% that grinds your gears, Luke. I mean, just throw them off the motherfucking plane. Who is this piece of motherfucking trash? Imagine if you found out that was KGB's trainer, Luke. Listen, I'm not. This person is,, this person is, whoever this person is with their feet up, I want to be clear about this.

They should be on the FBI's most wanted list. And I'll make this point too. If this is two people where one person has their foot up and then another person is rubbing it lovingly, they should be executed by the authorities upon landing or just crash the motherfucking plane. Either way.

I don't disagree. I think it's, again, okay to wear. Dude, what's wrong with people that they think that that's okay? Seriously. There's a line. You can wear flip-flops on the plane. I do it in the summer. I think you could even take your flip-flops off as long as your feet are

stuffed under the chair in front of you. No, you can't. You can wear flip-flops on the plane. That's fine. Wait, but can I with my cauliflower toes? Can I? With your hammer toes and fungus with germs the size of turtles? No, you cannot.

They are a roadmap of my life, Luke, okay? Yeah, mine are too. I put socks on them. Finally, Luke, you know that old old saying the party's where you're at i love people who are like i'm not in the club but i'm gonna pretend like i'm in the club right now okay they should fire you and make her like i don't know how those officers are holding so firm like they're like a palace guard and you

know in london or something look Dude, she's really just flopping those todays everywhere she can. Then she twerks on them. Let them know. Maybe she just works at a diner and they sell pancakes, Luke, and this is the best way to advertise. I don't know, but that's the shit of the week. Hope you saw it, Luke.

Thank you. Wow, two hours today. Two hours, right? Two full hours. Full hours. That is it. BC, remind the folks. Remind them what we have going on on Wednesday.

So if you missed it earlier, Wednesday, our normal time for Morning Combat, 11 a.m. Eastern time on the YouTubes, youtube.com slash morningcombat. Instead of a regular MK episode, you're getting the launch of our new interview series titled Red Shoe Diaries. God, that's a great Showtime vehicle. Room Service Diaries. You may know the label and its previous iteration of just reckless talk and ruthless comedy. Well, now we've taken that model and we've just inserted a UFC fighter.

Episode one, the light heavyweight champion of the world, Glover Teixeira. While we do have fun and games, you're going to love the conversation that we have. Not only, of course, about coming up, defending his title against Yuri Prohotska in Singapore, but we're just talking about one of the better backstories of who he became today. That's very undertold because of, Luke, how much of a quiet badass this guy is i mean dude serious from hanging out with him for a couple hours like he's all that and then some as far as a real man right there you know you would want him to be your neighbor that was the vibe that i got you would want that guy in your neighborhood for sure you know indeed uh i asked him like do the other the neighborhood

kids like do they know you're a maniac and he said that they come over and ask him to show him things, like different jabs or whatever. I love that. I love that Danbury has embraced him. He deserves it all. So check that out, Luke. We already have another one that we filmed in the can, so people are going to enjoy that.

And, Luke, I hope that they're just different flavors every episode. It's like Fanta, you know? What's the soda that the Juggalos drink? Oh, the red one, right? No, it's like, is it Faygo? Faygo, yeah, that's it. Something like that? It's a Michigan tradition.

Have you ever drank that New Hampshire Cola, Luke? What's it called, the Moxie? You into that? Never had it. Oh, dude, I love Moxie. You got never had it oh dude i love moxie you gotta try it it could you know it's oh hey i got some breaking news you want to hear it real quickly before we go yeah i don't have any other jobs luke uh kane velasquez who had his i think his bond hearing today will remain behind bars uh he was trying to get out and uh you know not that he

would he would still face you know trial and, but that he could be like, let's say, on house arrest or something. He will remain behind bars after Judge Shalina Brown denied a second request, excuse me, for bail, I should say, not bond, this morning. Quote, this was such a reckless disregard for human life, end quote. So Cain Velasquez will um will remain behind bars look according to reporting on Twitter from Nolan King of MMA Junkie the official request from Velasquez's defense team was uh they said TBI and potential CTE caused Velasquez to act impulsively so that is the the the attempt that the judge shot down. Whoa, that is. So wait, wait, let me see if I understand this.

That's Velasquez's own team saying that? Their defense was essentially, you know, it's not insanity, but, you know. TBI and potential CTE caused Velasquez to potentially act impulsively. Wow. So his own team is saying that the brain trauma from his mma career caused him or at least you know i don't know if not caused him but uh aided him or whatever you want to say the word is um to act in the way that he did where he chased the guy down who he thought had uh allegedly molested his son wow what a terrible situation bro terrible terrible and i get everyone wearing

free cane shirts and i get the whole you know uh the whole dilemma that that the whole situation faces i also get how reckless it was i get it all look it's sad that's what it is you know and i think look that's that's probably they summarized would be the best defense to try to get him free correct whether they believed they believed it or not. Yes. I mean, I think they seem to have come up with the best chance that he had, but the judge apparently was not hearing it. I'll read up on it, but Nolan King is there, so be on the

lookout for that. BC, I want to remind everyone, Showtime.com is the label that pays. You can go to Showtime.com and get a 30-day free trial if you like it. Keep it. If not, go do something else. You've seen all the merch store ads, MorningCombat.store, so you know where to go for all of that. You've seen all the merch store ads, morningcombat.store, so you know where to go for all of that. Morningcombat at Gmail.

So I guess, BC, we're going to push fan subs to Friday. Is that what's going to happen? I guess so, right? Yeah, why not? Well, it'll be a little bit different this week. We're foregoing our actual episode. We'll push fan subs, so hit up the email for Dead Wrong or fan subs. There it is.

Morningcombat at Gmail. F with our sponsors sponsors too, Luke. Shout out to Athletic Greens. AG1 can't live without it. Shout out to NordVPN as well. We love them, Luke. Fair enough. Because they protect us. Be on the lookout for Wednesday's

interview with Glover Teixeira. Episode 1 of the brand new Room Service Diaries. For CBS Sports, for Showtime, for Molka, for Brian Campbell, the official Viceroy of Connecticut. I'm Luke Thomas. We will see you when we see you. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.