MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Sterling Outlasts Cejudo | Muhammad Def. Burns | UFC 288 | Canelo Alvarez | Ep 438

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

On Episode 438 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell break down UFC 288. What are the thoughts coming out of Aljamain Sterling vs. Henry Cejudo? Belal Muhammad Defeated Gilbert Burns but did he prove anything? The guys also react to Yan Xiaonan's KO and more on the UFC 288 undercard. The guys break down One Fight Night 10 and Canelo Alvarez's win over John Ryder before Dm's from Donks and HYSTS. (9:45) - Aljamain Sterling Defeats Henry Cejudo (41:50) - Belal Muhammad Defeats Gilbert Burns (54:00) - Rest of UFC 288 Preview (72:00) - Canelo Alvarez (83:30) - One Fight Night 10 (93:00) - Dm's from Donks Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Hey, everybody. It's the 8th of May. I don't know what that... The 8th of May? Well, that's an old man rock reference, is it not?

How are you doing? My name is Luke Thomas. Welcome to Morning Combat, a post-Canelo, post-UFC 288, post-1 championship edition. As I mentioned, my name is Luke Thomas. I'm merely one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of Estados Unidos right here in Washington, D.C., joined by the washed king of Connecticut, my friend and yours. Got a lot of names and they're all dumb, but I call him Brian Campbell. I call him my friend. What's up, Brian Campbell? And I add some stellar names to my Connecticut stable, Luke,

along with Chuck Mendenhall, Glover Teixeira, Apathy. Now we got Katie Taylor. And how about Parker Porter with a big comeback Connecticut win? Oh, yeah, he's Connecticut. Yeah. So shout out just the same. And Luke, the same and Luke I see you I see you in that button up that usually means you either have a secret job interview or a funeral to

attend so RIP either way Luke okay yeah no no no no no this is a true story I'm not I people think that I like I like arrogantly walk around and like you know tell people what to do and like sometimes I do that in fairness but what I mostly do is every time I see myself in the mirror, I'm like, God, what happened to you? Jesus. I mean, you little, you got hit by a car and the car backed up again. I mean, just terrible how the way I look. So today I was like, rather than just wearing a t-shirt on air, I'm going to put on a collar shirt for the Monday show. That's really what I did. I put on a collar shirt for the Monday show. Is that product tired of looking so terrible? I think you had hair product in there

too. Luke, this is decent hair. I did not shower though. I want you to know that I showered last night, but I didn't shower this morning. So there's limits to how much I'm willing to try, but okay, here we are on this Monday edition. As I mentioned, BC, a lot happened over the weekend. UFC 288. Canelo had one of the most insane boxing entrances you'll ever see in your life. 150 mariachi band members. In addition to this incredible fight. It looked like the BC. I'm not joking. Canelo Alvarez's ring walk looked like they opened the 2026 games or whatever for the Olympics in

Guadalajara, Mexico. Did it not? The first thing I thought was Olympic opening ceremonies. No question about it. So it was really cool. You'll be seeing it and have you seen this shit? And despite producer Long Island,

Luke's, you know, low T response to the batch. I think it's one of the best hot fire bags of shit I've ever presented here, Luke. So we can see that later in the show. The weekend was really fun, by the way.

Also, my 16th wedding anniversary Friday. So it was a, this was a, what a time to be alive, Luke. You know, we may make it to 17 after all. This is great. Yeah. Yeah. By the way. So I had a little funny little moment yesterday, BC.

You'll, you'll appreciate this. I went to visit my family in Fredericksburg, Virginia. They don't all live there, but we kind of all met there and we went to the park and my family hadn't seen my daughter for her birthday. So we had kind of like a halfway birthday celebration for a little bit of cake, you know, a little bit of presents, the big park, fun family. It was great. I had a great time. was amazing but i i noticed um i got recognized in the park i got recognized in the park and this dude came up to me and was like hey i love the show and i was like in front of my family like normally i get recognized and there's no one

around finally it happened directly in front of my family and i'm not kidding as soon as the guy walks off they immediately change the subject to like whatever else. Like, hey, are we going to get fish tacos? Or like people pretended like nothing happened. And I was like, well, I'm not sure what to say about that. But it was awkward. Congratulations. Either the same people that received their doctorate without telling anybody, Luke.

Okay. So these are. That's true. They're an amazing bunch, but shout out to the Thomas clan and... Shout out to the guy who saw me in the parking and was still very cool in front of my family, so I appreciate that.

Still his dream that he would lift weights for that one time still. To go pump some iron. Okay, we have a lot to get to. Showtime.com is the label that pays. Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you may certainly bounce.

We have an email for this show. It is morningcombat at gmail.com. You can send in Wednesday's fansubs, which, by the way, have been on fire recently. Or you can get it to us for Friday's Dead Wrong. I want to say something, too, BC. Friday's show is going to be in studio in Jersey City. And I really believe we owe the fans not just another show we do in studio, but an in studio

event an extravagant Sabado Gigante up in there so you're finally willing to arm wrestle the cameraman I'm not arm wrestling cameraman but I'll eat hot wings I love that of all the ridiculousness we've either done or considered doing the one where you had the biggest

issue was you see look at me and i'm not doing a bit and i'm not doing a bit here i don't like i'm not gonna arm wrestle these donks like camera for your i don't like doing these big you know big bear man wrestle weak man like i don't like doing shit like that i don't i think we all know the reason why luke you're afraid that at the end of the day you're goliath and the rest of us are david all right? That's a little bit of the inner workings of the fear. No, it just feels weird.

I don't like it. But is it really that much different than eating hot wings? Probably not. Anyway, we'll do some fun stuff for Friday, so I want you guys to get ready for that. I'll eat hot wings on the air. Don't get anything too dangerous, but if you do regular hot wings,

I'll show you how weak my palate is if you really want. And then Saturday we'll be calling the prelims for the next Showtime Championship boxing card, so that's a lot of fun there as well. BC, I believe we don't have a dime of sponsors, so if you're ready to get this going, I certainly am as well. Take this testo stack and shove it, Luke. All right. Yeah.

Okay. With that in mind, let's get this party started. If we can, we will start as we customarily do with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The last UFC pay-per-view was just down the road from the bomb shelter in Jersey City when the UFC returned to the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey for UFC 288. And in that main event, Aljamain Sterling defeats Henry Cejudo via split decision. BC, there's a lot of things we have to talk about related to this fight. So let's start here. Is the story of this fight that Aljo is clearly the consensus best in the division, Cejudo got screwed by the judges,

or that Cejudo is slipping? What should be the dominant narrative coming out of Saturday? To be honest, I don't think either any of those, any of the three should necessarily be the dominant narrative. How about this? One of the greatest champions in UFC history came back from three years to face the current best fighter in the best division in the sport. And they put on a five-round thriller. More chess match than, you know, bloody brawl, of course.

But I thought this was a very interesting fight to watch. It certainly was an interesting fight to score. And at the end of the day, did Aljo clearly make the statement that he's the best 135-pounder in the world? You know, this division's so great that the answer to that still might be no, but that's not his fault because whatever Aljo needed on his resume after some weird wins and DQ title wins and all that of recent note, this was, along with the Jan rematch, another strong statement

in the direction that we're watching a world-class fighter in the peak of his prime who's adding celebrity names to his resume one after another but at the same time I don't think Henry Cejudo did he show natural slippage in age and time off yeah well certainly so did Canelo oh by the way we'll get to that later but Henry Cejudo came back and impressed me this was a great fight you could have flipped the coin either way and I think if anything Luke the dominant storyline should be this division love it and when you get Cejudo to parachute in last minute like this it's only more fun I really enjoyed

Saturday night which one are you leaning on that's what I want to know well I'm deaf I'm definitely happy Cejudo is back I agree with you I thought that again I don't want to be clear about something I score first of all how did you score the fight how did you score it I gave the first three rounds to Aljo with full understanding that really four of these five rounds I felt could have gone either way. And the fifth round is the only one that I thought was 100% Cejudo but one of the three judges still gave it to Aljo

so you never know. I gave Cejudo the last two. True to his form, Luke, I thought he did make nice adjustments. He figured out his best chance to try to either stay in or get back into the fight, depending on how you scored it. And I'm firmly confident that 3-2 either way is an equal scorecard. This one could have gone either way.

Personally, I preferred Aljo overall. Yeah, I thought overall, like, again, under a different rule set, how would you score it? I scored it 48-47 for Aljo. Again, 1-3-4 for Aljo. 2-5, I thought thought were the best two rounds. Certainly round five was clearly the round that deserved to go to Cejudo.

Derek clearly giving round five to Aljo, even though I agree with that 48-47 scorecard, to me is bizarre. In fact, that's the only thing that kept Henry from getting his title back, or getting, I should say, the title back, which, yikes, that is... That sucks.

That sucks that it came down to that. That's a weird way to control a division is through total serendipity from very questionable judging right um but i will tell you this you know i hear something that has just occurred to me over and over again because you just see it so many times and eventually it for example that they a lot of there was skepticism early on into the reign of Izzy. Even though he had beaten Robert Whitaker, there were still a lot of people thinking that he was a pretender or otherwise very vulnerable. He has since shed that image, I think, in large part.

Aljo has not. He has not shed the image that he has gotten to this place by getting a little bit lucky here or fortuitous circumstances here or something like that. Some strange turn of events that put him here. But I have to say, I think that that is somewhat true, right? The first fight with Jan ending the way that it did certainly helped him out much more significantly the second time around. And the Dillashaw thing as well was obviously just weird. And the judging in that round five is weird too.

So I get that there's a through line, but it also obscures, I think, the bigger truth. These guys, and when I say these guys, I mean the guys fighting Sterling, they keep underestimating him. They keep doing it and then regretting it when the fight is over. You keep hearing them say in the front of the fight, this guy's really not that good. I can beat him.

I can control this. I can do that. I can do this. And then the fight is over, and they're like, Jesus, that was actually a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Even in cases where they think they win, they still come back being like, Sterling is a lot more difficult than we ever gave him credit. You know what fighting Sterling is like? You see these guys who leave UFC who want to go to another organization and they think they're going to go in

there and just dominate. And then they go in there and all of a sudden it's way more competitive than they thought it was going to be. Fighting Sterling is like almost fighting that in leaving UFC and going to that other organization. These guys all think they're going to go in there and just roll him and then it ends up being way, way more difficult. Henry Cejudo numerically outstruck. Henry Cejudo numerically taken down more times.

Aljamain Sterling having the longest title streak of defenses in bantamweight history. The most amount of bantamweight wins in this point. These guys keep showing up thinking that they're going to be the one to tip over the apple cart and then they all keep showing up on the other side of the ledger. BC, here is my read on this division. Is Aljamain Sterling far better than his contemporaries? No. He keeps having these close fights where a couple things go one way or the other and the whole thing changes. No. But he is so clearly better than the expectations that his opponents have for him. And as a consequence, I think they're surprised. They're having to play catch up in there

a little bit and it causes a couple of those things to go excuse me to go Sterling's way and that makes up the difference in the end I think I think that's a great way to sum it up and it plays into the comments Cejudo had afterwards and Luke I got to give Cejudo I through this resume review process I kind of slipped into becoming a Cejudo fan out of nowhere Luke and I have to say I love the way he handled defeat, how honest he was about his future, but most importantly, how he basically said, the competitor in me is killing me because I wanted this fight for my legacy. But look, Aljo was better at a bunch of different turns.

He didn't think Aljo was going to be able to take him down at all. In fact, Henry came in having been taken down just once in his career before that early takedown from Sterling. But I think it's the length, Luke, of Sterling that can be deceiving. And then obviously it's the movement, the switching of stances, the constant sort of, you know, it's a little bit unpredictable, the style that Aljo puts out there. And I think somebody like Cejudo, who's so desperately trying to pick up on patterns and outthink you and be one chess move ahead, even he had trouble.

And I think if anything against Ludo's performance, which was already sort of Herculean with the three years off and coming right back into the high level was that you would have liked him to have been busier and have landed more. But ultimately it was, it was Sterling that took that away from him. I mean, look,

look, Sterling mixed in timely takedowns and it's such perfect times. And even when he was taken down, he was back up so quick. He was never in a position to get dominated with ground and pound or put in any type of dangerous spot. This was a really heady performance across the board. You talked about the opponent sleeping on him. Aljo's the perfect type of fighter that I've slept on too at times

because outside of the early dominant submission win of Sanhagen, we don't see him always using his weapons as full-on threats. But yet it was this fight where he pulled his talent once again and limited his opponent from being at his best by constantly making him guess and chase him at times. Brilliant stuff across the board. I'm happy in a way that the decision did go Aljo's way because like the Jan Fett, like I mentioned,

he stepped up once again and showed us how world-class he is. To echo what you just said, I don't actually know if Aljo will beat O'Malley or is better than him. I don't actually know if he's better than his own teammate, Murab, although Murab looked great in that beat it jacket, by the way. But I do know that when they show up to fight, but, you know, come hell or high water, no matter the circumstance, DQ or not, Aljo keeps getting his hand raised. And that's nine in a row.

Same thing for Bilal Muhammad, who we'll talk about next. So people like me at the end of the day, Luke, who scream into microphones to entertain you, know sometimes get that shit wrong they need to eat some crow and i'm doing that happily right now i thought sterling i thought sterling would win but i recognize that like the derrick clearly card doesn't make sense and that's part of the reason why he did so the whole thing is a bit of a like in the end like were they really that far apart from each other no it's just sterling does more work he does he puts in more effort overall, quite literally. I mean, the amount of just stuff he throws at the wall, it just has an accumulative effect.

And I think partly it depresses what these other guys can do. Now, Cejudo really did adjust very well by that fifth round. Or maybe Sterling was tired or some combination of the two. Hard to say, but obviously he was really dominant. But I got to say, I thought Cejudo looked pretty good. I mean, we should say something about that. But I gotta say, I thought Cejudo looked pretty good. I mean, we should say something about that. This idea that because he didn't beat Sterling, even though it was close, folks were asking

what should be next for him. I want to have a conversation about that because I gotta tell you, I didn't think he looked bad at all. With a little bit more staying in camp, staying in fight mode, I think he can do pretty special things BC. I mean, some of the takedowns he had, he couldn't really get ground and pound from them, but they were destabilizing, to be clear.

His takedown defense in general, I thought, was really, really good. Obviously, it's been good over the whole course of his career. The thing that was funny, BC, was, remember pre-fight, we were talking about the stat, the 2-28 stat, 125-170, every 135 and over UFC title fights, losing. And now it's 2-29. It's 2-29. I had a lot of people reach out when that got posted, mocking me, being like, well, how many of those guys were Olympic gold medalists?

A lot of people just being like, you know, I don't want math or statistics to apply to somebody I like. It's like, that's not exactly how the way it works. But okay, neither here nor there, BC. I thought he looked really, really good, all things considered, but it did look to me like he had a little bit of ring rust. There was a video he put out afterwards talking to his camp and his, uh, his cornerman in the locker room saying he thanked them. You guys did your job. I had to make adjustments. Aljo was better than I thought. He was just a little bit behind, a little bit not dictating enough, again, up until

that fifth round. But BC, you would agree, right? Okay, he looked pretty good. Little step short here or there. But if he can keep the momentum and take that to another top bantamweight, dude, he can beat other top bantamweights, no doubt about it, right? Yeah, look, the best news for all of us may have actually been that suhudo lost and here's what i'm going to tell you why i know right now he's

debating and he did it very openly on the microphone also after the fight as you mentioned in various videos and press conferences about you know what will i do next i'm not sure man i really need to think about it i respect the stance suhudo is coming from saying i'm such a competitor that i only want to come back unless they pay me stupidly. And that's why he was willing to entertain Brandon Moreno's offer on Twitter. We can get to that later. But he was basically like, you know, if I can't make history, I don't want to come back. GSP was kind of in that same way, right? Great minds think alike. But I think the best news for us potentially was that he lost because if he had won,

he wasn't going to be looking to rematch Sterling or take on O'Malley next. Although he said he would, he knows the money would be there in that fight. But he wanted 145 in Volk. And I think this shuts that door down. Unless he can come back and make that monster statement like he tried to do. As I'm back, I regain my title I never lost. All right, Dana, bring me Volkanovski. That door's probably closed.

In fact, I really believe Volkanovski ends up at lightweight sooner than later. My personal take. But back to Cejudo, I think believe Volkanovski ends up at lightweight sooner than later, my personal take. But back to Cejudo, I think he's going to go back to the drawing board, listen to some offers from the UFC, watch the tape and realize it was that close from pulling it off. I think a couple things are true at the same time, meaning you can't avoid ring rush. Dom Cruz could act like it's not even in the dictionary of the term and it doesn't make sense and I get that mindset.

But it was there a bit for Cejudo. And I think that will motivate him that if he stays busier and comes back full time while still staying true to his code right now of, I only want monster fights that lead to something. I can respect that. But this D this division is like historically deep right now. If he wants to come back, dude, could you imagine? Now look, they may have to pay him. We get that.

But could you imagine him against anyone in the top five, six, seven in this division? Plus, you know, his willingness to jump divisions and try to make something crazy. What if one day they did call with a Conor McGregor offer or something crazy like that? I think he's in a great spot, Luke, because he came just short, which he knows in his heart. I can be that again at 36. I can turn that back. So does it become 2-29 overall?

Yes. But I actually think, Luke, he broke that mystique and he proved to us that he is potentially on the level of all of those great legends who have come back and turned back time like none before. This is a weird sort of sneaky win for Cejudo if he wants to use it at one and stay active use it as one because I think he could compete very well against anybody in this division look he was just in there against the best guy and look how close he came all right so then let's answer the question this morning I actually shared it on Twitter he called for a fight with Marab he wants to fight with Marab Diwala Shweely that's the one I don't know if that one makes so let me ask, which one makes the most sense?

That or Henry versus Sanhagen or Sanhagen versus Marab? Sanhagen versus Marab would have made the most sense to basically declare the next title challenger, although we know the situation with Marab and Aljo at the moment. Adding Segudo back into that mix, if he wants to stay active, means you can break that mold and do whatever you want, which you just asked me him against Merab would be great because Merab cannot fight for the title under the friendship and circumstance that he's

at with Aljo until Aljo makes that decision to move up. Aljo has already said maybe two more fights from now knowing I've got O'Malley next. They did the face off. That's a big money fight, all that, but that's going to come to a head. Why not give Murab the biggest fight he can have before that? No, not Sanhagen to produce the next title challenger, just a Hudo, because that fight can be prominently placed. It would be a great gauge and test of exactly where Murab is. You have to pay Hudo if you're the UFC to get him to say yes to that. But if you tell Hudo, look, you beat Merab,

you get the next shot at Aljo or Mo Mali or whoever's standing there, I think that that's enough motivation for Cejudo to want to finish out his career reaching as big as he can. If he wants to work his way back into a Volkanovski conversation that may or may not be wanted to be had by Dana, the best way to do it is go back

and beat the next best guy. Murab is title worthy, title ready right now. Luke, you can say whether you disagree with me or whatever you want going forward for Henry, but I want to kind of use this moment to ask you, do you see any willingness on Aljo or Murab down the road to fight if it becomes necessary? Or do you think they'll stand firm in their, no, we used to live in each other's house, we know each other's dark secrets.

I mean, is this Kane in D.C. right now, or is this Bones, Jones, and Rashad? Tell me, tell me, Luke. Yeah, I'm going to lean, or you could say Koscheck and Fitch, two guys who also in the same division refused to fight one another and never did, never did. They're both retired and never did. I tend to think it's more along those lines here's the part that gets complicated first of all remember when people were saying that volkanovski versus

suhudo was a good idea dude remember when i said that was never a good idea feel real vindicated on a monday morning like this it's not like he looked bad he looked good this doesn't vindicate that shit dude you how does that vindicate it now? Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a serious question. How is it vindicated? Hold on. Don't give me any bullshit.

You saw someone on Saturday night in either case that could give Alexander Volkanovsky a tough fight? Because I got to tell you, I didn't see that shit at all. Well, it's not about do I think either man can beat him necessarily or would be the betting favorite. That's exactly what it's about. No, it's not about did i do i think either man can beat him necessarily or would be the betting that's exactly what it's about no it's not it's about making relevant big fights that you go oh shit yeah i want to see that how is that relevant if you don't think it's competitive because i think it's more competitive than you think i think so hudo could win that

but is unlikely to but if he came back and won his title and was trying to become the first three division champion in UFC history uh and if the promotion bought in on that right like yeah dude yeah I mean if if if like dude like in terms of what they've put together I don't know how you can look at Saturday and say but both of those guys are really really good like they're and they are like they're very very talented guys very much worthy of admiration that's a separate thing for me like hey can they are they ready right now to go up a weight class and not just that up a weight class against the what most people consider to be the best fighter in the sport no there's just no evidence of that all right you're you're you're brushing a broad

stroke but i really want to know what's behind that right here. I know how great Volkanovski is, okay? I know that he could have beaten Islam under the right scoring. He's still my number one pound for pound with the loss. And yes, I'm ready to open that door to the upper room and kick him in there if he just adds another little sprinkle on top of what he's already built. He's an all-timer, Luke, okay? Am I saying either guy could beat him or should be favored to beat him? No on the latter, possibly on the former.

But Aljo's legitimately talking about moving up to that weight class. And you'd think, if he comes in as the defending Bantamweight champion, that he's going to be featured prominently and given a big chance to get a title shot sooner than later. You're telling me what we saw from Aljo, the game planning, the fact that he knew Suhudo might come in a little rusty and cold, so what did he do? He constantly rushed him with different looks, switching stances,

the threat of high kicks. You're telling me that guy doesn't have a chance against Volkanovski? Like enough to make the fight? That's exactly what I'm telling you, yeah. I'm not telling you that Aljo has that next level thing that would give me the confidence that he that he's going to go in there and beat again not just the best in the sport but one of the best of all time but you're making it seem as if volkanovski fought either of these guys tomorrow at 145 pounds that it would be like matt hughes against hoist gracie no i don't think it'd be matt hughes against hoist gracie but i

think that neither of them would see the final bell. I don't think that they can survive five rounds with him. No. Yeah, but you're making it seem like he would turn them into urinal cakes. And I think that's why you got to lower your month. It's not either, or it's not like they'd win in a pitched battle versus their year.

Okay. Look, you've got reason. There's a vast space in between. The point is, is there enough compelling reason to believe they would win, right? Even though you might think that I favor Volkanovski. Is there enough reason to think that they would win such that there is a reason to jump the fights

that would ordinarily be in the queues for the respective weight class to make a crossover fight at whatever weight class destination? No, I don't see that at all. You did see that with Volkanovsky even before fighting makachev you had plenty of reason to believe he got i made the case on this show for it you do that jump is much bigger much bigger than i think folks are giving credit i know that if you're ever going to have a ckb hard on and let it flaunt right hog wild to the world now would be the time i get that but right you're making my motives rather than the argument. Okay.

You're making it seem like there would be no motive for UFC to consider either one when we just established if Suhudo had a chance to become a three-division champion, I personally think he needs to win back the Bantamweight title for the UFC to give him that chance. Sure. But that's a storyline. That would do exactly what you said. Nothing on Saturday gave me the reason to believe. Okay. Well, Henry didn't win, so that doesn't help his argument. I get that.

But Aljo already said after O'Malley, I'm probably moving up anyway. Dude, if he moves up, he's going to get a great chance to fight either for the title or for somebody that leads directly to it. So, I don't know. It sounds to me like you're shitting a little bit on Aljo

as a means to fully promote how great Volk is and all I'm saying is dude that's a fight we may end up seeing I think if you had a slightly less good champion then it's somewhat of a different conversation

I just think that Volkanovski is not just the champion at 145 he's a uniquely difficult puzzle up a weight class he is uniquely special he is historically special and so in order for me to have confidence in making a fight between any 135 pound champion and that guy like that i need to see something really extraordinary we didn't we saw something that were very very very good highly highly skilled experienced fighters worthy of your respect I mean I say

no less than that but did I see something that would really give me reason to believe Volkanovski would have his title taken from him no I didn't see that at all I guess I'm arguing more for the viability of the fight I get your point if Aljo had subbed him in the fifth round and I guess let me just shoehorn one little point there was a conversation about what made more sense for Volkanovski, right? It was either he goes to 155 and fights Makachev, do we do a super fight in that direction, or we do it in a different direction where it's like Suhudo was the 125 punch but also 135.

So the 135 versus 145, which direction made more sense? And to me, I think clearly it makes much more sense to go 145 to 155. I think that fight is much more competitive than the other way around. That's all. Okay. Okay. I mean, I think I understand now. And look, if Aljo had subbed him out and did it more dominantly

and, to be fair, didn't get booed in his own home area, then maybe there would be a different argument in that case. But I want to put a bow on this to give Aljo the flowers that I think he rightfully deserves. Luke, where do you think, and I know this isn't your favorite topic, but pound for pound, where does Aljo belong in your eyes after this victory? Because when you pair this victory with the Jan rematch, we're not taking much from the TJ fight.

The DQ fight was weird, but he hasn't been beaten in nine fights here. He's super world-class. Like, I don't, you know, I think him and Cejudo were, that's a showcase on Saturday of the best it can get in Bantamweight, and it was a great fight. It was fun. Where does Aljo belong in the top ten? Man, I got to look at the rankings because, again, I don't do them,

so I have a little bit of muscle atrophy when it comes to thinking about this. Where do they, boy, they don't even have him on the list. Oh, yes, they do. He's at six. So at six, they've got Sterling. Five is Izzy. Four is Leon. Three is Islam.

Two is Volk. And then one is John Jones. Leon's too high in there. Come on, UFC. Leon's too high there. Leon's a little high because you couldn't put Aljamain ahead of. Well, I guess you could. I mean, here's the thing.

What Sterling has to do in most cases is going to be really really uniquely difficult relative to guys at 185 or or what but that like what Izzy did in his last fight was so special you know I kind of get putting him at five I think he should be at four yeah so it should be either Volk maybe at one or whatever but they've got Jones at one Volk at two Islam three again in general I think they got Jones at one yeah they got they got Jones at one yeah see that's violating the spirit of this in my opinion it's not like it's not egregious but it's it's a little questionable I mean just think about this look at what Henry Cejudo had to come back to against Aljamain Sterling and like how difficult a puzzle he is to solve and how well-rounded he is and like

uniquely lengthy and all that stuff. And then what Jones had to go up against with Gahn, who just had the worst takedown defense and the worst sub-defense imaginable for a UFC title contender, to be quite honest with you, right? I don't think that's unfair to say for a UFC title contender. You're just like, hold on, Cyril. I got a hot dookie for you. I'm just going to drop it right on you.

Tell me a UFC contender who, in that particular dimension, Like, hold on, Cyril. I got a hot dookie for you. I'm just going to drop it right on you. Tell me a UFC contender who in that particular dimension looked less prepared in your lifetime. He wasn't a contender, but I'd say James Toney looked probably more prepared. But that's not the argument. We're not talking about Randy Couture vanity fights. We're not talking about Randy Couture vanity fights. I know. That was also support.

Guys in title fights. I know. It was a joke to support your argument. But, yeah, about Randy Couture vanity fights. I know. That was also supporting. Guys in title fights. I know. It was a joke to support your argument, but yeah, I mean, I get your point, but I guess it's up to old cereal to come back and remind us, but yeah. Okay, so to answer the original question, where does Sterling go pound for pound? The answer is basically top five, right? Top five. I think it's a good place for him.

Okay, BC. top five i think it's a good place for him um okay bc so then sterling had this one-off with sugar sean o'malley did you like how they handled that by the way did you enjoy that dana seemed really upset after like oh i guess i learned my lesson not to do that again i saw no problem with it i understand it got a little bit, it got a couple of things. Merab stealing the jacket. I thought it won the night, but I understand from a promotional perspective, you don't want to hang around making it about themselves, sitting atop the fence and then almost getting in a fight with Sean

because then suddenly it's Strikeforce Nashville. Gentlemen, we're on live television again. So I get that, but I like this maybe because I'm more of a pomp and circumstance, pro wrestling guy who loves a 150 piece mariachi band and enlighten your name on fire with a flamethrower I like that kind of bullshit so when you get the next challenger and he's in the building and you put him against one another even if it's cringe and this was kind of cringe to me it's still great I want to see how they match up nose to nose O'Malley looked big

obviously he's not cut down at the moment but he looked big opposite him I kind of like that shit Luke they both had they both said their piece nobody tried to claim they weren't a real Jamaican and it you know it was uh it was decent look I liked it okay yeah uh I didn't care for it I just didn't feel like they got much out of it you know I guess they're going to use this for promotional purposes if and when this fight is made so I guess they got that footage of them blah blah blah doing that kind of stuff so that's great for them but in terms of like like the viewer it just felt I'm sitting here trying to process and digest what just happened and now I have to watch this like weird yelling and it also seemed Aljo was what do you make of this BC like Cejudo was the fan favorite

and they were in Newark which is how far is Long Island away it's like what an hour and a half two maybe something like that that far away right if there wasn't traffic you could shoot right across that shit could you I mean I guess I've never driven it I've always taken public transportation in that area so yeah it's a little closer to two hours in that case but hour and a half says Long Island Luke who makes that journey often yeah so yeah okay in that case, but hour and a half says long Island Luke who makes that journey often. Yeah. So yeah. Okay.

So it's about an hour and a half, man. He just didn't have a lot of fan support in the arena. Henry Cejudo was clearly the fan favorite. And so I bring us all up to say after the fight, when they're doing the squabbling, you could see Aljo's like yelling more. Like he just started yelling the entire time. Cause I think he was the agitated and the situation itself was agitating it was a weird combination so for that reason i felt like this was his moment to shine

and it felt instead like his moment to gripe in a way and that's not fair to him there was a little bit of the spirit of him sort of being like you know what the hell do you guys want from me like you know this is who i am but there was also a little bit of pro wrestling cringe added on. And oh, by the way, it's not lost on me that letting the next title challenger in the cage can create weird situations. Remember when Brock Lesnar pushed through everybody and got in DC's face and were like, can we just like celebrate the moment first? And I get your point there. Nobody wanted Brock Lesnar in that fight anyway. I'm glad it didn't happen. happen but um i almost feel like aljo needs to pick a pick a public persona that is the most him

and the most potential like marketable and go with it because i think sometimes he's like you know humble guy and then other times he's trying to be the pro wrestling heel and he's like i i just don't know if he knows just be himself bitch be yourself look is that him is that the real dude if that's the real dude i'll back off but i just kind of want aljo to be himself like he doesn't have a huge fan base they put him in his hometown he got booed there no but they didn't chant henry that's what i mean man like let me ask you if they had put him who's the long the the new york long or the the long island team the islanders right yeah so if they had put them where the islanders play like actually on long island do you think that crowd would have been as pro henry as they were i don't think that So if they had put them where the Islanders play, like actually on Long Island,

do you think that crowd would have been as pro-Henry as they were? I don't think that. No, to your point, there would have been more, but would it have been like a sold-out house like Terrence Crawford in Omaha and people rocking the rafters? No, I don't think Aljo has that fan base for whatever it's worth. Yeah, I don't know the answer to that. Maybe he does locally.

Maybe he doesn't. I don't know. I can't speak to Long Island. But I did feel like that was unfortunate, and it kind of changed the tenor of the post-fight thing. I have to say, in theory, I don't mind the face-offs. I really don't. But I feel like they've got to be few and far between. I feel like they've got to matter.

And this one just kind of fell a little flat. Okay, but here's why i think it's important because o'malley is a monster star that brings monster attention if you're the ufc and you know are they hoping he beats sterling well i think you can make that argument but i don't think it's something that they're like you know life or death on sterling's putting together a run right now but i think this is a fight that you want to get a ton of attention on let that bullshit happen let it play out no one got hurt it's fine um this fight has a chance to be interesting and spicy on the build-up but look the only thing that really matters is the fight i love this matchup dude what a contrast it's gonna be great you

almost sound like you're not too fired up about it and i'm a little nervous here no no no no you mean sean o'malley versus aljermaine sterling yeah that's the fight we're talking about here bro yeah dude I'm I'm completely all in you know what's kind of funny too is um I could see based on what we gathered from Saturday I could see Sean O'Malley being a tough fight for Henry Cejudo too I mean he throws sharp quick linear punches down the middle he makes good use of range. Henry doesn't have tremendous ground and pound. He would obviously get the takedown. I don't think that would be too hard for him.

But what could he really do with it? I think there is an open question there. And then on the feet, dude, I could see him popping Henry Cejudo a lot in that space. So not only do I think he's a tough fight for Sterling, what we learned from the Jan fight, and then what we can learn from this fight is I think that he's competitive with all of this. This is what I mean about Bantamweight. People keep trying to say Sterling is like this undeserving guy. And I think what the reality is

is that division is insanely difficult to the point where even if you wanted to argue that Sterling benefited from X or Y circumstance, even with that, achieving what he's achieved is absurdly difficult. And the next guy may not necessarily do that much better anyway. So what he's been able to produce with this asterisk or that is still highly, highly commendable.

Dude, Sterling's great. He is a great fighter with a very good team behind him. He's, he's executing at such a high level because eventually Suhudo was going to make the adjustments. He did, and Sterling was able to just barely hold him off. Dude, like Suhudo normally wins these type of fights in that manner, but couldn't because Sterling

was that great. So I'm fired up for this Sean O'Malley fight for many reasons, but dude, if he gets another name on that ledger, if Sterling wins this and then we're suddenly going okay what are we doing here are you gonna are you really friends with Marab or not um he may end up getting there Luke do you do you think there's still a chance Marab's the best fighter in this great division right now we just haven't seen it yet it's possible

yes I mean here's what I'd say I can't rule it out I don't think that's the I don't think that that's true but I've been you have to know that you're a you're going to be wrong about things and like you definitely can't rule that out you definitely can't all right final question historically was daniel cormier a really great friend or did he know better and that's why he cut to 205 that that that cane has levels to what he's willing to do um but, but column a column B, a little bit of both going to order off both sides of the menu there a little bit.

DC still a legend. So my favorite broadcaster, DC, seriously, seriously. Uh, okay, fair enough.

Let's go to point number two. We stay with the UFC card, but let's go to that co-main event, which was also a little bit weird, a little bit weird. So Bilal Muhammad defeats Gilbert Burns in the co-main event does so with unanimous decision. But the problem was this. We don't know if he had any pre-existing injury, but sure enough,

during the fight itself, there was a bit of a failed takedown that Burns went for where he landed on his left shoulder. Subsequent to that, it appeared he couldn't even throw it. Now, he could hold it defensively. He could lower it. He could raise it. But he couldn't extend it, it seemed like, in any capacity whatsoever. And so Bilal Muhammad, I thought, looked really good, BC. But the question is this. How much credit can we give Bilal for beating an injured Gilbert Burns? What's your read? I think this was the worst-case scenario.

Well, there's worst case scenarios here. But if this was a bad case for the risk UFC took in rushing this fight to try to save this card, is that this fight was so important to both of their career arcs and to the division at large. And you're making it on three weeks

notice when one guy's in Ramadan and the other guy will be signing up for his third fight in four months. major fight, like major camps. Um, to me, look, let's get one thing out there. I've been wrong on below the whole journey. And what I missed was exactly what he showed out there. His poise, his drive will focus his spiritual connection and the strength. You can see how much that, that gives him, impressive across the board. At the end of the day, they both signed the paper, just like Ryan Garcia did with that rehydration thing,

and they both had to endure the same stakes, more or less, given potential questions of how it would affect them physically. So I want to give Bilal credit. He won this fight because he leaned on that stuff. But did he face, you know, the best or a very competent version of Burns? No. And so we didn't learn a ton under the scenario. Muhammad's the rightful winner.

He did what he had to do, and he's going to get his chance, Luke. And I'm happy for him. I really am. Well, who I'm not happy for is Gilbert. Maybe it's because we've been able to interview him at length twice in the past year. And you really see what the work he's putting in no different than below. I'll put it in the work too, but for where Burns is at 36 and the chances he was willing to take and how focused he was at giving everything he had for this one last run to see it lose here. I mean, we did see certain things

through the first three rounds that showed they were very even, if not Muhammad was better. But you were right. When that takedown attempt happened in the fourth round, Gilbert already seemed to be favoring his arms a bit. Some of that I thought, though, was the hard kicking attack from Bilal, which needs credit to the body, as you see in that picture.

He was devastating. But once that arm went dude he became a one-armed striker in all that danger so see muhammad i think largely controlled that fourth round yet burns was still landing before that takedown big bombs every other 30 seconds that reminded you that okay he's not only in this fight to potentially win this round but he's still a threat to stop muhammad here after that takedown, that threat went away completely. And given the stakes and given how close this fight seemed at the time, although I had Muhammad up, it's heartbreaking, Luke.

It's heartbreaking to see that. We still have a good story to lean on here in Bilal and seeing him get his chance. But you want to see him get his chance in the manner that he did the last fight to get this chance. And that was going there against some beating Sean Brady and bring it to him and knock him out i thought both guys were compromised by the three weeks luke and it's it's just like did it have to be this way for ufc i i've i know i'm it's hard it's hard to be like this greedy complainer as a critic or whatever our role here is as like super fan journalist because uf UFC in general is they know what they're doing.

They're a slam dunk. It works. It's entertaining as hell. They're trimming the margins at every corner lately, it seems. And you bring in all the power slap BS. And like, where's the focus right now? It feels very bandaid at keeping these fight cards together. There's a lot of short term decisions being made that don't really seem to make a ton of sense

that are just tied into, well, I'll just put that fight in that card and that's probably our best chance to sell it on short-term. But I think this caught up with them here. And, you know, the storylines won't reflect that in the long run. It'll just be another tough fight that Muhammad had to win to get his shot, and that's great. I'm remembering the name now, Luke.

I'm becoming a huge believer here in who this man is and his incredible pectorals and all of that. But, dude, I feel for Gilbert here, man. This sucks. And this is not the scenario. Why are you booking this on three weeks notice? Gilbert's got three fights in four months. What are we doing here? He's going to say yes to any fight you offer because he's a savage.

Why do you want to put him in that spot was this necessary no it wasn't and the the bad news Luke is these next few cards aren't great either this ABC card coming up it might be better than this pay-per-view and the one after it I'm being serious here yeah I'm not sure that because that ABC card is not that great yeah but it might be better than both pay-per-view cards it really might I want to have a discussion about the UFC product in a minute but let's stick to the fight itself i will tell you this much bc i understand people who either don't like bala muhammad's um style or they don't care for his personality because listen not everyone is for everyone else people have things they like people they like things they don't blah blah blah blah, blah. Fair enough. Okay. So he's not for everyone if that's the case, but I will tell you this much, man. He convinced me, he convinced me that he is much,

much better than he was a few years ago. And other people might've been convinced sooner. Everyone can be their own, use their own, uh, screens for when they decide someone has leveled up and passed into a new territory. But for me, when I watched the Sean Brady fight, it felt like Sean was under a lot of pressure and just wasn't making optimal decision-making. That's going to be much harder to do against Gilbert. And I know Gilbert was kind of messed up, obviously, fairly early on into that contest. But what I saw from Bilal was, would he beat a healthy Gilbert Burns the entire time

that's what they went up against yeah I don't know I don't know I didn't see necessarily evidence that I can guarantee every time he's better than Gilbert but I saw a level of improvement in his overall game and more to the point BC like all that stance switching and whatnot he does like let's think about what the common denominator is. Before he fought this way, he was just constantly all over you in the wrestling or up against the fence, just not giving you room to breathe, not letting you get stationary, not letting you make thoughtful decisions, just constant pressure, constant interruption. His stand-up style is not going to be like the kind where he's going to get Francis and Ghanu highlight reel knockouts but all of that pressure all of that stance switching all of that

looks it's the same kind of core concept that he applies in the other dimensions of his game you can see that personality bring itself to life in the other dimensions we didn't really necessarily know how that was going to go or look or whether he could even do that when you can see someone express themselves and you can feel the dimensions mirror one another across different phases of the game that's when you know they've really leveled up man that's when you know they're comfortable that's when you know that they believe in themselves that they know this can work and they can actually do it against other high-level guys in fights and get the results that they want. It wasn't so much what did he prove to the skeptics.

It was that the confidence he had to employ these things, to me, looked that he had really embraced that portion of the game. That only happens when you've really got something dynamic that works, that works in the training room that you really believe in. And then you can bring to a fight. So to me, I really got a lot out of that performance in understanding just where below Muhammad is as a well-rounded top competitor.

Did I see evidence BC that he's the best guy at one 70? No, I didn't see that evidence, but you know what we used to hold against him. And the idea of title fights is okay. He's good enough to compete if he gets to that point. But, you know, is he going to stop the champion? Is he going to do this? Is he going to do that?

Because there's some of those parts of his game that don't scream super dangerous threat, but it's what he's built on the inside, the work he's put in. And some of that stance switching, Luke, that may have been because he came in with a leg injury. And yeah, you know, he didn't make excuses. i mean he won there's no excuses to make but he basically said like we always say everybody's injured in some way but like you know that just adds to the toughness he had to show here i now believe he can compete against anybody and that he can figure out the best way to be in that fight and and and have his best chance and i certainly didn't believe that i think we're both echoing that that same statement and again you love to see that, Luke.

Happy to see that. Totally happy. But isn't it funny, BC, that like there are guys in the UFC who, again, they don't have the Francis Ngannou power. They don't have, you know, the Charles Oliveira, just incredibly dynamic jiu-jitsu. And, of course, he's more than that, but that's a big portion of his game. But what they can do is they can master the fundamentals.

They do a ton of work in that space. They don't make a lot of bad decisions. And hello, Bilal Muhammad, Aljamain Sterling. They kind of have a similar, I mean, not a game, but obviously Aljamain is big on the back and Sterling, excuse me, Bilal is not. But that same kind of high work rate kind of shut you down with all different kinds of movement and whatnot. And just sort of slowly accumulate these rounds over time and then these wins over time. And then these streaks over time, dude, they're going to beat your favorite fighters. They're going to do that. You got to put respect on the guys who don't necessarily wow you with X or Y or Z, but the overall total game that they bring

and then that effort over time, dude, it makes a difference. It makes a huge difference in who wins and loses and who gets title shots and who doesn't and who gets their hand raised and what streaks and what fights. It is such a difficult style to contend with. And I think everyone says,

oh, nothing really wows me here. You know what wows me is when I look at the fucking resume and it's win win win win win it's not an accident with those guys and we really have to wrap our heads around that yeah that's what look at john fitch's run luke all he does is win no matter what you know all i do is win win win no respect respect much respect but is part of you as a fan like heartbroken for gilbert luke super heartbroken for Gilbert Luke super heartbroken for Gilbert because here's the thing Bilal hasn't gotten his title shot yet and I saw Colby Covington did an interview looking like a new member of LMFAO with those white sunglasses you know who

wears white sunglasses three people Jay Aaron uh the guy who's in LMFAO and then Colby Covington that's it no one else wears them because it's obviously a very bad choice but okay neither here nor there but he was right he was like you know not he Colby was like he did it for nothing I don't think he did it for nothing but did he meaningfully change his stock on Saturday night well it put him ahead of Gilbert in the pecking order that's true but no one was like oh well've got to take the title shot from Colby. That was never really a result, so it is unfortunate in that sense. I don't know financially if it was something where he was like, it's worth the risk, or maybe he thought that was his only chance

and he'd get passed over anyway. I just think we know who Gilbert Burns is. He'll take anybody at any time. He's that dude. But when you let that dude be that dude I don't know this is what happens maybe I don't know Luke I'm trying to figure it out in real time maybe I just you know care about the man Gilbert and it's tough to see but I just don't think as an organization like that's what that's not best case scenario there like no I'm not gonna

I'm sorry the point I was gonna make was Gilbert's 36 below 34 34 so he's still he's got you know he's still got a window where something nice can happen to him. And I'm happy for him. I really am. But this was always going to be the case, dude. When they made Bilal versus Gilbert, it was like, dude, who do you want to see lose?

Like, I don't, these are both like the seemingly pretty great guys. And like, I don't know, you feel bad. Burns being 36, especially. Okay, BC, let's talk about this other part. Point number three. I was shocked by this. I was really shocked shocked by this but i guess i shouldn't be yon shaw non defeated jessica andrage inside of a round now jessica andrage had what can only be described as epically poor fight iq in this

fight like really just am rookie shit is really what she did and she paid for it but yan shaonan took advantage of it perfectly setting up bc a yan shaonan versus zhong wiley all china affair for the women's uh strawweight title here bc how big is that fight going to be in that market uh massive massive that's a big opportunity for the ufc as well and we know the work they've done putting in the pi over there and you know they've already had a title fight on on chinese soil i believe right when andrage got knocked out yes and and back to andrage for one second you lost your title that same way how do you let that happen again anyway um yang shanan still had to show us that she had the power which i think a lot of us

were questioning and maybe that's why look she's a contender she's tough she's volume she's smart she's a lot of things but she also took care of business when it mattered so this showdown is massive you know i want uh wayley versus rose three more than anything to to you know decide the all-time greatest fighter in this division's history. Some of that is fueled by certain levels of superfannedness, Luke, in this division's history. But I'll step aside knowing how big this fight can be for that nation and the future of the sport in that nation. For the two fighters here, Zhang Weili's done such great work to get her title back and be back in this position that two wins in a row here only for Yan Shannan. But they came against Mackenzie Dern over five rounds.

And now this knockout, it's like, damn, Jessica Andrade. Damn, like, look, I don't know how you do that twice. And I mean, she's done that in other fights, too. But I don't know how you you lose an opportunity that big twice with your hands at your waist like you know running straight on against at somebody i mean that's that's rough in andrage has been in too many title fights to let that happen you know across multiple divisions it's like you're you should be better than that i'm sorry luke you should have been better than that yeah i just want to say this about the chinese market i mean neither of us know jack shit about the chinese mma market right so like we're not really in a position to say this about the Chinese market. I mean, neither of us know jack shit about the Chinese MMA market. Right. So like,

we're not really in a position to say for yourself. Okay. I mean, perhaps, perhaps a known Asian experts, Brian Campbell knows more. I don't know that, but perhaps he does.

But the point I want to make was all I know is this. I don't know the Chinese market, but the fight game, I have at least some idea about. And if you're a promoter having a champion from that place and then able to put them against a number one contender also from that place as like a way to enter the market or at least build new horizons there that's a promoter's dream like that is exactly what they want they want something so special like that there are other things they could also want a more dynamic champion

blah blah blah yeah there's other permutations but that right there any promoter in the world is going to tell you man that's what we want and so what an exciting time for Chinese MMA what an exciting time for the strawweight division and what an exciting time for just fans in general as well to watch the growth of the game overseas like if you're like I know Zhang Weili's been on this level and been a national hero but like you remember Luke when like Yao Ming came to the U S and the NBA and had the swarm of media behind him. I mean, you know,

you get treated like Elvis when you come from a nation that strong with that much pride and you go elsewhere and do this. Think about Yon Shonan. What like, this is like a life changing opportunity potentially, you know, in terms of becoming an icon win or lose. So you, you love to

see that that's why i love when when uh combat sports goes to different places and goes to people's hometowns and creates the potential for these moments this could be an incredible moment so was young way lee knocking out andrage but this is bigger this this is like i want i want opening ceremonies at the olympics I want Canelo John Ryder feel for this we might get that all right but let's talk about Jan Schaunan BC how good did she look right so you heard how I set it up she took advantage of an insane level mistake that Jessica Andrade made but nevertheless like dude it does feel like since those two losses she's leveled up a little bit to your point beating Mackenzie Dern who was trying to drag her to the floor the whole time,

surviving a couple of close call situations here, a dynamic power puncher, sitting her down inside the first round. It does seem to me, man, like she's really refined her game and understands it and is able to apply it at the highest level she's ever had. Yeah, she's putting it all together.

And the timing could not be better. I believe Carla Esparza is having a child, Luke, and starting a family. So she's going to be out of it. I know there's not a huge want to like drop everything and make that trilogy with Rose. It'll be there. And you could certainly argue that Amanda Lemos

at number three is going to be deserving very soon. But some of those other names that we thought might be entering the title picture, Mackenzie Dern just lost to Jan Schaunan. Marina Rodriguez just lost again, two in a row now. On Saturday, there is a certain opening there for the next one to come, so it's good timing. And, yeah, man, I mean, you didn't consider a knockout threat coming in.

You should put that type of performance together. It certainly is a one-up. It's like in Mario, right? Getting that toad. You know what I'm saying, Luke? Dude, I haven't played Mario in like 30 years. Are you going to see this? Isn't the movie breaking records at the box office?

I saw the movie. Here's my review of the movie. Yeah, what do you got? My daughter liked it a lot. That's my review of that movie. My daughter liked it a lot. Okay, for adults from the 80s, it's not like necessary like creed 3 i thought

was necessary whether you i saw creed 3 i know you you're a hater i know i didn't hate creed 3 but like felt it wasn't what i wanted dude i wanted to be blown away and have this felt flat moment with my kids and myself and imax luke and the eighth row, right? I wanted to have this feeling. Mario is definitely just fan. Like, my daughter loves Mario Kart and some other stuff that we have the Switch here at home, and she loves to play it sometimes. So she got a lot out of it.

But the movie itself is like, I hope everyone understands, it's just bullshit. Like, the plot is horrible. The acting is like the kind of acting you get in the actual video game i mean it's it's real bad in that sense i got dragged to the theater for sonic one and two oh my god and i have to say i expected it to be awful and i really enjoyed both even the even the sequel really enjoyed it dude jim carrey really enjoyed bc you've been huffing paint in the garage oh my god

like it's not a cinematic classic but for what what my expectations were it was like oh that was actually like not a bad way to spend 90 minutes with my dude you know what's amazing like i watched volk and um max holloway too famously the 49 times or whatever i have tried to finish avatar and i even threw 49 times i can't do it like i'll watch like 30 seconds the new avatar movie i'll be like oh my god this is so fucking stupid and then i'm like like two days later i'm like but i gotta finish it but then i can't so it's probably been like 4 000 times and i can't finish it all right neither here nor there speaking to this i'll just say this i we talk about the parody at 135 the parody at 115 is really interesting to your point about the trilogy i think you're right they can make i mean

would it be better if one of them is a title holder when you make that fight? Sure, of course it would. It would be a lot better. But I do feel like you can pull the trigger on a bout like that without it and still get something really out of it. And again, if you're the UFC, you cannot fuck this up. Yan Xiaonan has really asserted herself in this division, age 33,

so you know everything is coming together for her. You got an all-China fight. It would take a lot to fuck this up. And I don't think the UFC is really going to do that. I did want to have just one more quick conversation about Jessica Andrade, BC. What, what's going on with her a little bit? I mean, here's what I mean. It's not like too long ago, she wasn't getting great wins.

That head and arm triangle she got over Amanda Lamo. She was like absurd, right? Remember it was standing against the fence. Insane, right? Okay. it was standing against the fence. Insane, right? Okay. She's still obviously really good, really going to win fights. But changing all the weight classes, I didn't understand at the time. Taking the Blanchfield fight on short notice, fine.

But you didn't have that excuse here. And then just running an opponent down along the fence line. Dude, like, I got to be gotta be honest man that's like year one striking shit like that you they know not she knows not to do it and did it anyway what's happening here I don't know because I mean even even though that's her and you can certainly pull a number of fights where she's shown I guess poor defense and ring you know cage awareness in the moment and do stuff like that. But yet,

you know, we've also seen her persevere. I thought that the five round title loss she had to Joanna, people forget. And those championship rounds, like she never stopped. She kept figuring out ways to land big shots from far away. And it's sort of like,

is she making a run here? She chipping away. Like she's been heady in big fights, the adjustments against Nama Unis after getting lit up in that first round. But, um, yeah, I mean, she's human Luke, right. big fights the adjustments against Nama Unis after getting lit up in that first round but um yeah I mean she's human Luke right but she does have she does have swings in in sort of the performances she puts out at times there's times that they blow you away did I think she

was going to slam Rose like that and win the championship no and she's also given us like some of the most incredible one- knockouts in women's mma history where you're just like damn she also just has the just has flat nights on the job luke i mean you know do you come into every morning combat episode with the mindset of you know what as long as it takes to to get to the point of greatness i'm willing to do that today as many minutes well i mean if she was fighting three times a week i'd have a little bit more forgiveness for inconsistent performance. You know what I mean?

I don't think they're quite the same. But I'll just say this, BC. She's 31. Like, it'd be foolish to write her off. But it does seem to me like there's a lack of strategic focus in thinking about her career. Like, what fights make sense? What do I need to do?

What weight class? What's the plan here? It seems to me like the people who really get ahead are the ones who don't just say, I'm going to show up and fight and win. They actually have a vision about what the path looks like, what's required, how long it's going to take. And then, of course, they're committed to the sprint they're in. It just seems like it's a little bit of like, I'll do this, I'll do that.

Almost like odd job kind of work inside the UFC. I don't like that. That video McGregor put out after the Cejudo fight, Luke, that was like all super weird and looked like he had, you know, come straight from Studio 54 to deliver that to us. It kind of had that feeling, the Andrade loss. Like, what's going on? Are you sincere?

Like, what's happening? Like, yeah, I don't know, Luke. I don't know. All right. With that in mind, BC, let's switch gears a little bit to boxing if what do you think oh sorry a blood test would have produced on connor saturday oh i mean dude you could have snorted his blood and gotten high i mean it would have been amazing yeah yeah real quickly anyone else in the card you want to shout out before we move on to Canelo? Yeah, I really enjoyed a lot of this card.

Would you say that's correct, Luke? No, I didn't. I thought the main card really fell flat for me. I'm a DAZN customer, so when I bag on them, I bag on them as a customer. I paid for this pay-per-view. I don't write them off. I don't have a corporate credit card like you, which is amazing. So I just pay for them out of pocket.

You know, you also can ask for one, Luke. That's also a possibility. I've done that. I've done that. Still don't have one. I think it's, yeah. Okay, but here's the point I want to make. Neither here nor there, which is,

I just felt like I did not get my money's worth with this one. You know, that's just a personal opinion. Okay, on paper, I hated it. Maybe I'm just saying I liked a bunch of the breakout performances that we saw, I guess. Okay, like who? Like who? Matt Favola's got to be there against Drew Dober.

We came into that fight knowing we were going to get, you know, extreme action and guys going for it. But, like, also a fight where these two lightweights are starting to knock on the door a little bit, that they may be putting it together. Look, I don't know if Steam Rola, Luke, is going to be the guy that is going to make big adjustments in fights and battle back and, you know, and get to this all the way to the top in the title level. But every step of the journey, I am a willing customer ready to pay and watch

because this guy's rockin' Rola inside the cage. And dude, he bloody dober up and just got him the hell out of there. That, like, you could not have asked for a better call out in the timing and the delivery afterwards. And we'll hear that. And have you seen the shit when he's like, not only am I having a moment here, let's enter Patty Pimblitt into the conversation.

We were like, wow. Okay. You do have a plan for, for where you want to take your career. But who doesn't love a guy exactly like him who's honest blue collar just brings it but also dude i mean we've seen him take punishment in the past but you know he'll get you out of there you don't fuck around with this guy luke and those are my favorite fighters to watch so i'm on team for vola here let's do it yeah i mean sometimes he takes risks and it doesn't go his way in this particular case by the way i thought his counter striking

as the round wore on was getting better and better like there was nothing accidental about his win to me and to your point he'll also put himself at risk to get some wins and it fucking paid off huge also he put a video up today being like i'm at my happy place and he was in near the water i guess in long island eating the most delicious looking bagel you'd ever seen in your life like an egg breakfast sandwich you know with all the all the works and, uh, you know, everything bagel, like the New York bagels. God, they're amazing. Uh, Long Island Luke says he's from Huntington, which I believe where is where Long Island Luke is, is, uh,

populating as well. Um, there you go. You know what he fights like Luke, he fights like I eat, right? Like it, like he's trying to, like I'm trying to save this liver. I'm trying to take it serious, Luke. So I'm trying to do good, but like, you trying, like, I'm trying to save this liver. I'm trying to take it serious, Luke, so I'm trying to do good. But, like, you know, if we try one restaurant and it's closed, you know, I may end up with Mikey at Burger King. You know what I mean? Like, I may just go off the rails.

He's willing to go off the rails and meet you at the late-night dollar menu, Luke. Matt Favola will eat with you inside Cumberland Farms, okay? You know what I'm saying? That's why I like watching him. Okay, two names to shout out, BC. How about Diego Lopez on short notice against Movzar Evloev, I guess how you say it? Yeah, dude, what's the fastest way to Dana White's heart?

Doing that. Doing that, dude. Doing that right there. Dude, my man had a fade and bangs. He had like three haircuts at the same time out there rocking all that shit but he had an active guard underneath he was willing to go for it with what he had super short notice and he really made a fun introduction for himself you can tell this guy is he going to win every fight he's in no he's not but he's going to win a lot of them and he's

going to be fun no matter what good for him maniac inside there like in the best possible ways and almost to the point that somebody who's so dominant and we should be talking about more in Evlov. And, you know, he keeps winning like this. It's going to be unavoidable. You still had moments where like Evlov, like that's a wounded animal who may who may take you out of this fight. I mean, dude, Mozart had to get through some shit that kind of was brought on by his own self because he's like, I don't care how dangerous you are. I'm going to get to opposition. I'm going to show you how dominant I am.

Dude, Lopez just had this this spirit that was like, man, I don't know how long that lasts. I don't know if you can keep that going because he welcomes damage, but he might win some fights acting like that. And there is a video of Dana afterwards talking through your boy, Fabio Busce there, whatever the translator's name is basically being like, you did not lose tonight, son. The, you know, this is what Dana wants, but you know what, Luke, this is what we want. That's probably why Dana has been largely successful. Knowing what the fans wants maniacs off the street with finishing ability who are going to come in and fight to the end, dude, to make a life for themselves. He almost beat a really, really great fighter, Luke, just by being crazy dangerous.

I agree. Last name I want to put out there is the Chrome Gracie thing. I mean, what a disaster. Yeah. Total disaster. He loses to Charles Jourdan, who I thought fought quite ably, clearly had a good game plan, stuck to it, and it worked. So two thumbs up for Charles Jordan.

He earned that win fair and square. But Krohn Gracie, you know, I thought in real time that maybe I saw a few different wrinkles to his boxing, a little bit more movement from the trunk, but really not much, if any at all. And then the other parts of the game haven't improved. Like, he's just this ride-or-die, old-school, the old Gracie way if it wins it wins if it doesn't it doesn't but this is what we do and it's like this is proof of concept of how outdated it is it doesn't proof of concept of how adaptable

it is it's the opposite I don't I don't quite know what was happening here with Chrome there were two things we were looking for from Chrome Gracie in this comeback either doing exactly what you said leaning into the family way the the pure arts and like i hate being mad at this performance and i was it was really disappointing because crone gracie is like a bc type of fighter like a guy who's like even more important than wins and losses his style and doing it my way so you would have wanted to see one of two things him coming in and taking the Gracie style and, you know, adapting it to 2023 and adding all kinds of adaptations. Or I think you would want to see him fight like he did against Swanson. It was ill-advised, but he was willing to go in there and fight.

And it was a war. And he was just willing to lean on his shield to try to prove some point to someone, maybe himself, Luke. But he did neither of those. And, like, he did enough enough to like, where you go, you know what? I don't think anybody needs to see him in there again. Like, and then you need to really, you know, irritate people, but he fought like that. And I hated to see it, Luke. Cause I think he's such a cool personality. You love the family history. You love everything about it. Um, I even loved how he no sold all the interviews coming in. Like I was like,

okay, what are you hiding after three years? Oh, that. Okay. All right. Next look. What else you got, Chin, right? I mean, come on, right? Skits and bits.

Yeah. All right, BC. Let's talk a little bit of boxing before we talk one. Canelo Alvarez did, in fact, defeat John Ryder in Guadalajara, Mexico, his first time fighting back in his hometown in about 11 years or 12 almost. And BC, he gets the unanimous decision win with a wide scoring and, in fact, drops him twice. I think one in the fifth and one in the seventh, something like that.

He beat the shit out of John Ryder. But John Ry john rider after the fight was over he had his both his nose uh nostril with his nostrils plugged and all wrapped he said well canelo has in fact lost a step now bc that's a ballsy thing for a guy to say whose nose is plugged shut yeah who got dropped twice but is john rider correct yeah yeah to a certain degree look it's not hey is the loss to be vol and the sluggish win over golovkin you know a an alarm that this guy's like vulnerable for the taking against anybody and this guy's ready to fall apart and he doesn't have a chin no it's none of that it's just he was at a point as the biggest star in the sport, the number one with a bullet pound for pound,

and just moving up in weight and carrying his entire game with him and figuring out ways to win. And, God, he won a title at 175 by knocking out Sergey Kovalev. Like, we were holding him to a different standard. He was an alien. He was fighting every three months at some point of that, too. But he's also human, and he's a 32-year-old who's fought 62 times since turning pro at 15. Yeah, he's not that same guy from even maybe three fights ago.

That's what happens. Also, though, he was really good on Saturday. Should the fight have gone the distance? I think that's the disappointing part for sure. He had Ryder bloodied in the third, dropped in the fifth, and seemingly ready to go. And obviously, this is no disrespect to John Ryder, who, like Caleb, playing against Benavidez, but almost gnarlier in this case. He went through hell, and he was willing to just go the distance and give the fight you know his

best of what he had Canelo two years ago stops this guy in the fifth round in the sixth round and it's over so no he's not that guy anymore but his attack is still there his timing is still there his hunger is still there but I think what he's figuring out no different from Manny Pacquiao when he started to like come back down to life right no different from Manny Pacquiao when he started to, like, come back down to life, right? Like, the dude Manny Pacquiao was against Ricky Hatton, you know, in Oscar. Unstoppable. I mean, like, I don't know if we've ever seen anything like that in boxing history. Like, this is just, you know, moving up in weight like Canelo did.

Let me just echo you. People forget how dynamic a machine gun force, I mean, prime Pacquiao was. Dude, he, at that moment, was, I mean, virtually unstoppable. Dude, he was 2013 Vitor Belfort. I mean, he was an alien. To Manny's credit, when he came down from that, and obviously you're going to come down. I don't want to come back down from this cloud either, Manny, right?

It's taken me all this time. But, you know, when he came down from that, he still somehow retained his speed, but he obviously like changed his game. He became more of a boxer. Now Manny's still Manny and he loves to fight and that's how he fights. But like he leaned in on the craft there and he was able to hang around. Canelo's got high level craft, but like Manny coming back down to earth, the point of that is Canelo can't fight three full minutes at that pace anymore. He can't, he can't do that.

And he's also Luke really pushing something with, with his one-sided one of this B-ball rematch. I'll say this. If B-ball had all four titles, maybe there's a different conversation here. Canelo is a history maker and a history chaser. Canelo Alvarez is the definition of daring to be

great. We are in the midst, in the second half, but we are in the midst of greatness here. One of the greatest careers in the history of this sport. But he's not going to beat B-Vol in the rematch. And the last two fights have really told us that. You're the undisputed champion at 168.

I know a lot of hungry young horses here. Let's dance with them while you're still 32, while you're the closest to your absolute prime here. I don't know if he beats David Benavidez, Luke, after what I saw in this John Ryder fight. Dude, I mean, hold on. But I do want to find out, what are we doing here with this Dimitri B-V like no one's gonna tell him no Canelo is fucking killing

me with this shit because I'm with you I wasn't sure if he was declining I wasn't sure you know it was just hard to tell and then now I'm like okay it's not a substantial decline but it is it is now noticeable at least to some degree right like a little bit of a drop off can change the results one way or the other okay fine so I still think he's competitive at 168. I still think he can beat a lot of good guys. There are some good fights for him. He can still do something pretty special. What did anyone see on Saturday that gave them confidence that if, in fact, he was even able to get Bivol to go back to a fight at 175, which Bivol does not want to do. He wants to do it at 168.

But even if he could get that fight at 175, BC, did you see anything that gave you any sense a second fight would go differently? Maybe slightly different scoring or something like that. But no, no, there was nothing there. That explosive... That told you that the fight would go differently. You know, that explosive next level part of him,

I don't see that anymore. And it's natural. The part that knocked out Kovalev? Yeah. Like, I don't see it. And that's fine. And it doesn't mean he can't come back in the right fight, but, like, that was the superhuman peak of his powers.

He has been through a couple surgeries of late. He has been in a lot of fights. He is going to have to, I think, you think, be more of the calculated counterpuncher. Think Juan Manuel Marquez when he moved up to welterweight late in his career. He's also probably on the sauce too, Luke. But not like all of the sauce, to be fair. But I will say that Canelo is going to have to adjust to that. Now, the great news, I think, for Canelo is that to have to adjust to that. Now the great news I think for Canelo is that

he's already this efficient counter puncher. That's a big part of his personality as a fighter. What he showed us when he went up to the best he could ever be, when he became the number one power for pound in the game, what he showed us also is that he can walk you down and destroy you and get you out of there at any weight class. And that's greatness right there. But now he's back down to earth.

His game is going to have to adjust to that. And no, there's nothing there at one 75. And I'm a little bit like, look, he already won a title at one 75. The history books have already shown that he went in there against Kovalev. Who's not a prime Kovalev,

but still was a tough out. And he was, you know, losing on the cards and knocked him out late like that's a lot dude you've like you've done everything Canelo but the money's at 68 and also you can really add on to your legacy by adding all of these younger names Dermal Charlo David Benavidez you know it like you have that potential of beating them, but they're going to be closer fights.

They're going to be great fights. They're going to be can't-miss pay-per-view main events. Canelo can do whatever he wants. He's earned that, no question. But this John Ryder fight just adds on to the belief that David Benavidez is going to be really damn competitive with Canelo. And that might be the biggest fight you can make in the sport pretty soon, right? Like outside of the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship.

That's a biggie. Let's start unpacking that gift for the fans now. What else are we going to gain here? Canelo should have fought Benavidez a while ago. I think it's a bit late for him now, to be quite honest with you. Because Benavidez still has room to get better. Canelo does not. Canelo does not.

This is about as good as it's going to get. And Benavidez was so impressive against Caleb Plant. So dominant. And again, inevitable, overwhelming. That fight seems much more interesting to me. Much more competitive. Again, Canelo could probably win that. overwhelming that to fight seems much more interesting to me much more um competitive again Canelo could probably win that but like I I don't know man I'd be hard-pressed to pick against David Benavidez based on their last two performances respectively the one and the one you

know but it also just reminds me BC like dude Kayla Plant couldn't go 12 with Canelo either and John Ryder could it's like and, and plant is like a defensive, I won't call him genius, but defensively oriented slickster for sure. Um, yo, can I look ahead? Wow.

I look, I hit a lot. Ryder's crafty on the inside and he's also, you know, willing to take the punishment. He's aggressive, but yeah, Canelo got hit.

So Luke, did you feel like Canelo was, was the hunter against Ryder, right? Like he was doing, yeah, he was the most part. Yeah. He was bad-ass cowboy mode, right? Like he was doing... Yeah, for the most part, yeah.

He was badass cowboy mode. Against Benavidez, dude, he's got to go back to the Gervonta style more. He's got to go back to the one-punch sniper style, right? Got it. Yeah, yeah, something like that. And again, I'm not saying, like, you know, if Charlo moves to 168, I still think Canelo's going to be too much for him. Right now, again, in a year or two, who the hell knows? But I just feel like David Benavidez, if you

wanted to beat him soundly, have the deck stacked in your favor, which we know happens in boxing, the time was maybe about a year or two ago. Not right now. No, the time could still be right now, man. Oh, no, I mean, no. Time for Canelo was a year ago. But for Benavidez,

his growth and the growth of his brand, he needed that pay-per-view with Plant, which got a lot of eyeballs on it because of the dislike between them. But I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know. If B-Vol agreed to go to 68, would that make you care about that fight at all?

Or should we just get the B-Vol thing out of our conversation and just get the Pied Pipers out and start banging that drum for Canelo Benavidez? I'll say this. Anything on 168, I'm okay with. I don't want to see the B-Ball fight. I don't care for it. It doesn't interest me nearly as much.

Dude, the fight to make, let's just be real. The fight to make is Canelo David Benavidez, period. Like, end of argument. And B-Ball, better beef. Why don't we, like, can we just make that, please? Like, two, well, just, okay, Bivol-Betterbeev can we just make that please Bivol and Betterbeev that's a phenomenal fight that I really want to see at 175 but honestly

I think you said this earlier Canelo David Benavidez is one of the bigger fights you can make in the sport right now I mean it's a huge huge fight for all four belts like it's fucking monstrously big and also competitive. And also cool storylines.

And also, like, I can rack up the reasons why you want to see that one. But I will say, if Bivol did go to 160, I know Canelo's argument is, well, he's drained and I beat him. I don't get any credit. But, dude, that to me is a very unpersuasive argument. Like, yeah, there will be some people who say that. But half the time they go to do things and people are like, well and so says you can't or the statistics say you can't they're always like yeah i don't listen to them i just seek my own path now you're listening to them like now the amount of chorus of negativity is like the making the salient convincing argument like no

no i don't think he i think he wants it for a lot of good reasons at 175 but the idea like there would be no value to it at 168 really very unpersuasive to me this is the point i'd like to make so i agree with you on that um do you think if canelo that still earns the right though to hear us say this and be like fuck those guys man i'm fucking canelo i'll do whatever the hell i want he still has i mean listen the guy still shows up to weigh-ins wearing pajamas that cost more than my house. So, you know, let's just cut him a little bit of slack. But, okay. BC, last but not least, let's get to point number five. So, Demetrius Johnson was back in action for one championship in their U.S. debut,

which I got to say, main event aside, was a freaking hit. Like, it looked great on, I say, say TV on Amazon on my screen, but okay, let's first talk about that. So DJ does get the nod over Adriana Moraes in the rubber fight. I want to talk about the one debut in just a minute, but let me ask you, the fight wasn't great and it certainly wasn't nearly as good as the first two. So was it the altitude? Did DJ look old? was it the way Marais was fighting what is your explanation for why it looked a little lackluster as a man don't forget Marais also 35 and this is their third time I do think DJ took a much more calculated game plan

that doesn't mean on on you know safe completely but DJ was able to use that movement, the footwork patterns to get inside. And, you know, he was nasty, certainly in that Muay Thai clinch. So there were those good moments where you're like, you know, he was the aggressor. He was, he was, he landed the bigger shots.

But I think it all just pulled together to just be more of a tactical affair and DJ leaning on that. And, you know, maybe, or Adriano a little bit older, but there was something that just seemed a little bit off on him luke he wasn't able to establish nearly the same level of physicality that he did in the first two fights um dj was also just better this time around like

down to a science and that's what happens when you take dj one of the best minds of all time and you go okay you're gonna fight this guy three times in succession he's also gonna have you figure it out and then some by the end of that i think it was that perfect storm where it didn't have the same you know drama and excitement as some of the fights leading up to it with those finishes and the personalities but dj still got it at 36 and uh the only question now is like is he gonna hang hang around and still do that? He seems very unsure about that. So, okay, I do think the altitude made a difference, probably for both of them, but maybe a little bit so for Marais. Again, I'm told it's an accent thing in Portuguese.

I don't know. That's one. I do think that the way Marais fought him, so, for example example DJ would clinch and then try and be open in the clinch like he's jumping, kneeing and going side to side and trying to turn him and Adriano's

only answer to that was just to press him into the fence to reduce his movement but then it would stall out, Herb Dean would come clapping and then eventually pull him apart and so it just ended up being this clinch fest which by itself was not terrible but not great either it just was kind of fine in the end I do think DJ looked a little old just a little again I want to be clear about something it's not like hey young and old there's this binary where it's you're either one or the

other it's all sliding scale and there's there nuances to it. He looked pretty good. He had good movement on the feet. He had good movement cornering him, but he just didn't have that same, I don't know, didn't have quite the same intensity over the course of five rounds that I've seen from him. He's usually able to pull a rabbit out of his hat at some point. He just didn't have that. Again, we're talking, again, slight changes in physicality, slight changes, the modest change in the growth of injuries or the lack of muscle explosivity. Any small change here can substantially change the results or at least be noticeable in kind of ways that you have to be aware of. And I think that's the case here, BC. See, I don't know.

Well, hold on. Let me just say this. Let me wrap it up. Cejudo and DJ are both 36 both to me look capable of beating the best 135 or on the right night so I'm not when I talk about decline I'm not talking about decline so far away that that is out of reach but the steady access to their own excellence seems a little bit not there as much. That's a softer, probably more accurate way to say it. Because, you know, again, it's natural. So some of it is going to slip. I just think this time around, Luke, we can't forget that DJ lost the first fight and was stopped for the first time, right?

Or first time that we can remember. I don't know. It may have been the first time ever, Luke. Yeah, it was, right? I mean, it was like eye-opening. Then the second one, he's down on the cards against a physical opponent, yet channels the greatness that we know he has

by figuring it out in the moment, taking big chances and scoring a highlight reel finish. So now the third time around, he's got all this tape, this memory, this, like, I just think it was a natural progression and evolution to go i'm not going to fall down on this guy i'm not going to need to dial it up and be that great how about i go out there and i'll work him out think him um it was brilliant i thought it was brilliant i thought if anything marias was either slowing down himself or he just couldn't figure it out once dj

yes implemented it in that way because you know this was i'm being harsher on DJ, the guy who won only because he is the more historically relevant fighter, right? I mean, he's one of the best guys to ever do it. So the scrutiny is going to be somewhat more intense. Yes, Marias looked to me like, again, I do think the altitude played a role, but age is catching up with him quite clearly as much, if not more. I think that's a fair observation. What about this idea about what DJ should do next?

Do you think he should fight again? Would you like to see him fight again? Would you like to see him retire? We're going to see and have you seen the shit that they made him face off with a dude, Luke. Does that interest you at all? We can get to that later. We can get to it on have you seen this shit.

It's hard because right now, after this weekend, you know what kind of feels like the fight to make, Luke? Cejudo DJ 3, right? um it's it's hard because right now after this weekend you know what kind of feels like the fight to make luke uh so who know dj3 right so it's like like hey maybe what maybe chatri calls dana back up and goes hey you know that last trade we did was kind of worked out good for both of us so hold on let me ask you this let me ask you this imagine that they did imagine that they did and they said we'll give you dj back for one more fight who would you take from UFC and pull to one as a fair question? Cause it'd have to, because you know, DJ is not going to fight a long time.

It has to be, I don't know. Like you have to be somebody that's either really fun, but doesn't have a huge ceiling that, that can equal that sort of short-term impact. I think you'd also want an, you know, an attraction that's going to brawl too. I mean, I know luke i don't have the answer right now what do you think

i have to think about i don't have a great you can't say patty you can't say anything too crazy right no you would want to say someone who's got still athletic upside but could also be good for growing your brand so that's a little bit hard to exactly figure out like gaichi how about that luke gaichi how many fights does he have left it's hard to say probably three or four three maybe yeah yeah so it's like you get a year's worth of use out of him maybe maybe maybe that's a fair trade but you get the idea i mean he's dj's really thinking about retiring like this is a real thing so i think he's still got it i think it just they didn't they need a matchup that really motivates him luke i think that's that's the big decider probably right um okay anyone else on that card stand out to you and by the way the card was incredible

thanks for answering the direct question that i just directly asked you but that's sorry i didn't hear it i apologize what'd you say you know it's all right luke let's move on it's already okay we can't wait i'm sorry i didn't hear it yeah that's great you know it's just right luke let's move on it's already okay we can't wait i'm sorry i didn't hear it yeah that's great you know it's just yeah bc who else stood out from the card anyone for you uh so i really like the card as you did i thought by the way the announced trio i really like that group are you down with that team luke it's brett stover rich franklin and who's the third guy there mitch something mitch chilson who i think was originally like a team quest guy back in the day yeah he fought and won a bunch of times, but they are really good together.

Chemistry wise, I think they go deep on the technical breakdowns of it. I mean, our guy Hot Stove is smooth as the as the leader there. But performances, Luke, in the end, I think this was the right booking across the board for one. Like they got the people that you that you just can't resist on the screen. Two of them and, you know, that we're going to focus on and have you seen the board for one. Like they got the people that you, that you just can't resist on the screen, two of them. And, and you know, that we're going to focus on and have you seen the shit for sure.

Our Rod Tang and, and Stan Fairtex. And it was just perfect performances of both of those charismatic, powerful, violent individuals doing exactly what they do. So I thought not only did both stand out one's use of them along with getting Mikey Musumechi on there with the glasses and the submission game and some of their other guys. I mean, we saw RDR in a grappling match across the board.

It was like, we got a little bit for everybody in this buffet. And I thought it really hit very well. Dude, I thought it delivered big time. I don't know what they did. They said they had a sellout. And then I saw some people being like, yeah, they didn't have a sellout. So I wonder what the commission can tell us about that. Moreover, I don't know what Amazon did in terms of broadcast, but just as an event,

they made it feel big. They made it look good. The production value was super high. And then the guys and then the ladies delivered. It was unbelievable. I really, really, really enjoyed this card. Rod Tang had a great win. Obviously, we'll talk about that. Mikey Musumechi just destroyed an overmatched opponent. Stamp Fairtex, to me, had the biggest win on the card in terms of just how significant it was, just how impactful and memorable it was. That body kick she hit on the clinch break was absurdly amazing.

Really, really good. Her opponent was good, Elise Anderson out of ATT. And she also had, did she have rose and pat berry in her corner she sure did yep she sure did so that was a good opponent she looked amazing a bad inauspicious beginning for roberto soldich where he gets this first fight basically ends in a no contest or dude that fight was wild this fight then he just gets dropped here by a guy who doesn't even have a wikipedia entry terrible beginning for him Sage Northcutt getting a heel hook uh in the first round Tyru Otolo as you mentioned going to tote it well

he kind of he kind of I thought was much better than Rene Derator but anyway the card overall really really fun stuff um I won't lie to you though I fast-forwarded through all that grappling stuff Luke okay and you can judge me however you want. Where's this? I can't judge you, BC. You're only telling on yourself. Okay, all right. You know what I mean?

Every man's got his limits, Luke, okay? I can only take so much. You know what I mean? All right. With that in mind, let's now put the five topics away. Let's get to where everyone gets to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from the diggity donks. Yeah, hee-haw, right?

Hee-haw and all that good stuff. I don't know if I have any of them sent to me, so I'll just read them off the screen. Let's get them fired up here if we can, please. All right, first from Osoladoko. Okay, who won the weekend? One UFC or Canelo BC. What do you think?

One had the most fun event. UFC had the most relevant fight in MMA, actually in combat sports. And then Canelo had the greatest spectacle. Yeah. Canelo was like a party. Canelo was like a, you know, like a Sweet 16 party, just a violent one. It was fantastic, to be fair, in terms of what it accomplished in that. But yeah, UFC won the weekend, even though, Luke,

it wasn't their strongest effort on paper, and it wasn't overly marketable people in the main and co-main to a certain degree that just sell themselves. I think they still won, Luke. I mean, you're not even putting any respect. That fight was fun to watch, I thought. Cejudo versus Alex. I thought the main event was good.

Definitely tactical, worthy of appreciation. Didn't think it was great. It reminded me a little, although it was different, of Dom Cruz versus TJ Dillashaw. It was just like two high operators out there, Luke, making magic. That's not a it's not a bad comparison uh I thought that one was a little bit more action but I haven't seen it in a few years so I can't say for certain you might be right uh okay next in the lineup here

uh from pat mccann 34 does crone's attitude the whole week leading up to the fight make his performance even more head-scratching he tried to play the Diaz role it came out he didn't fight like a Diaz dude I didn't get the Diaz role at all I mean I know what you're saying like I'm too good for this and kind of distant and like the bad boy of the team he seemed to me like distant because he didn't want to be there BC I just did not get the vibe that he was like enjoying any part of this oh do you mean you could talk yourself into some conspiracy theory that it was just sort of like you know how like actors sometimes make obviously really shitty movies just to get their insurance from sag luke just to keep like in the system you know i mean they're like i gotta go make that b horror movie that's going direct to dvd in that walmart bin or maybe

he thought he did want it and then got there and was like, ugh, I don't want any fucking fight. So you're saying the aftermath of Nick Diaz versus Robbie Lawler 2 was unfortunately like, did Nick even want that? Or like, did somebody by gunpoint walk him in there? Did you feel like Krohn was just sort of like, oh, let me cash in one more time and go back to surfing? I mean, is that what you're saying, Luke?

I can't say exactly what his motivations were, but what I can say is it just seems very difficult for me to believe that he enjoyed fight week and then the fight itself. He just looked disinterested. I don't think he fights again in the UFC. I don't know how you come back from that. I'm not saying he should retire in the sense that he's gotten beaten up and stuff,

but BC, I'll say this. If this is the way he's going to fight, the UFC is a bad place for him you know what i mean like you're not gonna you're gonna get beat up you're not gonna win hardly at all you know i'd see him fight dylan danis i'd be into that look i'm not kidding all right he probably tools dylan danis to be honest with you he's better at jujitsu and mma like like like dylan dan let's be clear about this on their jujitsu resumes. Dylan Danis' does not look nearly, not even remotely as good as Krohn's

jiu-jitsu resume. They're not equivalent at all. True or false, Dylan Danis is actually now an influencer fighter and not a fighter. Yeah, that's true. That's very true. Yeah, that's true.

Okay, next. From CubbiesFan80. fighter and not a fighter yeah that's true that's very true yeah it's true uh okay next from cubbies fan 80 why do you think these high level jujitsu fighters are unable to add meaningful takedowns to their mma game well this one's not that hard to understand a lot of it is that jujitsu and wrestling are very distinct and even for the teams like new wave who have really thought about how to incorporate at least on the nogi side a wrestling element that's not just wrestling for wrestling or not just you know wrestling for mma but very specifically wrestling for this kind of thing they've thought about that but one thing that they've cautioned is that that that development is still very much in its infancy so even in jujitsu circles there just isn't high takedown

competency or training or really you know as long as you can just pull guard and, you know, a lot of the sport is gi, you're just not going to get a lot of it as a consequence. And then more to the point, I think a lot of them, maybe not Krohn at this, he's at this stage, but I've definitely seen stages where guys did have good jiu-jitsu and they just had way too much confidence in it as a fight changer like i can just rely on my jiu-jitsu and then they get there and they can't and then they're like oh right like they put so much time to these little details into the training rather than apportioning it somewhere else maybe having slightly less refinement but more well-roundedness and i think it catches up with them a lot of these guys spend way too much time running the pipe, Luke. I think that's what you were trying to say. Glad you're here, Brian. All right, next question.

From Nate the Great Lux, which numbers do you believe more, Dana's power slap social media numbers? Thank God. I'm glad someone asked about this. Or one's three billion viewer numbers. Did you see Dana White out there being like, yo, if you combine NFL, if you combine everything in the milky way coming up combine everything and and and alternate dimensions from from spider-man and or dr strange we still have more numbers than all of them we got

an independent party that searched the dark web to find this out yeah it's like basically here's my here's my answer to this i didn't know what question someone asked where that came up, so forgive me for being a little bit out of the loop. Why the fuck are we talking about power slap at the post-UFC 288 press conference? Well, part of it is that's where Dana White is found to answer these questions, and he does, to Dana's credit, I'll say allow you to go off menu a lot, but it comes across in some ways

like ball fluffing. Now it does produce these fun sound bites that we can laugh on. Have you seen this shit? But it also is sort of like, so how's it going? No, I thought that these questions in particular though, I don't know who asked him. They did, they did bring up like Dana slapping his wife and stuff. Like they did like ask it in a very like professional way and go like, you know, how do you think the sport has been affected by all the negativity and that's what led to dana going on that rant and bragging that it that he doesn't care if you're watching because somebody asked again they're like well dana doesn't that show you that people are only watching it to laugh at it

and that's when dana was like i don't fucking care you know like i'll i'll be the one who laughs last like it really had something like that it really i mean it was impressive this is my point it's like mma media i mean i get that everyone wants to be the guy to nail dana to the wall but dana's pretty good at avoiding being nailed to the wall and stuff like this and moreover he like you're not going to convince him because he is a true believer in what he is saying. There's no amount of evidence, at least right now, you can show him to change his mind. That worldview doesn't exist in his mind. And also, who gives a shit?

In other words, we weren't talking about the NBA finals at the post-fight press conference. We weren't talking about what flavor of ice cream the referees like to eat, or what's your favorite travel destination in Maine. It's utterly irrelevant to anything we're doing why the fuck are we spending time still talking about we had our moment to shit on it and and say how we felt about it some people like it whatever we all had our moment to voice our opinion why are we still having the same conversation also to be fair there was a sequence of questions that led to this. And one of them was people asking, take me through the decision making of the UFC Twitter account and retweeting like dirt bike racing or something, whatever it was.

And that's what led to Dana revealing that him and the Fertittas own all these other brands and they're using the UFC's, you know, own public, you know, own assembly line of social to get that out there. And that's what led into the talk about the slap. But Luke, to answer your question, the reason why we can't is because of that, because you can go on the YouTube page of the UFC at any point and there'll be like six or seven slap videos prominently of these. Like, I, I just can't believe i i don't want to keep on wrapping this gift luke of being like how to how does dana white not see what we all see in

this venture but like damn dude that's i mean that's like remedial level combat sports being served to you through the gourmet UFC mixed martial arts steakhouse. It's just like, like, don't you have any brand awareness or, or class or care for that? So I, you know,

I just, I don't get that corporately how you just make that decision. Yeah. And I guess he's going to shoehorn in any talking point he can, but let that be a, let that be a, a lesson. Like if you guys in any capacity talking to him,

bring up power slap, he's going to use it as an opportunity to say what he wants, whether, and again, people are like, well, is it true or is it not? I don't, if there are a bunch of people who want to watch people get slapped around, I mean, I feel for the state of the country and frankly the earth, but I can't control that, right? If that's what they want to do, you have the worst entertainment palette on earth, but I suppose it's a thing you can do. I just don care anymore i don't i don't care at all like this is so there's 24 hours in a day you have that limited amount of time to spend on it please fucking stop like i don't we don't

need to do this okay well i realize we're breaking our own rule doing this but i just want to make that point and move on did you have the same reaction when they ran a henry cejudo feature before the main event that featured wwe wrestlers talking about how good of a heel he was i kind of popped for that but that's got to be like like spitting in your uh in your meal and then handing it to you i honestly it's like dude i'm so of all the things that bother me about working in this industry given what we've seen the last few years that's fairly low on the list i I gotta tell you. All right, all right, let's get more WWE. It's like, hey, fighters saying that people whose political opinions they don't

agree with should be shot on mass. It's like, okay, that's a little more concerning to me, but okay, neither here nor there. All right, what's the next question? How about buttholes on OnlyFans, Luke? Is that a concerning growing trend too or no? Depends which buttholes we're talking about. Depends.

Yeah, yeah. All right. From Courtney. Oh, that's our own Courtney there. Says, are you as scared for Tony Ferguson as I am right now? So over the weekend, he flipped a car after leaving a club and was arrested for DUI. We know, for example, during the filming of the season,

The Ultimate Fighter, he had this large outburst from, uh, alcohol consumption that did not look good. We know he's had some, you know, and I say this as much of an understanding light as I possibly can. It seemed like he had a bit of a mental health episode a few years ago, BC, um, tied into the domestic incident as well. Yeah. Your reaction to this news yeah sadness i mean this is this is you know we're not far from the lava shack type of point in the career and you know i don't i don't want to see him fight anymore luke you know as much as sort of like you know you can make some fun fantasy matchups on the way out but we kind of already did that this is a clear sign i mean it's also luke it's the fighter's life in a lot of way you know

they the you you live on the edge in your occupation you tend to live on the edge sometimes outside of it too but it's sad i'm not happy about that don't ask me about this luke this yeah i i listen i just i've said it before i've had friends get duis and then uh i can hear you i got friends who get duis and then and then they turned it around. They really did. But to get it like this close to 40, you know, maybe he just made a mistake and whatever, and, you know, people make them, but I just hope he's okay

and that this doesn't lead to anything worse than what this already is. So also, I don't know. I think how many questions have we answered? Four or five. He did flip a car, okay? you know i mean it wasn't just like i had a little bit too much to drink at the sports bar during the game i mean he did flip a freaking car so real quickly before we transition out tank davis also received his sentencing on friday for um a few issues he had going on one of which was uh basically a felony hit and run and he was sentenced

to three years probation and i believe three uh three months basically house arrest um i think he's going to stay at calvin ford's house bc he no longer lives in baltimore he now lives in florida which is probably a good idea for him by the way um i asked my buddy who's a criminal defense attorney who does not practice in maryland so take that for what it is worth, but I had him review the case and what the considering merits were. I said, how heavy-handed is the sentence? His answer to me was Tank got off really light. He said there were a lot of other jurisdictions, or if he had less capable attorneys, that he easily, easily could have seen jail time. I guess it comes down to the injuries suffered by the victims in the case. So listen, I'll just say this.

He admitted guilt to them. He didn't fight it in trial. He admitted it up front. He accepted the results. I can only hope, I can only hope that he has learned from this. I can only hope that getting out of Baltimore, which is where the alleged incident took place, or actually, since he admitted that he did it,

legally speaking, I don't think being in Baltimore serves his interests anymore. No, no. I mean, we're past the point now of, man, he's got to get his stuff together. He's got too much to lose. This is good for him personally good for you know i guess the sport that he can still train and get back in there and fight and we all want to see him continue his career but yeah that

he did seem like he he uh he got the the less of what was offered and and you know hopefully he can he can bounce back well from this and listen three years probation that's i don't know if that's a long time but that's a long time for someone who can fuck things up yeah like he has got to stay out of trouble it's no you have all the money in the world you've had a million second chances this was kind of a bad crime that he admitted guilt to where he basically hit a pregnant lady leaving he had a police escort leaving a club and then ran a red light anyway away from the escort and then ran a red light anyway away from the escort and then hit a pregnant lady and then left at the scene of the crime he admitted to all

this i'm not making this up and he only got three months house arrest and then three years probation that is the ultimate second chance the ultimate second chance if you can't get right after that man you got big, big fucking problem. Well, yeah, you feel like that's that last strike situation where it's almost like, you know, jaywalking now. You know, it could could could bring the end. I mean, he's got no strikes left. He's got a he's got exactly. This is it, man.

Like, yeah, you know, if you're going to make changes, it's always it's always hard when we have to do. Obviously, have these talks when these things get in the headlines for him. And it's been a recurring pattern. But, dude, I love interviewing him. I love the personality he shows as a fighter. Obviously, we love him as a fighter, one of the best in the game right now. But, like, he's so charming, Luke,

when we do talk to him off camera. And, you know, he's a cool, weird dude, right? I think the public has a really unrealistic expectation of some of these guys. I mean, Tank Davis comes from the most broken of backgrounds available for someone who still ends up being a multimillionaire. And people think when I say that, I'm excusing him. I'm not. But what I'm saying is when you get pulled out of that and you never have any other influence in your life in a positive direction other than the structure that boxing provides tell me where in that process you're supposed to just become enlightened about all the things that no one ever showed you you never learned you developed an entirely different

set of skills to cope and manage the reality like this idea that there's going to be inherently enlightened and i think is unrealistic however however, however, at this fucking stage, I mean, you gotta be kidding me. There's just 28 years old. You have been through the court system now multiple times. You do now know what is expected. You do now understand. And you got off lucky with a, with a, uh, fairly light sentencing, but one that can still cause you trouble if you're not careful. No more. The excuses are completely over. Just done.

That's it. Anyway. Okay. With that in mind, BC, it's time for BC's feces. Let's see your feces. What a great transition there. I scoured the globe on Sunday like I always do. What I found, Luke, was the good, the bad, the ugly, the highs and lows,

the in-between. Yeah, in combat sports sports but also beyond right uh we call this have you seen this shit oh oh oh god all right hey luke we're gonna start in mma but not the ufc game bread mma held the first bare knuckle m MMA card in a while, I guess. In Florida, dude, big country Roy Nelson was back, and I'm here to report, Luke, that power is the last thing to go. Waistline has been gone for a while, but he can still thump.

That's Dylan Kleckler. Hey, bro, I got to tell you, big country, oh, man. They're just winging shots. The big country's had big power for a long time dude a long time yep uh he's bigger than normal for uh he is bigger than normal yeah i noticed that too hey let's go back to newark here it's ufc 288 time and uh as you mentioned when i said did i miss anything in that uh press conference luke oh. Hopefully these two never fight again just so we don't have to hear this again. I mean, what's happening here? Why is this in my head? This is Al Jazeera.

You're not even Mexican. Shut up. You're a fake-ass Mexican. And you're not even Jamaican. You're not even Mexican. You're a wannabe American. You're not even Mexican. Represent another flag.

Can we pull up the receipts? Born in America. I am American, sucker. You are American, right? I am. 100%. Okay. So don't walk around with the flag. Shut. So don't walk around with the flag.

Shut up. Don't walk around with the flag. Shut up. Don't disrespect my people. Shut up. De gente. Shut up. De gente.

Luke, I hate to do this to you after all we've been through, but to me, you're not an American. Not a real one, at least. All right, not a real one, at least. Not a real one, at least. All right, Luke. All right. You see, you're just a fake Lithuanian. That's what I know.

Thank you. Luke, surprisingly, it only got cringier from there at the UFC weigh-in show. Did you see this, Luke? What do we call this rap group? Let's listen in. Yo, yo. My name is Chris, and I'm here to say I'm the king of cringe and you nothing in a major way. You just wait in like dip in a can.

Dude, what? Just understand that I'm the king of the cringe. That was terrible. What you got, bro? What you got? Wive it, wave it. You don't want it. I come over there

and take you from it. I'm gonna slash you, dash you, cut another hole in you, pass it back, slash him up again, and show you that I can interview the king of cringe. I'm gonna whoop up on that boy on May 6th, Cinco de Mayo.

Yeah, okay, I've had enough. Get that dinero. Luke, is that why he doesn't have more fans, man? Come on, what is going on there? That was late, right? I mean, Weidman just committed a hate crime by doing that. Let's just be honest about it. All right.

And Aljo, I mean, just. There should be an FCC fine for that, for that being that awful. I think you're right uh also for this this this sums up Krohn Gracie's UFC return in one 10 second video piece Luke um just literally I mean my man is literally can I be honest two of the most ignoble and just unprepared fights I've ever seen in MMA both happened in this venue I was there on the Kimbo Slice Thompson card when Nick Serra refused he was sitting and butt scooting and the referee made him stand up and he refused so then he lost the fight I've seen that in this venue and then this shit it's like

dude what the fuck man if you're butt scooting on a UFC pay-per-view card in 2023 man you got problems man you have something in common with my wife's dog sasha yes indeed luke um you know when she's got like a hanger you know what i mean just got that itchy ass fucking uh luke i told you for for vola dober would be a banger uh it was a fucking banger here's proof this was great damn dude for vola hit him with that i won't say one hit or quitter but dober's tough and through this ground and pound follow-up is merciless man yeah i mean he had some like dan hendo ufc 199 vibes in there he was getting after it man good for matt good good for steam rola yeah shout out there uh for vola then luke he went after his big fish his name is patty listen up patty

pimblitt you absolutely suck stop being a bitch and let's fight all right you're on a four fight win streak i'm on a three fight win streak in the you're in the UFC. You can't pick and choose your fights. You got to fight who the fans want to see you fight. Let's go. Who wants to see Patti Pibblin in the steamroller? Let's go. Who wants this? Let's go, bro.

The time is now. Luke, the time is now. Do you agree? I don't mind that fight. I don't mind that fight i don't mind that fight um patty it's winnable for patty but it's winnable for steam roller as well and um sure i think it makes sense that fight is going to be crazy though like like that would be a wild fight i'd be all over that. Yes, it would be potentially bananas. Fair enough. Luke, you know Dana White does that,

if you know, you already know, but now you know. If you don't know, you better ask somebody. You know he does that clip all the time, Luke? You have your own version when you say, yo BC, get another hammer ready in the shelf behind you. This time, Luke, you said ikram alaskaroff could potentially do scary things to not just phil hawes but to everybody luke you were right this guy's uh this guy's a monster dude wow poor phil hawes man when i saw

this i was like i did not want to see him fight this guy. I was like, I didn't like it. And, of course, I think Oleskerov didn't look great at first. He had this weird kind of hand out here, and he was getting hit over the top with it by Phil Hawes. But I think he was also setting a bit of a trap and kind of luring him in. Dude, that's a monster knockout. That is like, oh, my God. And remember, he polished off the Contender Series kit inside of a round,

and this was his UFC debut, and he won that inside of a round. I am telling you, Ikram Alaskarov is going to make some waves in this division. People are about to be put on notice. That's like Michael Chandler against Patrycki, where you're like, oh my God, like a shot with a shotgun, Luke. A bomb just went off damn yeah these russian these russian fellas boy they're they're different in a hurry yeah no question uh luke uh then we had marab delivering the moment here as o'malley took his jacket off uh did you pop for this or was that the was it i mean it's more my style humor i guess

it's pretty funny that he took the jacket. I have to say, I also really like the jacket. Yeah, I'll give I'll give O'Malley that he sometimes, you know, he can win that ordeal. But wow. OK, let's keep it going here. Here is the the sounding question, Luke. Dana also will be selling timeshares after this event. Let's listen in.

It's working out is what you're saying. Basically, it's fucking unbelievable. Not only is it after this event. Let's listen in. It's working out is what you're saying, basically. It's fucking unbelievable. Not only is it unbelievable money-wise, it's been unbelievable as far as social media goes. We're number one in all of sports. And when I say all of sports, if you take the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, F1, WWE, and who am I forgetting, and added them all together, their numbers don't compare to slaps um yeah you yeah that seems a little doubtful yeah you can doubt it all you want

i i also doubt that the proof is in the putin luke okay? All right. I mean, when I think about social media stars, I think about Slap. I don't know about you. Wow. I'm going to need 300 pages to read to prove that, Luke. I need a full report here. I question those odds. How about just that it's a real shitty look?

I guess that's not part of this, Luke. All right. You know what, Dana, would be great? Like a CEO of a cigarette company, Luke, right? In what way? Just like... Like I don't give a shit if it gets you cancer don't smoke it don't smoke it then i'm not no one's making you smoke that no one no one's putting this in your mouth right right luke this this is a consensual transaction but try it that's consensual transaction. But try it once. Yeah, it's consensual. That doesn't mean it's good for you.

Try it once. You'll be back. Bitch. Bitch. All right. Hey, it's time for the brawl of the week, Luke. It happened in this restaurant. Man, watch out.

Watch out, dude. Dude, what the fuck? Oh, Jesus. Look, my man's just sitting here trying to enjoy his ramen and shit wow dude and they're just throwing food at each other and shit too oh my god dude yeah this is you know i don't even know if we should have ran this luke this got real right damn and just chucking that hot ass water that he did the old jake shields bitch you see that yeah everyone jake shields chuck the hot coffee yeah yeah i remember that all right here uh let's go you know what stuff's always cool luke when people like paraglide and then they land safely and you're always like does it go that way every time you know what i mean yeah maybe we can knock that tree down for clear the runway please that would be great all right they clearly thought about it you know yeah hey luke it's uh beach season is

going to be upon us very shortly it's getting real warm up here in CT. Also, Sandcastle. It's a new America. That's the lighthouse, Luke. Is that what that is? Yep. Why does your lighthouse have veins? All right. Yeah, let's go to the fishing boat you got to be careful on the water these days luke for those those drunk uh drunk boat driving do you boat dui is a real thing luke

oh jesus christ oh what the fuck oh oh god so wait so who was driving on the oh dude these motherfuckers had to abandon ship. Look at this. When someone's at your honey hole. This is, I'm these two people on the boat, and BC is the other boat with his jokes. No matter what else we're talking about, we just got to move out of the way because that shit's coming. It's like, you know, couple diseases at the Newark train station, Luke, right?

It's inevitable. Just let it pass, right? Like Luke walking through first class on his way to coach. Just crop storm. Just, you know, I mean, just yeah, that's great. Okay. Let's keep it going here. Luke, let's go to, this is

great. You're going to love this. Yeah. Yeah. That should have been us on our live show. I can't believe we didn't do that. I should have planned that. I should have did the whole Willy Wonka thing where I walk in on a cane and then I flip. Dom Cruise did that, Luke, ahead of his comeback one time. Hey, Canelo's homecoming in Mexico.

We said it was just spectacular. Why don't you be the judge here? Here's some flashing scenes. Oh, first, Luke, before the entrance, dude, his grandma got to attend her first fight of his 62-fight pro career. This was a precious moment. How about shout-out for elders, Luke, right? Yeah, that's pretty great.

I think she was at, you said, 94, right? 94 right something like that yeah la abuela de canelo right yeah uh yeah all right all right and then we had the epic ring entrance where they got every mariachi live body available for this uh wow dude look at this 150 mariachi band members all of the dancers this giant screen the ring walk and then the fireworks went off there and the fireworks went off at the top of the stadium like again like an olympic stadium opening ceremonies thing not so it wasn't just the local ones it was the the entire house had fireworks i mean fucking insane dude look look at that thing looks like a scene from tron you know what i mean like who in boxing can pull this off like anthony joshua can tyson fury could yeah canelo does it how do you not get how do you not

get olympic games vibes from this it's just the most absurd thing i've ever seen yeah that's pretty awesome and aj's had some great ones in in england but this is in the uk across the way all over for aj but um this is great it's just i mean look at look at that badass right there and then watch watch the lights come and like a pulsating effect behind him let's see let's keep keep look look look see that see the pulsating effect just insane by the way is it my imagination or could you hear a heartbeat pumped into the sound system yeah the one shows yeah that was i've heard something like that as well and i I've questioned what I've heard, Luke. I didn't hear it here, but anyway, that's one

of the most amazing walkouts I've ever seen. Yeah, just good shit. If you like that, Luke, how about the classy meeting between Canelo and an incredibly tough John Ryder in the locker room? Let's listen in. Yeah. I know in the second round, right?

Yeah, I feel it. You talk. You're very strong. It's a pleasure to share the ring with you. Thank you so much. You know, we don't do enough wholesome shit in this segment, Luke. That was great.

Yeah, I mean, this is fine, but if I don't see elders breaking their spines on motorized scooters, I don't really get a whole lot out of this. All right, it's time to test out the old family jewels, Luke. All right, good timing, right? I see these things at the park. My kid goes to, and I'm like, who is the fucking moron? He was like, you know what kids need? They need centrifugal force. That's what they need. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what they need. They need centrifugal force. Dude, that kid got reverse crotched by that thing, Luke. Well, I mean, listen, these kids are morons.

That's okay. You know, we're not losing any Rhodes Scholars. He may be unable to conceive children after that, but hey, we got it on tape at least. Let's go to the golf course here. That's how they used to do vasectomies in the 19th century. There we go. Just the worst, just the fucking worst piece of shit ever.

You got a hold of that one. Just assaulting the grounds crew. century there we go just the worst just the fucking worst piece of shit ever i mean you got a hold of that assaulting the grounds crew uh speaking of nuts luke appy sent in this video to me literally david appleton from the 2016 euros have you ever heard of uh german coach joachim low luke yeah yurgy low is kind of how they pronounce it yeah um you're gonna go yeah he he digs in here and then just sniffs it like an absolute baboon look at this fucking ape look at this fucking ape wow that's so that is so oh no no yeah dig in there you fucking monster come on no no no no yeah yeah get that. Get that whiff.

Get that whiff. Get higher on your own supply, you disgusting fucking barn animal. Do that. Do that. You can't spelunk. You can't go in the caves. Come on, bro. Dude, my man was like, I'm going to go cave diving like a team of Thai soccer players

that are 13 years old. This fucking guy is the most disgusting man oh yeah just dig in there dig in there fella get in there he pulled shit out of his nail beds luke man old man low hate shit yeah speaking of have you seen this shit he has luke i've got photos for you that were sent to me by Metta themselves, Luke. It's funny that they didn't respond to my request for an interview with Adzuck about his first BJJ tournament over the weekend. Luke, you know he won a bunch of medals, according to the post.

Just let me say something. If you compete in jiu-jitsu, you can do a thing where every weekend you find a local tournament to go and win medals. I'm not saying it doesn't mean anything but it doesn't mean much people can it's not hard for anyone to win a medal at your local grappling tournament okay just remember i made the john du pont comparison and you got all up in arms luke this is what johnny p used to do right he'd have the brothers train him and then he'd go to like the over 50 grappling wrestling tournaments and i think everybody would let him win.

I don't know his other coaches. The other one there was Dave Camarillo, who I really like a lot. But this is how you know jiu-jitsu is becoming uncool. This is your indication that it's no longer cool. Yeah, you're saying our parents ruined Facebook, Luke? Yeah, I mean, I can't believe people. Dude, people will tell you with their political opinions about how they can't stand the tech oligarchy.

Then one member of the tech oligarchy shows some interest in combat sports and everyone all of a sudden just turns into like, isn't he great? No. No. No, he's not. Like, why the...

What the fuck are you talking about? Luke, he's an icon, okay? You're just a hater mix skater i got those pics directly from meta luke okay yeah congratulations great jujitsu now for fucking nerds and uh guys who look the other way on me and more uh atrocities you would think it's not fair that i love hot dogs so much because that's how i was raised and then now i've got this black liver right like to me that's not fair. But we always say, well, dude, look what's inside of them, right?

Like it's always like a mystery. Like what do you think is in hot dogs off the top of your head? Like just absolute shit, right? I mean, just the worst things ever, right? Mm-hmm. Apparently it's worse than you. I don't get the connection. Apparently it's worse than you think.

Let's go to CBS News, Luke. People who eat hot dogs eat them because they taste so good. But what's in them is not so good. You know, we've learned to accept it. But I don't know if you'll feel so accepting after this. The company Clear Foods recently analyzed 345 hot dog and sausage products from 75 brands and retailers and found are you hot dog lovers ready for this human DNA in 2% of the samples and in two-thirds of the vegetarian samples and get this 10% of all

vegetarian products appear to contain meat. Clear Food says that there are some companies producing high-quality hot dog tops. I've heard enough right there, Luke. What are you going to tell me next? Soylent Green is made out of people, Luke? I'm going to ask you, do you want your hot dog boiled or grilled? Because I know that ain't going to change a fucking thing with the way you live. Speaking of Charlton Heston, I think I've seen this film before in eighth grade science class. Let's go to the videotape.

Dude, they can be like hot dogs are 98% feces and you'd be like, yeah, tee it up. Cattle for food. You gotta tell them. You gotta tell them. Promise, Tiger. I promise. I'll tell the exchange. You tell everybody.

Listen to me, Hatcher. You gotta tell them.. You tell everybody. Listen to me, Hatcher. You gotta tell them Silent Green is people! We gotta stop them somehow! And so are hot dogs, Luke. Finally, you are what you eat. Yeah!

Alright! Hello, my baby. Hey, Luke, one championship had their first ever U.S. card outside of Denver here. Let's go to the images. I got a question for you. Why is Shotry shouting so much, Luke? Let's listen. We're talking about Floyd Mayweather.

He's 50-0. Rawtang has 270 professional wins. We are talking world elite, pound for pound, devastating KO striker. I can't wait for Americans to see what elite striking truly is. Mommy, why is that gentleman screaming at us? It's like, sir, this is a Wendy's. Relax. He was fired up, though. I did enjoy the card.

Speaking of the card, Luke, the most electrifying force in combat sports was back stamp fair text here is that kick that sent elisa anderson down for good damn and it was loud too luke oh man it was perfectly timed and just vicious there's the dance luke would you say that she is a star in the making or she's already there, Luke? Star in the making. I mean, at least here domestically. But no, she's not a star. Okay. Do you think that she could win?

I know she already lost the Adam Waite title against, what, Angela Lee? That was a really good fight, by the way. I think she's trying to become, you know, rematched in that down the road here. You be into that? Yeah, sure. All right. Okay. that down the road here you'd be into that uh yeah sure all right okay uh luke rod tang was not to be outdone in terms of dance moves from old stamp i didn't know he had this in his repertoire yeah i wish he didn't does that take away from his badassery luke or does it add to it no it didn't take away anything just makes it like Luke, or does it add to it? No, it doesn't take away anything.

It just makes it like a tax you have to pay to enjoy it. Okay, well, let's enjoy it, Luke. This is what Rod Ting does, right? I mean, he's like a barbarian in there. Just ridiculous. Pow. I saw this in real time. My God, man.

Just sent this dude packing. Yeah, and then he pointed at him he defended his featherweight muay thai one title taking souls with hell bows uh let's go over to rod tang now being eaten by the americans after eating a ton of hot dogs that were made out of people luke they are swallowing up rod tang love to see it though i don't get they're swallowing up Rod Tang. Love to see it, though. I don't get it. They're swallowing him? What do you mean? Dude, look at the crowd.

They're going nuts for him. Oh, yeah. I thought you were going to show me some porn. He was getting blown or something. Okay, Luke. All right. We mentioned DJ was really good when he got that clinch. Luke, let's see the best highlight here from DJ Adriano 3.

Yeah, that was sick. Yeah, that jump sort of side knee there. He goes to the body, then right up top. That's just so slick. After the fight, Mighty Mouse spoke that he wasn't sure if he's going to return or not, but then Kairat Akhmedov came calling, Luke, and I asked you whether you care about this.

I guess. You know, it's up to, I mean, if DJ wanted to fight, I would be interested in seeing him continue to compete but if you called it a day would you would you care like oh we got denied x or y fight at this point I respect whatever he does he's earned it he's one of the greatest of all time there's not a question that guy that man wow by the way it was nice to see him cheer too like the fans were like mighty mouse like man like how the world has changed uh in the last 10 years let's go to the playground he's just enjoying

well i would hate it for him if it would break down oh shit oh oh god i gotta get a check on her yeah adults should get the fuck off the equipment that's what they should do I think that was a child look I think I don't know show that again real quickly show that again

was that a that was an adult dude look how much bigger he is well no one came to his aid so maybe Was that an adult? Dude, look how much bigger he is. Well, no one came to his aid, so maybe it was an adult. Exactly. If it was a child, they'd be like, oh, my God. Look at this. Look at this motherfucker just breaking the shit, just costing taxpayers money.

Get the fuck off the equipment. You can coach the Nittany Lions, but stay off our playgrounds, Luke. That's right. That's what it comes down to. I got two more for you. Luke, I've learned a lot in 44 years, but i've also learned that only three things in life matter there's only three things i enjoy in life flicking bean eating the gene and driving green not necessarily in that order though look to be fair wow oh yeah okay dude that is that's that's the living embodiment of winem dinem 69 that kid's gonna be uh gonna be uh uh

yeah tommy i mean that guy is gonna have his wages garnished in about 10 years that's who that kid's gonna be let me just be very clear with that uh he is going to be entering one way or the other the american criminal justice system so uh luke let's close with our joke of the week from daughter to father hey Hey, Dad. Yep. What's the difference between two dicks and a joke? I don't know. I can't take a joke. Look, let me just tell you, if my daughter comes to me with a joke like that, I'm going to ship her to a monastery in the middle of Bolivia. That's what I'm going to do.

I was going to say much respect to you and the late Kobe Bryant, Lucas. Hashtag girl dads, but wow. You know, that is just, she landed the plane, Luke. What a delivery there, right? I mean, she was committed to the bit. She was committed to it. I'll give her credit. She sold it. That's your feces, Luke. Hope you saw it.

Hope you enjoyed it. I want to thank all the sponsors who don't exist for today's show. They've been nice. Great to keep us afloat here. Chico's Bail Bonds. Yes, yes. Let's remind everyone else. We are going to be in studio Friday. Here's what we should do. Let's put it out at

morningcombat.gmail.com. You can follow us on social, of course, and we appreciate that. Give us a follow or shoot us an email, morningcombat at gmail. What do you want to see for like a fun segment on Friday's show? We're going to be in studio the whole nine yards, fun time. Like what do you have in mind? Because I really want to make sure we deliver. Like when we go in studios now, it needs to be, we got to ratchet it up, fella. So it's got to be another level.

Let us know. So you can do that there. Of course, fan subs and Dead Wrong, we'll do that there as well. We can do High Court and make Jake von Amsterdam the appointed judge. God. Do you really believe in his jurisprudence? I got to tell you, I don't. All right.

Let's see. Morning Combat.store to get your orders delayed and then not returned uh no no no there was a hiccup but it's been fixed right we have been assured by the team and they have proven it the website is still active people will receive your order so you want to wear the best i like i like joking i like joking you want to wear this stuff the best merch ever right hey how. I like joking. You want to wear this stuff, the best merch ever, right? Hey, how good, though? As much as we love RJ, we hope to work with him again, Luke.

We love that man. Average Joe Art last week basically auditioned for the role. Did you see that? I mean, that was incredible. Yes, he sure did. And then, let's see, Showtime. Showtime.com is the label that pays. You're like, subplot, subplot,

Luke doesn't care if average joe lives or dies thank you i mostly don't care if you live or die that's what i wanted to say but showtime.com get a 30-day free trial if you'd like you can keep it if not you can bounce all right that is it bc any final thoughts for today's two and two hour and 20 minute show we are the the best thing going in combat sports today i think that's obvious by the hard war that that you people have put on our shelves but um also luke you know for people that enjoy the the ups and downs the the growth of men um as a lifestyle we also offer that too all right so thank you to the mk core right the the weirdest of the weirdos luke the p1s

for propping us up every single day right luke because one day one day you may need a body buried luke and we have thousands who are ready to help you thanks thanks brian uh okay thanks everyone who watched the Rashad interview that's still up at youtube.com slash morning combat same with the Cejudo resume review

we'll have some more content that we're going to build out for you on Friday so it's going to be a fun time alright for everyone at Malka CBS Showtime

and the whole nine yards that's Brian Campbell I'm Luke Thomas thank you so much for watching we're out of here and until next time may all of your gains be loyal