MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Tank Davis KOs Martin, Benavidez Wins, Conor Talks ft. Dan Hardy | Full Ep | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Luke and Brian are back in studio to react to a huge weekend in boxing and MMA. First, Gervonta Davis shakes off his layoff to knockout Frank Martin in PBC on Prime PPV. What type of statement did "Tank" make about the hierarchy of the "5 Princes" following one-sided win? Also, David Benavidez routs former champ Oleksandr Gvodzyk in successful 175-pound debut. Do you believe this performance might make Canelo more interested in undisputed clash? Also, Conor McGregor makes first public statement after UFC 303 withdrawal. From the little Conor/UFC has shared, and the swirl of rumors: What's your best take on what REALLY happened to McGregor and UFC 303? If you're Michael Chandler, what the hell do you do now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Try it today and get up to $75 in PC optimum points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. 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 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. Oh, to the yeah! Get some of what we got going on here. Monday morning, June 17th, 2024.

Is today the 30th anniversary of O.J. Runnin'? It is. The white Ford Bronco. All right, Peter the Juice. Hey, the 30th anniversary of O.J. Runnin'? It is. The white Ford Bronco. All right, Peter the Juice. Hey, this is morning combat right here. Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas, fresh off the bird. At least I was late last night on Father's Day from a momentous week in Las Vegas for all things PBC, Tank Davis, and all that. We'll get to that today.

But, Luke, we're going to give the people what they want. We're going to give them what they deserve. And that is a fist where it counts. And then we're going to turn it because that's what we do. It's a little much, but I hope to do a good show that people are happy with today. How about that? All right. You feeling good? Did you have a good Father's Day with the Tukes? I had a phenomenal

Father's Day. My wife took me out on a little boat cruise in the Potomac. The weather was, by the way, first of all, amazing. Then I got to go to this new restaurant I've kind of been eyeballing for dinner. Then I got to watch a movie. I got to see Godzilla minus one. In the theater?

No, at home. Okay. At home. The theater is for people who are dogs. I mean, I go on occasion. I've fallen back in love with the theater. I love the theater, too, but there's a lot of people

who just won't get off their fucking cell phones. Yeah, but when you're going to experience Denis Villeneuve, you've got to do it in the theater, right? You don't have to. It might improve the experience. You don't actually have to. But anyway, the movie, by the way, great. Really good. Really good movie.

Maybe the best I've ever seen. That's a little strong. All right, well, I'm a little strong. I'm talking about Godzilla Minus One. Oh, sorry, that's not. I haven't seen that. Godzilla Minus One's pretty good. Well, I have seen the rundown for this show, Luke and it's pretty damn loaded right it's very loaded we got

a lot of ufc content to get to both pre and post we have we're in obviously las vegas all week for the tank davis and frank martin fight and of course the david benavidez fight at 175 as well plus we have dms plus we have have you seen this shit plus a few other things we have a lot breaking news to react to and at 12 eastern we're expecting a fantastic guest that we missed last time around. How about Randy Cooter? How about him? That's what they say. That's what they say.

They say The Natural's going to be here. Now, was he Natty throughout his entire career? Should we ask him that? That's the name. That's the name. I don't know if the branding works or not, but that's the name. Before we jump in, you can like and subscribe to everything we're doing here. So, thank you very much there. Long Island Luke

on the ones and twos. Hey, Gaffney Jim Pierre is back. Gaff is here, everybody. Gaff Pierre is in the control room. Do they have a camera back there? I think they have a microphone at least. We don't have a camera, but we got a mic. Gaff, say hi to the folks, man. What's going on,

don'ts? Yeah. Hey, raise your hand if you've lost your job recently all hands raised in the control room all hands up baby that's what we're doing we may join them if i got that pat tillman humor back on the show going right or maybe there's no legal uh stopping me is your career in limbo or otherwise in disaster raise your hand raise your hand indeed you can buy our merch, including this fantastic hat, which I'm trying to make a part of my, part of my look here,

going to morning combat dot store. RJ is on the other end of there. And he's told us about this 10% off code live 10 right now, get 10% off all the fantastic merch, the average Joe Hart crossover, all of that. And then some tall, pale and exhausted.

It's your boy BC four hours of sleep, Luke, but I'm going to caffeinate myself heavily to get through this. Yeah. That trip in Vegas destroyed me. I hours of sleep, Luke, but I'm going to caffeinate myself heavily to get through this show. Yeah, that trip in Vegas destroyed me. I didn't sleep hardly at all the entire time. So I got a little bit last night. I feel pretty good. And since we're really working hard together to normalize

shitting your pants, how has been your movements of late? I had to take a dump on the train today, which I absolutely hate doing. Dude, while it's moving, that's disgusting. Yeah, well, listen, when the duty, well, when the moment calls, you just have to go when you have to go. And I answered, and I hate taking a dump on the train, but I did it.

Yeah. I'm with you on that one. We're going to get into our topics. We've got some breaking news involving UFC 305 to get to. But Luke, before we get there, we did want to editorialize quickly, right? Yeah. What's on your mind? I feel like since this relaunch of Morning Combat,

we're back in your lives. We're here every Monday. We're so happy to be here in Metal Ark Studios, but we're still building toward where we thought we would be, where we would hope we would be, and I just hope the audience can- Are the donks mad at us? I just hope the audience can understand that,

that they have continued grace and patience for what we're going through, and that we haven't lied to them. I know they like MMA more than boxing. I do understand that, but we're trying our best. We do know that, yes. And we still do have fantastic plans for the future this year. It's coming together.

It's just coming together slow. Maybe I'm on Reddit too much, but I feel for our people, right? Listen, I understand that there is a degree of skepticism and frustration about what we have done because we had a longer time off than we said we would. We didn't quite come back. Like we said, we would,

there's been a lot of things that we had kind of indicated would happen and then just didn't happen. And so there's like a lot of, and also there's just less of what we do relative to what it was before, but the economics have changed. The reality of the show funding has changed. The reality of the show in any number of ways has changed. There was something you said before the show today

that I just want to repeat to the audience. It's like, if y'all are frustrated. When I was talking about Montana De La Rosa? Oh, sorry. That too. Let me edit that out afterwards. That too. That too.

It was something you said that I hope folks understand. However frustrated and upset they are, we're that times a thousand. And there was one description that you used that I don't think people really understand, which is we're fighting for our lives out here. And I regret my own message, lack of discipline, where I gave information before it was ready, then things change. And then all of a sudden it looks totally uncredible and it just creates an enormous

amount of problems. To your point, we're still... People are like, how can things still be in transition? Dude, this is a question we fucking ask every day. Well, our business is in transition, to be very fair. The business is in transition, but some of the deals, I fucking wish some of these deals were wrapped up. They're just not.

They're just not. We still don't even have... I mean, there's just so much shit we don't have in order to get to some of the places that we want to get to. Now, that doesn't mean we can't do things a little bit better. Sure. We've heard, and we want to say, we hear you. We hear the complaints.

We hear you. We hear the complaints about doing more, being out more, more MMA content. Obviously, boxing has been a little bit hotter recently, and there's been a lot of fight nights since 300, so we can't control what was on 301, for example. But I want to repeat it one more time. Guys, my wife is worried about my health, and it's all related to the fact that I don't sleep anymore

because of the amount of stress eating me alive, eating me alive. So I, I, I truly mean this. I am sorry for giving information that just wasn't ready for primetime. And I won't do that again. But what I can say is BC, I am, I'm so glad you said it that way. Cause that's the way I feel. I feel like I am fucking treading water as best I can in a room where the water keeps going up every single fucking day. I'm with you. So please understand we are trying to get to a place where we can have sustainable scaled content that's all fully monetized and delivered regularly like we used to. Yeah, believe us. First on our agenda is getting back on the air more than one day a week and hopefully pretty close.

So we're fighting the good fight. To get into the actual fights, we do have breaking news to kick off this episode of Morning Combat today. And it comes from the Instagram page of one Israel Adesanya who reports that August 15th Perth, Australia UFC 305 he's going to be in the main event

fighting for the middleweight championship against Drikus Du Plessis. Luke, this news has not been verified by the UFC, although the sleuths that saw Dana White do his last video from the war room there, the Art of War wall in the UFC matchmaking room, did see over his shoulder the early plans of 305 and Adesanya there. So, Luke, if this is real and it does feel that way, as you mentioned offline, this fight has been rumored for a while. Izzy versus DDP

finally to figure out who's allowed to say the N-word and who owns Africa. No, just kidding. Take that back. Seriously, this is a huge fight. Middleweight championship, former champion against new one. What's your reaction? That was a good joke. That one actually got me.

I love this fight. I love this fight. I think that most people felt like after Izzy lost to Strickland that he did not deserve an immediate rematch. I know he'd been the long-running champion at that point, and sometimes people think tenure entitles you to a rematch. It can. It can certainly help. But that was just such a lackluster performance relative to the kind of elite standards you expect from Izzy. Sean Strickland won that fight thoroughly. He really did. So he got to take the belt, which was deserved, and then they wanted to keep going. And I also thought what was kind

of interesting is if you look at Izzy's schedule, the guy was an iron man. He has like 100 kickboxing bouts. He's got pro boxing bouts as well. And in MMA, when he was hot, the UFC was pulling him out for fights constantly. He finally took a long break. This is over a 330-day. I think it's 334 will be how long time has elapsed between his last fight and then UFC 305, which would be the longest of his career. I mean, keep that in mind. The guy doesn't get injured, and he hardly ever takes time off, this being the noteworthy example or exception that proves the rule.

So here's what I'm going to say. This bout is great for the UFC, almost because I wonder where Sean Strickland fits into it. There were a lot of people who felt like Sean Strickland did beat DDP. He obviously did beat, beat Izzy as well. Was that a majority decision loss for Sean? Um,

in the Drickus fight, I have to go back and look, but it was certainly close. And then upon rewatch, I thought he won actually. And then of course he got the win over Paulo Costa. So you know what? Sean Strickland could in theory get the winner here,

no matter which way you go, it'd be a rematch in either direction. And either of them, I feel like would probably work for the fan base to how good of a fight it would be as a separate conversation. But I love this fight in particular BC because there's big questions about Izzy, like is the best of what he's got over. However, he's usually very good at being the slickster relative to physical middleweights, which are, of course, Drick is.

He's more than that, but certainly calling him physical is not unfair. And in the case of Drick is if Drick is gets this win, you'd be getting a win over the second best middleweight of all time. No worse than that, which would elevate his standing. By the way, going into somewhat neutral, but mostly enemy territory here. I love this fight. I love it for this card. They're going to put Kaikara France and all the rest of the guys from City Kickboxing on there. I think Dan Hooker's trying to get on. Is it KKF against Steve Erseg? Steve Erseg, which I guess is like an all-oceanic affair there. Phenomenal fight.

So that card is looking, I guess, all things being what they are, pretty good. I love this contest, BC. What did I miss? Nothing. And I have to say, watching the behind the scenes, and this was the great takeaway from the UFC's new series on Roku. And by the way, Luke, after the couple weeks they had

in trying to put main events back together and co-main events, I hope the cameras are still rolling because that was inside baseball and very interesting despite some of our misgivings with it. But seeing the way that Izzy was after that loss to Strickland, I think it helped me put back together exactly where Izzy might be. Because remember, after he lost to Strickland, he talked about not coming back for a few years. And considering that he's in his middle 30s at

this point you started to wonder if we had seen the very best of him but what that series reminded us was how incredible that knockout win over perera was to come back and regain his title and how much mentally he seemed to put into the basket that night to get it done so was the strickland loss certainly came in a surprising performance because I don't know if we thought Strickland was that good, by the way, how he raised his game at that time. But I think also you look back and maybe there was a bit of a letdown.

Maybe there was a feeling for Izzy like, okay, this is the one middleweight I haven't fought yet outside of DDP. Let me just get through this title defense. Then we'll finally set up the DDP fight. It's understandable that he may have taken that lightly and just had an off night. I mean, that happens, Luke.

You know, Robert Whitaker, who we're going to talk about this week and preview this Saturday, Saudi Arabia card had what he considers an off night against DDP. Just everything went wrong. Didn't feel like himself. And what did he do? He came back and reminded us more or less who he is. Is he's got that opportunity here.

It's going to be in his more or less home territory down there in the oceanic region. There's going to be a big fight. I cannot wait for it. I cannot wait to see how he handles the physicality of ddp we know that they don't necessarily love each other we can show that the uh them talking trash and jumping into the cage against one another a huge fight but i love that it's izzy once again chasing for the belt because even though like we love things like floyd mayweather going unbeaten habib going unbeaten

what really makes you a legend in sports is when you come back from adversity because it's relatable, right? Izzy already proved that against Pereira. That's one of the most emotional victories, one of the greatest comeback wins I've ever seen, what he was able to do in that. Now he's got to do it again against a different but still very dangerous opponent. Look, if he comes back and regains this to become a three-time middleweight champion that's sort of carving out your own unique place in history already for a guy who's already unique in the history of this sport that's that's extra legend status with people have asked what that would mean relative to anderson silva and having watched anderson silva through his prime i just don't feel like

as incredible as losing the title getting it back and then doing it one more time after that. So to your point, becoming a three-time champion, as remarkable an achievement as that is, it doesn't feel the same to me as what Silva did in his prime, which was just routine greatness, getting pushed to the brink, like in the Silva, excuse me, in the Sonnen fight, and then getting the triangle last minute, like never actually going over the precipice into defeat until he obviously got lost.

He lost against Chris Weidman. It was a different story. But that run that he was on, that's really, really, really, really, really hard to beat. I mean, folks are going to say, oh, well, Silva didn't lose it and then regain it. That's right. Because the part where he could have lost it, he just never did. By the time he did lose it, he was much further into his post prime than I think Izzy is now. I mean, he was also the face of the sport at the time you know when he when silva was delivering you know the front kick

against bell forth uh the force griffin win the comeback but i do want to say this it's like dude it doesn't even matter what happens at 305 certainly if he wins it really boosts his resume in a pretty interesting way but even if he loses it doesn't necessarily damage it your talk i've seen so much izzy slander recently like like overrated, blah, blah, blah. Would you feel like there's more slander against fighters today in this age than ever before on the regular? You know what, though? This is going to sound like I'm wishing it on them, and I'm not, but they sort of had it coming a little bit.

They have been mad at our class of media, the guys who came from not quite traditional media, but the next version of it. And they were mad that we were insufficiently reverent. And there has been a tone of, it has been a policing of tone and topic around them that our media class observed. And now the new class doesn't observe that at all. They're a reaction to what we have done. So to me, it's kind of there, what I always consider to be utterly ridiculous criticism of us kind of blowing up in their face a little bit. This is what they have brought upon themselves by virtue of challenging what we did as a media class.

So, you know, my reaction is I don't agree with any of this shit, but, you know, there's more to it than that. The nature of online commentary such as is contributing as well. But I just want to make this point. You're talking about, at worst, at worst, the second best middleweight of all time with a bullet. Number three is not. Chris Weidman's not that close. Evan Tanner, Rich Franklin are not that close.

Luke Rockhold, he had the Strikeforce title. I definitely respect that. Can we put respect on Robert Whitaker's name while we're in this? Robert Whitaker, okay, but he's lost twice to Izzy. He's still pretty far apart. He's a living legend, though. Yes, of course. He's going to be fighting Saturday. I can't wait to see it. But all of the

ridiculous slander. No one's resume is perfect. No one's conduct is perfect. But that dude has played it remarkably well for the duration of his UFC time. And if you're wondering whether we're going to break down that pro wrestling match between Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva. Dude, I didn't spend three fucking seconds paying attention to that.

And sometimes I feel bad. I'm like, oh man, did I mess up not paying attention to it? No, it turns out I played it totally right. No. All right, Luke, let's get into the topics. Let's start off our show right here. Topic number one went down in Las Vegas on Saturday. PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view in the return after a 14-month layoff of one of boxing's biggest stars,

the WBA lightweight champion, Gervonta Tank Davis. Jail term behind him, a lot of criticism behind him, although the feud with Floyd Mayweather is really heating up. He went in there against unbeaten Frank Martin and boy, did tank handle business, a brutal eighth round knockout after a slow start, which he deemed to be rust due to the layoff. Luke, I talked up Frank Martin's game coming in. Boy, this turned one sided after a somewhat close competitive start.

When you look at what tank did here, what can you say about this performance after the longest layoff of this career? This was a fantastic performance. Not a flawless one. You could see his face afterwards on the right side of Gervonta's face. Obviously, from the left hands of Frank Morton, he got

touched up. I felt like Frank Morton didn't fight necessarily a bad fight, but when things went bad, they kind of got really bad pretty quickly. He got buzzed a little bit in that seventh round and you kind of thought, Oh, well, the end might be here. And then he polished them off just the round after that. So that kind of tells you kind of what were you were going with here? I think in the end, this is, this is what I was going to say, BC. I didn't learn anything new about Gervonta Davis. I didn't see this performance and go,

wow, he really elevated himself to a place I didn't know he was or had gotten to yet. However, I'm going to say this. That's the best lightweight in boxing. He's my number one, 135 pounder. Frank Martin

didn't have the strongest push against him that I'd ever seen. Isak Cruz pushed him to a full decision, for example. Took some rounds off of him as well. Although Frank Martin was winning some of the rounds. The judges gave him a lot more than I was willing to give him.

I had Martin sweeping the first three rounds. So did all three judges. So after that, it gets a little dicey. But I just want to say this. Frank Martin was a credible challenger who I thought for a while provided the kind of test that he could. In the end, while I didn't learn anything new about Gervonta, I was reminded that his natural improvisational ability

to take his time, make reads, make adjustments, and then absolutely find accurate, dominant power punching, that hasn't waned at all. He firmly, in my judgment, sits atop the 135-pound class and could probably do battle with some of the ones that won 40. I hesitate for me to put him in pound-for-pound conversations because a fight like Saturday, to me, felt a little bit more like you've been gone for a while. It's a little tune-up-ish. Frank Martin, not so... It wasn't supposed to be, though. Here's the thing. Frank Martin is ranked fifth in the world so he's not in certain places roughly around five so he's not exactly a tune-up in that sense

but it felt like that was the distance between them and Gervonta admitting he was a little bit rusty in the end he wasn't going for Shakur who still has one more fight with top rank but I'm just going to say this we'll talk about what comes, whether it's Loma or whether it's Shakur. For a guy to be off this long, to take on an opponent this good, and it still served to me more of something closer to a tune-up where one guy's ability to just kind of not coast but improvise his way through it and still end up exactly the way you thought it would tells you very clearly that's the best lightweight in boxing with a bullet.

And he's back and dialed in after that long layoff. Obviously, the controversy about his constant legal issues outside of the ring. You hope that this is now at 29 years old, the mature tank that's going to put his career and family first and make the right decisions. But boy, do they make the right decisions in the ring. So, yeah, I talked up Frank Martin as a live dog. I didn't love the betting odds. I didn't love Tank being a 7-1 favorite. Look, he fought like the right decisions in the ring. So yeah, I talked up Frank Martin as a live dog. I didn't love the betting odds. I didn't love Tank being a seven to one favorite.

Luke, he fought like a seven to one favorite there. Walking down. So here's what I, look, if you're going to put some superlatives on Frank Martin, his defense in the early going was good. He kind of fought intelligently to not overextend and get lit up, but I got a lot of issues. You know, I'm not going to say he laid an egg, Luke,

but I got a lot of issues with how he. Frank Morton. Yeah. With how he kind of allowed himself to get swallowed up. Look, Tank decided Tank is going to give away early rounds. He always does to sort of read. And he also said, look, I was rusty. It was part of it.

But he came out with the Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor attack. High guard walking Frank back and really aimed at wearing down his gas tank through the intimidation and the threat of the pressure. Only look, it wasn't pressure with punches. It was pressure with the threat of punches. And this is what makes tanks so dynamic and so efficient and ridiculous. CompuBox numbers. What do we always say? The old adage is if you land 40% of your power shots, you probably won the fight.

Look, he landed 53% of his power shots. He landed 44% of his punches overall. That's ridiculous. But what I didn't love about Frank was once the fatigue started to set in and Tank was able to corner him at will from post to post to post to post, just constantly backing him up.

And then once Frank got tired, even though Frank did a good job in those middle rounds of landing Bickle left hands to get his back off the ropes, to get out of trouble. You saw the marks, like you he said on Tank's face he was way too willing to set up shop in the corner and when this eventually ended the way it did in the eighth round with that brutality you've got Frank squatting down almost sitting on the ropes

and Tank chopping down at it you're allowing Tank you know this this little man with the big time power to just stand in front of you and chop down on you. That tree's going to come down. I didn't love that at all. I would rather if I'm Frank Martin in that spot, let me just fight my way out and see what happens rather than essentially spending the last two or three rounds in full-time survival mode. I think that spoke to the, to the debate we had coming in with the inexperience between

the two of them play out. Ultimately, Luke, it played out, I think, in a big way. Even though Frank did certain things well to keep himself around in the fight, he wasn't able to build upon the single punches that he landed. And if you are only going to land single punches against Tank and you are going to be in retreat mode and allow him to put that pressure on you and overwhelm you, Tank's not getting tired.

He's standing up there behind the high guard throwing one punch at a time. Frank walked himself into that spider web and eventually it took him out of there. There's no doubt it i mean dude credit to gervonta though gervonta walks right on top of you early he has to make you know minor adjustments because he gets hit a little bit more than other times his strategy never changes dude this is gervonta at the beginning of all the fights he keeps high hands walks in kind of feels where you are gets a sense and then continues to apply pressure where he's standing what feels like

right on top of you, and yet he's just out of the way of your punches, just out of the way of what you can do. You have to get a master boxer to do that. They talked about that all last week. In 2017, when Frank Martin made his pro debut, Gervonta Davis was already a world champion. You saw the difference in what it means to be a lifelong boxer, essentially, in Jervonte

versus a very good athlete who got to boxing at roughly age 20. Just not the same thing at all. And I agree. Frank kind of, when the fight got really difficult, he did not, I did not like the game plan at that part. But I want to say a couple things. One, Jervonte very good about cutting him off so he couldn't exit to his left. They forced him to go the direction he was bad at and then cornered him, and you saw the results.

And the body attack also played into that. Body attack played a huge role. And again, the improvisational ability and the hand speed and the accuracy of Gervonta Davis, your margin of error is so low. What a sniper. So low. Was Frank making a mistake pinned to the ropes? Yes. Yes, sniper. So low. You have, there's, was Frank making a mistake pinned to the

ropes? Yes. Yes, of course he was. But the costliness of that mistake is infinitely high when you're facing a guy who is, I mean, who has a cannon for an arm and can find you with it in the slightest moment. Remember how he did

it. He pre-slips, hooks to move over and then find a lane for the left hand and that's why he didn't see it the whole thing was set up from the pre-slip and the hook and then he fires the uppercut to to align himself into position frank was dealing with somebody they showed a graphic before the fight championship rounds up to that point tank davis had i think it was 80 something like that no that's not quite right maybe it was eight or yeah he would have 80 championship rounds he might be right then so it was 80 championship rounds for frank it was zero yeah it was zero that told me

a lot yeah frank tank has won titles in three different divisions he's been around for a long time never been a unified champion though that. That's true. That's true. So, look, he's got the most talent for the disparity, in my opinion, of where his universal pound-for-pound ranking was. Coming in, Luke, I think I had Tank at number nine, and I've had him there for a little bit. Obviously, he does get criticized by people who don't think he chases the biggest, toughest challenges. Even the dominance over Frank Martin, I don't discount Frank Martin

coming in, right? He came in with a lot of danger, unbeaten fighter, great trainer, all of that. But if we're not going to readjust our pound for pound after this, but readjust our four slash five princes ranking, meaning, look, we talk about the four princes, that new class that came in, Shakur Stevenson, Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, and Tank Davis. I add in, I'm sorry, the other one was Teofimo. I add in Shakur in that to make it five, meaning this group of fighters in and around 135 and 140. As we stand right now after this performance,

how do you order that five based on what we saw of Tank on Saturday night? So I'd go, let me see if I got them all right. There's Tank would be number one. And so who else is there? Shakur's there, Haney's there, Teofimo's there. Who's the last one? Ryan. Ryan Garcia. Yeah, yeah so i put tank up there i'd probably put shaker to right maybe maybe teo

or ryan three um and three or four you can you can i go teo three i put haney i put haney last which is crazy because before that ryan fight you could argue that that haney could have been number one and also floyd put out sparring footage from quite some time ago that showed Haney getting the better of Tank in practice. I don't think it works that way in a fight at all. I mean, those are doghouse rules where they're fighting sort of an unlimited stretch of rounds. Floyd's the referee. People are lining up.

And they're switching out, too. Did you see that one sequence where Tank was talking trash in the corner of Haney and Haney came up and gave him that blind punch he didn't see coming? Yeah, he didn't fall fall though. That was the best part about it. That's a great point. So I think, I think, so this is my point. Tank to me is number one among those. Now, if he got a fight with Shakur, that could change, but as it stands today, I think he's number one. The only reason I don't rank him super highly on the pound for pound list BC is because he's not fighting other guys approximately close to it. I feel like he is

taking fights that are difficult and worthwhile and showing his class, but he is definitely not taking the most difficult fights that he could. That, to me, should preclude him from being included in the pound-for-pound list. Well, the good news is the rumors heading into this week from Bob Arum was that if Tank won, he would love Bob Arum of Tompereg to make a unification fight in November against Vasily Lomachenko. We know Shakur Stevenson is there with the WBC title at 135. And I, you know, recently, Luke, we have seen Tank, Calvin Ford, Leonard Ellerby talk about that, you know, this is a fight they would do.

And then there's Ryan Garcia, who ran up to the apron after the fight, was wearing a T-shirt that said Tank's number one fan. And on the back, it said, rematch me, bitch. And we'll see. And have you seen this shit later, Luke, when they embraced and sort of had like a fun laughing embrace after? I want to get the answer of out of those three names. And I'll add in the fourth one.

Pipple, Isak Cruz, right? Who knocked out Rowley, who is in this mix. Of those four potential opponents for Tank moving forward with Tank saying publicly after the fight, I only want big fights from here out. I only want title fights against big names from here on out. So I think Tank is now at a point where maybe there was a scare being in jail. I mean,

he talked about the maturity. He talked about like waking up to like, I don't want to be here that, you know, this is where my life is heading. I don't want to be here. Maybe that allowed him also to look at where he's at at the prime, at the peak of his prime here at age 29.

Now is the time to go after the names that will make you a first bout hall of famer. So out of Shakur, Loma, Ryan Garcia rematch, or Pitbull-Cruz, give me the fight you would most love next and the fight you think is most likely next for Tank. I think good chance we get Loma. I think it's probably going to be that. Which gives a lot of critical respect.

I mean, they'll call Loma old no matter what. They will. So it's not, the fight, should it happen, is not happening on time, but it's also not happening too late. Sure. There's still value there, so I like that fight. I think they'll make it. And again, if Tank wins, it'll be the first time he becomes a unified champion.

And we will never have, we have never seen Tank against somebody who can box like that. That's right. That's right. This will be his toughest challenge by a considerable margin. I think that the one I would like to see the most is definitely Shakur. The Shakur-Stevenson one. Now you're speaking my language here. Because listen, everyone looks at a tank and they go,

oh, he hasn't fought the best. But it's like you look at what the performance was that Shakur turned in in his last contest, and it was, I mean, god-awful doesn't even begin to describe it. So he has a lot of questions to answer as well. Not so much about his ability, but like really, what are you going to do in this sport? Who are you really going to beat?

Who are you going to put it on? What are your signature wins and how did you get them? And he needs tank a lot more than tank needs him. But I still feel like all of us would benefit the most by that kind of pairing. Do you, are you somewhere else? I'm right with you on there. I think Dan Raphael,

his choices tank versus, uh, Teofimo Lopez. That's the one he wants. I mean, we can add that in there just as well. I don't think that's as likely. Although I think Luke with the combination of the money from Saudi Arabia,

pushing people to make their biggest fights possible. Everything I just said about tank and where he's at in his career. I do think we, we see at least two or three of these options moving forward. I do. I would love Shakur next. I think Loma's most likely. I think people are still underrating Shakur

because his last fight was boring, even though he absolutely dominated De Los Santos and held him to a CompuBox record of minimum punches landed. I'm not saying he did great for his career that night in that big close-up. No, he didn't, Luke. What I'm saying, I think that's going to play into people just going well tank's got the power he's inevitably going to

knock this guy out you see when they asked tank about that after the fight what would it look like if you fought shakur he's like you guys already know i think shakur is a tougher challenge than loma yeah i agree with that yeah i agree with that you know that might be i don't know can loma really take tank's punches i have some concern about that i do te, that might be... Can Loma really take Tank's punches? I have some concern about that. I do. Teofimo would be a really tough matchup due to the size and the explosiveness. And the athleticism. That's exactly right.

Because he can move and get in and out of places that other guys just can't. That's right. Look, no one's going to question Tank's popularity. If he runs through three or four of these names we're talking about, if he can fight the other four or five princes and come out as the leader there, he's going to fulfill his promise completely completely, but to close this topic, I want to say one thing. Harvey doc was the referee on Saturday. Yes. Harvey doc was also the referee in Haney and Garcia. He did not do a great job at Haney Garcia. You didn't even

notice him on Saturday. He is so much better than I'm not defending that performance against Haney and Garciacia it was terrible but his general level of ability is pretty high yeah he's one of the best referees and has been consistently across the board i mentioned ryan garcia and there's nowhere else in the show really to put this so i want to put it right here dude what the fuck is wrong with we're at the point now where most people like like our colleagues at cbs sports brent brookhouse brandon wise whenever i share uh r share Ryan Garcia tweets in the Slack, they're just basically like, stop it.

We're done with this guy. I'm done. I largely agree with that, except I believe Ryan's constant ridiculous Twitter routine has really gone too far in the last week. So Luke, to recap, people were commenting. Do you remember that the study came out about the substance that Ryan took ahead of the Haiti fight? They found out that there was no Osterine in that at all. The supplements that he was taking.

Yeah. So the company that he claimed had contaminated supplements, they put out a press release being like, we tested everything from the batch from which he purchased it and nothing came up with Osterine in it. They were actually pretty pissed. That led to a lot of people because Ryan is constantly tweeting, constantly trying to offend people that led to some pro fighters coming out and commenting on it. One of those was Clarissa shields, which led Ryan to call her quote a Lesbo and then say,

go make me a sandwich in the kitchen. Isn't he a man of Christ, this guy. And then Luke on top of many other ridiculousness, then Caleb Plant, super middleweight, made a comment about it, and that led Saturday to Ryan Boyd making hours

worth of ridiculous tweets about Caleb's wife, Jordan Plant, who of course is an announcer on PBC. That led Luke to just out-of-bounds sexual comments up and down. It led to him challenging Caleb Plant and saying, look, come to the arena on Saturday and say it to my face. Show that same energy. Well, Luke, we'll see the video later on. Have you seen the shit where Caleb did bring that same energy and threw a full, full beer bottle at

Ryan and it led to some pushing and shoving. But Luke, Caleb Plant has four divisions bigger than Ryan. So I don't expect we'll see a fight between the two of them in the ring. I do expect we'll see a fight between the two of them in person one of these days, because Caleb Plant love or hate him and I I love him I love what he stands for and who he's about and the heart that he brings he's not going to let this go quietly in the night Luke and neither should he to some degree I know Ryan's mother was diagnosed with cancer and you know like everyone else I have full respect for everything going on in the family and in his own mental health history I have full respect for too but Luke he is beyond out of bounds lately is this like the only thing I can frame it is this is a death wish like what is what the hell is going on right

now with Ryan Garcia doesn't appear to have a ton of impulse control I think I mean I think the guy's got real mental problems folks want to disregard that because they want to make like this is the guy standing between us and the people at Bohemian Grove okay for all of those who are not children we can recognize that's a ridiculous thing to think or care about. And in general, he's got clear mental problems. We've been noticing them for quite some time. They were amped up for the fight week against Devin Haney. We thought it was going to derail him.

It certainly did not. But, of course, there's now mitigating circumstances around weight and potential performance-enhancing drugs now involved. And then you get these acts. This is somebody who is, we live in a world where we have some restraint about what we do. He is living in an unrestrained world. The world will check that one way or the other. I'm not wishing it upon him in the sense that I hope something bad happens to him.

I thought, in fact, I hope the opposite. I hope he can get help and then heal in a way that's good for everybody. But if he doesn't, the world will come crashing down on him sooner or later. He's setting himself up where, where somebody is going to like knock him out cold with a sucker punch when he doesn't see it coming in public. And he's going to fully deserve it.

And I don't want to see that for him, but he's getting to the point where it's, it's so far beyond it's it's, I mean, it's like you're, you're asking for him but he's getting to the point where it's it's so far beyond it's it's i mean it's like you're you're asking for the worst thing to happen to you you're literally asking for it it's going to he is asking for it yes i mean i i don't use that lightly but when you go out of your way to overtly sexualize somebody's wife on social media and in other places i mean what is it you expect to happen as a consequence of that?

Them to turn the other cheek? Okay. I don't think that's going to happen. Good luck. Yeah, yeah. Good luck. You're going to need it. Anyway, there you go.

Let's continue, Luke. All right. Topic number two here, BC, as we continue here on the show, let's talk, if we can, a little bit, how about that co-main event, right? And we'll get to some UFC right after this. This is the last bit of boxing for the fans.

Don't worry. All right, so David Benavidez basically routes former champion Oleksandr Vodzik, okay? He does so via unanimous decision in his 175-pound debut. However, BC, there were some questions coming out of this performance. He had a bunch of injuries that he listed afterwards, a cut over his eye in late May. He had a torn ligament in his right hand.

He had a busted up left hand. So both of his hands were apparently fucked up. What explains this result? People who are criticizing him are wrong and not appreciating what he actually achieved. Or he was way too hyped and even though he was going up and not fighting some kind of scrub this was a come back down to earth moment a real check of his actual ability what's the story yeah i'm a little bit surprised at how aggressive people are going this is the guy that canelo is supposed to be afraid of this is the

guy first of all alexander vostik is a former world champion who knocked out division king adonis stevenson and sent him into retirement before having the same thing happen to him against better beef. He came in in sick shape, muscularly and conditioning wise at age 37. And Luke on my scorecard, Vodzik lost to all of the first 10 rounds and was absolutely dominated and routed by a benefit is that we find out had legitimate setbacks in both hands

and a cut, but wanted to push through, didn't want to pull out of the fight, wanted the event to go forward. I think it's because he didn't score the knockout. And yeah, you and I predicted basically like a fifth or sixth round stoppage. We expected him to kind of go in there and finish him. And then we'd be talking about him against the winner of a better be even be ball. I think you have to take into account the potential of those physical injuries and how they held them back.

And I think people need to take a slow roll away in the other direction and realize he just moved up in weight against a world-class guy and absolutely dominated him. And I know after the fight, Benavidez is still keeping open the option of staying at 168. He said he wants to fight in both divisions.

He said he could still make 68 easy. But I don't know how you watched that fight in totality. Maybe you were expecting a big knockout and so were we, but I was in the arena for that. And look, he absolutely dominated. In fact, not only did he walk Bodzig down at some point,

almost like a tanked in the main event, post pillar to post, just back and forth, cornering him and lighting him up. I saw new wrinkles in his game. I almost saw some of the work that we saw when we had Steven Jackson on our show Friday, throw into the fight towns piece that you can catch on all the smoke fighting where he's in

there with Roy Jones. I saw a little bit of some new wrinkles in there. Some like almost Tyson esque bobbing and weaving to get inside. I liked a lot of what I saw. Now, one of the big criticisms was he slowed down in the second half of that fight. I did notice that I did notice that you assumed him going up in weight, not having as taxing of a weight cut that his stamina would be even better. And I think he repaired his stamina last year completely, by the way, the 12 hard rounds against plant, what he did against Andrea. Like I had no concerns about that, but even with his gas tank,-dope in the final rounds. He was never in trouble. He was never in doubt here. Does he come out of here with this big knockout and, oh my God, let's put him in there with better beef? No, I'm not saying that right now. But I'm saying what he said after the fight is I want to campaign over two divisions.

Let's see what I can get. Let's see the biggest fights available. I think all he did was show us how good he really is and that he deserves his pound-for-pound ranking at the moment because he didn't have the full weaponry, but yet he still was absolutely dominant in crushing this opponent for most of the majority of that fight. I'm mostly with you.

Let me ask you a question, a very basic one. Okay, maybe this fight tells you a bout with Betterbeave or Bivol would be much more competitive than you initially thought. I mean, it would still be very difficult, but perhaps now I think even more so. Who is the other light heavyweight, aside from the three, the three Bs,

Bivol, Benavidez, and Betterbeef, who is the other light heavyweight that you think could do better than Benavidez against those two guys? They're not other. Right. This guy had one fucking bout, and he's already the third best guy in that weight class.

He's fighting a guy who was six foot three and jacked yes you know who is 27 years of age probably not even necessarily in his full-on prime yet physical prime he might be but in terms of boxing iq and putting it all together he's not even there yet and he's already the third best guy in this weight class of course the next two levels are significantly greater jumps in difficulty than what is behind him in the pack. I just want to set the context here for people slandering David Benavidez. And again, there is some criticism to be had here. He did not shine relative to even our own expectations. We have to acknowledge the asymmetry there a little bit, but as a broader

context, it's the same thing with Tank. Oh, Tank's not pound for pound. Fine. Even if Tank isn't pound for pound, he's number one in that weight class easily. Well, first of all, Tank is pound for pound. You can't look at that skill and see the names he beat. I get it's not as high a names as other people. I have trouble putting him in the top 10, but I recognize skill level. He's on par with those guys. It's more a measurement of accomplishment, which is impacted by the anyway. Sure. Okay. But for Benavidez, I'm with you. Did he blow us away? No, he did not

blow us away. And relative to expectations, I guess if you wanted to call it a letdown, there is something to be said for that. But one more time, the broader context is he's at worst three in this weight class behind Better Beef and Bivol. And number two, the two the point you raised I thought was pretty important there were new wrinkles to Benavidez's game here he did dial back some of the offense as it went down the stretch I think he recognized Voznik was a little bit harder to put away than he imagined his hands probably were really messed up he showed up there was a they released image of the cut that he had in late May it was bad he had to get like seven or eight stitches on that thing. It did not look good.

He wouldn't fault with that anyway. I'm inclined to believe him. And the point I wanted to make is what you saw was a guy who used to be kind of square and a little bit off balance. This time, still staying square at times, but switching stances, shoulder rolling, weaving underneath. Going south. Yeah, going south.

All kinds of new defensive wrinkles that limited virtually anything Vozdik could do. Let me just ask you, what was Vozdik's best single shot that you remember from this fight? Some pitter-patter jabs because that was all he was able to land. And he had to keep everything linear in front of him because if you threw a big hook, Benavidez is obviously going to roll under it and then tear you to pieces.

So the guy was already fighting in a constrained way where he could just kind of keep Benavidez in front of him. So I guess the point I would like to make here is it is fine to say as a fan, hey, that wasn't the performance I was expecting. It's fine as a pundit to say there's room for improvement or to even wonder how much injury contributed to this. You can also still say, I think better even Bilval would beat him. Fine, fine. It was a good performance. Not a great one, but a very good one.

Very good. A very good one. And he proved already he is a force to be reckoned with at 175 pounds. And I think it's only going to get more so from here on out. I agree. And I want to say this. Canelo had a hand injury. Remember that?

I remember we thought he looked old in the third Golovkin fight, which wasn't overly exciting against John Ryder in the homecoming even though he dominated, he couldn't put Ryder away. I think naturally, given that Canelo had so many fights in turn pro at 15, we started to say, look, is he slowing down? Luke, I think, and we've argued about where Canelo really is right now

pound for pound, you and I, and I think maybe I was overrating to some degree, but when he came back and did what he did against Jermel Charlo and didn't leave any openings for Charlo to do anything, and then came back against Munguia, which I thought was a dynamic performance, I think you accused him of letting his countrymen

off the hook, and maybe he could have gone in there and stopped him. He carried him. But the point is, when he was healthy, when he had all his weapons, we're seeing who Canelo really is again. Benavidez was compromised, still went through with the fight. You have to add that into the equation and figure it out.

So, Luke, with what we know now, here's the key question, though. Does this performance make Canelo Alvarez want to fight him more now? Did this humanize Benavidez to a certain degree? Because I saw nothing on my timeline but Canelo fans coming out of the woodwork going yeah man that guy that guy's nothing Canelo still beats him yeah I would say that I have heard plenty of boxing experts including Chris Algieri and some other folks say things like listen David Benavidez would probably win but Canelo would make that a really difficult fight like the idea that Benavidez would walk over him the way he did on Andrade or the way he basically roughed up Caleb Plant in the second half of that bout. He wouldn't do that against Big Red.

He would actually be nip and tuck the whole way. So to me, I actually feel like what this result shows is that analysis is correct. I would still favor Benavidez to win, but I do think Big Red would give him a good run for his money in the end. I really do believe that, especially given all of his experience and whatnot. But, you know, look, Canelo has also faded down the stretch. Canelo has also shown that exact same kind of dominant punching that he wants at his chin. Still elite, by the way.

Hasn't faded at all. So if for some people this was David Benavidez coming back to earth, I think that's okay. I'm still picking him to win against Canelo, and I still think he gives Better Beef and Bivol tough-ass fights, and maybe in a couple years is the dominant force at 175. I now think we see the Canelo fight. I don't think we see it.

I now think we do. I don't think he wants it. I think he wants Berlanga, and that's it. I think this goes down as maybe the reason why Canelo watches that and goes, oh, I see some things. I see some things. Luke, not only do I know we need to see, oh, I see some things. I see some things. Luke, not only do I know we need to see this fight. I want to see it more after this performance.

You know where I want it? Be the first combat sports event at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. I think this is the right one. You could do it. I think that's the right one. Mexican fans would show up times a billion. Was it Mark Davis, the Raiders owner? He was there.

A mouth breather? Yeah, he was there in attendance with his haircut. Yeah, I'm sure he wants that fight too. So, hey, Big Red, let's do it. Luke, we got Randy Couture in a little less than 15 minutes to talk PFL and so much more. But let's slide over to topic number three. It was a big piece of news last week for sure. UFC 303 has changed the main event and co-main event with Conor McGregor's exit due to an undisclosed injury of some form.

Now we have our first public statement from McGregor after UFC CEO Dana White announced the new changes. If we can show that full screen graphic, McGregor went to social media and said, very tough to be ruled out of my schedule return bout. I picked up an injury prior to the press conference that required more time to heal than was available to me. The decision to postpone the fight was not made lightly, but one made in consultation with my doctors, the UFC and my team.

He went on to say that the fans deserve him to be at his best. So thanks for the support. He's in good spirits and he's confident he'll be back. Luke. We also saw him post a picture, uh, holding his son getting out of the car. That's an old picture.

That is okay. Cause he had the shaved head and people, it's an old picture. People are saying a lot of these pictures that he's been putting out. People are trying to figure out the training footage. Is that old? What is going on there? I'm not saying he didn't shave his head, but that is an old picture.

Okay, so from the little that Conor has shared and the even less that the UFC has shared about this, what's your best take on what really happened? Where is the injury? I've heard a broken toe. I've heard a bruised shin. You hear a lot. I mean, I heard for weeks that Conor's dad was dying, and apparently that's not true, too. So from what we know, which is very little, based on how the UFC has handled this, what's your best guess on what really happened to Conor?

So we spoke to some folks, a few different folks, in Las Vegas this past week that had some intel about it. And they didn't exactly tell me all of this, so I'm kind of trying to put a picture of this together. My best sense is sometime around Saturday or early Sunday, but I think Saturday, that's the night of Newark UFC three. Oh yes. The night of the night of UFC three Oh two, Connor suffered an injury to one of his lower extremities.

I don't know the exact nature of it, but there from there, he obviously let the UFC know about it. And my understanding is it was a five alarm fire that they had to go address. I think some folks even flew out to Dublin to go see about everything. They put the full-court gaslight pressure on him? I don't think they put gaslight pressure on him.

But my understanding is, and again, no one quite said it this way, but I'm trying to interpret what was said. I think the UFC put a lot of pressure on him to stay in. Now, of course, I don't say that in any kind of malicious way necessarily. Hello, it's Conor McGregor. Hello, it's International Fight Week. They're going to want to see every specialist possible to see if there's any way that he can stay on the card

because in reality, BC, we've talked about this last week. The new UFC 303 card is arguably better than it was before as a fuller card, but Conor McGregor simply has no replacement. Not right now. It doesn't really exist. And you can understand them wanting him to stay in the fight. I don't understand how their optimism went up and then down and up and down.

I don't quite understand that part of the story, but eventually they realized this is not going to happen. Either he wasn't willing to make it a try or the doctors said no, some combination of the two, whatever. And then once that happened, then they decided to replace. And that's kind of important because one of the, and I'm not here, we've been over the, the, you know, could UFC handled it differently part a million times.

The only part that I feel like did work out for us, because, you know, there's a lot of it was unknown. People think it took two weeks to get a new main event for UFC 303. It did not. It took about 48 to 72 hours as we understand it. They just waited that long before they decided to pull the trigger. The point I'm trying to make is I didn't know. I was like,

what injury takes this long to diagnose? And again, my understanding is they want to go through a bunch of different specialists. They want to see everything that was happening, but I'm just going to point this out. Whatever injury assessment he got when the injury first happened turned out to be correct because the initial assessment was he probably cannot fight at UFC 303. Sure enough, he's not fighting at UFC 303. My only question is why couldn't it have happened sooner? And I guess the answer, right, BC, is they were doing everything in their power

to see if he could find a way to stay in. Well, look, this opened up a new topic of conversation because Conor is notorious, pun intended, for never pulling out of a fight, for fighting Chad Mendes through an injury. I mean, look, it's happened multiple times that he's fought through major injuries and quick turnarounds back when he was in his magic prime, his magic Mike prime, so to speak. But Luke, if we

can throw to this incredible dunk tweet here from RDA. I mean, he waited eight years for this. We go back to UFC 196 in 2016 and the fight that never happened and RDA quote tweeting and saying, it's just a bruise. Do you feel like this is kind of becoming the proof?

Because again, we know very little about what actually happened between UFC, Conor, and the rumors that we can hear out there. Yeah. Do you think this proves outside of RDA getting him back that there's a prevailing thought that maybe Conor could have pushed through and chose not to? I don't think Conor is taking the same physical risks that he once did because here's the reality.

Folks are going to say, to your point, hey, he fought Chad Mendes maybe with no ACL yeah and you'll recall remember that fight I remember doing my analysis post fight I didn't know he was injured at the time and I remember he got taken down and what was the first thing he did when he got taken down do you remember no he locked up full guard and then just held it yeah kind of like Dustin did against Charles Oliveira and I think their second round or whatever it was when they fought for the title and I was like this guy has no fucking guard like he doesn't even well it turns out he was just Kind of like Dustin did against Charles Oliveira in, I think, their second round or whatever it was when they fought for the title. And I was like, this guy has no fucking guard. Like, he doesn't even – well, it turns out he was just doing that because he had – that was the best choice given the alternatives.

But that's a very risky way. And that's still the most he's ever celebrated a win, by the way. No doubt about it. Which shows you the despair that was under there when he was on his back. When he was on his hot streak, the mystic Mac, the whatever area you want, era you want to call that. He was partly doing that because of the results he got, but it's not just the results BC. It was the way he got to the results where he stayed hot. It didn't matter if he was injured. He mocked everyone else for their caution. He mocked everyone else for their inability to cross the finish line. What did he call Khabib? A pullout merchant. And then

everyone and their brother was calling him that? I don't think that there's really any way this guy is taking the same kinds of physical risks at this juncture, in part, BC, because he doesn't need to. But that all brings me back to, it's like, dude, if you don't want to take the same risks as you don't need to

because you got all the money already, what the fuck are you fighting for? You know what? I got to give an apology to dana when dana had been saying forever that you know the whole thing about this guy's got so many millions of reasons not to fight when you make that much money you know blah blah blah i thought that was covering up for their inability to want to pay what connor was demanding there is that too there is that too to a certain degree but i think we're now starting to put together

the idea of like he's not coming through that door again. Now we always knew 2015. Are you saying, are you, are you, is Brian Campbell declaring Conor's not fighting anymore? I'm not declaring that he physically will not step into the octagon again, but the idea that you and I were clinging

to the last, let's say 48, last 24 months, that he's got one more big win, that he can put it all back together for one more night to remind us. Maybe he'll take a couple of big losses and pay-per-views against big names but he's going to be able to re-energize himself to get him maybe back into one more title shot whether that's lightweight

or welterweight luke that guy's not coming through the door again i mean let's rick patino 1997 this and just say like larry bird robert parish not not walking through there it's over luke and maybe it's been over for a while but it took me a long time to realize that. I don't think that you can see when he comes up for air on social media over the last two years, what do we see? A guy living the full on rock star lifestyle. Just a week before the injury, we saw him partying.

And there's a real question again. I don't know the answer. A full on rock star lifestyle. It appears. It appears. I don't like what I'll say very quickly. I'll put you right back to you, which is I don't know what the truth is,

but if there are questions about what physical readiness he had at the time he suffered the injury, I don't think they're out of bounds. Also, when you're aging, your body becomes a little bit more brittle. That's true. If you are living that rock star style that all of his interviews and social media posts maybe suggest, it would be a lot easier for not only your body to get nicked up, but maybe you not being as willing, like we said, to bite down and push through. I don't know.

We don't have all the info. This is all we know. One thing we do know, Luke, is that the idea from McGregor and from the rumors that we hear is that the UFC would like to rebook this later in the year, either the fall or maybe even December. What do you do if you're Michael Chandler here?

Because that's going to leave you out two years. Now he's been putting out his own tweets, just basically saying like look i'm fine connor rest up you know a lot of that sort of like taking the high road optimism that this is all part of the plan but it couldn't be part of the plan for michael chandler when you're already here for a short ride not a long one you've been in such incredible action fights this is the you know this pays for the retirement home this is the big one do you stay with this plan luke or do you just look at you know let me get my own gaethje rematch or poirier rematch i This pays for the retirement home. This is the big one. Do you stay with this plan, Luke?

Or do you just look at, let me get my own Gaethje rematch or Poirier rematch? I mean, what are you doing if you're Michael Chandler moving forward? If you're not getting pay-per-view points, you walk. And even if you are. You mean retire? No, no, no. Or walk from Connor? From the fight.

Yeah. And even if you are getting pay-per-view points, you probably still walk. I'm like you. I'm not declaring he won't walk through the octagon again. I know some folks are making that claim. I, they may, they may be right. I don't know. I feel it's a little bit more prudent to say right now, he's clearly not going to be a

force again. I don't see that happening really at all, but he might fight again. So yeah, you could wait, but the, and it's already a bit of a sunk cost. So, you know, there's a problem there as well. But if I'm Michael Chandler, I think you just have to recognize, dude, the window to contribute any kind of meaningful athletic life to fighting is almost at the very end. You can get old overnight at 155 pounds, or in this particular case, 170.

Yeah, there's a stat that's linked to that. Yeah, you get the idea. Well, this is not a championship fight, so it may not apply as strictly, but the point more generally is, I finally feel like, again, I'm going to say it one more time, I don't know the nature of what his injury, you brought up all the rock star stuff, he got

rich, dude, let us not forget he is trying to come back in a way that really nobody else has from a profoundly traumatic injury. I think we're back, I think we're past him recovering from that traumatic injury. I think we're back. I think we're past him recovering from that traumatic injury. Show me somebody who's recovered from that injury who picked up right where they left off.

Okay. But it's three years later where didn't Weidman and Silva come back way quicker. As shells of themselves. Yeah. Fair point. Yeah, they sure did.

Again, it's not just that injury. It's a lot of, I don't predict Alex Smith played again and he had a spiral fracture, which was way worse than anything. Connor suffered. You can still do it again. You do not come back the same from what we have seen.

He might be the first because of the nature of the medicine. And we all know the story out there. The point I'm just trying to make is I think you actually have finally enough evidence to conclude that you cannot contribute to this sunk cost anymore. It is highly, by the way, and the rumors that we heard in Vegas, and again, take it for what it's worth, take it for what it's worth. But what we heard was August, September, probably not going to happen. Much more likely to happen closer to the end of the year, maybe November, December.

That was what we heard from folks. So if you're Michael Chandler, what happens if you get to that close to that finish line and then he pulls out again? You have wasted all of this time. And for what? If it's me, it's easy for me to say, but I feel like he has enough evidence to conclude this is not going to happen on a reasonable timeline or at all. It might be time to move on. I don't predict that Conor doesn't walk again.

I do predict he gets knocked out when he does walk again. I just think we're at that point. Before we welcome in our guest, Luke, I got one more point to throw on here. It was the handling of the news. Ariel Hawane had to stick to journalism. He got criticized by some, but he did stick to the core basics of it. I don't understand this from Michael Bisping at all. But then Michael Bisping came in from the top rope. Let's throw the videotape. Ariel Helwani is out there. A lot of the time he's posting and tweeting like he's an expert

on everything, but he knows nothing. He's putting feelers out there because that's what he wants to do. That's his badge of honor. He likes to break news. If I hear of a situation, I'm not doing investigative journalism, trying to find out like my life depends on it and I will risk everything so I can be the one to break it because who gives a and it's none of your business. What will be will be stay out of it. You prick. Michael Bisping, who I see him talking about me with such vitriol, with such animosity, with such hatred, where he's talking about like, it's none of my business. And I just, I'm dying to know. And I'm dying to be first.

Well, hopefully the video that I posted of me walking outside at 2.30 would refute that, dying to be first. The idea that it's none of my business. It's quite literally my business to be reporting and be in the know. That's journalism. And he says like, I'm not trying to be some investigative journalist. Yeah, I know you're not trying to be some investigative journalist. You're a slap fighting commentator. You're a bootlicker. You're a former bad boy who became a bootlicker who wants to stay in good standing and has realized, like the likes of Ali Abdelaziz, that it's better for you and your

career in your pocket and more power to you to be on Dana's good side. So if he could see these clips, they'll be like, good on you, Mike. and so you have chosen to pick a fight with me or to discredit me in order to curry favor with your boss who gives you a few quid to commentate and be excited about slap fighting to me it's shameful it's embarrassing and that's why i refer to him as bootlicker bisping now and he can say whatever the fuck he wants about me where's my hip-hop horn where's my hip hop horn? Where's my hip hop horn? Next week. You're fired again. Again. I don't normally play into this bit.

Although Ariel is a friend of the program, but I will this time. 10, seven. He fucking 10, seven for you, Ariel. Let me ask you,

I've never had a bad relationship with Michael. I don't get the sense that he likes me anymore, but I don't know. Every time I see him, he's friendly, but then I see him take shots. So I don't know either. I don't have any problem with him, but what the fuck is he talking about? I don anymore, but I don't know. Every time I see him, he's friendly, but then I see him take shots, so I don't know either. I don't have any problem with him.

But what the fuck is he talking about? I hate to do this, but it feels like literally UFC brass called him up and said, go on your podcast and deal with this. That's what it literally feels like, doesn't it? I don't understand what the complaint even is. I mean, you could say I didn't like the reporting because he didn't need to conceal the injury. You could have said something like that, maybe, if you are. Something like that.

But just the act of trying to get more information and deliver it to the public. Yeah. It's like when people... I don't understand what the problem is. It's like when I write a column for CBS Sports that people don't have to like it when they come back. Who makes you think that you have a right for this opinion?

My employers. I'm an editorial columnist that's that's my job right it's the same bullshit that this is i got issues with biz ping too luke because i tried to corner him that time at the at the uh at the apex to tell him i really was inspired by his book because i was shout out to ann evans about him you know getting out of prison whatever and he was like yeah yeah man that's good but i gotta get out of here. And then 25 minutes later, I saw him outside the building still talking. So that was great, Mike. Thanks a lot.

I don't hold grudges or anything. All right, we got to show those topics and get back to them on the other side. Luke, we thought for the second straight week that we were going to talk to, really on the short list of my favorite fighters of all time, the great Randy Cooter from PFL and UFC Hall of Fame. Oh, for two here.

We did get a last minute substitution from a great friend of the program, though, and another welcomed voice in the MMA space working now for PFL. You may have seen him on the greatest live podcast show in the history of the world in London back in February of 23. He was there. Let's bring in the outlaw himself, Dan freaking Hardy. You talk about substitutions. This is about as good as it gets dan thank you under these circumstances for filling in we all love randy hope everything's fine there welcome back to the program thank you thank you guys it's always good

to talk to you yeah i was actually going to grab my randy couture action figure and just hold it up to the camera for you but i i wasn't quick enough to pull it off the wall. Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening with Randy. I know he's obviously busy traveling with the regular season events, but I'm sure he'll get back to you guys very soon. Yeah, happy to join you. Always a pleasure to talk to you both. How are things in the PFL tour space these days? Man, they're good. They're really good. Newcastle was a lot of fun. We had some really, really good fights, some standout performances. Savannah Marshall making her MMA debut. I mean, honestly, I don't think it could have been a better fight, really. You know,

she was taken down three times. She tied her opponent up. She made frames. She got back to her feet. There was a really tight arm triangle at one point, which had me worried. So, you know, she looked really good. I thought, you know, it was a very, very tough fight. Her opponent, Morella, was very, very game. You know, I'm looking forward to seeing her fight again as well because, like, nobody's willing to stand with Savannah Marshall like that if they don't need to, surely, and she did. But, yeah, that was a good night.

And then I've just got back from Mohegan Sun, which was very cool. Because, of course, you know, we've heard the name Mohegan Sun so many times. But it was my first time visiting the legendary arena. So that was very cool as well. Did you get lice in Connecticut? Connecticut's famous for that. I did not get lice. No.

Although, I mean, you know, I've only just got home. So I'll have to double check. All right. Well, that's what Connecticut does. But in all seriousness, Dan, can you clarify what your role is in the company? Obviously, we see you doing stuff for PFL Europe and then commentating more generally.

Are you on the matchmaking business here? What are all the things that you do for the company? Oh, man. Okay, well, so for PFL Europe, I'm head of fighter ops. So my job, I mean, I was on my own up to a point, I've got a colleague now who, you know, helps me, it helps me out with a lot of things. But, you know, up to a point, it was it was a case of scouting fighters and signing them, you know, agreeing to terms, matching them for their fights and, you know, getting all their paperwork organized,

getting their contracts requested and signed off and pretty much everything that goes involved up until the point where I pass them over to the onboarding team and they start organizing their medicals. It was a busy few months, but now I've got someone that helps me out with that. So that's for PFL Europe.

Of course, i commentate on those events as well um and then for pfl global i get to as many of those events as i can i'm not getting to the next two because i'm doing the bellator dublin event coming up um and then you know we've got you know different groups of people do different things within the company but we're quite collaborative you know we're on various different calls each week and you know I check in with the PFL Mina guys to see what they're doing and their cards coming up and we just kind of all help and advise wherever we can we've got lots of different experience in the company some fighters some you know lifetime matchmakers some people that used to be journalists that have stepped into the the business so um we

all we all kind of chip in and help each other out. But at the moment, I've got several different jobs. So help me understand what you see as PFLs, not goals for 2024. And obviously, half the year is almost gone at this point. But more than that, what you guys are aiming to accomplish this year. So for example, one of the things that has really stood out to me is there's a lot of energy and interest in PFL Europe. I can see that.

Cedric Dume by himself has been a revelation. But like the tournament shows in the States don't feel like they're going anywhere. So help me understand from your perspective, what is PFL trying to accomplish

the rest of this year? You know, I think it's just the case of growing as a brand. We've got a lot of other things going on. Obviously, with the acquisition of Bellator, that's been a difficult thing to manage with the two rosters coming together and how they filter out into the different organizations. That's been quite a process, as well as starting PFL Mina, which is the second regional league that the PFL have set up. So there have been a lot of different things going on and, you know, we're probably not growing as a team as

quickly as we're growing as a promotion. So, you know, the most important thing is that we just keep kind of moving forward as a, you know, as a promotion and keep growing. You know, the US shows, you know, I mean, I'll be honest, like I keep saying to the team, look, we need elbows. We need to bring elbows back because there were a couple of fights at the weekend, heavyweight fights, which were very, very exciting, fast paced to start with. But then they slow down when they hit the ground. And, you know, I do feel like bringing elbows back in would be a big, big key. And the other thing as well is really helping people understand the PFL system you know it's different in the regional leagues in MENA and in Europe we have one regular season event

one regular season fight then one playoff and one championship per fighter so you have to do three fights to get the European championship whereas for global they get two regular season fights and they get points obviously as you know for Global, they get two regular season fights and they get points, obviously, as you know, depending on if they can finish the fight first, second or third round. And I think because it's a different format and because we don't have elbows, it seems different and it feels different to a lot of MMA fans. And it's not, you know, we're not quite connected with the broader fan base just yet, I feel.

It is growing and I do feel the difference from one show to another. But some little tweaks and improvements that I'm working on behind the scenes, as well as a couple of other people, to make these improvements and bring the PFL really more into the MMA mainstream than it is now. Dan, when we talk about the crowd reaction in PFL Europe, I mean, it's off the charts from Savannah in Newcastle there to Doombay in Paris. Speaking of Doombay, how bright is the ceiling? Because he seems to have transitioned here to the PFL with ease.

Crowd favorite, exciting. Is this guy an attraction fighter for PFL moving forward? A tournament title contender? What is possible here with Cedric Dumbé under the PFL brand? You know, he's a bit of an interesting commodity because he can fit in a variety of different places. You know, I mean, if we put him in the PFL Europe tournament with the rest of the welterweights,

of course you would expect him to have the advantage and expect to win it. I just don't think he would fit there. He needs a bigger stage. That's why we've been doing main events and co-main events for him. Of course, the Bakke situation didn't end, didn't resolve in the way that we would have liked. We want clear-cut finishes or decisions on these fights.

But what it did do is show me that he's able to scramble he's able to stop takedowns you know he's got good butterfly hooks that keep the fight moving once i'd seen that i kind of started thinking to myself you know maybe he is ready for the fighters that he's calling now you know obviously you know he's lined up to fight uh anthony pettis next which I do feel is a step up, you know, for MMA-wise. He's fighting a veteran, someone that's got a lot of experience. But they're different positions of their career. I feel like Doombay at this point is faster and, you know, a little bit sharper.

And if it stays in the striking range, I would imagine that he'll be able to beat Pettis to the punch. Really, it's where the Pettis can take the fight to the floor, and that's where we're going to see him tested again. But from what I saw against Bakke, who, of course, is a very, very strong wrestler, he held his own. He was able to keep the fight moving. He wasn't controlled in any position.

So I honestly don't know where his ceiling is. You know, it's difficult to quantify the experience that he brings over from kickboxing. You know, he was in very competitive weight classes. He had multiple fights against the same fighters, which always tends to refine a fighter. You know, it tends to force people to rise to a different level. And, you know, you watch back through Doombay's kickboxing career, and there were several gears that he shifted through.

You know, it wasn't until the second half of his kickboxing career where he really started to have a lot of success with his boxing. And I think now he's crossed over to mixed martial arts. That's going to serve him even better. But there is always an adjustment period. And I think he's kind of being fast-tracked at the moment. You know, with the rules around the matchmaking in Paris, in France, should I say, it was difficult to match him in his early career. But now at this stage, with the fights that he's had, he's able to be matched against anybody of any record.

So we can really start to accelerate him, especially if he gets through Pettis the way that a lot of the French fans are talking about. Well, Pettis versus Dumbé is must-see TV. Cannot wait to see that. I want to talk to you about some of the things coming up. You got PFL five. This was if this Friday night, correct? Or is it Saturday?

Yes. Yeah. In Utah, making the debut. We're going to see clay college versus Mads Burnell in the main event as the tournament rolls on. And I can't wait to see that. I want to talk about a storyline.

Maybe not getting a lot talked about a side of boo. See, we can talk about RIP Anthony Johnson who came in at welterweight, went all the way up to heavyweight over the course of years. Sadabusi was in the PFL welterweight final last year, and now he's competing at light heavyweight. How did that happen? And have you ever seen this type of jump in the succession of one year like this? You know, I honestly haven't. I think it was a real push for him to get to welterweight of course

and and you you know you look at this guy's frame you look at the you know the width of his shoulders and stuff and you can tell that he should you know maybe a middleweight but he he transitioned to light heavyweight so well i mean he's got the height and reach for it and you know i'm a big fan of people not cutting a lot of weight uh interestingly of course his opponent Tom Breeze was also well to weight in his early UFC days and he's moved up through two weight classes one belts at middleweight and then at light heavyweight in Europe um and I think he's honestly he looks stronger and healthier at light heavyweight than he has throughout his entire career I know he had a rough start um Rob Wilkinson, but then who wouldn't against Rob Wilkinson? But I think it's an interesting fight.

You've got two guys that they're fighting at light heavyweight, but they're not huge for the weight class. They're going to have to use their skill and their technical abilities to get the fight won. And they're both going to be healthy, which is the most important thing for me. That's when we get the best performances out of these guys um but honestly i think this is a very very difficult fight to call you know sadabusi is very good on the back foot he's very good at finding the liver with his knee or with his foot um and of course his takedown defense is getting stronger and stronger if he can hold tom breeze in kicking range i feel like it's going to be a long night for tom you know tom needs to get through into boxing range,

which is where he really starts to shine. And then if he can get the fight to the floor, which will be a challenge, that's where Tom, I feel, takes over. But a really interesting matchup, this one. Yeah, Friday night, Salt Lake City, the likes of Patrycki Pitbull and Pekasongane, so many names on there.

You mentioned you've got a lot of jobs these days. One of those jobs is the trainer to your wife, Veronica Hardy in the UFC. And I've got to give the two of you so much credit in the evolution of late, particularly in the striking. Dan, she's on fire right now. I don't want to say, you know, what's the ceiling for her, but title contention feels like it's not that far away right now.

I absolutely agree with you. I mean, you know, I have the 40, the fortune of seeing her on a daily basis, you know, with a full technical skillset. And that's something that, um, you know, people have not yet seen in the octagon. You've seen glimpses of it, you know, you've seen a shining moments, but really but really i mean you know i i could talk about it all day honestly she she's she impresses me all the time her technical ability in every every single range of the game is very very good um and obviously with this win streak the confidence is coming up which is the key in winning fights at the highest level in this sport um we'll see who the ufc give her her next, but we're ready for whatever challenges. She's looking very, very good.

She's strong. She's healthy for the first time in her career consistently. And consistent training with good training partners. We're at Renegade a lot, so she's got good bodies over there to work with, light, fast guys, as well as some good girls, Lexi and Melissa Mullins, who's obviously know light fast guys as well as uh you know some good girls lexi and melissa mullins who's obviously on the ufc roster as well um and then you know we spend a lot of

time over at henzo gracie's in new york and the level of grappling there is uh you know as you know unlike unlike many other places in the world it's a very special place and you know to see her on the mats there against high level grapp grapplers and see how capable she is, it gives me a lot of hope wherever the fights go in her career. I'm just happy to kind of be along for the ride. You know, it's a different experience for me, a different experience cornering, for sure. I want to get to some breaking news here, if I can.

It's now been confirmed that French prospect Baki Chemsudinov, the guy who fought against Cedric Dube, we didn't have the thing in his foot, he has just re-signed with PFL. But I have a bigger question about this if I can, Dan. You've got Saladin Parnas, two-way world champion with KSW, doesn't sign with UFC. Paul Hughes signed with PFL.

This guy out of Russia, who's like the best lightweight in Russia, Vartanian, they wanted him to go through Contender Series, so he rejected it. You got this other guy, Lusen Kaita, out of Octagon. Now you've got Baki Chamsudinov with PFL. The UFC is just not taking, now they did sign Kai Asakura, but they're just not taking a lot of regional top prospects anymore, and they're going to some of these other predominantly european promotions what is your view of what's happening there

you know i just think there's so much talent in mixed martial arts it can't all end up in the same place you know we've never had as many mma fighters as we've got today um i'm matching four events for pfl europe and i and I could easily match 12. I could do one a month and still have more than enough space to, more than enough fighters to match. There's an abundance and the level's getting so high as well.

The other thing is it's difficult to track, honestly. I mean, I'm in Europe and it's difficult to track what's going on across Europe because there are so many different schools now so many different former MMA fighters that have crossed over into coaching and they're proving to be incredible coaches you know Peter Zabotta is a good example we signed a guy called Florian Zendeli who's through to the playoffs in PFL Europe and you know Peter Zabotta was a you know he was in the, had two stints in the UFC.

First one didn't work out too well. He regrouped, he went on a win streak, came back and had a much stronger second showing. But these are the kind of people that are crossing over into coaching now and they're influencing the next generations. And of course, these generations, they're starting at 10 years old. And within a few years,

they've had 15 20 30 amateur fights on the IMF league and and they've got loads of experience against real international competition that's all chasing the same thing um it's it's really amazing because literally I could sign amateurs right now that are ready to turn pro and they're as strong as if not better than than some of the guys that have been fighting professionally for three or four years there's just there's a real jump in levels right now and and some of the you know some of these outliers the likes of paul hughes and uh baki shamsudanov that they're gonna make their own way and they'll take their fan base

with them um i'm i'm happy that he's rejoining us. There's a lot of unfinished business that needs to be settled in the smart cage. So that is great news, isn't it? Dan, I don't know if you have news on this, but when we think PFL and we think of 2024, we do think about Francis Ngannou. Do you think after that devastating knockout loss in boxing to Anthony Joshua,

that we'll see him come back to MMA? It's been a while and make this long-awaited PFL debut this calendar year. devastating knockout loss in boxing to Anthony Joshua that we'll see him come back to MMA. It's been a while and make this long awaited PFL debut this calendar year. You know, I certainly hope so. It's difficult to really understand where Francis is at right now. I mean, you know, professional career aside, just his personal life, it must be in a very, very difficult place right now. So, you. So maybe a training camp and a fight would give him some kind of focus and anchor him, but that's only a decision that he can make. I hope we see him back in competition,

and I expect that we see him back in competition in the last quarter of this year. But I couldn't be 100% on that right now, given the circumstances. We'll have to wait and see. Can't wait to see him back and whatever he chooses. We'll see PFL five this Friday from salt Lake city, Dan,

always a pleasure to chat with you, Dan Hardy about anything. Okay. My, my man. So thank you so much for joining us. We love you on the mic. We love you in person as well.

Hope to catch up with you. Thanks so much. Thank you guys. Always a pleasure talking to you. There he is. The outlaw, Dan Hardy. We should just say Couture is going to catch up with you. Thanks so much. Thank you, guys. Always a pleasure talking to you. There he is, the outlaw, Dan Hardy. We should just say Couture's going to be on every show. I don't know what happened with old Randy, but if they're going to sub in Dan Hardy,

I'll take that look, okay? Any day of the week, all right? Sure, I would just like to know what the fuck has happened two weeks in a row. You know what I'm saying? Maybe that cage was so smart, they knew, don't put him on this show. Just don't even subject him

to what we've got going on here, all right? Dude, smart cage humor never gets old. Never, ever ages. Does Dan still podcast in these days, or has he put that on? I think he still does some stuff on his YouTube channel, yeah. Okay, okay. Good to see him in the matchmaking role, Luke. Yes, it certainly is.

I'd like to see him. All right, let's get this back to where we were before, BC. Yeah, let's put the train on the track. All right, so let's talk about the fights from this weekend. Now, in fairness, we're not doing any bashing there was not a ton of like very important action however in the main event bc from ufc vegas whatever it was i can't remember the number anymore i think 93 93 was i don't even think those numbers matter luke what does matter what does matter is tatsuro taira improved to 16 and 0 6 and 00 in the UFC, 24 years old at flyweight.

He does what's basically called the broomstick sweep and then does a straight jacket at the same time. So he had the far wrist pulled across the body of Perez and then he had the broomstick on the other side. So what ends up happening is rather than falling backwards or falling to a side, he kind of falls diagonally, shatters his knee. I don't think that was intentional. So everybody does think it's intentional, though.

So here's what I'm going to say. I do believe it's designed to put maximum pressure at that angle. I just think more commonly the reaction that you get is that someone lets it go and then falls to that side. The fact that he had a straight jacket and prevented his arm from even being a poster from hand fighting probably contributed to him wanting to just plant weight that way. But this is not something I think you can easily repeat at scale. We can get him to fall in this angle.

Most guys probably won't do that. So intentional in a sense, accidental to an extent in a sense. But the point I wanted to make was BC, he looked pretty good before that too. What do you make of this performance, this finish, and maybe the future for Tetsuro Taira? It's bright. It's

really bright. He's very happy, Luke. I don't know if you've ever heard him yell that into a microphone, how happy he is. Yes, I have. That's his catchphrase. That's what the thing is. Look, 24 years old, was he 6-0 in the UFC right now? Yep, that's right. 16-0 overall. I like the striking. I like a lot of what he showed.

He did get hit a little bit more than I would have wanted there against Perez, who's a former title challenger. He's a little unruly at times. Sure, sure, sure. You saw the redness in his face as he was getting lit up. I wouldn't echo what Michael Bispingen said, that this was a clean performance from start to finish. There were some fouls. It was a

strong one. And speaking of Bisping, can we just throw to that tweet here? I don't mean to continue to dunk on old Michael, but somebody jumped in here, Luke. You put that in the rundown. Yeah, Bisping just told Tyra that was one of the cleanest performances yet he lost the first round. I poked Perez in both the first and second round and

won via injury. Bisping, not my favorite commentator, so I'm taking part in this alley-oop dunk, but Luke, if I'm going to believe that he caused that injury, then overall I really like the adjustments he made within this fight and his ability to take the back and make that transition, bring that to the ground.

This guy's a tough out. I'm thinking title shot sooner than later, considering where we're at in this division right now. How far away do you think he is? See, I don't think he's far from a title shot in the sense of who is in front of him. That is up first or what more wins fresh meat in the division. And that's what this division needs, right? The problem is he is still green.

He is still raw. He's clearly talented. I mean, he's clearly got a lot of ability. It just seems like flyweight might run him quicker to the top of the food chain before his skill set has really matured. And in some sense, that's a blessing because it gets you to the title potentially quicker. It gets you to a championship potentially quicker, bigger money potentially quicker, but at the same time, you're not really getting the full development that you would want. And again, that's not me

putting any blame on anybody. It just sort of seems to be a function of the circumstances for what they are. So I don't think he's that far, but BC, if I had to guess what might be next in terms of a matchup, uh, what about Amir Al-Bazi? He was supposed to fight Brandon Moreno.

He had an injury in Mexico city. So that fight got subbed out at the last minute. He has been on a tear in this division. He's got a well-rounded skill set particularly with the wrestling and sort of like top control grappling at a bare minimum it would sort who really deserves to ascend and even if Tyra lost that's got to be one of those fights that'd be a really good learning experience for him just the same I actually love that fight if they can make it yeah I'm trying to open up the rankings here on my phone Luke and I'm having a lot of issues

with the technology here let me pull it up for you. 125, right? Yeah. So, Pantoja's champion. Yeah. One is Roival. Two is Moreno. Three, Albazi. Four, Kaikar France, who does have a fight against Irseg coming up. Five is Perez. Six, Mohamed Mokhaev is another fun one they could do. I think, look, I think Mokhaev is...

And this is without, by the way, Hosek, this is without the changes. So, Tyra hasn't been officially re-ranked yet. Very quickly, seven is Menel Cop, eight, Nicolau, nine, Erseg, ten, Elliott. I think Erseg is underrated. So there's a few of these we could do. I think Menel Cop has a fight coming up, so he's booked. But, dude, to get a fight with El Bazzi or the winner of Kaikara France and Erseg, you got some fun shit.

I think you nailed it. He needs one more big one. Perez is a great name, former title challenger, and the way he did it opened some eyes. He's got the win streak. He's got the youth, the idea of resurgence in Japanese MMA, Luke, that you talked about in the lead into this fight. But I think Kaikara France,

if he gets back by Erseg in that fight in Perth, could have the inside track. I also think Mokaev deserves it ahead of him. But when you look at this division, Roy Falls is the number one contender, but he's already lost twice to the champion. Right. So that's going to be hard for him

to get back over the top, right? Erseg coming in there after three fights, gets the title shot, nearly gets it done. Do you think Erseg can get back into position for a rematch because of how close the Pantoja fight was if he beats KKF? Yes. So this division is pretty interesting.

I still look at Mohamed Mokhaev as the biggest wild card. I think he's coming along really well. I just don't see enough offense yet. That's my issue with him. Speaking of those two eye pokes, we do get a lot of people asking us about the gloves. We're only a few weeks into the new group. Three events, basically.

Let me say this about the gloves. Apparently, RJ Clifford, who is the producer for the UFC weigh-in show. Yes. A friend of mine as well. Shouts to RJ Clifford. He's a radio host, right? That's how actually I got started. I did a radio show with him to start at SiriusXM,

and then we worked together for some time. But he told me on Twitter yesterday that the UFC is apparently very closely monitoring this. Not just for the eye pokes but there have been i think three knockouts in three fights which is not good right something absurd wait three you're saying since the new gloves there's been three knockouts in three full fight cards yeah something like that maybe maybe it's four but gaff are and uh no city can you double check that please we'll double check it but i want to say one of them was with like a knee strike, so they're not counting that one.

Right. So it's like a minority handful. The point I'm trying to make is this. We don't have enough information right now as it stands. As of the recording of this show, we simply don't have enough of a sample size. However, do you remember when they introduced the gloves and they were like, oh, we've tested these a little bit and the results were encouraging. And I was like, yeah, right. Let's see what the tests actually look like in the field. Again, we need to wait and see what happens. We could get an event next week,

BC, the UFC Saudi Arabia event, and all of a sudden we're getting nothing but knockouts. So let's hold our horses for just a second. But if it does turn out that they actually do impact knockouts negatively and that they don't do anything to meaningfully cut out eye pokes, I'm going to say it one more time. The UFC rolls out stuff all the time, whether it's Reebok, new equipment, without ever getting any kind of real meaningful fighter input, they're signing deals like,

this is the official morning coffee of the UFC. This is the official jockstrap. This is the official back scrubber of the UFC. Crypt keeper, crypto keeper of the UFC. Without fully vetting it, these are the results you're going to inevitably get. So, so,

so we don't know what's going to happen. Let's see. Why don't we just try Trevor Whitman's gloves on the next card and just see if those are better. I mean, come on. There are simpler solutions. I, even the old Bellator power lock glove,

remember the power lock glove? No, it would, if I held, if I held up the UFC glove, it'd be flat like this, right? Like a single panel.

If I held up the power lock glove, it'd be flat like this, right? Like a single panel. If I held up the power lock glove, it'd be hooked like this. So it naturally had this kind of forcing your knuckles over motion. Can't you just, I've said this before, but I think it's right. Separate from the gloves, the idea that so many fighters are,

are, are trying to block or gain distance with their fingers out, which is causing this, right? I don't, you take a point away when you poke somebody and then that will force you to not do that? Is that too easy?

I don't know. Also, one thing I want to say. Would you be against that knowing how big one point is? I've been saying, I don't care. Those are the fucking rules. So then enforce them. I know the UFC doesn't have direct oversight on that because it's the commission, but enforce it.

I will say if they did make gloves that did meaningfully reduce eye pokes, again, can't eliminate them, but the goal would be to meaningfully reduce the number, that would be a simpler solution than trying to solve officiating issues. So I actually would love the UFC if they could do that rather than trying to fix it on the back end. But I guess the point I'm trying to make is I looked at the company that did the redesign for the gloves. To my knowledge, this is their first time in the combative glove experience.

They design helmets and they design face masks for American football. They do more than that, but that's their primary sort of work that they do. And I'm beginning to wonder what expertise they had and what information they took in to build these gloves again if in fact long term we have data to show that they don't improve eye pokes and they meaningfully reduce knockouts we'll have to see um we have 37 fights so far and only two ko's due to strikes right not a great percentage but again that's not a big enough sample size to really make a full judgment it didn't already try to make the mohegan Sun feel like a destination before on the phone? So if you grew up watching MMA in the aughts, so that's the 2000s,

Mohegan Sun was an important destination. There was a ton of MMA that happened. I grew up right near Mohegan Sun, and I didn't consider it a destination. Nothing in Connecticut is a destination. Connecticut is a shit sky. New Haven pizza, dude. Okay, okay. It's the best in the world.

All right. There you go. Hey, Luke, we're going to get you looking ahead to this really damn great UFC Saudi Arabia debut card this Saturday. But before we get there, you already know what's coming up. June 29th, UFC 303. Yeah. International Fight Week in Las Vegas.

No Conor McGregor, but damn, when we're talking about Alex Pereira, Yuri Prochazka, part two in the main event, Brian Ortega, Diego Lopes, your new co-main event. Lopes. Lopes. Lopes. Lopez. Lopez with a Z.

With an S, but pronounce it with a Z. Weird. If they were Colombian, you would already know how to pronounce it. I would. I would have a greater premium. Look, could it get any better than 303 and IFW? It's a great card. I mean, it could get better, but it's still pretty dang great.

Let's put it that way. UFC 303 is going to be a banger of a card, and we've got a great way to make the entire experience, we think, we can make it better. A little bit better. You partner up with our partners. We're talking about what? How about DraftKings Sportsbook?

Fantastic partners. The official sports betting partner, in fact, of the UFC. And this is a banner card, an annual tradition every summer with some freshly announced fights. And if you're new to DraftKings, we've got an offer for you. Check this out. New customers can put $5 down and get $150 in bonus bets instantly. What do they have to do?

Is there like a code or something? It's pretty simple. New customers, as we indicate, bet just $5 on literally anything inside the DraftKings Sportsbook app, and you will receive $150 in bonus bets instantly. And the way you get that, BC, is you use our code MK.

Can I bet on stick kicks in the PFL? I don't know if you can bet on fouls, but I'm sure you can bet on lots. By the way, you can do parlays. You can do heads up, you know, you can do overs, unders, you can do straight up. Any different kind of betting situation. Just like that.

Use our promo code MK. New customers can download the DraftKings Sportsbook app today. Put $5 down on any bet. $150 instantly of bonus bets. If sports betting is not available in your state, don't worry about that because DraftKings is a one-stop shop for all things daily fantasy where you can take in all the fun and bring home cash prizes.

Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now, but don't forget our promo code MK. Just like that. Also, last thing. If sports betting is not available in now, but don't forget our promo code MK. Just like that. Also, last thing. Last thing. If sports betting is not available in your state, don't worry. I just said that, Luke. Oh, you did.

Sorry. You know what? We can just remind him one more time. It's a one-stop shop for all things daily fantasy. I just said that, but that's fine. I tune you out. Okay. One thing I want to tell you about DraftKings, though, the crown.

I mean, it's yours. Not mine. It's yours. The crown is yours, but for BC, the crowning is his. You know what I'm saying? Quickly, I rewatched Prochazka. See, I'm trying to not say Padeida anymore. I'm trying to say Paheida.

Paheida. That's it. Paheida. Alex Paheida. So my understanding is it's two R's in the middle, or if it starts with an R. But it's just, Just break it down slowly. Pereira. Pereira.

Padeira. No, that's wrong. Here's what I'm trying to say. He's like Acosta. I rewatched it. Smith. I don't like that stoppage. Cock and balls.

I don't like that stoppage at all, in fact. Dick and ass. Do you recall? I don't like the stoppage. Why was there not more of an outrage? The first... Last November, Madison Square Garden. Do you recall? I don't like the stoppage Why was there not more of an outrage? The first, last November Madison Square Garden If I recall correctly, he looked to be more out upon

further review than he did But even multiple replays, I still can't confirm Didn't Yuri admit he was out at the post-fight press? Oh, that's right, I forgot about that So it doesn't look like he was super out but I think he even acknowledged that was kind of done Sometimes so many fight cards come and go

you forget what happens and I'm re-watching it i'm going okay i know also like and he didn't put up a fight which i'm glad because it's like dude you take an enormous amount of abuse if people think you are done yeah that's fair you know what i mean like you they i understand that i totally understand that hey let me ask you a question do you want i'm gonna call an audible here see if you want to do it. Do you want to punt, hear me out, hear me out. Do you want to punt for today on UFC Saudi Arabia preview and then do a full-on preview together for later in the week? Yeah.

You want to try that? I love that idea, Luke. You want to try that? I really love that idea. All right. Why don't we pause the UFC Saudi Arabia talk for today and then we'll just do a podcast devoted to UFC Saudi Arabia. Like later in the week.

Later in the week. I think we deserve that. Hey, no female fights on that card. Must be a coincidence. Okay, there you go. All right. I will say one thing about that card that I'm kind of looking forward to, and again, no one cares about the sports washing anymore.

I realize everything is just infotainment 24-7. I'm more into ball washing. On occasion. With manscape. Yeah, go keep it. What I was going to ball washing. On occasion. With Manscaped. Yeah, go keep it. What I was going to say was that show is going to be on ABC. Yes.

I wonder to what extent there's going to be any Mohammed bin Salman, that's the guy. Yeah, MBS. I wonder if there's going to be any MBS blandishment on the broadcast itself.

The only one to do that so far was WWE. No, no, no, no. They did it at one of the Nganou fights. I can't remember which one it was. Whether it was Joshua or Fury where Bruce Buffer thanked him by name. Oh, no. Not Bruce.

Michael Buffer. Michael Buffer thanked him by name. WWE ran like three minute promos about life in Saudi Arabia and all that stuff. Yeah, there's journalists in jail. All right, well then that'll wrap up our topics for the week. We got two more great segments for you to come, and the next one is where the fans get their voice.

Hold on, real quickly. Yeah, what do you got? What do you got? Level of interest in the Saudi card. Monstrous. Really? I love this card on paper. I really do.

Okay, outside of the main event, you have a fight that really speaks to you the most. Yeah, I've got a few of them. Let me call it up. Co-main is interesting. It's Pavlovich and and i thought we weren't previewing this i don't know look gastelum d rod i know it's not for high stakes but you know i love that fight okay that's the fight i care about the one i love for action okay maybe these don't have high significance johnny walker vulcan ozdemir i'm all in that's got dude that's got someone's gonna slip on a

banana peel and paralyze themselves okay Okay. Written all over it. Short of paralyzation. Okay. Look, it's not an A-plus card, but it's a very good card. Kicking off Saudi in ABC. Shara Bullitt has my attention. That's a big one. He's in the featured prelim main event there.

What do you know about his opponent? Maybe we'll save that for... We'll save that for the subsequent podcast. All right. What we do every Sunday night here on our Instagram at morning combat, as we put a call out to you listeners to get your questions answered directly. Yes.

This is one that's called DMS from the dog. All right. We need, hold on. Let me just, let me say something. Please. No,

see that. Can you please come to the microphone? It's long Island. Luke. That's what we have. I'm here. We need no more donkey ejaculating noises. That's number one.

We need a Friday show. Yeah, and a Friday show. We need a hip hop sound for when one of us dunks on the other one. And we need a new opening trailer. We need a 90s counter too. I'll add it to the list. Get on it. Can we get on Friday show when Luke said,

Chee-wee-wees. Can we get that as well please yes we know we need what do they used to call those things where you could hit the buttons god what was it called a sound oh no the sound machine the sound machine has a name in radio it's called the 360 incident replay that's what you have to have okay uh we need a 360 incident replay were you a big miami sound machine fan in the 80s loria stefan yeah i mean i wanted to bang her or something did the rhythm end up getting you or no no you know but i didn't come to uh understanding the now it just seems so self-evidently obvious but i didn't understand latin women latin women until later in life i still don't understand them i'm real big on like eastern europeans and future waitresses yeah they they yell at you a lot but it's great all right

there you go all right hey let's go to these DMs from Donks. Number one is coming to us from that Sean Moore. Okay. Not to be confused with the other Sean Moores. Who in the history of boxing has been like Tank? It just seems like once he figures you out, your consciousness is a ticking time bomb. Just curious to see historical comparisons.

Or if he's a unicorn. I thought about this. The ones everyone says are Mike Tyson because of how rapidly he can close the show. Right, but really he fights nothing like Mike Tyson. No, he does nothing like Mike Tyson. I think if you're looking for, it's kind of weird. He kind of combines two different elements in my opinion. Crazy to say this.

Canelo Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather at the same time. In a sense where he fights a lot like Canelo in the sense that he's very efficient. Doesn't waste punches, looks to kind of crowds you with pressure, but really looks to line up that one perfect punch. That's going to turn the course of the fight. It's got more power than Canelo does for his own division. But from the Floyd Mayweather standpoint, Luke,

there is that comparison of the idea of once he figures you out, the fight is over. You know what I'm saying? The question is an MMA comparison. Oh, it wasn't MMA. So yeah. So the question, an MMA comparison. Oh, it was an MMA comparison. So, yeah. We're getting a text now from one of our producers, which is they had to cut out the full question

on the graphic, but the question is, who does Tank remind you of in MMA? And the lower weight class is nobody. It doesn't have to be lower weight classes. They're coming from the standpoint of once he figures you out and lands the bomb, the fight's over. Who is that? There's no one as ruthless a puncher as him. Well, there's a lot of ruthless punchers, but are they as

efficient and calculated to where they're setting up that one? Yeah, he's, I'm not saying he's a unicorn, but like the obvious MMA analog doesn't naturally pop up. Like BJ Penn in his prime had a little bit of that, but not really. He wasn't the dominant puncher in that way. And he wasn't as super efficient as what you're describing.

They don't really exist like that. They're more like heavyweight or, you know, bigger weighted guys. There's something very unique about the complete package of what he puts together. Tank is special, dude. His tattoo game is special, too. Dude, that tattoo he has on his back, I wouldn't want the word Baltimore written on my back, obviously, but it's an elite tattoo.

I mean, you have a DC flag on your forearm, so it's not like it's a foreign concept to you. Yeah, but it's the word Baltimore. Like, who the fuck wants that? I mean, Tank Davis can get away with it for any number of reasons, but, yeah, I wouldn't want Baltimore written on that. Speaking of Baltimore, do you think Cal Ripken and Brady Anderson were really an item?

That's the rumor. Oh, our producer is saying this. Is Ilya a good comparison? Ilya, to me, is a little more Canelo-ish. That's interesting. Ilya, is it because he's a little bit more combo puncher in that way? Speaking of Ilya, hey, Long Island Luke, can you toss to this tweet? It was Father's Day, so I was

reading all the tributes online. Ilya put out a great tribute. He's like, I want to express my gratitude to this person for providing me with everything I have, for supporting me, and I can't, it's a little bit, it's a little small. I'll do it. I have for supporting me to withstand any circumstance and for never losing faith in God and

in the attraction of all good things to me. Always relying on me and giving me the life I now enjoy. Today, I want to thank myself for all the times I've respected myself, loved myself, forgiven myself. Long live the matador that lives inside me. I will always be proud and with a smile on my face, remembering all that I have accomplished. Get a room with yourself, Ilya. Long Island Luke, you had an idea of who actually wrote that tweet, right?

I thought it was from Luke's personal Twitter. Hey, fuck your life. How about that? How about all y'all? Fuck y'all. Everyone back there is laughing and pointing at me. You're all dead to me. How about that? There you go. I read that and I was like, okay, I finally get the criticism i finally

understand it all those real madrid fans are so fake you're fake how about that connecticut's not a real place it's just a port of john it's the port of john of the united states that's not true that's northern new jersey you know that all right come on all right yeah i think our entire staff is from new jersey probably i don't know oh let's keep it going here. Number two is from Gaff Pierre. Isn't that a producer? Hey! Astro turfing it. Gaff says, does Tank officially have the heaviest hands in boxing since Wilder? You mean pound for pound?

Or does Inouye have some? So you're basically saying Gaff, of the boxers today, who is pound for pound the biggest puncher? That's a great question. Where did Inouye start? 1.15? 1.12? Where did he start? He's in his fourth weight division. He's at 1.22. So 1ye start? 1.15? 1.12? Where did he start? He's in his fourth weight division.

He's at 1.22. So 1.22, 1.18, 1.15. Yeah, about around 1.12. He can fucking punch, man. He can punch. He's efficient like that, too. The thing is, when Tank does land that one single punch, the fight's over.

That's what's happening fight after fight. It's like that one big punch is ending it. You know what? I'll say this, though. That's what Inouye has done, not in the same overall way, but in the last few fights, that's what's happening fight after fight it's like that one big punch is ending it you know what i'll say this though that's what in a way has done it not not in the same overall way but in the last few fights that's what he's done i mean against luis neary one punched him we don't consider better beef who has ridiculous power and has knocked out every opponent he's faced it's not like always one punch it's like he just kind of uses his technique to bully wear you down and then just brutally gets you out of there yeah yeah tank has the one punch

ability that he has very few peers. I don't think anybody punches harder than Wilder, but he's kind of on the way out at the moment. Well, kind of. I mean, he is as cooked as a fucking… Tank in Inoue might be the… I mean, who are we missing? We've got to be missing somebody massive here.

Who's a dominant puncher in their weight class, probably? Bud's a big puncher, too. Bud's a big puncher, but not quite like that. No. Teofimo's got the big punch, but not quite like that. Even David Benavidez, not like that. Canelo's not quite like that. Anthony Joshua's a great finisher, as well.

He's got some big power. He's, of course, heavyweight, so that's a little bit different. Yeah, those guys are unicorns, man. They're pretty fucking close to it. Yeah, indeed. Love him on there. Let's keep the train going here. This is from Jimmy underscore Reed. And by the way, Subriel Matias, who was a big puncher, he fucking lost. Pause this question. We didn't really work it into the show, but on DAZN by the way, Subriel Matias, who was a big puncher, he fucking lost. Pause this question. We didn't really work it into the show,

but on DAZN on Saturday night, Subriel Matias had the back in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican homecoming to defend his 140 pound title. Left PBC, signed with Matchroom. They get him a fight against a guy

they thought he could beat and they put the fight in Puerto Rico and he lost. Liam Paro, the southpaw. This is such a big win for Australian boxing. Yeah.

Luke, he came out and crowded Matias right off the start, attacked him, was high volume, but constantly kept crowding him, and that was the key. You have to. And Matias is known as a slow starter, but typically he starts to catch up and go downhill and just brutalize you.

He made those last five opponents quit. All quit, yeah. No Moschenko style. He got solved. This is a very sort of disappointing win in this regard. Yeah, Mattrum has to be kind of pissed about that one. Dude, Mattrum's guys are kind of pissed about that one. Mattrum's guys are getting lit up left and right lately.

They're taking risks. I mean, the next big one is going to be in July with Boots Ennis and his return to Philly. Not against Crowley. So who's the other guy they got in to fill in for him? Oh, it's David Avenison. Avenison, yeah. The guy that Crawford just destroyed. I mean, he's an okay opponent, but it's not a fight you would have wanted.

I think they're just trying to get Boots over Philly finish line they really are all right Jimmy Reed says is it crazy that Bobby Nux naming Whitaker came out in the media saying he'd never heard of Ikram Alaskar off his new opponent not crazy at all how competitive do you both see the fight being first of all so many fighters don't follow MMA closely many more than you think I would still say the majority do follow MMA. Derek Lewis didn't hear of the guy he just beat. This is my point. Not at all uncommon.

I would say a significant minority, but a significant chunk of that minority. But what does that speak to? This is different. Derek Lewis, you wouldn't expect him to really be looking up and down the rankings and knowing who's there. Robert Whitaker is the living legend, former champion. He should have known that this guy was coming. Yeah, but hold on. I thought this was a huge... Okay, so we talked about the Diego Lopez fight

against Brian Ortega. That was three versus 14. Alex Skerov is ranked not at all. He's not even ranked. Chris Curtis at 15. Hernandez at 14. Pareda at 13. Bojalio at 12.

Chemaev at 10. The Leeds A tied. Then Hermansen at nine. Costa at eight. Allen at seven. Vittori at six. Kanemaev at 10, the Leeds a tied, then Hermansen at 9, Costa at 8, Allen at 7, Vittori at 6, Kananir at 5, Imhovov, Whitaker, Adesanya, and then Strickland. You see, the point I'm trying to make is this guy is literally

unranked. Yeah, of course he hasn't heard of him. I totally understand that. I don't know, dude. We have heard of him because he fought Chemaev and he got knocked out by Chemaev. But you have one job. Hold on. You have one job to know the people coming up. I disagree with that. Your job is to beat the guy in front of you, and if the guy is not even ranked,

I understand not paying close attention. What I'm going to say is Alaskarov is big to us because we're all like, hey, another Dagestani guy, look out. He has obviously well-rounded. His wins in the UFC have been awesome, and he was the guy that actually stopped all of Chamaya's takedowns first. He then got knocked out in Brave,

but okay, I get it. I actually understand that. If Shavkat Rachmanov gives you a 10 out of 10 in the bone zone, if you will, how full is the mass done when Elisirov plays? So if Ilya Teporia and Rachmanov is like the peak throbber. Yeah, it's like full Sofretti, just right in your face. Just like, please, sir, this is an Arby's.

Can you put that away? Sir Gerthel lot, you know. Seven and a half, eight. Okay. Seven and a half, eight. Something like that. What about you, Gaff? Where are you on the Ikram Alaskarov boner meter?

You're a five. Yeah, I'm sitting at a five. It doesn't do anything for me. You're racist. That's what you are. Gaff's got a sweet max holloway shirt on right now right yeah hey come in here show show the people you're come on come on in here gaff owns more fighter t-shirts than anyone i've ever met uh that's true come on in here gaff

why do they lock us in here like if we get trapped in a fucking fire we're gonna burn in here probably come over come over here come over here yeah oh yeah g, Gaff. Oh, yeah. Gaff Pierre is back. He's back on the show. Show him this shirt. Damn. Yeah. Dude, that's a badass shirt. Where'd you get it? I got it online.

I'll see. They can't hear him, guys, so relay the message. He said he got it online. Got it online. How much did you pay for that? $30. That's a good one. Let me see.

Oh, that's nice. Gaff, great to have you back, by the way. Do you know he has a morning combat tattoo? I do. Can you zoom in on that or no? No? You can't see? Go into Luke's ISO. Come over my head. There it is. Right there.

Wow. That's love, baby. That's right. Alright, get the fuck out of my studio. I like his sleeves a little bit better than Tristan's rabid patrol Well, Tristan just had Cannibal Corpse covers on his albums. I mean, you know, or on his forums, rather. Alright, let's keep the DMs rolling here. This one's from Jose, I'm sorry,

Joel Walkden. Joel Walkden? Watched Walkden? It doesn't matter. Now that you guys have been to the sphere we have, which, and by the way, a lot of people saying can't wait to hear your guys' Sphere recap on Monday. Guys, it was Friday. Yeah, we did that. Well, nobody saw it.

I mean, what are you going to do? Which fight would you most like to see at the Sphere? Shawn versus Murab, Ilya versus Max, or any other? And how would you like the UFC to use it on? So, BC, I'm going to say this, and this is my feeling. I talked to my wife about that show the one that we saw and again if you haven't seen our friday recap we really go into i mean the sphere is the i said this to my wife i've been going to vegas since 1999 for 25 years when you went to

circus circus went to circus circus the sphere is the first thing where i ever was like okay i'll travel to vegas to go see something there that's the first place I've ever felt like. You know, when the sphere opened up, I said it was going to be spectacular. Like, it's not for me, BC. It's not for me. I stand corrected. I stand corrected.

I'll say this. I'm not going to say that the fight at the sphere doesn't matter, like which one is more important than the other one, because obviously these considerations do matter. But to me, the thing I go back to is, you have to put so much effort into the visual display that goes up there.

Yeah. They're already 17 million, 17 million in the whole Dana White told, I think it was sports business journal last week. And they're not even close to September yet. So my thought is BC, I'm not going to say the fight doesn't matter, but I am going to say like the overall production value to me is as equally important important a consideration as whatever main event

holds it yes on top i do have questions about how any not just ufc but any combat sport will work there it's like i don't know if it will it's like one part of me is like okay you're going to see fighters that are 500 feet tall or whatever i mean they just look ridiculous but can you get the full scope of the fight when it's on this dome half dome of a screen i don't know i don't know exactly how they're going to make that work or if it's even meant for that i mean seeing a movie in there i know that they do they do like a daily nature movie that i heard is ot was telling us it's just fantastic is that right yeah there's some level of like imax level movie that you can just pay a certain fee and watch at any when they run it during the day but i'd love to see a movie there

i'd love to see certain bands there we talked about you know you mentioned tool we i'd love to see any of my favorite bands there but i still have questions about how they're going to make that actually work i do think it's worth a shot it's worth it obviously it's worth a shot they have the money to do it they have the ambition to do it. So the, the spirit of that question was which fight do you think is the main event that would make the sphere work? I say, John Jones versus Tom Aspinall. If you're going to go big,

go heavy, go, go, go full. Someone asked me this question. Let me pitch it to you. He said he wanted to take a break afterwards, but if what Tom wins at UFC three 303 and Jon Jones wins in November,

is he going to try and be like, you know what, fuck your title. I want to just fight Poiton? This gets me so jacked up. That would have to be at heavyweight because I don't think he could go back down to 205 at this point. But level of interest at heavyweight, Jon Jones. And again, there might be some kind of consideration about the title there. I don't know how that would work. No, so you're telling me that the first person that's going to attempt to become a three-division UFC champion is Poetan in the sphere against Jon Jones?

Sign me the fuck up. When you think about, like, okay, so if you want the sphere to matter, the visuals around it has to matter. That's not just Allegiant Stadium. So Poetan doing his walkout with the sphere, with music and everything would be next fucking level what are you saying no cita i was i was saying when he shoots the arrow it looks sick on the sphere so when you're asking yeah so when you're asking like who can go there you have to have people that bring the drama to those visual elements poitetan is a perfect guy for that. Can you imagine when like John begins his walkout and suddenly it's like that intersection

in Albuquerque and two cars are coming together and the pregnant lady gets out and you're like, yeah, yeah. No, seriously, that's not just an Allegiant Stadium fight. That is a sphere fight because there's so much history baked into that. And you know, John would hang around because Poetan doesn't wrestle and he's the smaller guy. So he would hang around for that, right? I think, you know, it's hard to know,

but I'm going to guess that he probably wants to fight Poetan a lot more than he wants to fight Aspinall. Again, here's the other part too. What if Blades wins? And your choice is Blades or Poetan. It's Poetan 10 times out of 10. Yeah, I'm sorry, Blades. That's not part of the equation here.

We got one more, number five. That comes from the world's worst hero. Oh, I thought that was... I can offer a few names on that. Let's see. Who would win in a hot dog eating contest between you two? And if the glizzies are too gross, no such thing. Unless, by the way, I went to Jamaica.

They have bright red hot dogs. Those are gross. I won't touch them. You know what I'm saying? You know that color of red where you're like, that's not... The one that's been stored in like some kind of pickle juice. That's what they're all like. If you go to a buffet at a resort in Jamaica.

Um, what about a boneless wing? That's why you don't go to all inclusives. That's a little gross. You and I right now, if they lined up glizzies, if we, cause isn't it going to be Joey Chestnut who's banned from the Nathan's hot

dogs because he's what? Sponsored by a vegan hot dog. Yeah. Like impossible. Him and Kobayashi are going to do a Netflix event. What if that was you and me who would win in a hot dog eating contest because you're way bigger than me but look i can eat the shit out of i don't know if i have a great capacity for i mean i know you can gargle those things like if you put a pizza out here luke i'll out pizza you every day of the week yeah pizza i feel like i can hang i can hang with the pizza

but a glizzy like you, you know, dude, why haven't we fucking done this yet? Matt Snyder, why haven't we done the glizzies? Because my liver went black. No, no, no, no, no. The glizzies where you hollow them out and then you treat it like a beer straw.

Because it's disgusting, but yeah, I'd do that. What the fuck do you think this show is? All right, what about wings? Do you think you can take me in wings? I can't do heat at all, so I'd be in trouble. I feel like I could beat you in wings.

Glizzies, I don't think I could beat you. But pizza wings i think i can i could take you all right what about a weed off now you're gonna take that every day i don't know three margaritas brian by the way i had two drinks yesterday total all day yes i had one in the afternoon and one at dinner and i'm hungover now like the washed doesn't begin to describe i did out delta you at the sphere i was in row 8,880 i mean the amount you stuffed in your gullet i was like i'm just i mean i don't know if he's coming home from this show i mean we can just bury him here he's made it all right we got one more segment here if i can find why don't you tell people you walked home because you didn't want to stand in the fucking line? Dude, it took... I walked two miles

back from the sphere. And the reason why it was two miles is because like... Because you were lost? They tried to funnel all the people in one direction. Yeah, it's not... The roads are meant for cars,

not pedestrians. Well, the direction leads you inside of a condo complex and a dead end. I was just like weaving in. It was one of the worst walks through hell ever, but that's fine.

That's neither... I left early and got home right on time. Here nor there, as you say. We closed the segment with the best segment in all of combat sports here that i do every you know sunday when i scour the globe for the good the bad the ugly the high the lows the in between from combat sports and beyond i put this together at the airport luke which usually means it's a step down but i'm gonna pre-grade it ahead of time and say it's still a solid b plus are you ready for this yes it's the shit of the week i hope you've

seen it. We started in Las Vegas. It was a big weekend for boxing. Luke Tank gave us the celebratory backflip after finishing Frank Martin. First, he dry humped the corner, and then he went back up. Luke, grade this flip out of 10. I feel like this is a pretty good one. Let's see.

You got good height on it, too. Yes. That's a solid 9 out of 10. That's a good one. We mentioned Ryan Garcia went up to the ring apron after the fight, and I was surprised to see them so colorfully engaged with one another. You? You know, Tank has not been super hard on ryan in

this process maybe ryan really appreciates it i don't know i don't know exactly what the story is there but uh ryan garcia is awful so there's that tank at the press conference afterwards when asked about this said that they were just kind of joking around but he said yo ryan crazy like i'll fight him eventually but i will say doesn't tank seem a little bit chiller to you a lot chiller right a lot chiller and i'm not trying to you know excuse his i do get people in the dms are like i'll fight him eventually but i will say doesn't tank seem a little bit chiller to you lot chiller right a lot chiller and i'm not trying to you know excuse his i do get people in the dms are like i can never cheer for him because of what he's done and i understand that i understand that but also here's my other point too is he didn't know why at one time made a point about people it's like if they go to jail and they get out that means they paid their debt to society that doesn't mean anybody owes them anything but as an athlete i tend to look at them a little

bit differently if they've actually served some kind of genuine penalty, and he did. There you go. Let's keep it up. Real recognized real, by the way, when Caleb Plant caught up with Alexander Usyk, who was on-site Saturday to cheer on his countryman, Alexander Vodzik. I mean, that's just all

respect right there. So, we don't have the audio playing, but what Caleb said to him is, hey, I'm a big fan. Do you mind if we get a picture? I love when, when guys show this level of respect. Yeah, dude, how do you not? Usyk is,

he's so special. By the way, there's rumors that Caleb plant could headline a PBC non-paper. That's right. With Stephen Fulton. Yeah. With Stephen Fulton and the Coleman, that could be something if we get there.

Ryan Garcia, Luke, I mentioned he had the dust up with Caleb plant here. Watch this. That's Ryan walking out with the security team, and Plant right there throws the beer can at him. Yeah, and then he falls over, which I don't know what happened there. He got pushed by Ryan's security.

Oh, he did. He got pushed and knocked over a bunch of chairs. There's Ryan with the black T-shirt you can see in the back. We'll run this back a second time so you can kind of watch it. So Caleb is in a white T-shirt and a hat. He kind of snuck up as Ryan was walking out. You can see Caleb right there. Yeah.

Watch this a second time. full beer bottle right at him like i said man i don't wish for this kind of thing i just don't know how you can talk that way about people who do this for a living and then expect to just walk through that i am totally i do not know what he's asking for at this point he's gonna get it eventually and finally in boxing lu Luke, Chris Cyborg improved to 4-0. Dude, she put the knuckles to this woman. I don't know what she does for a living, but...

And then she put out a tweet. Bah! Bah! Did you see the tweet she put out? She's basically ripping Clarissa Shields for having two knockouts in her career.

And Cyborg's like, I got four fights and four knockouts. Right. Also, she's fighting, you know... Lunch ladies. She's fighting Uber drivers. Doesn she's fighting she's fighting uber

drivers doesn't it feel like because so cyborg's still openly tweeting her anger with pfl ator for not getting her so this was it was interesting pfl put out a graphic on social media on whatever day she fought and that was like you know uh we wish you best of luck chris cyborg and i'm like or just book her an mma fight just give her a fight what the fuck i wonder if she can get herself remember she was trying to fight katie taylor at one point do you ever think she gets into a really big boxing like if anybody who's got a chance chris cyborg's got a chance crack there's no doubt all right luke i you know i didn't get to ask him when he came into studio hey man who cuts your hair but i found out where what barbara craig jones goes to let's

watch it i can't hear anything. You're not supposed to. Okay. So he turned down the beer. Oh, that's what he wants, Luke. Oh, yeah. Yep, there it is. That's the... That nose candy.

Nose beers. That booger sugar. All the way. All right, great week for sports fights in the crowd, Luke, which is always your favorite. That is my favorite. Let's go to the Celtics NBA Finals game. Oh, no, first week.

Sorry, first. 3-0-2. Yeah, and this moron on the right is like, hit me, bro. Hit me, bro. Like, his car got repoed in the parking lot. And then finally, he begs the other guy. The guy's like, all right. I mean, I love taking requests.

So then he fucking does it. And then beats the bags off of him, too. Watch this shit. This is great. Bah! Falls backwards. Wow, he fell after landing a bunch. Hold on, hold on.

He gets back up and watch. Proceeds to beat the shit out of this guy. Come on, guys. Let's settle this like men. He wants to smoke like Jorge Capetillo did at that Diaz-Masvidal person. Look at this. Boom!

Sends him flying and tumbling. And I got to tell you, dude, the fistfights that are going to happen at the Sphere. Yes. Dude, I'm actually worried about that because if you start falling down one of those steep ass staircases. I don't feel like they have the adequate protection to protect you from falling like 300 stairs down. Yeah, you don't. So there's going to be some backs broken at the Sphere show.

I saw a couple of middle-aged women take real bad falls on the stairs. Oh, you did? Yeah, but people, because it's a dead concert, people from the crowd came running and propped it back up. Were they sober or were they just heavy? I don't know. I mean, there were a lot of people on acid at that concert to be did? Yeah, but people, because it's a dead concert, people from the crowd came running and Were they sober or were they just having it? I don't know. I mean, there were a lot of people on acid at that concert to be fair. Yeah, it's probably true. You knew. Alright, let's, we're missing one of I don't know if we have the Celtics fight. We got one

more fight from the crowd. What do we got here? Is it? Or is it the hockey one? Why don't you show me, Long Island Luke? What do we got next? They can't hear you, Long Island Luke. What's the deal? But think about it, right? They come here and for nine innings, they're just sitting back and stroked all night long. Yeah, getting What's the deal? But think about it, right? They come here, and for nine innings, they're just sitting back. Safe. Stroked. All night long. Yeah, getting stroked all night long.

All night long. All right. I think that I screwed up. I will tell you, dude. I keep saying it. The pitch clock. Yeah. And the other clocks they put on. There's a clock between innings.

Dude, it has transformed baseball for me. I love going to games now. I got to get that Celtics fight back in there. Did you see that fight in the crowd I'm talking about? At the game with the Mavs? Game four? No, it was like game two. Oh, no.

Oh! And it was like... Wait, so it was a white guy? White guy was lighting up the fatter white guy that was sitting down? And then he wakes up and then immediately starts trying to fight a black guy for no reason? Oh, I didn't see the end of it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's Boston.

I mean, they're just racist as shit up there. All right, let's keep going with the baseball theme. What do we got next? I've never seen this happen before. Okay, he yards it, and what happens? Oh! Domed right on the head of the umpire. They say don't do the bat flip.

It's bad. You know, baseball's got traditions and shit. Jose Bautista was the best one. Hit him with the bot gun. Let's go to the batting cage. Luke, you do have to be careful. You a big batting cage guy? I used to be.

I haven't done one in a long time. This guy used to be, too. This guy, it looks like it's been a while. You got to dig in. You got to get ready. Oh, boy. Suck a dick up to get hiccup, dad. Oh, wow.

Oh, wow. Luke, ballpark food can be really expensive, so this next fan decided to make his own dinner. All right. Well, pick that nose fan decided to make his own dinner. All right. Well, pick that nose, you fucking animal, you ape. Oh, that's... Do you see this and you're like, of course we're primates. Darwin had to know. That guy looks like a distinguished professional, though, and he's still like, yeah, I'll double it.

I'll double it up. I'll double bag it. Where's a car accident when you need one? Luke, you challenged me last week and said not enough white people hitting their face on the ground after attempting escape it'll have to be just whites but it does add a little extra well the topic of topic five is white people are gonna white so here we go luke let's see it oh let's see this dumbass yep fuck off god greg luganis flashbacks wow yeah dude are you doing greg luganis flashbacks. Wow. Dude, are you doing Greg Louganis jokes? Oh, that's old.

I am, dude. I mean, this is 40-year-old material, literally. Let's check out our Scorpion. Hold on, hold on. Show of hands back there in the production room. Who knows who Greg Louganis is? Not a soul! He hit his head on the diving board, and it turned out he had HIV.

It was a whole thing. As Luke would say, it's not your guy's fault. Snyder knows who he is. No one else. Snyder's an old soul. It's not your guy's fault that you were born in 1998. Greg, you gain us bits. All right, Luke, let's keep this going.

Here's our Scorpion of the Week from the grocery store. Watch this. You ever do this with Tukes? Just ride the cart down the aisle? She wants me to do this. Get in there and just break your back up. That guy's not coming back. Darwin Award.

All right, let's get on the BMX bike. Let's hit the trails. BMX is big in Columbia, by the way. Oh! Damn! Yo! That's called a facial, Luke. Look at that.

That is an innovative way to go logging. Holy fuck! Could you break a log like that? Don't know. Never been attacked by a tree. Yeah, Luke's fantastic. First time for everything. All right. All right, let's go that? Don't know. Never been attacked by a tree. Yeah. That's fantastic. First time for everything.

All right. All right. Let's go to the water here. Wow. This is getting good here. We're heating up. Yeah. Yeah.

That's, these are, these are the whites. Oh, nice try on that. You know what I mean? He tried, Luke. Oh. You got jacked up. Remember when ESPN used to do that? Dude, ESPN, for folks who don't remember it,

used to do a football highlight segment that was literally... CTE. It's like CTE this week. Indeed. Now we do that here. We got one more fatality for you on the skateboard. Fatality. Finish him! Yeah, he's finished, Luke. He is finished. You're right.

Wow. Finish him. Oh, Luke, you never want to get rear ended, uh, in an automobile, but especially not from this car. I mean, unless you're into that, you know what I mean? Mel's hot dogs. That's a glizzy. All right. It's time for our t-shirts of the week. This always gets fun. A few girls who could take that one down. Luke, you ever meet God before? I am the God of fuck. Okay. Let's go to some better t-shirts.

Let's keep it working. I got Lockjaw doing graveyard shifts at the... Oh, do I have to read this? You don't have to, Luke. At the de-sucking sucking factory and all i got was lockjaw as previously mentioned seems extra wordy they could have they could have really lockjaw maybe make that a shorter statement look i'm a big fan of serotonin and so is this lady i wish i had serotonin instead of this huge cock all right that's okay all right take her home to

mom you know look you ever hear that hit song Cunnilingus and wondered who sang it? I know of the rapping group Cunning Linguists. Oh, well this guy recorded it. Check this out. Okay, that's a little much. That's, um... Is that Tyron Woodley's new video? Oh, stop that. I'll beat your

ass, yes. Luke, your new bed from Ikea has arrived with the custom alteration. I think I grabbed the wrong bed frame from the Ikea warehouse. Yeah, buddy. That's not the right one. Luke, Turkey Alashik is about to take over and save boxing. I've got some ideas on how he can fix it. Let's see the first one.

New meaning to box truck, right? Where is a drive-by shooter? You know what I'm saying? Gas fight is what they call this? Gas fight? Gas fight, yes. I have a gas fight every night under the, in my kamita, if you know what I'm talking about.

In your dungarees. Luke, there is actually a promotion called weed boxing. We need to get with these people. Watch this commercial for weed boxing weed boxing so the premise is it's like high rollers right for jujits you get high and then you fight you down with this how do i sign up yeah guys i have an idea what if we all smoked the weed and then didn't fist fight wouldn't that i'm into that too wouldn't that be better dude look at this guy look at this guy in the winner's circle with

the bong i feel like we can be the we should be able to be the announcers i would like to okay if weed boxing is watching this please put the camera on me and bc not just me but bc too weed boxing people we would like to be your commentators thank you please fly us out and pay us in marijuana we will accept the terms of this conversation. Okay. Look, we haven't had Jim Fales in a while. You love Jim Fales.

I love Jim Fales, yes. All right, let's go to the deadlift. Oh, fucking shit! Yeah, he did. Dude, you can't be showing deaths on this. What the fuck?

I said it was a deadlift. Luke, right? You know? Oh, God. That's not a deadlift. That's a jerk, but he got... Well, that is a jerk.

All right, I got another example of a deadlift. Let's keep the next one he got... Well, that is a jerk. All right, I got another example of a deadlift. Let's keep the next one going. Is he going to pee? Oh, no, he's going to go face first. I just have to say, a lot of times they pee. Look, what do you think Dimitri Bivol takes when he's just like wiling out, when it's time to get lit?

What do you think he does? Isn't he a devout Muslim? Let's hear from him. What do you do for fun, Bevel? What I do? Yeah, what do you do? Drink alcohol, cocaine, heroin, everything. Okay. What's your favorite alcohol?

I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. Cocaine? Heroin? You could have told me. I'd have been like, right, that's what i do as well indeed uh sign signs luke everywhere there's signs right locking up the scenery do this don't do that i love coming well i shout out to augusta main luke there are some weird people up in maine you know that right i mean i don't think we have any fans just give me to the canadians and call it

oh wow just give it to the Paquettes. You can have it. There you go. All right. I hear good things about it, but. Yeah. Look, you ever been to this place before? Bonerland ahead.

Most mornings. Most mornings. They have those at the Colombian beaches, these signs? Bonerland? Yeah. Oh, they got big ass land, though. All right. We got one more sign for you.

Pierced titties taste like house keys. Can you, can you confirm or deny? Look, that may or may not be correct.

All right, your street fight of the week. Let's check this out. Is that a Banksy we just saw? It could be. It could be an original. Pierced titties

taste like house keys. Watch this fight. What? Beef? Fireman's carry kind of oh sidewalk slam sidewalk slam

he got he kind of took the kick but then he hits like the high single to an Iranian sort of and then just says fuck it

I'm gonna come right on top on your fucking ribs and then he crashes on top of you god damn where in Russia was this

probably yes probably indeed yes that's the answer you big billiards guy I used to play ribs and then he crashes on top of you god where where in russia was this probably yes probably indian yes that's the answer you big billiards guy i used to play billiards back in the day all right watch this trick shot you ever pull this off i mean he used the grundle perfectly to just balance the uh okay all right this is disturbing our final i can't believe they're white by the way our final ko of the week really just said totally out of character let's go to the mosh pit for our final ko of the week luke rate this one okay all right i feel like

i've seen this one before oh he's asking for it he's doing the old leo santa cruz to tank oh Oh, wow. Dude, play that one again. Here we go. Here we go. Toasty. Toasty. You got jacked up. Finish him. Good Lord. Damn. Dude, you know what?

Play it one more time. I have to pull my pants up. This feels so good to watch this. Look at this. What is he wearing? That looks like a Devin Haney outfit. Dude, that's as good as any elbow you'll see in pro MMA. That's all the shit I got

this week. I saw a woman at a Cannibal Corpse concert. Have I told you this before? No, they don't have women at Cannibal Corpse concerts. They actually have a surprising amount. Besides your lovely wife. She stays out of the fray though. So do I. We were up on the secondary level.

We were looking down at the mosh pit. And there was this girl out there. She was actually pretty attractive. I couldn't believe it. Dude, just knuckling up with everybody. Just, like, punching everyone in sight. And I remember saying to my wife, like, look at this. Look at this.

Because, dude, she was fucking blah, blah. And I'm like, this is going to come back on her times a billion like this is just not good she gets through like i'm not kidding 10 songs and nothing happens they don't do that at the grateful dead show at all yeah at the 11th show of the 11th song i don't i didn't see what happened except i saw the aftermath and she had blood streaming out of her nose i don't like that somebody hit her with the bop gun you're a big fan of the fray where was that song you know they got it they got a few jams you know song i'll be listening to a little bit gojira or whether the band gojira i don't know them they're a french metal band do they do rowing or uh or i've never been to one of their shows biking paddling or no they don't do that the viking rowing i've had people email me

about that being like um it's so cringe when you describe that that it's actually like it makes them uncomfortable to even be to articulate what other people are doing when it's that cringe. Have you ever seen that gaffe? The Viking rowing? Yeah, it's pretty lame. I'll have to get that into have you seen this shit next week. But that's all we got for this week. So, Luke, programming update.

You're basically saying that we're coming back this week. UFC Saudi Arabia. We should do something for UFC Saudi Arabia. We'll do a preview of it. How about that? Okay. Yeah. I'm into it.

All right. Any day? Any day? We'll do a preview of it. How about that? Okay. Yeah. I'm into it. All right. What? Any day? Any day? We'll probably put that out Friday, but we have to figure that out. All right. I don't want to make any promises about that part.

This is a work in progress, but we're getting there. We'll get something for him. Thank you to our fantastic team from Long Island Luke to the return of Gaff, man. I love that guy. Daphne Jim, great guy. A lot of people here who've lost jobs. A lot of people. Could be us soon. I mean, I lost most of my job,

but yeah, that's it. That's neither here nor there. One day I'll be back broadcasting fights. You'll see. I hope everyone understands. We love them. We appreciate everyone's support.

We're drowning most days, so cut us some slack, please. By the way, did you see episode one of Last Man Standing, the pre-fight documentary series for Nate Diaz versus Jorge Mas? Well, there's a lot of BC in it, so I was a big fan of it. I did not see that.

It's actually very well done, so I encourage everyone to head to the Fanmeo YouTube page and check that out. I did not. Are you working that fight? I am. Do you know what you're doing yet? I believe I am in-ring interviewing. Are they paying you good?

I can't comment on that publicly. Let me ask you this. I know what you made to do that for Showtime. I can't comment on anything publicly. That's ask you this. I know what you made to do that for Showtime. I can't comment on anything publicly. That's the end of the show, okay? That's all I got for you. How close does it match what you got? I don't actually know yet.

We're in negotiation. We'll figure it out. We'll get there. July 6th, right? July 6th, Anaheim. Let's do it. Hey, it's going to be a fun night. Dana Jacobs is back, all right?

I, uh, yeah. Anthony Pettis. Chris Avila. Isn't Anthony Pettis fighting Doom Bay? Cedric Doom Bay, but first Pettis. Chris Avila. Isn't Anthony Pettis fighting Doom Bay? Cedric Doom Bay, but first he has to box Chris Avila July 6th. Dude, you know what? Anthony Pettis is busy in retirement. Chris Avila gets a lot of fights.

You think it's a lot of fights. From being 209, you know? Yeah, yeah, sure does. All right. Well, that's the show for this week. Thank you so much for taking part. Hey, let's thank everyone for their support. We love you guys.

Really, we mean this. Okay? I mean, there's a few of you that are pretty weird, but we love like so much of you. Hey, shout out to my guy, Raj, who showed up on our live show at the win to shout us out. Yes, he did. He was at the three margarita show. He's a distinguished doctor in Las Vegas. That's right. That is true. So thanks. Thanks to everyone who's sticking with us. Yeah. Do you have any fans you want to shout out? Or you really hate our people? No, I don't hate anybody, dude. I love everyone. I'm being serious. Like I'm really grateful for people who are sticking with dude it's a weird time in the show yes where we're transitioning to something

new yeah and there are plenty of growing pains and i understand that i just trust me i understand that so i just want to be we have more growing pains than alan thick luke yeah i i am saying this very clearly i'm super grateful for the people who are sticking with us and understand what we're trying to do. Yeah. That's it. That's all I can say. You know, I had to take a dump earlier, so I didn't go in the no dump room. And then the other room was all the dumps were filled.

So I went down a floor. You should check that out. Real, it's a bit barren. Wasteland down there. Great. Are you the guy that goes to like the, like the. Yeah, definitely. Don't even say it yeah i do there

was a guy who i used to work with back at my last joe job who he would go to a different floor oh yeah and then would go to like the uh he wasn't handicapped he would go to the handicap bathroom you know like the wheelchair accessible bathroom because it was really big and then would just spend an hour in there on his fucking phone or whatever. Well, Royal Match is a really good game, Luke, on my phone. Sometimes I'll extend the visit just to try to get to the next level, right? All right, well, we love everybody. Thank you for everyone for the support.

Thank you for everyone who watched what we did over in Vegas and UFC Saudi Arabia preview coming your way later this week. All right, that's all we got for this week. Buy our merch, morningcombat.store. You can use our promo code M, I'm sorry, live10, live10, everybody, for 10% off right now at morningcombat.store. And one final time,

our great partners over at DraftKings Sportsbook. New customers can download the DraftKings Sportsbook app right now. Use our promo code MK, $5 down on any bet, $150 in bonus bets. For Luke Thomas, my name is Brian Campbell. That's all we got for the week. Thank you150 in bonus bets for Luke Thomas. My name is Brian Campbell. That's all we got for the week.

Thank you, Dan Hardy, for joining us. I hope Randy Couture is doing well. We are out of here.