MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Thanksgiving Mailbag | Fan Questions | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: November 29, 2025

After filling up on some turkey, fill up on some Morning Kombat, with LT, BC and the crew delivering a Thanksgiving Mailbag episode. You submitted the questions, the fellas answer them on this special edition of MK.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Revely, revely. Look at us now, tip to tip. Oh, Jesus. Oh, ha. Do you want a margarita? God.

It's us doing what we love. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah, Turkey, Turkey behind us. Hey, it's Black Friday. Welcome in. It's morning combat special holiday mailbag episode here on Wednesday, or Friday, excuse me, November 28th of the 25s. Hopefully you have been. been cleared of bail after your assault at Walmart over that big screen TV and you're back to

hear this program, Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas, offering you a happy holidays here. LT, we're going to have fun today. We're going to hear from the damn people. And if they didn't already know, let me tell them today's episode of MK presented by draft kings and, you know, draft kings, the crown. It's yours. It's yours. LT, well, in the space time continuum, we all.

are recording this full disclosure before Thanksgiving. How was your turkey day? I'm going to guess it was pretty good because I will have gone to my brothers who is it's tough to say who's the best cook in the family between him and my sister. Maybe my sister, but if he, if she's 1A, he's 1B, he's right there. You know, he's certainly very, very, very good. And I'll probably have been high the whole time. Oh, yeah, that's great.

That's great. the way, they don't know how good you cook when it comes to MMA hot takes Luke, okay? You know, if only they did. Get that wok frying. Yeah, Waka, Waka. All right. We appreciate you taking time out of your holiday weekend to deal with us here.

We did put out the call to you at morningcombat at gmail.com. The email, so very shortly we will get to all of your mailbag questions in written form and video form. We truly appreciate the effort you guys put in to help make

this show fun for you today uh also want to tell you speaking of black friday it's going on right now it already started we're in the midst of it yes the black friday morning combat merch sale who would have thought this was coming you see those percentages off head to morning combat dot shop right now we're cleaning out the inventory 25% off t-shirts 50% off posters November 26th to November 30th is a sale if you ever wanted to wear our clothes but said nah bra that price a little bit too high today is your chance jump on it i mean look there's a couple things in there that we don't sell anymore they must be grabbing the one or two left on the shelf so get there's the inventory is getting quite thin this is the chance this is the window we're just giving this stuff

away for free so go get it and enjoy yeah wrap your family in it it'll be fantastic for you Uh, we'll have, uh, oh, special guests on today's program. Hold on. Hey, it's Reggie J. Welcome. It's Reggie J. Oh, wow. We're squirmish today. You're all right, bud. You're good. You're good. All right. There we go. Look, no, no jokes about the end of his life. Okay. He's, uh, he'll be the first one. It's doing a good enough job making enemies at home and eating the Christmas tree, which, you know, inevitably makes him ill. So that's- Does he eat the tree or do you guys put tin sole on the tree? It's a fake tree that has fake snow on it, and he can't stop eating the fake snow. You guys don't use a real tree? Even with the bitter apple spray on it.

We used to use a real tree, but my son has asthma, so it is an issue with that. So that is that. Speaking of extra members of our team, let's say hello to the third member. He's a producer, director, bong enthusiast, coming at you hot and heavy on Black Friday, straight out of that Aussie's testy. It is. Luke Nosita, excuse me, Luke Thomas Nocita of the main card minute. How are you, I'm doing great guys. I'm full from all the Thanksgiving food. I'm hung over probably. And most importantly, we got the prop quiz championship out, B.C. versus Jose Young's dropping right after

this episode today. So make sure you tune into that. It is a banger. I'm assuming we haven't recorded it yet. Did I win, Luke? Probably, right? I'm going to assume you won. Did I win? if you didn't you're dead to me wow I'm not the favorite I'm not the betting favorite against youngs you never have been but here you are you know what I'm saying what a ride what a journey I just have to close my door from Reggie Luke why don't you tell people some nice holiday

greetings all right um my daughter made me a card you all want to see the car it's a castle oh that's great that's great that's a castle I don't know why it's got a cat face on it for no particular reason, but He's a big Reggie fan, that's why. We're not judging based on literalism here. You know what I'm saying?

There you go. There you go. She would love Reggie Jackson, by the way. Tuki. My daughter loves cats. Yeah. What do they call them in us in Españal? Gato.

Gotto. Gotto. There you go. Got it got it. All right. Let's get into the fun here. We put out the call to you. We're going to alternate written questions, video questions.

I have no. By the way, we have not. screen these i've not we've not i've not seen anything so this is all you know no vaseline just to imagine a little bit of gasoline you know what i'm saying oh yeah one more thing if you want to follow the show how about that like subscribe all that stuff we do this show twice a week it's been around for six plus years make it your permanent destination thank you very much all right reggie is optional he'll be here sometimes here we go first question of the black friday from our friend Colin, he says, I have a question about, quote, wins aging well.

Do you think that there should be a limit on how far back we consider a win, a good win? For example, people say Connor McGregor has a win over Max Holloway, but the Max that fought Connor fought, the Max that fought Connor and the Max that fought Justin Gaichie are clearly not the same person. I feel like after a period of time, it becomes. totally disingenuous to say that wins are aging well. Luke Thomas, this can, you can also flip this date around when a fighter will be an aging

name well past their prime, and you may say, well, 10 years from now, people may not remember that they beat this person well past their prime. What do you think about the idea of a, a, what's that word of limits? Upper bound limits? No, like if I, you know, Luke, if you touch someone. but like eight years past they can't arrest you to limitations yeah what's the statute of limitations on both yeah on both uh me i am acting rapy in the workplace but no one snitches on me what do they call that you can answer about essay or about uh mama look your choice um i mean i think there's actually

a lot to this question it's actually pretty good the answer is quite obviously there is there are there are limits to how well a win ages um but it can still retain some interesting value, even if it doesn't retain the same value. So let me give you an example of BC. Marie Smith beating Mark Coleman. This is not a thing that's relevant to the current state of the heavyweight division. And it doesn't rank as one of the most meaningful in terms of a ranking position. I mean, it was in terms of the championship. But what I mean to say is there are ways in which this is not a win that holds up as like the division's best, but it holds critical importance because it was the first time that we

really saw in high level MMA, particularly in the heavyweight division, someone from a kickboxing background to feed a wrestler. That was like at the time that it had not really happened hardly at all, if at all, and certainly not to Mark Coleman in that way. And so that was a really big deal. It has historical relevance or even, you know, some of Hoyce Gracie's wins that may not look like it means anything. And it's not a win that holds up as like a value for today. But at the time in which he did it, and for the reasons why it was important then, we should still not lose sight of that. And these are not necessarily exactly what the guy is asking, but these are kind of all related in terms of like a win you know let's use the example that he did

where people who are still kind of in the fight game when you have connor and max clearly the significance of that win wanes over time but i don't think it's just time itself like the passage of it that makes it that way it's that those guys became something very different visibly and measurably over the course of their career so it still means something to me that McGregor beat a very green Max Holloway, but at the time in which they met where their careers intersected, it gives you some indication of just kind of the speed at which Connor McGregor was moving up the food chain. I think at the same time, though, BC, would that go the way, if they fought today, how would that go? I think most of us would probably pick Max. So,

yes, clearly there is an expiration series of ways in which it diminishes absolutely. The reverse, by the way BC can also be true wins can age better over time that are not appreciated in the moment in which they happen i think that's also a thing that can happen but of course these things are all you know they can it's it's food in the fridge or the freezer it can hold for a good long while but like anything there's limits to this kind of stuff i mean you couldn't if you were running off the achievements of conne mcgregor and so somebody said you know explain to me why he's a hall of fame or one of the all-time greats you wouldn't lead with the holloway win but it needs to be included because it happened and that gentleman he fought and defeated turned out to be a legend regardless

i wonder if like could you even discount a win like amanda newness is the goat as we record this right now and you're not going to take that away from her for one fight but what does that ronda rousey win really mean in hindsight knowing how compromised honda housey was in that one that she was done done yeah i mean i mean that was kind of obvious like i took that i mean to me she sent a broken person at that time. I don't want to besmirch her current state. I think she's done a lot of healing. But at that time, you know, kind of a broken person.

She sent her, sent her packing from the sport. I mean, that's, that was the significance was the balance of power shifting. Not like, oh, did she fight the toughest MMA test, you know? That's fair. I just don't like when you, when if a fighter, and we try to highlight this when we look back on people's resumes, maybe there's a fighter that didn't become what they could have, but at the time that they fought somebody, they were absolutely dangerous and legit, and that needs to be remembered. You know what I'm saying? Yes, yes. I mean, this is also to the point about like, again, going back to the one that this person used, this Connor

and Holloway comparison, this is why rematches are meaningful. And I don't just mean, oh, there was a fight, it was close to have an immediate rematch. Those have a certain kind of importance to, you know, like Shogun versus Machita or something. But I don't mean it in that way. I I mean, like, years later, BC, these two meet again. And then you get sometimes, you see it in boxing a million times too, I'm sure, where you get a different result and it's like, right, people change over the course of their career. So for one person, let's say, to dominate both, that would be a big deal or for them to be, you know, mismatched results. Like Tito Ortiz's win over Chuck Lidl under the Golden Boy MMA banner, not really holding up before.

Right, right. And that's another one where it's like, did you beat a great name? Sure, sure. But it doesn't mean the same thing as when you tried to fight him or done. knock him, rather, and fought him at UFC 47. What was UFC 47 called? Here's why my brain is just absolute trash. Can't remember a single apex card.

Remember how they used to have names like sudden impact and dick and balls? It was, it was, it's on. It's on. It's on. Now it's off. It's off. Let's go to our first video question. Sent in by a fella named Marcus. Yo, Luke, Beastie, and Long Island, Luke. We never know how if I will actually play out.

However, most fans and analysts will pick a legend to beat another fighter in any hypothetical matchup, even though we know that that won't always happen. Israel Adasanya lost Deshaun Strickland and nobody, for the most part, predicted that. What fighter would give a legend the hardest fight and actually be able to beat them, even though no one would predict that? Armand v. Habib, Yaya Rodriguez, versus Aldo, Stipei versus Fedor, I'm asking you to pick what fighter could win a matchup against a legend that nobody would expect them to beat. Enjoy the thought experiment. I like this thought experiment, Luke. It's sort of sometimes like the evolution of the sport.

We do this a lot in heavyweight boxing, where we're like, you know, could today's guys shine the shoes of the resume and legend of Joe Lewis and Rocky Marciano? Probably not. But what happens if you put 5'10 Rocky Marciano in the ring? with 6'9 Tyson Fury or even 6'7 Deonti Wilder. What happens, Luke, right? Like, that changes the equation, although that's not necessarily what this gentleman, and thank you, Marcus, for the question is asking.

Do you think there are fighters that we maybe consider regular or, you know, one-time champions that you're like, but in history, they would have mop the floor. I mean, maybe MMA's different because heavyweight boxing ages in reverse, almost like Benjamin Button, except for, the dawn of the super heavyweights that changes the equation. But MMA has aged in a normal pattern

where every generation the skills get added so aggressively that it's like could the first 10 heavyweight champions beat any heavyweight today? Well, maybe heavyweight's a bad example because heavyweight sucks, Luke. But I guess you get... I've got one for you. I've got one. And the reason why I can say this is because I've thought

a lot about this. It is hard to appreciate this now. And if you came to the sport relatively recently, you're just never going to feel this way about him, but I'm trying to explain to people when BJ Penn was on top of the sport and that specific meaning is when he was UFC lightweight champion because he had high moments in a bunch of other places for different reasons. But to me, that was the very best version. You have to understand what that meant. And what that meant was he had, even Freddie Roach

talked about it. He had the most powerful best jab in the sport, or at least one of them. He had, remember, he was the first American to win the world championships in Jiu-Jitsu in the Black Belt division, which he did, you know, after four years, like an insane, just a, they remember he was called the prodigy. That was the absolute best term for him. He was heavy-handed. He was absolutely unafraid of contact. And over time, his takedown defense was considered the gold standard in the sport. Like, he had, for a moment in time, the very best takedown defense. And the reason why I say all this is because at that moment, he also fought George St. Pierre in a rematch in a championship camp fight up at 170 he had fought st pierre previously in a three rounder when a USA versus canada

UFC card and uh in the three rounder pen fucked him up early but kind of faded down the stretch and so the whole idea that's this rematch was yes pen was going up to 70 but a he'd already been a champion up at 70 and b look at him now like he has cleaned up all the things that had kind of plagued him even for somebody so insanely talented in the past oh and by the way he had a rock chin like you just couldn't be hurt so like dude b j pen and his very best was to me the closest i've ever seen a human to be a superhero like it was it's just absurd to you really understand how good he was so i all of that is to say he did get outrestled ultimately by st pierre not like aggressively so but convincingly so now it makes me wonder bc it can be done but obviously

saint pierre was a the best welterweight of all time and obviously a big 170 year how would BJ Penn in his absolute prime versus Habib go? What would that look like? How long could he fight that off in a 25 minute round? You know? That's a fair question. I mean, you could sometimes this question isn't about eras and the changing of abilities. It could just be about this matchup styles. Does somebody have a dot like Hamzat Chumayev right now as the middleweight champion? Is that a really bad matchup for Anderson Silva, the greatest middleweight champion of all time? Luke, I'm asking you. Who against Silva? Hamzaa Chamaio.

Oh, Hamza. It's probably a bad matchup. I saw someone talking about this. Who was it? Oh, God. I forget who I saw this. They were making the argument, and there's, it's not, there's ways to argue around this,

but it's worth least thinking about, are today's, the current crop of UFC champions right now, take a snapshot. Is this the best, most talented crop of UFC champions of all time, an overall ability? And you can make the argument that it is. You can absolutely look at the situation and say, these are, have they done as much as Anderson Silva? Well, no. I mean, he did a lot. But head to head, what would that look like?

I mean, how would you not pick Chamaev? He can wrestle and he's got good grappling defense and submission defense in ways that Anderson Silva has just never even seen before. So yeah, yeah, take that seriously. I mean, the constant evolving of the game moving further away from the specialist era, maybe a guy like GSP was able to dominate so much because he was one of the first, if not the first, just completely well-rounded, prototype mixed martial artists. But now that's your baseline, if you want to be great in many instances, except for head movement and striking defense. Luke, that's yet to catch up with the elite across the board.

But, I mean, we're starting to get to the point where I'm going to favor Islam Mahachav against anybody that can make weight against him in history. We're starting to get to that point. I don't think that's crazy. I don't. Just a case that the fact that Islam is one of the greats and is joining that now, or if the sport has evolved so much, him being the point of proving that, that, yeah, it's an interesting question. Thank you for it, Marcus. Let's keep on going down the line.

We're going to hear now from a fellow called Marco. He says, hey, Luke in BC, got a question for your mailbag. Which weight class do you think has evolved the most? Wow, these questions are all in sync here, Luke. which weight class do you think has evolved the most over the last decade in terms of skill and overall talent and what caused that division to level up faster than the others for context when you look at things today 135 is packed with fast well-rounded high IQ fighters 145 has gotten way more technical with cleaner striking and movement 155 mixes both striking

and grappling at a really high level 170 is deeper and more complete than at a used to be. Seeing how these divisions look now, I'm curious, which one you think made the biggest leap compared to a decade ago. Appreciate you both. Love the show. I can tell you, the women's divisions have done the most degrading or, you know, decomposition. I'm not sure what the word would be. Well, straw weight has decomposed, but the other, I mean, this is the best time flyweight was ever by far. Yeah, flyway. Yeah, flyway, you're right. But, Bantamweight. Bantamweight. No. Bantamway is as buns. That's a good point. I think

like the only male divisions that have probably gotten worse in some ways due to a lack of talent are light heavyweight and heavyweight. Yeah, light heavyweight and heavy weight are just gigantic declines. 135 has gotten a lot better. 125 has gotten

I mean, he got fucked up for a while but I think it's at this point reconstituted overall as better. You know, I think all the divisions have improved. So we're talking about like them, not all divisions, I'm sorry. Other than the ones we've mentioned, I think the rest have improved either modestly or more. But I would say the biggest leap for me would probably be 25 or 35. Yeah, I'll give you that.

I'll give you that. And I think all the divisions sort of run into each other as the answer to this question of like they're all evolving at rapid pace. What makes that happen? The same thing people are complaining about, in my opinion, about Islam and Chamaev's wrestling right now. It's one person. It was out of Sanya with striking a middleweight. It's one person taking one element of the game and raising it up that it forces everybody else to play catch up in that one area. And then you have evolution, Luke, you know?

It's evolution, baby, right? Evolution, baby. Yeah, there you. Thank you very much for that. We have a fellow known as Danger Mouse, a longtime friend of the show from the UK. He's part of the Just Bleed Radio Boys. And Luke, you know, we recovered from that falling out ahead of the London trip. I really don't remember what happened.

but I do love me some Danger Mouse. Is he going to show his face? Let's see. Hey, up your pair of washbleeders. Danger Mouse here from Just Bleed Radio, where we're still waiting for that interview, Bissay. At this rate, we might have to offer your shot to Luke. You up for it, Luke? Now, I really want to whack a Dakota Ditch of a question,

but I couldn't think of a good one. So my question is, there are now 10 male double champs. Randy Couture, BJ Penn, George St. Pierre, Daniel Cormier, Connor McGregor Henry Sehudo John Jones Alex Pereira Ilya and of course most recently

Islam Makachev Put them in order Worst to best Least Impressive to Most Impressive However you really want to word it I don't mind Cheers guys Hopefully talk to you in person soon

Shout out to all the donks in the chat room I do owe Just Bleed Radio that appearance I got to get that done I'll do it Yeah Danger Mouse thank you for the time put in to creating that video. This is a hard question. And the question. I mean, look, how do you define how you're going to define this? Yeah, go ahead. Is it like, who was more impressive in the two weight classes

they toppled? I know, I have a way, I have a way to, yes. I mean, here's the, someone brought this up to me. It's like, hey, didn't JDM have like an insanely difficult first title defense? You got to fight the best guy in the goddamn sport. Like, that's not easy. And someone had asked me in my live chat, like, what's another example of one? And I was like, it wasn't the same as that. but, for example, JDMs, sorry, Junior Dos Santos, JDS's first title defense after beating Kane was actually, remember because Kane was really fucked up, was Kane again. And, but this time it was completely healthy Kane and he got destroyed as a consequence, right? So, like, what are- I want it dead wrong that.

Didn't JDS defend the belt against Frank Murr first? He might have. Okay. Let's imagine a world where Kaye-Balask. guess was the first either way you see what i'm saying like evaluate the way in which they became champ not just by the wind that they got there but who had beaten the very best guys and and claimed titles in those weight classes by to the extent we had for the first question whose wins have kind of like held up over time like what did it mean to beat those guys

both at that moment and in a lasting way i mean i would say like for me so hoodos uh one is going to be a little bit lower on the list um do you downgrade conner only as a result of how successful he was meaning that he one punched all though we never really got to see what that fight would it turned into and then he forced eddie off of his wrestling and kind of just you know snake charmed him yeah i don't think so i think connor's is like going to be a little bit higher um people are going to hate this but i'll put potons a little bit lower um not at the bottom but maybe at the bottom half well considering the lack of MMA experience when he came in?

Yeah, but again, it's who he beat. How difficult was it to beat the guys that he beat? Yes, obviously difficult, but we're talking about the very best male champ champs. Who you got put number one? Long on look has a great query. Do we discount Daniel Cormiere because he never beat John Jones for either of those? Again, it's not about that. It's who did he beat?

What do you value that at? Okay. Then who is the most impressive two division champion based on this criteria? I mean, one thing you have to consider is the weight that Couture gave up to become heavyweight champion is no bullshit and did it twice, by the way. He was a champion early in the UFC 30s era, which he eventually lost to Josh Barnett and then came back in the UFC 60s and then off retirement after getting slipped by Chuck Liddell back to back, came out of retirement and beat the fuck out of Tim Sylvia, who is a goof but was a gigantic goof, a true ogre. I don't know, long on look, why don't you pop in here? Who are you putting in your top three? Even though Bisping was a weak champion, GSP was retired for five years, moved up and

wait and won the belt. I got to put that up high, dude. What do you think? I feel like it might be recency bias, but like in today's modern UFC, Islam has to be like top of the list here. Just do it in 55 and 170 in the year 2025. Like, that's kind of fucking wild. It's up there.

I'm looking at a graphic that's missing a few. It's an older graphic and it has Amanda Nunes on it. and I know we're talking men only. So there's a few I'm blanking on right now. But, uh, I mean, I know it's apples and oranges, but good Lord.

I mean, who she defeat. I mean, you know, Misha Tay and Chris Cyborg. Like that's, that's pretty, uh,

but I get it's a different world over there. Um, all right, who's the most impressive male? You're going to offer maybe Islam? I mean, Teporia's got big names, uh,

in doing that. And he knocked out in the first round, Charles Olivera and, uh, Alexander Volcanovsky. I mean, that's up there. BJ Penn, too. I mean, BJ Penn beat Matt Hughes.

And then who did he beat? So he beat a bunch of guys. Obviously, Jen's Pulver was an early one of those, Diego Sanchez. Did he beat Sean Shirk for the Welterweight? He beat the fuck out of Sean Shirk. So, I mean, by the way, that's a name that modern fans won't know. Beating Sean Shirk was a big deal.

Of course, St. Pea. Yeah, early PED guy, right? Big time. I mean, I don't know what the muscle shark really was doing, but he certainly looked the part um he wasn't eating for taste look i'll tell you that that's right well so also st pierre's i think up there in that middle ground um yeah i probably put poitons somewhere in the middle ground i think okay and then towards the bottom so gsp and randy kuder in the top four right with islam and who else illy

Ilia? Yeah, maybe. Because he finished everybody, too. That's the other part. I mean, that's not just good at Connor. Connor finished all done. Yeah, Conner's up there too. Yeah, yeah.

I want to take it away from him because the ease at which he won both of those kind of didn't allow us to see how he would really do against them. But then again, they had their chance and you knock them out. So what are you going to do, right? Yeah. All right. I've given it as much thought as I possibly can. Yeah, Luke has done.

Let's move on. And here's Matt. He says, Luke and BC, I've been wondering this one for a while. Kelvin Gasolum is one of my favorite fighters, says Matt, do you think if he were more disciplined that he could have spent the most of his career at 155? I feel like even at 170, he carried a bit of loose change. I think this is an automatic. One million percent, right, Luke? I mean, he would have been best suited for a 165 division. True. But if he would have had the discipline to keep the body weight down the idea that he has wrestling an incredible chin and he's a south paw who can box and can land hard yeah i mean we saw the best of him in that on as sonya interim middleweight

title about but he was an undersized middleweight for the majority of his run and he clearly lacked the elite level discipline when it came to the constant weight misses and to the writer's point here the fact that he has carried loose change at middleweight for a long time yeah i mean i'm I'm less convinced by the what-ifs on this one. I mean, I think you would have gone further than he did. I mean, by an important ways, but become champion. I don't know. I mean, that is a lightweight era that's going to be tough on him and how with those weight cuts,

even with discipline, have taken away from the, from the stamina of his game, from his Yeah, or his or his considerable chin, you know, that's also a fair point. Those things do need to be considered. All right. Our next, thank you, Matt, for that question. Our next video question comes from Louisville's finest, I believe, unless there's anyone else known as Saul. When I say MK all day, this is what I mean. I have a shit on the church.

Way too many for one man. You can't get this one no more, promotional malpractice. Anyway, what do y'all's favorite seasonal treats? I love the little Debbie tree cakes. Okay, first of all, Luke, as we always laud him. that's insane his commitment to the brand is just phenomenal i love that second to none wow all right uh luke's seasonal treat favorites you know the the pumpkin spice latte type of things here that only come out are you a pumpkin beer guy no never happened no i tried to be a pumpkin beer guy i couldn't do it

there's one beer i've had that was pretty good this was a long time ago i don't know if it's even still around pumpkin you ever had that yeah what well see the thing is when you're dial up the aggression like i love a a high level double ipa that has like some form of citrus taste to it but there are some where they dial up the aggression of the flavor that they're promoting so much that the spices and sugar are going to cause me to have a headache much faster and i'm like do i really want this much this extreme pumpkin taste you know what i mean i like no i don't i want to point out i was making videos for sb nation in 2013 and 2014 telling people that IPAs, double IPAs

were the grossest shit on earth. And I had, historically, no, no, no. I got insane pushback at the time only for 10 years later, every fucking content creator on IG making the exact same point. I'm like, I was ahead of you, bitches, by over a motherfucking decade.

Those are the next generation people who are not growing up with the craft beer revolution. Like, people don't understand. When you and I first started drinking beer, our options were American Lager. Like, that was freaking it. Okay, gross, piss.

the same beer the Long Island Luke drinks purposely every weekend, all right? Then we lived through the beginning of this craft revolution and you had different options and you had really good embers and you had really good porters and you had this. Then we lived through the absolute IPA craft beer. Oh my God, we're drinking gourmet shit. You know what I mean? Treehouse brewery where we're traveling across the country to get one can of alchemist or Pliny the Elder on the West Coast.

Pliny the Elder, but overrated beer. Come this. Teddy Topper. Let's go. BC, I'm with you. You know, people want to talk shit about your palate with melons and stuff, but you got a great palate for beer. Thank you so much. So, Luke, here's what happened. He has the pallet of a toddler and then drinks this absolute nonsense. No, here's what I'm in the case. There's a common denominator there. The influencers today are not part of that era. So rightfully, they're going, wait. We can legally get weed or we could take great care of ourselves. Why are we going to, you know, hang out in the woods. No, it's because it tastes bad. And it's always tasted bad. It is hard on the palate. It is not pleasing to drink. You don't have a sophisticated enough palate to be able to handle the craft of it. It's the same thing with certain, you know,

music, Luke. You know what I mean? I like all kinds of music. I don't spend time necessarily like apportioning my free time to artistically take it in, but I don't necessarily dislike it in the ways you might imagine. All right. I mean, we could be different people. You can't make me like cucumber or pickles with your cucumber and drag. Luke, I want you to know that,

all right? Yeah, you need to. because they're delicious. Also, more to the point, you know, the older I get, it's like, don't get me wrong. I have certainly, there's a, there's a beer locally. It might even be an IPA, but it's like, it's pretty, it's pretty mild, relatively speaking, called raised by wolves. I can have one glass of raised by wolves, and it's basically fine. It's even quite, quite pleasant at times. But as a general rule, the older I get, I feel like, and Anthony Bordain made this point, he's like, what is the, for example, BC. And it's a different thing that I'm just trying to enjoy a nice beer

versus I'm trying to pair a beer with a nice thing to eat. But what I would say is Anthony Bourdain has made this point, which was if you're going to eat, for example, we're going to go eat Chinese food, not even just takeout, but like even halfway decent Chinese food, like what kind of beer is going to marry best with that? And the answer is it's going to be your standard kind of, you know, ordinary Pilsner. Like, that's just what it's going to be. And that to me is a much more refreshing experience overall than just trying to muddle through triple dogfish head IPA fuck your mom

we're going to assassinate your palate with bullshit and dog piss well all right you're going too far but I get it I mean I get the premise of what you're saying but let's just not act like Lucas sophisticated in every category let's no I'm not in every category but you're just wrong about beer I'm sorry I mean you know when it comes to like music death metal hygiene you know you're sometimes on the outside look at it just because I like farting in your mouth does not make me on do you want to answer Saul's question? Is there a seasonal tree?

So we did the pumpkin thing. I don't know about that. So what are some other ones? What are like what are like other? Okay. So think of food that like only comes out Christmas time or whatever. You know what I mean? Easter. What about Easter? I mean, it's just more candy, right? Yeah, a lot of it is candy based. I mean, you know, when those when those mini eggs start coming out with, right? You know what I'm saying? Oh, the Cadbury. I do like, I haven't had a Cadbury egg and I don't know how long, but like when I was a kid, the Cadbury eggs, those were like the King shit for Halloween or sorry, um, uh, uh, uh,

Easter. I don't drink pumpkin spice lattes. As I mentioned, I don't drink pumpkin beer, really. Long on Luke, what are we missing? What are some holiday foods and treats that are relevant here? If we're talking like this time of year, you got to go like cinnamony stuff, you know? Yeah, meat pie. You got to go meat pie. You got to go to the tortilla. I'll do hot chocolate and marshmallows for like Christmas or like my daughter likes to go get it. It's a fun little thing that we do. All right. That's a fair basic one. But yeah, I'm trying to think of what else is like specifically tied to a certain holiday or season that we, for whatever reason, don't get the other months of the year, you know?

Are there July 4th treats? Because everyone associates it with like beer, hot dogs, that kind of burgers. Yeah, I'm like, I've been eating hot dogs since the beginning. I don't need, yeah. I mean, that's probably the only time I'll willingly drink shitty beer, you know, outside with the can in the hand, you know, all the, you know, America, baby. Yeah. Maybe it'll be like Christmas has all of them because you have, you have, you have, you

all the cookies you can eat you have all of the things you can drink and the food and the merriment i feel like that's your that's really yeah my my grandmother always made chocolate cream pie on thanksgiving and christmas and it was you never had it the rest of the year and it was oh yeah it's great love it love it thank you me ma r i p all right let's go to jacob he says how would you match everyone up at one 45 here's jacob's idea luke wolkenovsky lorone Murphy. Molfsar versus Yussev Zalal. Diego Lopez versus Yair. Aljo versus Steve Garcia. And bonus question, what would be the odds for each fight? He's asking us a lot here. Luke, how would you match up the top end of the UFC featherweight division right now? Would it align with what Jacob just laid out? All right. So I'm

looking at the matchups here. Volk versus Lorone. Movsar versus Zalal. Diego versus Yaire. That's a that's a Diego versus Yair is a yes. I'm going to vote me yes on that. Aljo versus Steve Garcia. I don't hate that. By the way, they just announced that for the first paramount

on UFC card in January, there's rumors that it's going to be Arnold Allen against Lord Silva, which is a great fight. Great fight. Phenomenal fight. It's 45, yeah. Yeah.

All right. I would do, I mean, whatever we want, I would do Volk versus Movesar. Okay. Then what do you do? Laron. I do Lerone versus Aljo and Zalalal versus Steve Garcia.

Okay. Okay. What do you think the odds would be, let's just talk about the title level. Long Island, Luke, you can chime in, too. Volk versus Murphy. What are your odds for that, Long Island? I'd go Volk minus 150, sorry, minus 175, Lerone plus 150, something like that. Luke, do you give Mofstar better odds than he just gave Lerone?

No. about the same all right all right they're both the same challenge just in different wrapping paper ultimately and different styles makes them not the same at all look all right you're saying they got the same chance okay that's what they got which is no chance yeah i don't know i think volk's vulnerable i don't know if he gets past another title defense well if it's mowsar i think he could if it's a striker i'm like you know all right that is also interesting mofsar is like jacked cut ripped in the gym he's got to develop a singularly dominant finishing skill, does he not? Who's this again? I'm sorry?

Mofsar I've Loev. He's been gone along enough where I'm kind of curious to see what else he's put together. You know, maybe nothing. By the way, your boy, Shavkat was on Ariel. He said, end of February, maybe March. He's ready. He's ready. It's time. The king is back. All right, there we go.

We have another video question from someone. named Sidney. Luke, will this be a male or female? Do we have male viewers? Come on, brother. Let's be serious. Okay, so my question is more of an opinion that I want to get your guys' take on. I feel like the issue with specialists

in the UFC is that they don't spend enough time game planning around whatever they're best at. If you contrast that with Islam or Krabi's team in general, they know that wrestling is their core and they look at different ways to really put that game plan into place, like using leg kicks against

JDM or other types of things that then set up the takedowns, in addition to them having different types of takedowns. Other people who come into with high pedigrees of wrestling, other things assume the wrestling that will be there, game plan they're striking or game plan they're grappling. So I feel like that that's going to be perpetually a problem anytime you're a special if you don't game plan to implement your specialty and just assume it will be there. Also, B.C., you have not been live streaming, you have been rambling, and I've been listening to some new music. I want to get your opinions on. So hopefully you come back soon. thank you guys yeah bitch get to work yeah yeah it's about time i get back to work uh sit thank

you sid for that question he looks like a guy with good cable management luke but what did you think about his question regarding it's a good one game planning specialism all that so i think um like bow nickel might be an example of that too right where he like you know the wrestling will just be there how much thought i have to put into the component pieces around it i i think it's a in general a very trenchant observation what i I would say though is I would also argue like it's not necessarily a limiting factor either in certain cases like okay here's a great example hamzat shamaia always is clear he's like I don't game plan I don't game plan at all and it's because he has developed such a skill level and he

an ability over his peers that he trusts so completely that he doesn't need to to capture a UFC title so what I'm going to say though is that will eventually catch up with him I mean again you can be so talented that you can get away from these other factors. The one I'm trying to make is he's clearly got enough skill to win a UFC title without game planning really around what he's doing. On the other hand, I think that the reason that Habib and his team have had the success that they've had is that I look at their focus on building the composite pieces around their core identity as a function of having been taught how to do coaching at a high level.

In other words, that kind of thinking about your game is another kind of skill that you have to nurture and develop. And they have, by virtue of the circumstances of Abdulman not being there, Habib getting out, taking on that mantle, but having the influence of like dissecting games. That's its own separate kind of skill set. And the very best teams and the very best coaches and the very best fighters, to an extent, obviously, as well, they kind of develop that over time. And that, for me, it can change your upper bound limit. But what it also can really do is maintain longevity. Whereas Hamzat, if once the game catches up a little bit or he begins to wane physically and you don't really have an identity about what you're going to do and what you're going to build around,

that will catch up with you. Again, not in like some kind of like, oh, it will ruin his career. No. But there might be a loss in his future that shouldn't have happened, but for the fact that he never really exercised these muscles. Do you think more people will follow the Glover to share a game plan, which is, was considered a, you know, elite boxer with a good ground game when he went to the title level against John Jones. We kind of counted them out after a couple losses, particularly that UFC 202 devastation delivered by Rumble Johnson, yet he completely stayed with it, reimagined himself, wins a title in his early 40s, completely built around going back to the basics of his bread and butter, and making himself a better and more. lights out wrestler and submission expert

that's how he built longevity Luke and he's also Brazilian in a maniac in the best ways and has a great chance I mean I think you have to build around what comes natural to you rather than one style works the best or one I mean there's of course there's going to be a shared set of best practices

yes but I don't I don't you know he's the blueprint for a different kind of guy maybe right you see like yeah there's a he's Look, could you really say that Poetan would be Poetan without Glover Tashira? He might still be a high achiever, but it's that correct pairing. You know what I mean?

He doesn't buy that man a truck and motorcycle if he didn't. Exactly, exactly. But I may not work for other people, too. I mean, I'm sure Glover's going to be good for a lot of fighters, but you get the point I'm trying to make. I don't know if it's a prototype. I'm just saying, thinking about your game in this way, I talked to Dean Thomas about this once.

Like, Dean was telling me so few fighters really do it. They think about certain parts of it, you know, certain things that they like to do for sure, but they don't really think about building a game and strategies and avenues and routes to attack and what they look like and what the antecedent causes of this are. They just don't put in that kind of thoughtful work. The very, very best ones do. Like you can imagine, for example, Kayla Harrison does, you know, and these things lead to it. But I don't think it's just, that's the other part, too.

I don't think this is just specific to wrestlers. I think there's a lot of fighters that don't put in nearly as much thought into game planning as you might imagine. Sometimes, though, it comes with your success level, which equals your financial ability to become better. I say that because I got an interview coming out with Alexandria Pantosia on the BCX in which when I specifically talk to him about this current eight fight win streak, him going from, you know, sort of a tough out. And this division in his early 30s to becoming arguably the second greatest champion in its history, top five pound for pound. And at 35, like he's just, you know, becoming this complete force. And I was like, two years ago, you beat Moreno by just outdogging him. And now you're making it look easy against everybody.

And he legitimately said, when you become a champion, you get more money. You then can afford to truly level up your game and live a year-round lifestyle that is constantly aimed at, putting, you know, investing your money back into yourself. And that's how you get to this level, Luke. That's interesting, think about. Yeah, that's another way to do it. Sure. He's building longevity on that, you know, in a lot of ways.

Training, you know, being able to afford to train at ATT, rubbing elbows with Horat Gucci and Adriano Marais and all those fellows. That is very, very true, yes. Look, we're going to take a break from the shout out and the questions of the fans for a second here because I don't know if you watched the Ariel Hawani show this week when MVP promoter, Nikisa Badarian, came on. Your best friend, huh? Proceeded to dunk on the MMA media industry, me and by proxy,

due to last name affiliation, accidentally you as well. And I was like, damn, this got a little bit saucy, if not spicy. I know who to call. Who are you going to call? I'm calling Cuervo. All right, this right here is shots fired. All right, this is shots fired. is a good time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila before we play this i'm just going to

set up what the origin of this beef is i was never a fan of jake paul versus gervante davis i was outspoken against that and when the fight was inevitably canceled i did put out a tweet that basically said not enough people talking about the fact that the tickets for jake versus take were not selling like at all and nekisa uh you know follow it up with the response of that's funny. Here we go to the Ariel Hawanna show. I did tweet yesterday, or no, maybe it was a couple of days ago, something regarding the boxing and I just wanted to get some clarity. Seeing some of the tweets by boxing in MMA media today makes you realize a lot. What are you referring to here? I think like even media

members have become social media influencers. They try to put out like, you know, statements that are not appropriate if you're a real journalist from my perspective. Everyone is looking to put out content that engages. And so what happens is, like, when I see a Dan Raphael, like, L-O-L, this can't be real, blah, blah, blah. It's just like, that would never be okay in the old world of traditional media, right? Or Brian, what's Brian's Brian's last name? Is it Campbell, Thomas, what's name. Brian Campbell, yes. If you're talking about CBS sports. I was so anti-UFC and Dana White in the past. Now I see him taking shots at like MVP or Jake Paul suddenly and saying, you know, saying stuff that just is very odd to me. So I just

think it just shows you that true journalism with full integrity is being, is becoming murky, right? because people really want to be birded and seen and feel like they're getting engagement. Interesting. Interesting there. Hey, Brian Thomas. Now is a good time to enjoy that tequila that invented tequila. I wish I had some right now. Let me talk about Brian Campbell, Thomas, right here, and what Nekisa said. Look, MMA journalist, sports, combat sports journalism is murky right now.

It has been and it's continued down that trend. Why? A lot of different combinations. A big one being the fact that the major promotions are, you know, so exclusively signing these exclusive deals with networks, networks by proxy having their own, in a lot of cases, websites that are sort of tied to them could in a lot of ways change the temperature of the coverage you are providing. You mix that with the, with the, you know, onset of the YouTube era, social media, you can

become a quote unquote journalist just by becoming popular, not. going through the traditional, you know, collegiate journalism studies and paying dues up the ladder. I'm obviously closer to, you know, the more traditional sense. But I think what Nekisa is upset about right there is his belief that I'm suddenly just dunking on MVP and him. And when the reality is, look, I don't know if these promoters,

like, we're never going to be their friends. They may like us when we give coverage that to them feels very positive. and they're always inevitably not going to like us when we give coverage that is negative toward them. This isn't me suddenly dunking on MVP. This is me saying what I said from the beginning that Jake v. Tank was a comical gimmick fight during an era when Jake Paul could really use a real fight, considering we're coming off of the Mike Tyson debacle of which I was very negative about, but he doesn't seem to be referencing that now.

And the Chavez Jr. about, which I was also very negative about. Could you argue back in response to what I said on Twitter in which, by the way, I was referencing the actual Ticketmaster seating map, which did show that only a third of the arena appeared to be full two weeks out? Could you argue and say, like Ariel did during that sequence, that the gate doesn't matter. It's the Netflix one. You can argue that.

Could you argue that they were going to paper the building anyway, which happens a lot at the highest level in boxing to make that crowd full? You can make that argument. could you also make the argument that it was two weeks out if they would have kept that fight going a lot of tickets would come in last minute including if they discounted the prices sure you can do all of that but at the time that fight was canceled because of this civil lawsuit against gervante and suddenly the moral police within was like wait we can't do this fight and it seems to be the case by the way it seems like netflix was sort of like okay this is too far we don't want this we can't act like there was huge demand for the fight the ticket sales say something then don't they they do so it's cute to call me out right here but at the end of the day like i've given MVP positive coverage i wrote a really nice feature actually two of them in the same week about MVP going so aggressively into women's boxing at the time that i wrote that they were looking to raise money uh to try to become like a real competitor for what turkey was doing

i gave them positive press when it when it mattered but like media even though the lines are constantly blurred are never going to truly be your friend why I, because, A, there's people that think that we can't have opinions as media. We're critics. I write editorial columns. We're critics. We have these shows and these platforms to give our opinion. Is it entertainment?

Is it cloud chasing? Is it a lot of things? Yeah, it's all those at one. And, you know, in one. But I think that's a little soft to call out that specific incidents and to take this stance in modern days. You know, I mean, he was on a show that they don't talk, negatively about him. So that's the irony in him calling me out for that. Yeah, I mean, this is just a silly thing for him to say. I'm not going to sit here and dunk on Nikisa, even though we

definitely could. But what I will say is for his edification and everybody else is, please understand that it's the year 2025. It's almost 2026. And here is what you are up against, not just you, me, all of us. This is the world that we now live in. We have allowed through a variety of different changes to technological and then policy choices to destroy, journalism as such. Okay. We have we have we have allowed Google and Facebook or now meta to take away basically all of the ad dollars that powered genuine journalism and what's left in that wake or is just a series of podcasts like this one, but also some media outlets that are left. They also can't really lean into journalism by virtue of the corporate model that requires ad clicks, which requires access, right? We have taken out all of the firewalls and protections. And in the baked business model that makes consistent, well-paid, and well-schooled, and very, you know, and what he describes as kind of like this, you know, Halcyon Days of Journalism, that's over. It is over, Nekisa.

It is never coming back, not in sports media, not in political media, nothing. You can find some people hanging on to it because our individual circumstances or business models and very small amounts that make it possible, but as an industry-wide practice, it's never coming back. So that's the first thing I would say. The second thing I would say is the idea that opinions that he doesn't like are the subject of people not doing their job is the exact inversion of reality. Even the Walter Cronkites of their time, again, a very different business environment as well as a media environment. Even those guys had opinions and they pretended to the audience that they didn't. Certainly there are ways in which you can couch it and it doesn't cover your work.

so nakedly in a way that gets in the way of it, and that that's an argument you can have. But the reality is by letting the audience know what our opinions are, we are not pretending to be something that we are not. By the way, I don't claim the mental journalist. BC can speak for himself, but I certainly don't because I don't do journalistic work because also I want to pay my mortgage.

Well, I mean, I finished it, but the idea is like if you want to pay your bills trying to do that, Nikisa, who is paying people in sports media to do journalism? brother who is it i would love to know who that is because i don't see them people call themselves that shit but they don't really do that shit john nash does journalism you know what pays for that substack subscribers where he gives his opinion yeah and also he gives his opinion but just be serious like who's paying for sports journalism pablo tori gets away with it because he's a special case it doesn't exist the kisa it does not exist so the point i'm trying to make is and i'm

it's an olive branch i really am meaning this we are going to give opinions because that is actually how you build authenticity with the audience so they know where you're coming from. And then you and they can all decide whether or not you like the opinion, whether you dislike it, maybe whether it colors the coverage, maybe whether it doesn't. We are never going back to the era that you imagine that we had because everyone in every part of the media ecosystem destroyed it, welcome to the desert of your reality. True. And also, if you're going to be a circus fight promoter of what you've done, an impeccable job. I'll give you a lot of credit. I always do. But if you're

you're going to roll out circus fights like Tyson Paul, like Jake Tank, you're going to get. Let's be honest. Like, dude, Jake Paul has been an enormous success. We've interviewed him a bunch of times. He's clearly got a lot going on and he's clearly proved a lot of people wrong. You and me included on several occasions, Nikisa as well. These are not people who are successful by accident and I recognize as much. But the Mike Tyson fight was complete ass.

It was terrible to watch. It was a waste of everyone's time. It was embarrassing for the sport, and we're going to say as much. And if you don't like that fact or anyone else that doesn't like that fact, tough shit, I don't know what to tell you. It was bad. And the Chavez Jr. fight was also bad. It's been a lot of bad.

Now, to that end, BC, to that end, AJ fight, okay. I don't know if it makes sense on the other direction, but I can certainly withdraw all the things that I had criticisms about, about those other two fights. Fine, I will remove that. And there's different things you can say about it, but fine. But like this idea that like they're owed some level of neutrality as a way to like minimize criticism for turning in bad product. This is 2025.

Like I'm sorry. Those days are completely over. Yeah. And this is 2025 and that was shots fired brought to you by Cuervo. Now is a good time to enjoy the tequila. That invented tequila. Let's keep the fun rolling with the people here. Joseph says, boys, let's get some fight stories from your past.

If you won't do that or don't have any, let's go through the. rankings and predict who's champ at the end of 2026 for each division big kisses it's joseph luke does he want you to regale stories of fights you were in and if you are unwilling or there aren't any he wants you to predict who will end this calendar year i'm sorry who will be the champion at the end of next year and each ufc division who the fuck knows that i mean i'm not a fighter luke i'm a lover all right all right i'll i'll do some some of these i'll still say marab okay 40 45 i don't know dude um i mean let's start at the top 125 men we're talking about a year and a month from now who's the champion

that's tough josh van it might be josh van i mean or it may not be too like i mean Pantosia. Say again? Pantosia. You think Pantosia keeps it? Yeah. Beats Van, defends it twice next year.

No, come on. Kiyogi, Hoaguchi. Come on. Come on. Come on. He ain't beating him. Come on. Guch doesn't have it.

Guch had it on the mats to train him. All right, but he didn't teach him everything he knew, okay? You think Marab still, Luke? No moving up. Just stay with it. Mara, I think he keeps it. Nah, bro.

A healthy Umar beats him head to head. Oh, thank you. Rob's going to have it in 2029. Marab is holding on. Yeah, I got, I don't, I didn't, I don't agree on. Umar. All right. It's not going to be Volk at Feather.

So who is it going to be? I don't think it's going to, I don't know. That one I, I true, I true. Movesar. Movesar. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know who it's going to be.

That's a wide open division at the moment. Let's move over to lightweight, Laleanda, Luke. The legend? I'll say Laleandaanda. Yeah, I'll say him, El Madador. I think it's trending toward El Madador at the moment. It's also in that deep ass, that deep ass F division of welterweight. It's still trending Islam, the best fighter in the world right now.

Yeah. I'm going to say Shafkat Rachmanov. For middleweight? Middleweight seemed better days? No, no, for 170. Oh, for Shat Hamza, I was saying. So you're saying Shavkat over Islam? Ooh, that's an interesting take.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Do you believe in Hamzot holding it down for another? year being healthy i do yeah especially since he's not he might compete only once next year in which case by the way remember how everyone got after dean thomas for saying this is exactly what's going to happen and it's starting to happen and everyone killed him for saying that i'm like dean proved everybody right or sorry we proved himself right i'm sorry i predict that john jones would come

to kadirov's son's birthday party luke and then i don't know i don't know if you let that one slip you know right uh do you think poiton no he's moving up to heavyweight yeah i just don't think yes i agree i agree yeah i agree it might be eerie's time again it might be does do you think olberg gets it no i don't but if he shows me that i mean he'll show me something big but i don't i think that is a pro hotska division still probably probably heavy weight luke heavy weight this is a heavy question that's a different one i'm tempted to say gable steveson to be honest with you but uh i won't go that far um Hmm

John Jones, no, no, no, no, no, no. Dude, how funny would it be if it's Cortez or Costa? How funny would that be? That would be awesome. That would be amazing. Tom Asperall, let's put some respect on this guy. Probably, Tom Aspinall. Okay, thank you.

Yeah. Women's straw weight, McKenzie Dern, nah. No. Jean-Wea Lee will be the champion at the end of next year. Probably. Or Tatiana Suarez. True, true. Shevchenko?

Now, see, she's starting to get real up there in age, in which case, I don't know how much longer she's got in her. She just absolutely dominated way Lee. Come on. Come on. Come on. Bra. All right. Come on. No, but, okay, but here's the thing. Like, pieces of her game are going away each year. I mean, everyone surely notices this, right? She's rounding out the other pieces. Look what she did to thorough. Totally fair. But eventually that's going to come to a close, too, and you've let the other pieces go. Like, it's a game that they all play, right? We all know it. I'm just saying, like, you're losing offense year over year. you know i don't know i don't know how that one i changed my welterway pick to you're a slob i'm a slob luke you are coming soon that's right and to close it off is it going to be kela amanda

valentina or juliana i think it's going to be valentina i think valentina's going to go up you think she beats cala i think cala may have one or two left fights total left you know what i mean i don't she might even have just one like if the next why it's Amanda Nunes. Jim, I just call it a day. That cut, that cut is, that cut is, it's one of the worst cuts I've ever seen. Like, no human should be doing what she's doing. Yeah, yeah. I'll give you five seconds to answer this.

There's one UFC champion currently under the age of 30. Who is it? Say it again, there's one UFC champion currently, uh, Taboria. Yes. Isn't that wild? Yeah.

One. Dude, one. I know. I would have guessed that Shimaev was under 30. No. But he lost all that. time you know what i mean like you ain't getting that back all right let's get another video loaded up here this one's from alexander what up l t in bc it's your boy romping bronco i'm here at my workstation

where i fix up old film cameras that are almost as washed as you guys and i've got two questions for you today first question what's the p o box you guys use i'm sure you've mentioned it at some point i just forgot i've got a care package i want to send you guys and i'd love to get it there before Christmas, if possible. Second question. Operating under the assumption that the UFC is actually going to try in 2026, what are the first three headlining fights that you want to see? So January, February, and March. I would really like to see Aspinall versus Gone 2 in January. If Tom is able to see, I think it would be great to get the fight going. February, it would be really nice to see Ilya, fight Armin. And your mileage may vary on this, but having Ilya fight in the month of love

Could be an interesting storyline for some, B.C. in March, Wokinovsky fight Evelwev, potentially give him an opportunity to retire in Australia. Those are my thoughts. I would love to hear what three fights you think they're going to go with. Thank you again so much for the show. Can't wait to hear what you guys think. My man's got some old-ass cameras on there. Shut out to that guy. What do we call him again? He's a... Bromping Bronco? Yeah, Alexander. Thank you for that. Put up the P.O. box address on the screen. There you go.

Everyone, if you want to send us contraband or vinyl or comic books or just, you know, anthrax, you can send it for your audio only listeners, we have a PO box, send it to Morning Combat, 55 Girard Street, G-E-R-A-R-D, P-O-box 57, Huntington, New York, 117-4-3. There you go, rewind it, write it down. Thank you so much. By the way, while the show was going on, I mean, it started. before the show, but while the show was going on, Habib and Connor are still tweeting each other. Like, it's still happening. What are they tweeting about?

Connor accused of rug pulling his fans for some kind of like NFT shit. I'm not even sure what he sold to be honest with you. And then... Oh, he sold the papaca. Yeah. And then Kabib went out back at him

and that was when the show started. And now Connor has responded to that. So this one is kind of ugly going back and forth. All right. Question right here. Question right here. I don't think he would break promise to mother and father except for the fact that he said this

this grudge match is never over but the war between them is never over would Connor Habib 2 with Habib coming out of retirement at any catchway be the biggest fight in the company history above their first matchup? Not above the first,

but it'd be number two. Wow. Who else would do who else? I mean, who else? Wow. Wow. You know, you could bring, you could bring Ronda back, you know, imagine you have to play the hits like Ronda Misha. That would be big.

Rhonda Holly, too, would be big. That would be very big. Old and washed. Do you see Mayor Eric Adams wants to investigate Dylan Danis beat down? So he's probably going to go after John Pork. So to answer Alexander's question, and he made good fight picks right there, I would go to Poria Sarukian in January, give me ask. been all gone to in February and give me all right Islam won't fight this he's got Ramadan

then give me what's that third matchup Luke what's the third sexy match what was his third matchup I forget I mean just think about the most exciting talents in the sport so it would be it would be Ilya Arman for sure it would be you know the biggest rivalry it would be tom and they're not going to do it i'm just saying it'd be tom and uh or john jones and poiton like one of the two um it would be i mean islam against i and gary would be great but all these pushing that ozman thing hard hard i mean again they might go ozman it's not the one i care about the most which one do i care about more i would give it to gary over usman just on meritocracy um

what's the other one there like hamsot versus who that's the other part too like who's he's oh fluffy humza versus fluffy would be kind of fun yeah but imovov deserves it more right now he does he does yeah you're right he does that's not as exciting it's not as exciting no no yeah but you're right it'd be imovov for sure all right it's kind of where we're at i do hope obviously that we all hope that they come out guns blazing in the paramount era that the removal of that second paywall allows the sport to grow in this country and become hot. I mean, I wish they would just identify four or five rivalries that are going to be hot

as shit and go back to the old way of building those up. You know what I mean? I love that. But we got Mark Shapiro in charge. Yeah. Congrats. Let's hear from Tyler. Hey, LTBC and the LIL.

I've been following MMA for almost 20 years and saw a prime BJ Penn rain at lightweight during his prime. There's a double on negative right now. Or maybe it's just too much of that one word. Is it crazy to think that a prime BJ and his skill set would still be competitive in the modern lightweight division at the title level? Also, what is your perspective on the impact in role Hawaii has played in the history of MMA? I'm born and raised in Hawaii, but have been working and living on the East Coast the last 10 years, six in the DMV area, the last four in the NYC.

So Luke, start off with this. Does the BJ Penn of Prime Lightweight Era compete with Tuporia, Sarukian, Patty, Gachi? Yes, yes. Okay. Yes, I think he could beat any of them, yes. He ain't being Tuporia right now. He could beat Tuporia. Wow.

Wow. Prime, Prime BJ Penn? Yes, he could. All right. What is your perspective on the impact and role Hawaii has played in the history of MMA? I mean, there's a stat in boxing where it's like in terms of land area. Puerto Rico has produced more champions in boxing than any other, like similar size territory, anywhere else on earth.

And it just kind of tells you like culturally what can be produced when, you know, you have some of the right ingredients in place. And, you know, again, there's, there's cultural importance around boxing. Look what they can produce. Baseball, too, obviously, Puerto Rico and other sports. You know, I'm not sure Hawaii's on quite like that level in terms of the amount of champions, but it's got a similar kind of feel where it's the small landmass. and there are just a series of circumstances that are created there

where fighting takes on a culturally outsized role and look at the consequences of that. I mean, I'm going to say it as not like down, not like they're bad. Like I'm almost like for the most part pretty good. I mean, obviously, there could be some consequences to fighting that are bad as a cultural practice. But you just, you know, the amount of champions they produce,

the amount of talent overall that they produce this tiny, tiny island nation, it is significant. They've had some of the very best fighters ever. And, you know, guys, less so BJPen, but although there was a lot of truth to it too, but certainly in the case of Max, Max never left the islands.

You know, Max never went to AKA or ATTBC. He never changed coaches. He never changed inside the island itself. He never changed, you know, the gym that basically is the one that got him to the dance. Like how many places that are remotely located? like that have that kind of the ability to produce world-class talent in that kind of a way, you know, as consistently generationally has been able to do.

And there's so many Hawaiian fighters you've just never even known about, you know, Ronald Machine Gun, John, and there used to be, Hawaii used to be the epicenter of some of the most exciting fights happening outside the UFC. It was a promotion there called Icon Sport. It used to be called Super Brawl. You see, they would have super heavyweight fights there. And because of the Japanese influence, there would be a little bit of connectivity between that scene and the American scene. Robbie Lawler fought at icon sport.

Jason Mayhem Miller fought at icon sport. I think even Tim Sylvia fought. I mean, a bunch of guys during that era all fought there because Hawaii was so preeminent. The last thing I'd say on this is, you know, there are good things you can say about the promotional abilities of Scott Coker, and there's criticisms you can make, and that's true of any promoter. I think one of the good things that he really understood, and I don't know how much it means. meant to modern fans, but Hawaii's preeminence and the place that it holds in the sport is quite legitimate. And he would bring those shows back to Hawaii, those Bellator shows, which I

thought was just such a grand gesture. It's really a shame UFC's never been there. And they refuse to go because of penny pinching. It's like they've got all the money in the world. I just feel like a UFC Hawaii event would be such a home run. And it's, we're waiting for it to happen. max in a BMF title fight atop it can you imagine can you imagine yeah I mean we wouldn't know telvin key papa you know big papa without without Hawaii's MMA

you know who's the other guy we like off that island Luke Daz back up on that That's back up on that ass That's what I'm talking about okay and the pineapple princess Luke thank you Hawaii All right let's keep the fun moving right here We have Donagin

Of Irish fame it sounds like With a video What's up Luke in bc day one donk here dongan anderson i've been there since the bomb shelter i've watched your show longer than i think i've watched any other show ever and that's really fucking depressing my wife doesn't understand it but i keep coming back for more thank you i got one question for you to wash pieces of shit and i can say that because i'm 25 um even though i look like i'm 35. What is your worst slash best gas station bathroom experience? I'll preface that by saying

my worst is I made fun of a trucker for leaving a stall without washing his hands, like fixing to leave the bathroom. And he got so mad, he threatened to shiv me. What is yours? Thank you all for everything you do. Have a great Thanksgiving. All of my gas station bath ones are like, just disgusting you're on vacation driving through the south on the way to florida and you open you know the the guy working at the grossest gas station ever opens up with the lock the grossest bass the reverend there's literally just you know four feet of shit dripping down the wall of the bathroom and you're just like how did i get here or when you get off the highway at like the

rest stop in new york state and there's a hole in the stall wall and you're like nine years old going you know dropping a deuce you turn around there's like a grown man trucker next to you just looking at you look i've had some of those experiences i could i'll be i'll be honest with you driving is hard on me for my anxiety and it always has been but it's certainly gotten worse to the power i barely drive hardly at all anymore i love driving long distance look oh it's that's dude i could have been a truck honestly if someone says you have to drive seven hours or eat a bullet i'm going to eat a bullet i mean that's just what it's going to be you know say goodbye to my wife and family and it's cold a day um so i don't really have a ton of like i mean i've had

had terrible bathroom experiences, but I don't know about how many have been specifically located to the gas station or good ones for that matter either. I mean, I could tell you, I went to like a, do you know Royal Farms, BC? Yes. So Royal Farms is like the Wawa of Maryland. Yes. There's Wawa is in Maryland as well, but Royal Farms is like a Maryland-based version of that. I didn't know anything about Royal Farms and I went into one of the bathrooms and I couldn't believe how pristine it was, but this is not a particularly interesting story. Again, the worst bathroom story is independent of gas stations that I've had have all been it was the renaissance festival which was i mean that commode brother that haunts me in my dreams yeah they do abortions in that just just doing straight

up abortions and civil war surgery just limbs in there and shit gangrene uh blood and piss and shit and then on the good side oh sorry on the other one was again the one in turkey where the guy was tearing out pages of the phone book for one lira to go dumb and a hole in the ground. And there was flies everywhere landing on you. You know what I mean? Oh my God, it was terrible.

Driving alone at like midnight on the New Jersey Turnpike one time, got off at the rest stop. There were three pissers and three shitters. I was in the last shitter alone at night. Somebody enters. They come all the way down to my stall where I'm dropping a deuce. And they're like shaking the door trying to get the lock open. And I'm like, what are you doing?

They're like, I got to go so bad. And I'm like, there's all there. You can go with the other ones. And they just, the entire time that I was there until I finished, they were trying to get the door open. I was, like, was this a George Michael invite? I don't know what it was, Luke, but I could not have packed up quicker. And it was just like, here, have it, get out of it. How often have you walked in on someone who was just too lazy to lock the stall?

Yeah, that's happened to. I've definitely done that at lunch. John again, thank you for looking 35. We're done with this gross question, okay? Thank you. Joseph Abank. Look, have you ever accepted a gas station proposal on the bathroom? No, all right.

that's fine that's fine i think i'm some kind of fucking no i know a dude who drove across country and he had stories at like the uh you know iowa uh truck stops where like truckers have propositioned him for sex but yeah see this thing i'm not on the road in enough places for me to have stories like this i'm on my feet in places non gas station related but not like that i've heard the bathrooms in uh public bathrooms in japan or you can eat off the floor but i'm not going to try it all right uh Gabe is here he says sup luke bc and crew what are the best foods movies and music to enjoy while hi thanks y'all

now BC this is going to sound like a real fucked up answer I firmly believe I mean okay let's let's sort of break this down very very simply why why do people do drugs to enhance their

and push anxiety and depression behind them that can be a reason that's certainly one of them but the basic idea is that euphoria confers experiential benefit, right? I mean, this is the basic idea. I mean, don't philosophize this, Luke. They just want to know what you get turned to. I'm getting to it.

I'm getting to it. I'm getting to it. Hold on. There's, fuck you, Long Island, Luke, because this applies to you mostly. Which is, the point is that it's supposed to, again, it doesn't always do this for not always these reasons. There can be any kind of maladaptive behavior around it, but the basic idea is that it brings you a degree of temporary, however, real euphoria.

Thank you, Carlisle. young the reason why i bring that up is because i don't think there's one genre of movie or food or anything like the idea is in the words of doug stanhope he's talking about alcohol i just take a mundane situation and i pour alcohol on top of it and all of a sudden it's a lot better it's the same why do people smoke weed before they go to a concert because it makes the concert better or a movie or you know before a big feast it just makes what you're going to have even better there are caveats to that but as a general rule bc i challenge the premise of the question because it's almost universal in terms of its application thank you for wasting our time with that

fuck you that was a good answer bitch uh i will answer and say musically i'm definitely going in radio head there is just a next level when you're in the eighth row of being able to understand the let's let's pick the second greatest album in rock history in rainbows by radio head and put that as an example you put the headphones on you have such alternating rhythms going on that the only way to really decode and understand and be within that is to be deep in that ath row uh you could argue on movies luke sometimes you just like if i'm on an airplane and i'm sitting in delta eight i'm like all right give me harold and kumar give me just some slapstick ridiculousness uh but at the same time luke i've sat in the ath row and saw uh uncut gems at a uh astronomical level there's no

genre and it was no but that genre whatever you want to call that And I don't mean like neo-noir or whatever. I mean, like, you know, for that example of a movie, the Safty brothers have mastered that ability to take these scenes and make them so intense. And where you're just like, I just want to get off this ride. And then, you know, five minutes later, another scene hits. That is a good spot to be in for that type of stuff, Luke.

I got high and rewatched. I hadn't seen it in so long. There will be blood. Yes. With Daniel Day Lewis. Holy shit, brother. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, food-wise, you know, whatever gets you through the night. This is what I mean, Long Island Luke, wait in here. I'm not saying people don't have their favorites like they would experientially. Long Island, look, you there? I'm not saying people don't have their favorites or you might like a certain thing a little bit more. But my general rule is like the point of doing that, not all drugs, not in all context, but in general is to lift the overall experience more broadly. I don't think of it in terms of like, oh, I had, I'm going to eat Taco Bell sober too.

you know what i mean wouldn't you say that like something like chocolate you go to a whole another level in the a throw i mean it's like you're but i do that for almost anything on i'm gonna say that everything like luke said it's just whatever you're into will be more fun if you're high yeah exactly but to answer this person's question i feel like movies in particular like okay there's difference between like bc said watching a movie on an airplane i know you were sitting in ath row but how about like watching a movie in like an imax theater with like the surround sound and it's some weird movie where it's like oh this shit could actually happen and now you're or like black mirror you ever watch black mirror high that shit'll fuck with your mind like i like

you've watched kind of a woman on weed yeah you ever see the back of a $20 bill oh we I want your condoms back I don't know we didn't use them no just to close on that I have a certain sets of genre and music that are so greatly escalated by that um you know radio had pink floyd level of production certain progressive right I'm not gonna I can say this I'm not to listen to yes or you know Emerson

I can say this you know what's you know what album again I'm just I mean who gives a fuck about my opinions on hip hop but I'll just say one album that critics like that I also like this year was the new clips album and it was produced by Farrell and you know it dude it's like just look at the critical reviews like it's just a really

really well made album certainly that's one of those albums And some of the songs lend themselves to it with maybe like a, well, not all of it, but a more measured kind of pace. Yeah. Where you can kind of slowly absorb it in ways that you hadn't before. And some experiences lend themselves great. So I definitely got a better ability to hear that one in particular.

Dude, if I'm going to listen to Miles Davis, you know, bitches brew, I can't handle that shit sober. You ever listen to Outcasts Equeminine? Hi. I have not. Oh, that's a fun experience. All right. In the interest of time, let's speed through. Here's Josh E with a question.

Good aim, Kay. Question for the mailbag. What's your favorite Australian food? It doesn't even have to be discontinued. All right. Cheers. Let's go right to our Australian food expert. Look at our fan base.

They look just like us. I'm going to say sausage rolls is probably the best Australian meal. Or like a meat pie. but snack wise I'm a big fan of Smith's potato chips or shapes which are like crackers that come in different flavors I call it fucking shapes I'll say that's like a brand shapes I don't have experience well Australian food outside of meat pie the French Canadian how about how about fosters Australian for beer I do want to eat crow or kangaroo we should say for last Monday's episode when I said that kangaroo tastes like chicken a lot of people shitting on me for that I want to say I was like 10 years old when I tried kangaroo I don't fuck remember what it's all right you're dead wrong. All right. Let's keep it going here. Here's Andrew. Good morning, you beautiful degenerates.

Who are your top five Terminators? Meaning you can beat them on the scorecards, but no matter how bloody and busted up, they are just going to keep coming. Andrew's list is Oleg, Taktaroff, Robbie Lawler, Clay Guida, Diego Sanchez Korean Zombie. Thank you for all you do. That's a great list, Luke. I'm going to add Darren Elkins and Nate the train in terms of modern zombies. You know what I'm saying? You got to add them up there. for sure. The old one is a little bit. Who?

Brian Barbarina? Yes. That applies. I have to think about that because it's kind of a quick. I mean, you can kill that zombie, but you know. Yes, yes. These are good choices by you. Long Island, who else?

First of all, I had Elkins and Landre ready to go. BC nailed those. I wrote Marvin Vittori just for his chat. Like he'll just keep getting hit the head coming. Is there a woman who's had like an insanely amazing chin? Jessica Andrage. Just she. Yeah, you're right. Even look at that.

She didn't stop my trucks before, but yes, yes. Even that Yonna fight, she got her ass kicked royally for three and a half rounds and then would not stop coming late and was like kind of landing and hit and hurt and Yonna. Like she just walks, she walks through everything, Luke. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah, there you go. All right. Speaking of timing, I want to tell you about right now, because right now, If you put the camera on me, it's a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began. Hey, here's a history lesson for you.

In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila. And since then, all Cuervo has done has stayed true to its roots. Same family, same land, same passion. So much so that 230 years later, Cuervo was still right here in every pore and every margarita in every celebration. So enjoy the tequila that started at all. Cuervo, the tequila, that invented tequila. Proximo Cuervo.com. Please drink responsibly.

And speaking of Cuervo, programming notes, Monday, this coming Monday, what is that, December 1st, Monday, in studio, 11 a.m. Eastern, Metal Arc, Morning Combat, UFC 323, pregame preview, LTBC Jed meshu, numeral dose. We're going to get down with the Blanco, Luke, if you know what I'm saying. We're going to get after it, Cuervo style, setting the stage for all things. UFC 323, then we'll be back on Friday with a remote show. We'll follow up on what happened in the week on 323. We'll get you set up, by the way, for that BBC pay-per-view coming up in San Antonio.

We'll have Chris Algeria on the show as well. So a fun week coming up, and don't forget Monday for Cuervo, let's go. Jed, B, C, LT. We're going to get after it. Luke, you're going to get after it, all right? Great stuff. All right. Let's keep the fun going.

Here's Whitehead. Whitehead, on Black Friday, let's hear from Whitehead. Here at the ESPN offices, where Brian Campbell has been caught doing whippets in the back, eating out of the sink, just generally being a nuisance to the public. Nonetheless, my question is, would you rather have a Joan Jones son or a Rhonda rousey daughter? First of all, Whitehead, is he reporting from the Bristol mothership? I don't know this gentleman, but my reputation there still precedes itself. Luke, is he asking, would you rather have John Jones as a son or Ronda Rousey as a daughter?

I think that's what he's saying. And I think how could the answer be anything other than Ronda Rousey is the choice here? I mean, we are all flawed. We are all flawed. But then there are some flaws that appear to be much worse than others. I'll take Ronda's flaws. Looks like, let me be Hapa's father-in-law. Let me do that.

I like Travis Brown I never had an issue Yeah Yeah They used to call him To your friend But outside of that I never had an issue with him

You know All right I'm happy for you BC With what Your friend Your friendship Or whatever the fuck Your friend Shob

Yes he did bad things No talking to fucking Travis Brown Oh yeah I like I never had a problem With Travis Brown It's Honda Howsy Who I'm like Yeah

All right There you go Yeah, Travis seems a cool guy for the most part. Thank you, Whitehead, for the question. Let's go over to Barry. With 2025 coming to an end, who are some fighters? You can see making big moves up the rankings in 2026. Luke, what about Featherweight Steve Garcia?

I mean, he's already made a big move. This is where the movement gets even harder, so I don't know. Okay. Josh Van could really be the APEC example of this Where he goes from, you know, outside of the top 15 And one year and then to the champion in the next That'd be pretty big. That'd be pretty big.

I'm trying to think at Bantam weight. No, because Marab's mostly cleaned that out. 45 seems like you got some real movers and shakers in there. 55, dude, Sauru Kian, I mean, he's kind of been hanging around the top for a long time. I don't think these guys really fit that question. question. Isn't he really kind of asking who like maybe right now is at the end of the top 15 rankings or not rank that we think will just arrive on the scene? Let me, you know what? To facilitate this conversation, let me put the rankings up and I can

give you a better answer. He's saying who's going to make big moves up the ranking. So it wouldn't necessarily be somebody like. David Martinez at 135. That's a guy you should watch. He's very talented. I like his game a lot. Still got a lot of issues, but I look at him and I'm like he's got big potential. BC, I wouldn't write off Jayon Silva at 11. He's got that fight with Arnold Allen coming up, but I know he fell short against Diego Lopez, but there's still some time to iron

that out. I think Gabriel Bonefeme is moving at Welterweight, so that's a good guy to watch. He's moving. Yeah, he's on his way. He's on his way, but there's a lot of elderly ones in that division. We're both going to say Gabel Steveson, because he's probably going to make his UFC debut soon and will be a factor

quick, but what about Volta Walker? Walter Walker might move up. it's possible there you go all right what about the guy who just called out Walter Walker uh Hokit he's unranked right now

also Fatima Klein Fatima Klein's sitting at 12 I think she's going to end the the year higher than 12 for sure I agree with you on Josh Hokka I think he'll get a big push he's got quick hands he seems to be a good athlete he's cringe but they don't they don't mind that

so he's going to rise there as well don't don't sleep on Yaroslav Amoslav, who's coming in here. He could end up being a player. I mean, the Belator guys have not done great lately, but he could end up being a player in that regard. I mean, what about somebody like Macy Barber, who is ranked five, but we're like

she's forgotten about because of the injuries. And also, like, she's just inconsistent. Like, even when she performs well, she'll have a health issue or, you know, and I don't wish it upon her, obviously, but it's hard to get too excited until it feels like that's resolved. All right. And then, as Long Island, Luke, let us know. Amosov will be making that debut against Neil Magny. Love that fight. Very good fight. We'll see that. All right, let's keep the fun going.

Here's our guy Joe at Rundem Cheeks with a question. Hey there, Jens. Run Dem Cheeks 1775 here. Got a question for you guys. If you had to pick an MMA fighter to give you a tour of their home country, who would it be and what would the country be? For example, a tour of Scotland from Paul Craig. By the way, you guys ever heard? heard of what did you say jerk me

dude he's shout it to joe by the way uh at former marine luke former marine um he's wearing the bomber jacket in the hot tub which is great getting it well the best i love that jacket by the way that jacket's great yeah well done uh his question i would say i know almost nothing about the the country georgia not the state i know enough about that state i'd like if Marab could show me around Georgia. Maybe we'll get, she loves the gloves out there, too, to tell

hell yeah. That would be one answer. I know you're probably not going to pick Chameh and the Chechnya region of Russia, especially with John Jones living there now. No, it seems real dangerous to do that. I mean, what about like Long Island Luke wants Johnny Walker

at Ireland? I think it was Scotland. He was banging everyone in Scotland. He did bang all through Scotland. Where else we think in here, Luke, somebody that would be like an ambassador for that country, and it would be awesome. You know, they said Nina drama. Now, you have a veritable pick of anyone you want, but you could do starting with Rio,

Jose Alto to Brazil. You know what I mean? I've never been to Brazil. I really, really, really want to go. I'd like to roll with the King of Heo if that happened. Because, you know, whenever they send a fighter with UFC cameras abroad, they always send Nina Drama with them. Like, what if they sent us instead? What if they send us to

Argentina to hang out with Eileen Perez? Dude, that'd be. actually that's my pick right there Fiona that's my pick right there okay mk in your house Fiona i'm dying i could have gone to argentina uh for Halloween uh because xFC had a showdown there but i missed last Halloween because my dog was dying and i couldn't miss it two years in a row so i had to decline okay what about prohatska in in uh the check republic i've been to the check republic but i certainly would be a game to go see his village with two guys hanging out in his room you know yep yep drinking in the bars he'll be a hero i mean that's these are

are good picks, Luke. Yeah. I would like to see another place I've never been is, you know, Northern Ireland with Paul Hughes. I'd love to go to Belfast. Oh, I like that idea. Go to check that place out, you know?

Now, would you take Joshua Van and go to Myanmar? I try to go a place a little more stable. Okay, okay, okay. You know, how about, how about Japan with Kioji Horaguchi? That'd be sick, you know. All right, all right. Do you want to go to Japan?

I just said I'm down for that. you kind of hemmed in hall you went like this you went well i was trying i had a pavel chefchenko joke in the cylinder but i was like i don't think it's up to par so i'll just leave that out oh that's awesome yeah all right uh let's hear from michael hey says big fan fellas look what are your top three favorite bc skits and bits that he revisits all of the time bc what are your top three lukeisms keep up the good work look we already know that sheite is your least favorite uh like men do would be your second least favorite but what are what are your favorite bc's skits and bits like specifically anti-shob jokes no no just like what recurring jokes

or bits or whatever that that i do so one of the ones i love and hate the most simultaneously is like you know study abroad i just met her or whatever some bullshit like that you know that's one those are the old guy jokes that populated my childhood just so people know right yeah And then I'll say something like vitality. And you'll imagine that I said vitology. And then you'll then you'll shoehorn in a great Pearl Jam album. Like you'll do that kind of stuff like great Pearl Jam album, great radio head song. Great, you know, kind of thing like that.

That's another one you do. And then the last one is probably the crying and masturbating you do at the bus stop. That's really the thing. Okay. That makes no sense. Yeah, thank you. Long Island, look, let's give Luke some flowers here. I mean, he's got some good bits here.

You know what I mean? what do you think about him sending me the 3 a.m. flatulence over the audio text. No. I saw on Luke's live chat. Someone was like, oh, can we add Luke's fucking flatuance to the MK Soundboard? And I was like absolutely, I wrote in your chat, Luke. I was like,

absolutely not. I'm not adding that. I just like when Luke uses this like random big words that just don't make sense and it's just kind of like derail. Don't make sense to a non-reader perhaps. Yeah, that's that's more. of my favorite bits to be quite candid with you uh the one's trying to make is the upper bound limits uh you're i get a lot of shit for your mileage may vary too your mileage may vary yes yes there what's that word you oh the temerity temerity will always be my favorite luke thomas bit

you like in totality yeah how tamara of me to bring that up all right let's keep the fun going here uh carl has a video for us hey there everyone carl tuning in here from a very cold northeast of England. First and foremost, I want to say a big thank you to the job that Luke and Brian have done over these past six years. I've fallen morning combat pretty much since day one. So the opportunity to be part of the Thanksgiving Q&A is one I would really appreciate. With that being said, my question is this. If you were to put Prime Rhonda Rousey in the modern women's band and weight division, how highly do you think she would be racked? I personally think that the current version of the division hasn't evolved all that much

and I still think Ronda had the traits to still challenge a lot of the people in that top five, someone like a Juliana Pena, a Raquel Pennington, that kind of ilk. I'm going to put that to you guys. Once again, I want to say thank you so much for having me on

and a happy Thanksgiving to everyone from over here in the UK. Dude, shout out to Carl. First of all, badass Tendo Bizpink 2 poster behind him. I mean, thank you for showing us the love right there. I also think that's a good question. So, Luke, he's saying Prime Rhonda, so before the chin and, you know,

her self-reported CTE issues have really taken over, maybe short of Amanda and Kayla, do you think Prime Rhonda is still a problem for every 135 are out there today? So let's pull up the rankings because I actually feel like she would still be highly ranked. I mean, one thing you have to remember, this may not sound right, but it's true. And everyone's like, oh, Rhonda fell apart so quick. But one thing that I've, because she had two losses and then just left the sport, right? Sure. But one thing that I feel like the home fight, it kind of exposed and, you know, what was true in her career was, you got to remember, like, Rhonda was not as good at fighting as some of the other women, but was a A plus level athlete.

I talked to D.C. about this once. He was like, you know, she was a lifelong athlete. Just a very different kind of person when they're internationally competitive, you know, from a very, very young age. they can do much more with their body and they're much more capable. And that's really true. And she had this aggressive style of submissions, right? You see where she would clinch up with you, throw you, and then she's immediately in transition launching into a submission.

That is still going to get you a bunch of wins in the modern women's 135-pound division. Like, can it take her all the way to where it took her before BC if we were starting fresh? No, I don't know that it would necessarily, but it would go very far. So here's the top 10 currently in that. division bc miranda maverick do i think that a modern rousey could subber i there's no question in my mind you know karine a sylva i don't know tracy cortez probably jazz de vizzias yes namayunis yes barbara yes blanchefield probably blancheville probably brosso bust through and strikes with her and beats her i'm not saying that they wouldn't

also win but i'm saying could i imagine her just overwhelming them very quickly yes grasso sylva and then fioro probably the buck stops there because she's got a really strong judo and a good long jab row is 125 we're talking about oh sir what am i doing look at the wrong division I'm so sorry. I apologize. Jacqueline Calvacanti, yes. Carol Hosa, again to be a little more difficult. Eileen Perez, yes, Macy Chazahn.

Sheizon, excuse me, probably. Irene, Idena, Aldana, maybe. She's got a good long jab, good footwork, a little harder to say. Yonisanto, same. But, you know, Raquel Pennington up at two. Do I think Rhonda could sub her out? Like, again, I'm not saying that there wouldn't be a whirlworth. They fought 10 times.

Raquel doesn't win seven of them. But that was the whole point about what Rousey was doing. Rousey was just overwhelming before anyone had a second to adjust because that style of attack, which came from judo was so unusual at the time and I still think it would be vital. I would say of the top 10 BC, she could still get what, three or four wins? Maybe even five. This division has not evolved at all. The fact that Pennington and Buenos Silva fought for that title when both were just like kick punch, kick punch gas out.

I mean, it was like so basic of where we are. I don't disagree with that. Luke, one of my other favorite bits are, legitimately, one of my favorite bits is when, when you, you know, it's a priority for you to get the pronunciation of the Hispanic or Spanish-based fighters, correct? And I love when Mrs. Thomas sends you the voice note and then you play it out. So it's like, we, you know, we head to that. And then, you know, conversely, the white skin folks, you're like, yeah, fuck them. That's my favorite. Fuck them.

Fuck them. All right. All right. Two more and then we're out of here quickly. Taylor B, what are the best and worst parts about growing older? I watched a mailbag episode from two years ago, and you both looked much happier and healthier. Well,

we were getting paid a lot more. So I imagine there's more bad parts than good parts. In MK history, when we are the fattest is when we are the most well-paid and happiest. Basically, yes. But, look, there's a lot of bad. One of the bads at 47 for me is that a lot of mornings, to get out of bed,

I have to, like, activate my lower back, my hip and my upper ass area. that just randomly are so stiff that I can't even roll over without pain. That part sucks. That part sucks a lot. What's the good part? I would say wisdom.

I would say that even though I still, you know, I still struggle with anxiety and depression and I'm fighting the good fight. Overall, I just like, you know, you've been through enough battles in your life and you've come out the other end. You, you know, whether you're putting your faith in something solid

or you just believe you can bounce back it's never easy going through a trial but the accumulation of like i've been through this before or i've been through worse or you know when you're 23 and the world ends you it's a lot easier to fall apart right like but with the mental maturity of having gone through stuff and knowing that that life is cyclical that we go through tests but that you know this isn't the end i i don't know it helps me a lot luke i don't know about you I mean, good parts. Wisdom is a complicated one because, yes, you have seen enough things in life by the time you've done two 20-year rotations on this earth that patterns repeat and you're able to avoid certainly some of the worst mistakes and recognize the time for change. Like that's real.

But BC, one thing that's been really difficult for me, and it's better now. But, you know, getting older and getting more, getting wiser about the world also means getting wiser about understanding who you actually are. Yeah. And some of the bullshit you've been telling yourself for so long that just comes unraveled as you get older. And then it becomes a little bit hard to be like, okay, well, then what does that mean that that's this thing I've been saying about myself, either positively or negatively,

actually, isn't true. And then you have to kind of figure out how to move forward from there. that is that is actually way more challenging than any other part of aging because the physical part yeah it sucks but honestly man if you stay moving around if you stay to a routine you don't have to go crazy deep squats push pull hinge lift throw walk around you'll basically be okay for the most part you'll have a good life you know it's the honestly i think the biggest battle with aging is you have this long worldview the worldview i have in my teens was pretty close to the one I had in my 20s was pretty close to the one I had in my 30s the one I have now is pretty different and getting to that position and all the things that fall apart as a consequence and then you have to understand the world in very different terms that has been really really hard I think okay okay that is interesting I would say also too I don't know if this relates to you Luke like I feel like if I can go back and redo my 20s

with the confidence and belief in myself that I have now that I could accomplish anything. So I feel like as I get older, I don't know, I get out of my own way more, which means I have much more self confidence and belief in myself and it really fuels you to do almost anything you want. I also feel like wisdom brings the opposite problem. Oh, really? I feel like wisdom brings the ability to really enjoy the simple things in life, so much more. I mean, what's one of the best parts about getting older seeing your kids grow i can't wait to be a grandfather to be to be honest with you my wife's always like slow your role here let's let the kids grow i'm not looking for them to knock anybody up i'm just saying that those are some of the joys that i can't wait to see i appreciate

when i'm outside at midnight taking the dogs out to crap and i look up at the sky and see you know a full moon and it's just beautiful things like that that i would have ran past and didn't you know wouldn't have noticed in the past maybe also it's a rejection of all this technology that's our brain and taking over that it it's easier i don't have reading stamina anymore but i can put on a record and just you know be enthralled through the headphones look there's some of those simplistic natures that i i i like with growing old but the physical part does suck pretty bad luke you know what i'm it does i mean i would say less on this i've become much more in touch with my own limits and i think that has affected my confidence to be perfectly honest with you um my confidence used to be

much easier and more sturdy. It's not as sturdy as it once was for sure. Hey, Luke, there are no limits. Brother, I wish that was true. It is. You, if you're a man in a box, it's because

that box was put around, you put it around yourself. That could be true too. That could be true too. I can, I can, I can believe that. Right, we believe in you. Final one is a video question. This is David S. Sending for Austin of JBR. Does that mean Sandine? Dave Sandine? I don't know.

Let's walk. Shout out to morning. I'm three fucking deep. This Monday. thanksgiving i hope you and your families have a wonderful holiday weekend as well as the rest of the holiday season that being said l t bc what are your predictions and three each for the first year of paramount plus and the ufc also shout out to the jvr crew and this This is your boy, no special.

Fuck you. Let's get this shit. So, look, that's Austin, I believe, of JBR. I'm not really sure, but that's what the paper said. It was three sheets to the wind. He was. Thank you for that. Luke, what are your three, is he asking hopes, predictions for the paramount?

Like, just what will change, I think. Okay. That's Austin, a.k.a. no special. Thank you, Austin. Can I just tell you, I don't have proof of this. I'm just kind of kind of figure this out. I think that the move away from pay-per-view will be very well received and will lead to a modest but real bump in interest in MMA and potential viewership, certainly around the bigger events. Like, I definitely think that they're going to look at that and say, we made the right call.

However, I do not believe it will be transformative. I do not believe this will return us to 2016 or something like that. I just don't think that's realistic. That's one. to I think gable steveson is this the first year first year we said yeah first year yeah so then I'll hold that one because I was going to say he's going to become champion but that's probably 2027 so I'll hold on to that one um um I'm going to make mama a coverage fun again look because I'm going to be at I'm going to be there I'm going to be on the road I will tell you this bc I think

after ufc white house is going to be an interesting moment where I wonder if the ufc will dial down a little bit. Some of the political messaging and or currency that they've engaged in. I actually feel like that might blow up in their face a little bit. So that's two. And I think for the sport itself, BC, I don't think we're going to have many American champs in 2026. I do believe that. And I think my prediction is it's going to be a lot of what you got already. It's going to be international MMA running the show. I hope. And I'll just give you one because I hope they play up personalities, rivalries, and matchups over what the ESPN era became, which was just about content filling, farming out the factory.

So I hope that, you know, whatever rivalries they identify, whether it's Elia versus Patty or what have you, that they fuel those, that they really make this shit seem big again, that there's stars that are identified. I think you do that and you spray that to the masses, you're going to get a bump, you're going to get a buzz, you're going to get an improvement in the sport will feel hot again. So that's ultimately my hope slash prediction there.

Thank you, Austin, for sending it. And thank you to all the people. Reminder that today's episode of MK was brought to you by Draft Kings and Draft Kings. The Crown is yours. Our Black Friday sale is live through Sunday at this is, so it's through November 30th at 1159 p.m. Eastern. Go to morningcombat. Shop, 25% off all t-shirt.

it's including re-released items the leftovers that are extra there some posters will be re-released with 50% off get your discounts get it now you'll never see this stuff again uh morning combat dot shop november 26th to november 30th get in it well now look thank you for your time uh any final message yeah everyone tune in hose versus bc dropping in about 30 minutes over on main car minute and i win let's see who wins let's see who wins we're gonna find out we're to find out. L.T., enjoy your TV that you wrestled the way from the customers at Best Buy, and, you know, happy holidays to you and your family. Happy holidays, BC.

Happy holidays to all of the MK donks. Big special thanks to anyone who sent in a question, a video, anything. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you guys so much. No drinking and driving this weekend, yeah? No drinking and driving. Call Uber, get a bike. Don't do dumb shit.

Protect yourself and each other, okay? Monday, pre-game preview. UFC 323, brought to you by Cuervo. Jed Mishu will join us. Do not miss it. Enjoy yourself. Take care. Have a great one. Thank you. MK. We out.