MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Thanksgiving Mailbag: PFL World Championship, Boxing Supercard, Conor Fallout

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

Hope all you loyal donks had an amazing Thanksgiving! 🦃 We're back with a special Black Friday mailbag episode, and Luke and BC are here to hit all the important news and notes from the world of combat sports.  The guys dive deep into this weekend's PFL World Championships LIVE from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Get the inside scoop on the biggest matchups of the night, the fighters to watch, and what to expect from this high-stakes event!  Next, Luke and BC react to the rumors of an epic boxing super card happening in Riyadh this February. Will we see Beterbiev vs. Bivol 2 headline the event and Daniel Dubois' return to the ring?  Finally, the guys discuss the fallout from Conor McGregor's trial results, including his major loss of sponsorships and the impact this could have on his career moving forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille, Reveille. Look at us now. Tip to tip. Oh, Jesus. Oh. Do you want a margarita? Yes! Oh, My God!

It's us doing what we love. Two, three, two, three. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah. Turkey sandwiches for days. The PFL championships are upon us. Hey, why don't you go to Best Buy and punch somebody over a toaster? Hey, it's Morning Combat, Black Friday edition.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and welcome on in. You're watching this right now on Friday, November 29th, 2024. Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas, co-host, you know, possibly of the greatest combat sports show that's ever been put together. But Luke, to be fair to the listeners in the time space continuum, we are recording this on Wednesday, a holiday just the same where I come from. They call it Valley New Year. So just in case we get any of the facts wrong by Friday, I wanted to let the people know. I also want to let you know I don't want to do this for two hours.

Let's wrap this shit up. Right. Okay. Well, hey, we're going to have a great show for you. We're going to update the latest news, maybe even make a pick for PFL championships, and then, of course, answer your questions in a holiday mailbag to close the show.

Luke, you – BC, I want you to know that just just like the pfl ahead of the pfl championships i like the pfl have put no effort into understanding more about what's happening i want you to know that so i followed their lead like the pfl founder i don't have a favorite mma fight and i typically don't watch mma in my free time. So there you go. Hey, those horns are responsible from one man and one man only. The third member of this team, Long Island Luke Noseda of the Man Card Minute Pod fame. Fame, I say. Man Card, how are you?

Happy Thanksgiving to you. Oh, happy Thanksgiving to you guys, to all the donks. I'm doing a little rough this morning on Wednesday. You know, come Friday, I should be feeling a lot better. We're going live right after this video 1 p.m come watch the main card pfl with me there you go there you go that's what's going on today friday as you're watching this we are recording this on a wednesday luke i just got off a bird uh a red eye from la for the uh ryan garcia rukia anpo press conference did you catch it at all did you see the hijinks no uh over under

five how many crosses did ryan garcia burn how many how many was it he was dude did you see how relaxed and i did i did i did i caught some of the highlights of the face off the japanese dude looks fucking huge by the way and he and he called him out for being a weight-missing fraud, a fake king, and then crumbled up a piece of paper, threw it in his face, and said, F you to Ryguy. And Garcia just laughed. I was like, okay. Again, he did not seem manic,

but I'm guessing that there's been an adjustment to whatever he's been ingesting, and it's making a difference, at least for the time being. Oh, that's very optimistic of you for the future. Hey, by the way, again, by the time this airs we don't know this is actually still in play but like uh on tuesday night oscar de la joya was like yeah there's no fight happening because i haven't signed off on it do you have anything to share about that uh fan mio went out and said that that was cap ryan garcia agreed and i i saw a report from brunch boxing that uh basically they believe that uh oscar's

unhappy with the financial split but that ryan is technically allowed to do this fight outside of golden boy because it's an exhibition so they'll they'll figure that out hopefully we still have a fight december 30th but i did hear ryan tell uh errol hawani in their interview that he did get clearance from the state commissions here in the u.s to take this exhibition in japan so he would have to yeah yeah so that's where we're at with that but it should be an interesting scrap happy to be with you though happy to be talking about thanksgiving and all that other good stuff look let's get into oh like and uh subscribe to this great show there's our social handles you can follow our youtube channels they're just the same uh don't buy our merch at the moment we're gonna

figure out a new way for the new year and we'll get back to you on that but if you got old merch like saul wear that shit all the time do you think saul only dresses in mk 80 80 okay 80 all right uh luke let's get into our first topic here we got the mailbag coming look do you have a back to you back to the split screen first let me direct here luke you do have experience with mailbags right like years worth right i don't even know what the fuck you're referring to a male testicular sack luke i mean i've got my own nut sack if that's what you're asking yes all right thanks for thanks for ruining first rule of improv. All right. We'll get to that.

First rule of improv is don't let Brian Campbell rope you into his bits. Let's get into our first topic, which is the final pay-per-view of the year for PFL. It's going to go down in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This today, Friday afternoon, 1 p.m. Eastern is the main card, but I believe 7.15 a.m. Eastern is when the showcase fights start. It's looking like upwards of 16, 17 fights on this card. The PFL World Championship. Also, not a pay-per-view. Not a pay-per-view. Are you sure? I read it was a pay-per-view. Yeah, not a pay-per-view.

You have to have an ESPN Plus subscription or whatever. Okay, I take that back. I take that back, PFLFL not a pay-per-view but the world championship just the same six divisions will get a one million dollar winner and a champion crowned I believe there's three other title fights on the card involving the regional promotions PFL Mina some of those other ones but Luke we set this up on Monday's show being heavy-handed about the PFL in 2024. Let's put those topics aside and actually talk about this card.

In the main event, a man who has become a PFL mainstay, a star over the last few years, Brendan Loughnane, will be there in that main event going for the featherweight championship against Timur Kazirev. What do you think about this card as a whole in terms of what it's going to offer here for the hardcore MMA fan? I mean, I think it offers a lot. By the way, Kizirev is awesome. He's undefeated.

He had, to me, a bit of a tougher run to the tournament to get here. I think the wins over Brett Johns, Enrique Barzola, and Gabriel Braga are much better than the ones that Lockton has. Now, Lockton has some good ones, too. He had the split over Kai Kamaka III, but you get the idea. That's a pretty great, like, I mean, you're asking, like, are these world-class guys who are competing against one another? The answer is quite obviously yes.

And as you mentioned, it's at the top of the card, but like the co-main event is pretty good. I think, dude, Impa Kasanganai is about to become a two-time, I think, two-time millionaire winner as he goes up against Dovletzdan Yagshimuradov. He's going to fight him, who we remember from the Bellator. Isn't that the same thing as me doing this, Luke, by the way? Isn't that?

But I don't know. Yeah, it's a little bit that way. He's fighting fighting dovlets don yaksha muradov i mean i'm not trying to say without coming across like a dog but also bc you've got godzi rabadonov who's the hammer out of bellator fighting brett brett premise magomed umalatov taking on shamil musaev these are two undefeated guys and the ones I just mentioned. Are there guys that you know a lot about? Probably for most of you, the answer is no. If you're asking me, are these quality fighters and some pretty good matchups along the way? Yes. Yes. It's good MMA. There's no question about it. Yeah, indeed. There are definitely some things to like here.

And whether you've been following the story of Lachane who's been a consistent force atop uh his division here with the pfl or the 17 and oh kisriev a lot of people can make a name for themselves luke i you mentioned that co-main event where dakota dicheva with her perfect record in finishing fighters takes on a very tough out and former ufc title challenger tyla santos who do you think on this card as a whole has the biggest opportunity to sort of be the the lead story coming out of Friday of today's uh non-pay-per-view event so okay the single best answer to that is probably Dakota Decheva um because one she would be you know a tournament winner here she would get the million bucks, right? But beating Tyler Santos is kind of a big deal.

It would be the biggest win of her career by far. It's a name that people know. People remember what Tyler Santos did to Valentina Shevchenko. Some think that the results of that bout was controversial. Like Decheva, who already has a little bit of hardcore buzz, could really take that to another level with something like this. But also, I mean, you can't really lose sight of what PFL has done. Brendan Lachnan, UFC or Contender Series cast off. If he won two of these, can you imagine that? You lost on Contender Series

because you went for a takedown and then you ended up winning like millions of dollars in the end. It's kind of crazy to think about. Also, BC, Impa Kasonganai is on the receiving end of maybe the, in his case, worst knockout loss, but the best KO we've ever seen from Joaquin Buckley. And now he is on the verge of getting two of these. It's like these guys found not just what they were looking for, but maybe something better and something different, but absolutely unimaginable at the time in which you saw them

suffer some of these setbacks. So there's a real interesting redemption arc and or this opportunity for Deceva to move through a passing of the torch is maybe not quite the right thing, but the emergence, the ascendancy of somebody who in the women's game, there's not really been a ton of exciting people breaking through. This would be this would be huge so like this is what i mean man there's like a lot to like on this card both of them like are these good competitive fights absolutely and are there potential breakouts and great storylines too it's just do the pfl on the aunt bc i'm honestly not

even trying to beat them up have they promoted this fucking card at all dude like it doesn't feel like it monday of this week you and i found out this card was this week that says a lot that does say a lot this is crazy given the quality that's on here but yeah all right when we talk about breakout opportunities here uh let's talk about deteva a little bit closer 26 years old from england uh 14 and 0 start to her career, all finishes, 13-0 start, excuse me, going for 14 here. But Luke, when we look at the odds, she's, according to DraftKings, a minus 380 favorite against the plus 300 Santos. So explain that to me. I understand Deceva's on fire at the moment, finished every opponent she faced, but I'm not seeing elite opponents up to date on her record at this point. She's going against somebody against Santos,

who I thought beat Shevchenko in her title opportunity, is 3-0 in the PFL since making the move from UFC, submitted Liz Karmush, a former champion, in her debut. Wouldn't you think the experience, the size, the toughness of Santos should make these odds a little bit closer? I'm a little bit surprised by this. Yeah, I'm trying to look them up. Oh, here we go.

I wanted to see this. So Deceva, as you mentioned, about a minus 380 favorite. You know, I'm looking at some of her other fights. It's Chelsea Hackett. She was minus 2000 against Jenna Bishop even more than this one minus 360 against Lisa uh Malden minus 2,400 these are blowouts the Jenna Bishop one being the least of them but in my judgment Tyler Santos is much better than Jenna Bishop or at least at a bare minimum from a style contrast is a much tougher fight I'm with you I think that the I understand

the enthusiasm this is what I mean BC like i totally get the enthusiasm about the chava she looks like she's got something special that could be you know could be very important for her division her career and for the women's game more generally but you got to prove it against somebody like this first and i think they're getting a little bit ahead of themselves because obviously she's got these tremendous wins but you know we always talk about this if you've got nothing but finishes and you're heading into a big fight it obviously means that you're good right it obviously means that but it also means that maybe you didn't fight all the best people and so it's a little hard to know about what what is the reality i think i would say the sbc independent

of the odds i do see this fight as potentially competitive tylos santos might have some finishing issues against an opponent like this and i also think that the chaver is going to have to get pushed by people like this for us to even see what her game looks like this to me is actually what's so important is because you know are the odds correct or not i'll i'll get long on luke to pitch in here in just a second but what i do think is the matchup itself could be really revelatory one way or the other about the limits of her game maybe ultimately and then currently how good they are it's like a really great test case well now luke do you find the odds to be a little bit out of whack 100 i do think dakota wins the fight but I thought maybe she'd be like a minus 150, minus 175, minus 380 or whatever you guys said.

Talia's coming back at plus 320. I'm taking that all day. Yeah, I get that. I totally get that. Hey, maybe. But look, if DeChaver breaks through, you almost look. I think one of the biggest losses PFL took this year was not being able to keep Kayla Harrison around especially for a cyborg super fighter another Pacheco matchup if they can get Deceva to become this must-see force which this

this fight gives her that opportunity she'd be a champion million dollar winner and continue an unbeaten streak whether she gets the finish or not she really has that opportunity to become not the face of PFL but one of the the true building blocks. So this is an exciting fight. I agree on taking that plus money though with Santos and I had it wrong. She didn't submit some Karmush. That was her most recent fight. She scored a unanimous decision over Karmush,

but just the same, a very good matchup here. And Luke, Locknane also in that main event there in the featherweight final, won the championship for PFL two years ago, but then was stopped by Jesus Pinedo in the 2023 tournament. So he's coming to climb back to the top there against the aforementioned unbeaten Kizerev. Luke, do you remember a trivia question? Who the opponent of Locke name was in the Dana White contender series when he

was ridiculed for going for a takedown to secure the win? I forget. I forget. Who who was it Bill Algeo was the answer Bill Algeo yeah who's by the way a good fighter but like look at what Brendan Loughnan has done since that who's made more money like I mean already the answer is Brendan Loughnan and if he goes and wins a you know another million dollar campaign like I don't know what to say at that point, man. Who won? Yeah, minus 325, however, is Kizerev your favorite, plus 260, Lachnane. Luke, they're telling you that Kizerev, who's already unbeaten, is going to continue on that way.

Should this be a guy we talk about more in PFL conversations? Kizerev, yeah, 29 years of age, as you indicated, already the favorite, as I also indicated indicated had a much much tougher run into the tournament both the guys got in off split decisions in the case of lochden over kai kamaka and then over braga who had his own kind of like uh you know with the death of a loved one had his own kind of comeback story that that kisry have sort of killed in the end um yeah he's awesome again this is one of those ones where it's like i don't know exactly how action-packed this will be i think this one could be a little bit nip and tuck

but you just got a two quality guys and in kisryev um you know he's gotten his his ability to wrestle and to dominate the fight that way i think it's going to be pretty important we'll see how it goes luke uh but coming off the conversation we had on monday about the unhappy bellator fighters who were looking for more dates and maybe only got one this calendar year it is surprising that this fight card on today on friday in saudi arabia has what like 16 17 fights and you're seeing some bellator alums there jeremy kennedy on card, but you're not seeing the big names, the same names that have been upset about the lack of communication and the lack of opportunities in terms of getting fights. So if they can't be on this card and if they can't regularly fight when

PFL has so many brands, did we forget to say on Monday that this is PFL trying to phase out their high expensive contracts coming from from bellator because that would be the only way to summarize it correct if you're trying to phase them out just let them go i mean that argument is hard for me to understand like just let them the whole thing's hard for me to understand why aren't why is patricio pitbull not in a featured fight on the uh on the prelim here you know what i'm saying because the way this card is built is the way pfl is built it's designed to be a financial instrument to make a content product it's not designed to be a fight promotion that organically makes fights so they have to do something with pfl mina on here

because that's who's footing the bill for this that's where this fight is it's ultimately in saudi arabia right um and so they've got all these constraints about who they can book and how how long the card can be and who can be on it and then they have their tournament model which they're stuck with so now all of those guys have to be on the main card and it just becomes a situation where like we're trying to finance and arrange content in a way that is like from the the person paying the bill which is this case the Saudis uh onto the content itself there's a direct pipeline rather than like we're trying to like if you were trying to sell tickets to customers would you build a card this way

no you wouldn't build a card this way that would be the dumbest imaginable but they're not trying to build a card for customers or trying to build a card for customers. They're trying to build a card for the people who are paying for the card. And that's, that's, that's the PFL in a nutshell. That's how they run their business. For the card is Saudi, right? That's what you're talking about. Yes. That's what I mean. Yeah. All right. There you go. Hey, Brent premise though, at 39, Luke, former Bellator lightweight champion had lost to Usman Nurmagomedov in the

semifinals of, of the Bellator tournament. That fight was overturned due to the failed drug test. He went 3-0 this year in PFL, is in the tournament final here, and will be a plus 410 underdog against the minus 550 Godzi Rabotunov. Would it be a nice story for Brent Premis at 39 to come all the way back here and cash out a million-dollar check in a tournament championship? Heck yeah, right? I didn't see it coming. I didn't see it coming at all i to your point this is like

i mean this division to be this old it's like freaking unheard of um but here he is and i mean the wins are actually pretty great too bruno miranda he polished him off with a rear naked choke in the second solomon renfro who had a run previously a bit of a puncher there he beat him in the third round with a rear naked choke and then against everyone's favorite boxer slash mma fighter and champion of the pandemic clay collard he wiped him out with via unanimous decision so like you know it's i think robotinov is better than all of those guys and i would say better than all those guys considerably to your point i i don't think you there's no there's no case to make him the favorite here but dude this is the pfl would they if they had their shit together,

they would tell you about how many fighters that have been left on the side of the road of the game and they rescued and turned back into attractions and, in certain cases, champions, but they didn't. Again, I think he's got an uphill climb against Robodanov, but the fact that he's even here to begin with very surprising and this is what the pfl is at its best certain sometimes anyway uh it does really well luke dennis goitsov will round out these tournament championship bouts add heavyweight here i do have a question

for you he'll take on oleg pop off but for goitsov he made it all the way the finals in 2023 got knocked out in the second round by Henan Fajeda. You still get to cash the million-dollar check if he goes the distance here after having defeated some big names, by the way, did Goitsov and Linton Vassell, Tiago Santos, and then Timothy Johnson, big names for what's available to him. Would it be bittersweet, though, that he's not going through Fajeda to get it, who instead was left out so he could fight Francis Ngannou?

I think it's Goldsov. I saw that fight. I was there when he fought Fajita. It was in D.C. And I walked past him and Fajita. Dude, like, Goldsov is a big dude, too. Like, both of them. I mean, obviously, he had Fajita as, like, a monster.

But Goldsov's, like, a big guy. And you mentioned he beat Lytton Vassell, stopped him. Tiago Santos stopped him. And then Tim Johnson stopped him and stopped the last two inside the first round like just ran him over yeah it would be a lot better dude can you imagine that if someone said you got to beat linton vassal this version of tiago santos and this version of tim johnson and you can win and then obviously has to fight pop off but like to get to those three you can then fight for a million dollar campaign you'd be like you take that you take that you know if you're a gold saw if you take that 10 days out of 10 like of course obviously yes what what a great way to make good money in the

fight game so you know you're talking about getting something back legitimacy wise okay but the pfl is also about just you know getting good money where good money is available and this dude has found the best way to do that i can if i see. Goltov will be a plus 110 underdog, according to DraftKings, against the minus 130 Popov. Luke, do you know much about the 32-year-old Russian Oleg Popov, who has a 19-1 record overall and has been unbeaten this year in the PFL? I saw the Steve Mowry bout, which he kind of polished him off, but I've not paid close attention to him.

I'd be lying to the audience if I did. So let's see what happens. Yeah, he beat Mallory, Davion Franklin, and Linton Vassell by decision to get to this point. Luke, would you say, though, that, I mean, it's been part of our running criticism of PFL and their current setup of where it's too horizontally built, there's too many watered down sub banners

of what they're doing. If this is their championship card, it's kind of hard that we don't get Larissa Pacheco potentially defending her title or fighting for another season title. And the same thing with Henn and Ferreira because both were kept out for the big pay-per-view. Obviously, I think the best move for them

and you've sort of echoed the same thing, is to just rip up the script, combine the rosters into one, put a championship atop each division and compete, find out how good you can be. But would you say it's disappointing if you are cheering for the PFL and this championship card doesn't have two of their better fighters on there in Fajeda and Pacheco? I just, I think your question is totally fine but i just think of all the problems that they got that's the least of them dude

i mean right but they have these tournament setups but then sometimes no no no no no no no no no no okay okay so fair enough these are what you are identifying is correct i don't want to i don't want to suggest i'm in any way saying you're wrong. But like, why not just have Pitbull fight somebody on this card? Why not have Patchy Mix fight Leandro Ego? Fucking Corey. Why isn't Corey Anderson? Oh, because it's a Bellator fight.

Who gives a fuck? Just put it on the card. Like, put some razzle dazzle on this bitch. And they don't. And they don't. And this is why they have all these fucking problems. I mean, again, it's like every time you try to understand, like, why does the PFL do this as opposed to this? Like, this system is not perfect, but it works.

And then they go to the other one. It's like you just follow the money. Follow the money with them. Like, that explains everything that they do. And it sort of tells you it's their 401K. It's a financial portfolio. it's not a fight promotion all right well luke that's all i got to say about pfl championships which should start after this ends yeah that's plenty there's more than enough you can hop onto the main card minute podcast i

think we're doing a live bong rip for every every fight right that's a yes okay there you go hey let's go to topic number two it's not finalized but reporting is starting to leak out at what this february 22nd riyadh season showcase in saudi arabia by turkey al-ashik and company the plans that promoter eddie hearn had previously said publicly that this would be the deepest, most amazing card in the history of Riyadh season, which has been the last year plus in the sport of boxing. Subsequently, there's been some reactions to the reporting over the last day that say,

hey, maybe one or more of the fighters rumored for this card could drop out, but there's been some rumors of other fights that could be added. Let's just talk about from reporting from the likes of dan rayfield and others what this february 22nd supercard is starting to look like not finalized but luke thomas if i told you you could tune into pay-per-view at a discounted rate by the way which is turkey's new idea and on february 22nd you could see

daniel dubois defending his ibf heavyweight title against joseph parker arthur better be evan dimitri b-ball and a must-see rematch for the light heavyweight championship geron boots ennis versus victor excuse me virgil ortiz jr at 154 pounds carlos adamas defending his middleweight belt against Hamza Shiraz. Jaleh Jong coming back against Kabayel, who has been on a tear of late at heavyweight. Luke, even if one of those fell out, there's also rumors that Shakur Stevenson versus unbeaten prospect Kid Austin Floyd Schofield could be added in addition to those or replacing one of those.

Luke, if we get 90%, 80% of the matchups I just told you, is it fair to say this sets a new precedent of how deep a boxing pay-per-view card can be in the modern era? It's, again, I'm not a boxing historian, so I'm not trying and I'm not trying to be, but I'm just trying to say someone has been watching boxing for a while. I've never seen a card like that. And again, to BC's point, it's not finalized, but what they've, what's like heavily rumored to believe to be anchor points of the card Ortiz boots, obviously Dubois Parker. Um, and you you know just on the list that would be

I mean here's the way to understand it there's no way even under a great enthusiasm that a card like that is built without somebody like like single-handedly making it happen like you can't the the economics of it would never work in any anywhere else other than someone extraordinarily wealthy and swooping in and just paying for it to happen it cannot happen like that's not just like a good card it's a card that is otherwise impossible to make like that's how good it is so you know i don't know how long bc the saudis have in boxing maybe one more year maybe a hundred more years who's to say but you if if you want like big fights to be made and big cards to be made you have to celebrate what you have now because i don't know how you get this, but for someone like Turkey, just taking a financial bath.

And I want to say, he did the $20 pay-per-view before. The results were not game-changing in any respect. I think it did quite poorly, as a matter of fact. It made no difference to piracy in the end, which is something I've been trying to explain to people. It just didn't work. And so, not only are you taking a bath

to make the car to put all those names together, you're not going to get shit at the gate because they're going to put it in Riyadh. And then on top of it, you're not going to make any money on pay-per-view. This is what I mean. It is literally impossible to make this, but for someone else just swooping in and then just putting their credit card on the table and saying, charge it to the card. Luke, quality-wise, I don't think we've seen something like this in boxing.

And that is even going back to the famed 1990s loaded pay-per-view cards that don king would put out where you could have tyson chavez senior christy martin right we've seen some tremendous cards this is a quality level that goes beyond look i gotta compare this to almost like a ufc 205 or 217 type of comparison. You know what I'm saying? Like this is out of this world. This has three fights at the top here that could headline their own pay-per-views when you're talking about Dubois Parker. And don't forget Parker's red hot

after the run of big names he's recently defeated. The better B-ball sells itself to run and it's going to 154 against unbeaten Virgil or T sells itself. Imagine if you're adding Shakur Stevenson and there is talks that that could happen sells itself to run and it's going to 154 against unbeaten Virgil or T sells itself imagine if you're adding Shakur Stevenson and there is talks that that could happen now that William Zepeda is is pulled out with an injury of the originally scheduled idea and those other two fights are not anything you sneeze at those are very good cards I mean again what you said is so right who

knows how long who knows if we can expect stuff like this is this just for is february kind of becoming a major for riad sisson it's it's the same time this year that they did the nganu versus joshua card which was also pretty deep at that time not deep on this level this is an eye-opener this is a stop what you're doing and circle the calendar this is incredible if this is really what we can expect to get, I won't complain about the pacing. You can put Turkey Al-Ashiqan as an honorable member of all the state hall of fames across our country.

I don't even care about that BS. Luke, give away trips to Saudi every five minutes on that show. We don't know offerings like this in the sport of boxing. This is like, hey, I know you're used to eating at Arby's, but here's a free pass to the Ruth Chris Steakhouse. Enjoy. You know what it is? You know what it is?

It's like going from Arby's to Fogo to Chow. You ever been to Fogo to Chow? No, no. Oh, okay. Hold on. Long Island Luke, surely you have been to Fogo to Chow. Never even heard of it. Is that a DC thing, Luke?

Oh, my God. I am stuck around dullards. Dullards. Oh, look at that. Our producer knows. Our producer, Matt, knows. Matt's been there. Fogo do Chão is a Brazilian steakhouse.

It's a chain. Yeah, there's one in D.C., but they're everywhere. Oh, is that that place in Vegas they got one? Where you have the meat. Yeah. Green or red. And if it's green, they'll just keep bringing it to your table. I've been to that. And it's incredible.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Oh, yes. No shit. Okay. Exactly. That's what I'm talking about.

That's what this card is. It's just Fogo de Chão. Is it like the very, very, very, very nicest thing? Not exactly. But it's so much goodness. You just can't. You're stuffed versus, you know, doing whippets in the back of an arby's parking lot i got meat sweats at uh fogo to chow yeah yeah yeah dude i had if you don't walk out of there without meat sweats and diverticulitis

what have you done you've done nothing you've done nothing come out of there looking to get a jimmy johns patch on your shorts like lesnar yeah definitely you could you see lesnar just house in a place like that oh and then just can we imagine the commode destruction it's like jeff daniels and dumb and dumber just you know by the way we haven't heard from lesnar at all since it came out about the vince mcmahon stuff is that is it just? He hasn't competed in the WWE at all. I haven't seen him make any public appearances. Was he in the documentary? It was mentioned that he had...

He didn't sit down with him? No, he did not. And I think he's in that Vince McMahon report as Vince had texted him to set up the trafficking. Like, hey, this woman I hired, she'll do anything for you too, which is just gross, Luke, okay? It's gross, all right? Yeah, I mean, everything that we ever loved as kids turns out horrible.

Yeah, well, speaking of that, Luke, let's go to topic number three and the continued fallout of the fallout of Conor McGregor being found liable in the civil trial for sexual assault rape call it what you want Luke the fallout looks like this sponsorships galore dropping McGregor's likeness or association with proper 12 whiskey uh many distribution companies saying they will no longer put McGregor products in their stores. Is this just the beginning in your eyes of more of this as the, I guess, McGregor kind of slowly getting himself canceled here as a result of this? Yeah, we should be very careful though.

I mean, canceling is probably the right word in 2024, but there can be different kinds of canceling. And I want to be very clear about that so this is something uh I've actually I've been I've been spending a lot of time in the last I don't know when did the news break about this Friday since then speaking to people in Ireland and obviously in particular Irish media about like the lay of the land there and how everything's being received and whatnot and here's what i've come to it is very surprising as we've talked about for americans to hear that like conor mcgregor is reviled

in ireland and it is quite true everyone i talk to both inside and even outside of combat sports especially actually says that his national stock has never been lower and what the way they do here. Okay. Oh my God. Listen to this dude. I had an Irish sports journalist tell me that they don't they can't even really cover MMA anymore because yeah, they would love to give attention to Ian Gary or Paul Hughes, but they can't because MMA is now so toxic because it's associated with

Conor there. In other words, rather than there being this halo effect where Conor's popularity raises the profile, now his notoriety is dampening down enthusiasm across the country for MMA or at least for the next, you know caring about things like gary or the ascendancy of paul hughes it's insane how bad it is he is loathed there so what you're noticing is brands are finally now cutting the cord to the relationship to him but the amount of dislike and discontent about him has been stewing for quite some time my understanding is they have had long-standing feelings of not liking

this you mentioned going there for the callum walsh fight and like hearing exactly that which was pre-trial for this thing now imagine the trial comes in a lot of these details go public the public in ireland has had enough they've had enough right but to me this is the interesting part bc he sold the proper 12 whiskey business and had retained a job essentially as both public face use of likeness brand ambassador all of these things he lost a bunch of relationships with various distributors or supermarket or grocery chains there that's bad enough but the proper 12 one to me is the most interesting not merely because of its symbolism which is significant it's the brand that he basically founded that's not really the reason

the real reason is because that's probably by a million miles i'm going to say his biggest source of income presently now it's gone now but i mean up to this point because he wasn't fighting so that's out there yeah he did the hollywood I doubt that was for a lot, and how scalable is that? I don't know. This life around liquor, whether it was as brand ambassador or for his own properties, now the beer he had, those are his predominant sources of income. That has now been severely challenged.

You'll note P. Diddy, I'm not saying that they're equivalent, but I am pointing out this. The biggest source of his present income was not money from the record business. It was from the similar role he held with Ciroc. And when that got challenged, a lot of his financial wealth got challenged. I bring all this up to say, BC, like it or not, and people are going to choose whatever they want here, I think that proper 12 cutting ties with him

makes the likelihood that he comes back significantly higher because now you have lost out on a major major source of income road ahead looks rocky can i counter you and say that while i'm sure he made a pretty penny as the brand ambassador the likeness of proper 12 he did sell the product for 600 million so when we're talking about his his biggest source of income that's a giant pile that's his biggest source of income that i don't think i think it was actually less than that in terms of what he took home i think it was don't get me wrong still in the hundreds of millions we're talking about an enormous sum of wealth but one he spends the shit like it's on fire. I mean, we know that. And I'm guessing that nevertheless, losing all of this money still is a devastating financial hit given the larger portfolio of how he was making money. And again, you know, getting pulled off the shelves there, it's gonna take a long time before he gets that back. This is not just money he's losing for the next year, but potentially for a very long time. Finding some way to combat that.

And also, understand something. Getting the money from a fight person is probably pretty significant for him, obviously, because he's Conor McGregor. But we all know the story, BC. We talked about it on Monday. How much you can rehab your image with the car wash of a fight cycle is significant. There's a lot to be done there.

And this dude needs rehab more than ever, but I, I do feel like losing that proper 12 relationship really fucked things up for him. Um, the Irish believe he had, he had it coming. We'll see what it all means in the end. Yeah. Connor would put out a statement just a few days ago saying people want to hear from me. I needed time. I know I made mistakes. He would go on to frame the sexual assault allegation as him having sex out of marriage, but still keeping his innocence in regard to that and saying, as much as I regret it, everything that happened that night was consensual. Luke, that would continue. And there was more in that Connor posting, but that would continue to his significant other common law wife, Dee Devlin, who also spoke out on her social media in a lengthy multi post rant, which really accuses the accuser Nikita Hand of being, you know, not only money hungry and lying, but really pointing to a lot of that gray area and the evidence that that is damning toward Nikita and going the extra mile and trying to frame that, you know, D saying her and Connor

had had an issue back then, but they with the infidelity, but they dealt with it and things are changed now. And then attacking Han's character for lying to her significant other, you know, partying with Connor while she has children at home. Luke, this was not well received by anyone. I understand D, Connor's significant other, supporting him in that side, believes that he had done no harm in this case, I guess, outside of that infidelity. But is D forgetting all the times that since then where Connor's been found, like at the halftime of the heat game in Miami with a girl in the bathroom that they shut down? I mean, this just came across as just the wrong posts at the wrong time,

especially when Dee went to the level of, I'll raise my kids to be Larry of women like you. When everyone else is responding, maybe you should raise your kids to not be like Connor. This is going in an area that you don't normally like to, Luke, putting the idea of infidelity up there on the crime level of the things he's been accused of. But doesn't this come off just as really tone deaf in a way? I mean, I think that's being charitable. I don't have any interest in speaking about the inner workings of their marriage,

in part because we have no fucking idea about the inner workings of their marriage. And also, it's not our business. But I will say that... I'll just say this. BC, what days did she show up to the trial? Do you recall? The last two, I thought. Yeah, right.

When all of the forensic evidence that makes the strongest case for nikita hand she was absent for all of that um you know uh there's a number of theories that we could launch about why she chose to do what she did in terms of these stories on instagram i don't think any of them paint a very happy picture. And for me, I know a lot of people have questions about legitimately important parts of the case. And I certainly understand that. But none of these people have any willingness to reconcile with the forensic evidence. They simply want to pretend that that is something that is not as important or otherwise not as meaningful or otherwise not as clear and it's all of those things it's the most important evidence

it's the strongest by a million miles and it's the one that they cannot reconcile with including her and i think until people are willing to do that you know their judgment about these matters should be taken uh not so seriously yeah that i didn't i didn't like that posting at all but you know who cares what do i know luke this is just gross and you know then you get a lot of people really posting on social media the totality of the accusations against mcgregor over the last five or six years even though not obviously not every single one had led to a result in court like this but man luke this guy needs two different women who accused him of sexual assault and in by the way there's more than that i mean i'm just referring to two different

cases there's certainly plenty more but you have at least two cases where women went to police to accuse him it moved through the justice system in ireland and then both in different ways one had her house broken into and her significant other stabbed and then the other one had her car firebombed outside of her dublin apartment like guys you like you cannot claim to be people who are able to read evidence effectively and then make strong judgments about it if you are unable to understand the significance and the connectivity between these events it's well said luke let's put it let's put a bow on that right there and transition into why we're here it's thanksgiving mailbag time we put the cry out to you to email us at morningcombat at gmail.com ask your questions we like to have fun on the holiday hey hey pussy

you're still there are you are you talking to my cat are you talking about reggie jay over here talking about that bitch ass cat no that's not fair that's not fair i will i will spit in your face no no this this man needs to be protected for for many great reasons dude that is that is it's not me and it's not your wife homie over there is your real significant other let's just be honest yes he you know he made a choice he he put it you know he put it on the line for me luke and i had a decision to make what i what i reciprocate and the answer was yes luke okay i'm ready to shit i'm reggie jackson's bitch who cleans his shit who cleans his shit uh my son chris i i did

for years but they got it got finally got handed down so i was very happy at that development. All right. Can you put toques on the litter box, please? Can you train her up the right way, Luke? My daughter shits in the commode. OK, I was talking about her cleaning the cat box, but they don't have a cat box. Oh, you don't have any more cats at the moment, correct? Yeah, he's been dead for a few years, B.C. Oh, well, I mean, there's still time to maybe get a new one. But that's know that's the discussion between you and the family all right on that note let's get into our thanksgiving mailbag questions the first one comes to us from dean hey guys extra long time listener and just huge fan of you both my question is there's been a lot of talk about the negatives of 2024 in the ufc but what are your top three things that you are thankful for in the 2024 UFC year?

Thank you for the hours of effort and dedication you put in. I am thankful for MK. Luke Dean has a point. This year hasn't been all shit stains. I haven't loved the direction of the matchmaking. There's been a lot of last minute head scratching decisions. We did get some huge events. we did get some great fights we had some great stories and developments can you give me one thing that you're happy that went down on the mma global leader this year that you're

thankful for um besides ilia teporia's rod the rot the of Ilya Teporia, I think, has been... I mean, honestly, to me, the biggest two things were him and Alex Pereira this year, right? I mean, between the two of them, you got five ridiculous main events or different levels of significance or whatever, but those two carried basically the biggest chunk of the year that I can think of.

I think Boateng becoming the celebrated figure that he is, I mean, it's hard to dislike from what I can tell. You know, his stature and relevance and importance has only exploded in this time. And then obviously Tepori wasn't as active, and we've all been over this a million times, but I think somebody going through and taking a division that has champions as celebrated and revered and as talented as, you know,

a guy like Volk and Maxard Featherweight, and then stopping both of them is rare historically and important to appreciate. I think between the two of those things, that's been, to me, those have been the high watermarks for sure, BC. I wonder if you have a different feeling about high yeah certainly i mean i think the mvp of 2024 is alex perera for bailing out the promotion so often for delivering on the highest levels for having three title defenses in 175 days which is just absurd uh the toporia rise was incredibly

fun i'm thankful i gotta say. I'm thankful that UFC and Dana White tried the sphere because somebody had to do it. I'm glad that the UFC, which, which, well, I want to say they had the finances in this case, it took Turkey Al-Ashiq and there was, you know, reports of some rumblings between Dana and TKO, but they landed the plane, they pulled it off. And if you're going to be be following a promotion that's this successful financially you would want them to be the industry leaders and taking chances like this and maybe trying to elevate the way we watch fights i i thought all of that in the end was noble and ambitious in a good way and i'm and i'm glad they went through with it without question i i'm

starting to even it's weird luke the argument argument against the watered down matchmaking has always seemed to have been, well, hey, we get a UFC card basically every Saturday. That's not true, but it's close enough. getting numb to the water down matchmaking and really just coming back to the idea that, yeah, I guess I would rather have a card every weekend, even if I'm making fun of the depth of it and talking about why is this back at the apex, then not having anything at all. No, I would much rather have nothing at all. That's an easy choice for me to make. You'd much rather have quality. I mean, I get that.

I prefer consistent quality. I don't't know i think i'm getting so i mean the nba the nba being like hey we have games on every saturday but then like two of the weekends every saturday are the fucking wizards i don't need to i you know what I mean like this is not watching this kind of basketball is not interesting it doesn't I I've tried to watch the Wizards many times this season they're fucking terrible they're fucking terrible so no uh I don't need that I just let me let me let me know when the Mavs are playing and I'll watch I'll watch Luca Don Chich I I don't know. I've come around after complaining most of the year to enjoying the combination of row eight

and some of these donk filled fight night undercards. They do nothing for me. Unless Bisping's one of the announcers, then I'm not thankful at all. I'm also look, it's weird i'm thankful that the that the promotion appears so aggressively in the bent on making this jones aspinall fight i'm leery of saying that out loud

because your response would be isn't that what a promotion is supposed to do i'm actually aggressively try to make the biggest fight possible. But it's like for as much as they filleted John to get him back out here, delayed the Stipe fight unnecessarily another year, they seem to have drawn the line in the sand and are basically like, no, Jones will make this fight. We'll make it happen. I'm thankful for that, Luke.

They could have stood on their own BS and let John walk away or whatever. I'll say this. We've never been closer how about that never been closer so take it for what it's worth yeah i'm also thankful for eileen perez you know fiona luke she makes fun fights happen and weird things happen after those fights i like weird people this is the uh this is the argentine who twerks yes i like nate the train in the ufc i like i'm thankful for the fact that when a fight night card launches i'm not looking for that rising prospect i'm looking for who are the weirdest people on the card and will they entertain me and they often do these are some of my favorite fighters luke these second and third tier fighters who are more known for their

their craziness it's fun to watch them put together win streaks and see if they can crack contendership while at the same time being batshit crazy i like that side of mma i like the regional side of mma in a different kind of way because i you know people are still striving and like really really difficult circumstances and there's just a lot of you know the unknown about the future um i like that and i like super high quality mma but i don't the in between stuff i was thankful that uh that i got to call a boxing fight for the ufc luke and go to dublin yeah that's fun yeah that's great definitely let's see what uncle dana's got around the corner for the new year we'll see let's keep this going you know des from cork ireland luke you remember he sent us that great

christmas card our first year is back up on that is yeah des des says imagine the scenario for the first time in history a duo has been voted as co-presidents of the u.s luke thomas and brian campbell choosing from only mma fighters fighters or MMA personalities from any nationality. Please select individuals for the following positions. Vice President, Secretary of the Treasury, Defense and Education, Attorney General, Press Secretary. And he says, coincidentally, Ireland goes to the polls today, Friday, November 29th in our general election. Enjoy Thanksgiving. It's Des. luke if you and i were co-presidents of the new u.s put up put up leave leave the the question up so i can see all those

spots yeah who would be our vice president from mma circles fighters personalities i mean can we can we bring chael in here i think chael has to be press secretary. Okay. Secretary of Education, you could do Rosie Sexton, who has a PhD and was a scientist. What? What is that face? Oh, hi, my name is Brian Campbell, and if I don't know things, they must be bad. Hi, everybody.

These are my opinions. Enjoy them. Who's got a law degree anybody got a law degree can we put jed mishu francis inganu as secretary of defense luke okay francis you can go put in secretary of defense uh jed mishu has a law degree we'll make him attorney general i'm prosecuting people who don't sell vapes. Secretary of the Treasury. You know, if Conor wasn't, you know, apparently a horrible person,

I guess you would nominate him. But who do we trust with? Oh, God, no. None of the Bitcoin bros. I'm not interested in your fucking crypto. How about Hunter Campbell? Can he be our? Secretary of the Treasury?

Yeah. Yeah, I'd go with that. Okay. That kind of rounds us out. But do we pick a VP? We have to have a woman in the cabinet. We got to have a woman. No, because yes, Rosie Sexton will do Secretary of Education.

Can we put Valentina on a role, Luke? She'd be great. No, she'd be really bad. What about Tim Kennedy, Secretary of secretary of defense yeah you know what he is getting that so i saw these former special forces guys accuse him of stolen valor uh or at least someone told me that they accused him of stolen valor so i have to i have to see more about that but um if you like your freedom regarding kennedy luke thank him right you know what you know who our vp should be so we can blame him for all of our problems and then use his like skills help to help us look better shaq majority shaq shaq majority shaq majority can be our vp we can get that coveted iranian vote out of orange county yeah he is the persian prince there thank you

for your question obviously we want all right wingers luke in maga hats to can't win an election in this uh electorate without it my friend yeah maybe we can get pat militich to to run the uh january 6th community maybe maybe uh let's hear from william he says luke in bc open note grappling here. Oh, he's great. What does that mean? What is it? Open? That's his screen name.

This is a dude. He has a school in Austin, Texas. He does a lot of really good analysis. MMA analysis more generally, obviously excels in jujitsu analysis in particular. He's great. Do you think he puts the anal in an analysis, Luke? I think you put the anal in an analysis luke i think you put the anal in i just don't even know what to do well william says happy thanksgiving can y'all talk about the ufc's decision to move into professional grappling what does that mean for the ufc for

fight pass do you care and do you think other casual fans could care luke i want to add on that the rumors appear to be that a ultimate fighter style reality show will be will be coming soon to fight pass or maybe espn plus i'm not sure but it will surround the ufc's move into grappling what can that do for this sport are you fired up about this i'm not going to watch the ultimate fighter version or whatever they're going to call it i have mixed feelings about it and the reason why i say that is because like let's talk about the good first the good is obviously pretty straightforward first the more that they invest in grappling and not dumb shit slap like i think the happier all of us are going to be just on that level alone that'd be great but obviously like what can it do for the sport of grappling bc you would probably agree if any entity in combat sports has

a chance of making grappling cool cji did something unbelievable um but you know the ufc's muscle and their resources and their access that's just just what they can do is obviously without peer the fight pass invitational i know you may not have caught some of that stuff those are for the most part pretty quality events they're at least fun they're typically well matched there's no no worthy names the rule set's pretty good there's just a lot to like about it not perfect there's some complaints too but you get the idea you just have to imagine there's like they if they really wanted to there can actually test like can jiu-jitsu be popular in america and how popular can that be if anyone is going to give us an answer to that

question it's probably going to be because the ufc is backing the thing that gives me a little bit of pause about all of this is of course their monopolistic ambitions tko having a hand in boxing going forward having obviously the biggest hand in nma and now it's for jiu jitsu and who else knows gives me a little bit of pause and in particular one thing i really don't want to see are grapplers in their prime signing contracts with an entity that would hold them down and not allow them to like you know mix and match everywhere as they currently do um you know without in the same way that mma fighters are tied down do i want to see that in grappling fuck no i don't want to see that in grappling so it really depends on what they do and i don't know what they're going to do but i understand cases for optimism and pessimism

just the same yeah i would either add weed like high rollers does or add uh striking high rollers oh oh yeah the the weed thing yeah then it wouldn't be grappling anymore luke that'd be the preferred move but uh i mean mikey musa mechi is now saying that he he's considering mma as well are you interested in that no i think he would probably be terrible at mma yeah all right hey let's go to robert he's from sydney australia question for the elite professional boxing only he says why is holding? Wouldn't the sport be better off if holding was as illegal as a punt to the nuts? NB, this question does not relate to fighting on the inside. Thanks for the show. Great fun. great fun so luke i mean holding gets you warned but i guess what he's saying is why why are why are referees sort of liberal and allowing the holding process to take place before then they'll jump in and separate them yeah you know i don't know luke i mean i'm trying i'm trying to put

this into words here it is a part of the game. You can slow down your opponent. You can clinch when you're hurt. Give yourself a second or two. Would you prefer an outlawing of that altogether? I don't see any problem with the way the rules are as I understand them. I think there could be different levels of enforcement. That's a thing you could try.

But I don't have a problem with the people want to tinker with the rules rather than tinker with how the rules are enforced and i think that though you really have to understand there's two separate problems and changing the rules is big changing how they're enforced you can always go back on that without fucking up the rule itself yes so let's see about changing enforcement. You're right. And look, elite referees have strike zones like baseball umpires. You know certain guys like Kenny Bayless is not going to let you hold. He'll eventually get that warning out for excessive holding.

Other guys allow it too much. I'll never forget Luis Pobon, the referee, allowing Vladimir Klitschko to jab Alexander Povetkin and then hold and lean all over him round after round and really just muck up that fight. So in those cases, when you get a way too liberal referee, yes, it does make what Robert's saying true. Why would we allow this unnecessary stalling? But it comes down to the referee being a stern Warner and jumping in and realizing when it's just, Hey, we're on the inside. Nothing's happening. We're going to clinch. Let's separate them.

And then realize when someone is actively trying to muck up and slow down the fight, that's when you got to be really on your P's and Q's. So, yeah, I agree with you, Luke. Let's go to Josh. He says, what's up, bozos? A South Jersey donk here. Luke, this guy just talks like any other Jersey person, right? When is the last time the UFC held an held an event in philly he asks seems

weird to me that they head to newark and new york city once a year but ignore a fight fanatic city in major metro area like philly happy thanksgiving look i will say that there isn't there currently is new administration atop the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission, but for years it was run by a gentleman who was considered some of the harshest, more conservative of the way things are run, a guy who preferred same-day weigh-ins, for example. And I know for boxing, that really limited the amount of major fights that you regularly see go to the Philadelphia area. Now you're seeing it go up of late. Jaron Butenas had two matchroom cards there.

But I wonder if that's the same way previously in MMA, where it's just known as a very strict commission, so it doesn't entice people the same way Texas and Florida might. Took the words right out of my mouth when we saw gerard ennis fight royman via was that not in atlantic city because they didn't want to do the fight in philly yes now again to your point they have since had some changeover in leadership but ufc's also had bad luck in philly remember nate marquardt not philly but pennsylvania when they had nate marquardt on that card i believe that was the pennsylvania card where he had the TRT pop and it was this whole scandal and everything went bad. So they've just kind of stayed away for that reason. I agree that Philly is a fight in town.

You know, I don't think it's like some fucking hardcore destination for MMA fandom. I think that's a little overstated, but sure. Could they go back there more regularly because they make other stops along the East Coast? Yes. But Newark gets the halo effect of being close to New York City with a very good commission, and New York City is New York City. Philly is neither of those things, so people in Philly need to pipe down a little. I'm trying to think of, like, when I think of Philly and UFC, what's the first fight that comes to mind?

It's got to be Anderson Silva and... UFC 101. Forrest Griffin, correct? That's right, UFC 101. BJ Penn, I thinkny florian was on that car too um fantastic card i mean that back to back of ufc one actually ufc 99 100 and 101 was like a a phenomenal moment in time but absolutely and then who do you think of when you think of philly mma you think of obviously sean brady presently but eddie alvarez back in the day

i mean you know there's something to adore there but it's not new york city and it's not it's not the new jersey athletic commission so are you excited about knuckle mania coming to philly with eddie alvarez against jeremy little heathen stevens the heart i have a browser subscription so i'm good okay all right uh colin says knuckle mania uh what is with the average mma fans obsession with figuring out who the best boxer is in MMA? It seems like every few weeks there's a conversation around who's the best boxer, but MMA striking goes way beyond pure boxing. It seems like a little weird, a weird little sibling mindset to the other major combat sports when we're never having large scale conversations about who has the best striking wrestling or jiu-jitsu in MMA. Hopefully you both have had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your respective families.

It's Colin. Luke, does Colin have a point here, or should he shut the hell up? I don't think he should shut the hell up, but I disagree with the framing of that. You have to understand the evolution of things. Yes, for a long time, the question was who was the best striker in MMA, who is the best striker, and a lot of that involved people who were, for the long time, the question was who was the best striker in MMA, right? Who is the best striker? And a lot of that would involve people who were, for the most part, either dynamic kickers or had a very competent and included part of their kicking game. But what

we've seen is that guys who can press with their boxing have just started to have a lot more success, at least the better ones at it. And I also feel like you've seen MMA fighters cross over into boxing and look quite poor, granted at the end of the run or old or whatever. But there is a certain refinement that comes with boxing because it is so narrow in rule set compared to MMA and because it is so much more difficult to succeed in that sport relative to the amount of people who are trying it, right? It is a much bigger amateur system. Many more people you have to compete against relatively speaking it's harder to break through it's a much more refined skill set so when you talk about people being like the best boxer ever made the

reason why that's relevant is people ask who the best wrestler is who the best grappler is these are relevant things too but what they're trying to figure out is who's got that that certain kind of level of refined special refinement to their striking game and that's why it's kind of important and so i don't think it's why it's kind of important. And so I don't think it's, is it the most important question? Of course not. But is it a reasonable one to ask and kind of have fun debating? I absolutely think so, yes.

Long Island Luke letting us know over our chat here, Luke, that Philly also housed Barboza versus Gaethje, that fantastic short brawl in 2019. And he says that newark also pays a five million dollar location fee for ufc to go there which probably helps a lot of these pay fees though yeah yeah we all know that going to uh new york for any combat sport raises the taxes aggressively so uh maybe it's easier to be in that new york city metro area by frequenting newark and then you know you expose people to newark pen luke and you know that's that has a way of really like lessening the population and controlling if you're a homeless

person and you need to trim your balls in the sink at the bathroom in penn station use that please next time all right let's skip ahead here to david who says i apologize if this has been asked before but i feel like i've noticed that the careers of unretired fighters who land jobs on the before fox and now espn analyst desk seem to lose a step examples alan juban tyron woodley dominic cruz anthony smith even the likes of michelle watterson and walt harris have been on the desk question do the distractions entailed by an analyst-type job take meaningful time away from a fighter's ability to focus and train or be 100%? Or are the fighters chosen for the job barely recognized for their careers when they are already mostly past their prime?

For some strange reason, I think I know that Luke's answer is going to be, but had to shoot my shot anyway. Love the show, Day One Dog here. Yours truly, David. Luke, is David off on this? Yeah, I don't think that's how it works. answer is going to be but had to shoot my shot anyway love the show day one dog here yours truly david luke is david off on this yeah i don't think that's how it works a lot of those roles you have to yes you have to get invites for even within the ufc some there's a tryout for um and you know i think that is how felder got one of those gigs there was a tryout for commentary he was obviously quite good at it and it went to him but

it wasn't like you know um well that was the process in play but i think that what you're seeing is guys who can do that job well joe van felder when they're getting near ish near ish the end of their run or at least what they feel like they want to even do at that point they began to start laying the foundation for this other kind of work, either by putting out feelers, getting invited, just sort of making it known that this is a thing that they want. These are people who are feathering the bed, laying a nest, whatever metaphor you would like, BC, ahead of time.

And so people are like, oh, well, now their career is starting to slip. It was going to slip at that point probably anyway. Now they at least have another avenue. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I don't think it's a correlation between become a desk analyst and your career falls apart. I think it's timing of, of how long it takes to build your star and personality and charm and charisma for the organization to take notice of you as a potential analyst. And then I think the point you made where a lot of these guys can get established quickly as analysts and then you can start realizing i don't need to push myself as much to take fights i don't need because i'm building this cushion in this transition so they can be more selective but

yeah i think that all comes together look i always am impressed it doesn't happen all the time in sports when someone in their prime already begins that transition. I remember Roy Jones did it while he was still an active in his prime fighter with HBO. Rick Barry in the 1970s as a prime basketball player was coming in in the finals and the playoffs and being a lead analyst role. Do you think we'll ever see that more? Or is that to amend this question? Do you think that's the hardest thing to do to be a championship fighter, a champion in your prime, and juggle the demands of broadcasting with fighting? Broadcasting is actually pretty hard if you do it right.

Yeah, people are like, oh, you just show up and talk. You can do that. That's true. DC does that, yeah. He's great at it, though. Okay, but at a bare minimum minimum he at least pays somebody to do research like you know even then he doesn't literally just show up and talk there's some other level of prep involved that's kind of funny though although i like dc when he's on like when

he's doing well he is very good you know i think he's the second best announcer in the ufc family okay but the point i'm trying to make is you know for the rest of us you know you can't bc will tell you this like if you don't do a lot of homework, it just shows that you won't hold that job for very long. And so, yeah, it's like a time consuming job. Talking is not necessarily the hardest part of it. All the other ones are. And I think if you're going to do that well and do it consistently, it's going to be hard if you're actually got a fight career going. You know, fight career is really hard, you know, and I certainly think that, like, those two things can be juggled by, you know, the right person at the right time, but not by most.

We see some stars, you know, championship level that have transitioned nicely, DC, Michael Bisping, who's not my favorite, but he's been, you know, an announcer and analyst for a while. Do you think, do you ever look around the roster and say like, man, you know, what if Izzy took a try at it now? What if, you know, with that personality work, I always said, obviously now is a bad time to bring it up, but I always wondered what Connor would have looked like in that role.

I wouldn't expect him to be the traditional style, but you have to think of somebody like DC where they bring so much entertainment and charisma along with the actual analysis is there anybody that you wished had tried it out or think could be good at it luke um not i think michael kiesa could probably be pretty good at it um on the boxing side i think chris algeri has become really good at it yeah but i'm saying is there any big name fighters that we haven't seen do this that you're that you would be intrigued to see them give it a try what the way i interpret that question is have you heard any big name fighter who is especially articulate at um sharing ideas verbalizing concepts anything like that and the answer is no i've not yeah dom crew is another big name guy who has but again to the same point you raised that kind

of already doing that you know so um no one else i can think of at the present moment no imagine if they brought in rousey to be one just imagine that i don't i mean i literally don't think she could finish a broadcast without storming off you know oh wow looks like she puts the broad in broadcast and i'm like dude come on that's just so unnecessary all right here's mike happy thanksgiving from here in canada he says what do you think is the next country to have a boom period a boom period luke costco guys of top fighters i don't know what sport he's talking about i'm gonna assume mma based on our clientele so luke it used to be brazil right now it's certainly uh you know

those those eastern european slash asian dagestan area kazakhstan i mean there's some hammers coming out of that area luke we did we know that what's the next area of note new england kazakhstan i think kazakhstan's gonna have a big push they've got regional fights that are i've watched a few of them high level guys up and down there getting a lot of experience showing a lot of well-rounded ability very similar to what you see with the daghestani's a lot of sambo tradition there we're seeing china make big moves for example china i think will have a big moment it just it's hard to say exactly how far away that is it doesn't seem like we're on the cusp of one but maybe japan when we need them

right now to make like super japan already japan had a peak 20 years ago um what about france they got they got they got france has a bright future germany has barely scratched the surface. Spain has barely scratched the surface. There's a lot of those places, I think, that are going to have big next five to ten years. Indeed, indeed. Let's go over to Dylan. What's up, boys? Who wins in a fight?

Prime Robbie Lawler versus Prime Justin Gaethje. Prime Robbie Lawler. Thankful for everything you both have given to the MKk nation yeah at the peak of their primes you would say robbie lawler was a more dangerous better overall fighter yes beat better competition was bigger i mean you know once 170 versus 155 or um could take a punch i mean obviously the nick diaz first fight, you would say no, but over time, it showed that he could. Yeah, I just feel like Justin Gaethje, even in his prime, got hit a lot. You just can't get hit by prime Robbie Lawler that often. Dude, I love how fun, first of all, how fun in general Robbie Lawler fights are. I think, along with Gaethje, one of the most rewatchable on UFC Fight Pass of anybody.

But how many of those championship fights think the two Hendricks fights where Lawler would be like dangerous and dominant for two rounds and then take like two rounds off, knowing that he's going to come back in round five and bring hell fire to you? Dude, he wouldn't. He would. I remember there were several UFC DVDs that I bought back in the day. Would I be like, dude, what the fuck happened in round two? His corner, I'd be like, oh, I took it off. I just took that shit off. I didn't care.

He was notorious for that because he knew he had, he had the one fucking hit or quitter right here. All he needed was just a moment and he'll find it. Look at his career, dude. Yeah, that's an easy, I mean, I'm not even trying to disrespect Justin Gaethje, who was a phenomenal guy in his own right, but that's just too much firepower from Robbie Lawler.

Sorry. Dude, I miss Prime Johnny Hendricks. He was, I mean, I know it was maybe USADA affiliated, but he was fun. Prime Hendricks was fun, Luke. He could, I mean, dude, he looked like he said, you've seen the Avengers Infinity War, right? No.

Do you remember? You didn't see the first avengers infinity war i don't know i don't really watch that i saw thor love and thunder and black adam i don't think i'm going back luke you know well there's a scene where like one of the sorcerers or whatever the fuck their name is from dr um dr uh who was no who was the guy along out look you don't have to like get on screen but i don't know anything about marvel or any of that shit you two motherfuckers don't know fogo de chiao don't know marvel what do you know what do you know is yeah the highest marijuana yeah and food poisoning apparently but good luck to long island luke on that regard

anyway there's a point where there's a scene where where hulk gets hit and he got sent out of his soul and he just goes flying back like this and uh it's what reminded the hendrix flooring john fitch reminded me of that i just never seen someone just go like you know dude remember when he did that to campman too yep camden didn't have the same kind of chin though that's a little no but just laid him the freak out with one of those left hammers oh let's go over to dude also hendrix looked like he should have been driving a truck with like a dip patch you know he probably does to this day yeah yeah uh tim says hey hey dear boys what's your favorite part of a fight cycle is it one the pre-fight build-up and prognostications to the fight itself three the

post-fight analysis and looking forward to future matchups. Sincerely, Rolo from Cleveland. And P.S., Brian, congratulations on the publication of your autobiography entitled, I've never been on OnlyFans except when I'm breathing. That's a good one. That's pretty good. Luke, if there are three parts of the fight cycle the build-up and the promotion of it the fight itself or the post-fight analysis and prognostication which is your favorite yeah

easily the i mean how can this even be a question the answer is the fight itself is by far the most interesting the post-fight is the second most interesting and the pre-fight is for the dogs pre-fights for the dogs i disagree raise your hand if you're a dog bc raise it put that motherfucking paw in the air there you go uh i will say that my favorite part is number one the anticipation the optimism that you're allowed to have because you haven't seen the fight yet it hasn't sucked you can talk yourself into it like i've had to do in boxing for years i love the build luke the build is just anything can happen dude think about it when you get a great build where it's saucy there's pushing at the weigh-in there's trash talk sometimes it doesn't even matter if the fight lives up to the expectations because you i'm

telling you it's look you get i can't believe that you dislike it It's one thing to say, no, I prefer the fight itself. In theory, in theory, we all should prefer the fight itself, but you're basically completely dismissing the fanfare of it. The excitement, the hype building, the, I get that. It's a integral part of the fight experience. I certainly would never in a million years challenge it, but it's, it's integral for the dogs. That's who it's integral for like the

diggity dogs count me in luke okay if peeing your pants is cool then yeah all right let's go to skull murphy he says happy holidays y'all luke what's your favorite area or town in the dmv area and what's your least favorite and bc does your hometown have a rival dude my hometown of naugatuck connecticut has a monster rival for the last 130 something years every single thanksgiving when we take on that dirt hole town of the ansonia chargers luke you know what i mean stanford steve is one of the biggest stars in ansonia history what a bunch of even though i love steve what a bunch of absolute dirt holes down there luke you know what i'm saying for years we used to own that rivalry and now nogi really only wins like once every 10 years and um it's very humiliating against just such absolute dirt baggagery that comes out of ansonia um you know we are north

so the river the naga river flows south so they get all of our chemicals and for years luke okay uh what's your least and most favorite area of the dmv chevy chase luke i don't ever get over to north dude it's interesting so the city is built on a quadrant system, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest. The main one that everyone considers DC is Northwest. I have never in my entire life lived in Northwest. I have always, always, always lived outside of that. So you're talking about Chevy Chase is on part of DC and on the other side, there's actually two Chevy Chases. There's one in Maryland and then one in DC. But but no i don't ever go to that area i don't ever hang out in that area i would say that you know here's what's interesting when i was a kid dc had a real chinatown like a real chinatown and then that all changed in the 80s late 80s

and early 90s they all moved to the suburbs so like if you're looking for like dope asian food in the area and i do mean that like Chinese Japanese Laotian you know you name it all the different kinds you have there's so many Annandale has it Rockville has it like there's so many places that have awesome at um you know obviously in Fairfax as well fantastic Asian food but if we're talking like just places that I I don't I like to visit in the area it's got to be Old Town Alexandria Old Town Alexandria is like you know it's just it's it's area it's got to be old town alexandria old town alexandria is like you know it's just it's it's beautiful it's really really really really beautiful do you like chinatown i do like chinatown but it's not chinatown anymore i mean there's there's there's a couple of like

really important chinese businesses that have stayed yeah the vast majority have left it's just it's it's it's depressing in that sense all right um worst part of the dmv that's a great one dude springfield virginia sucks my balls and i hope everyone from springfield virginia hears me saying that you know that fucking place blows and i can say this with great confidence because my dad lived there when my parents divorced for a little bit of time and i had to spend some time out there did he have divorced dad vibes at the time dude my dad is the fuck you ever see you ever seen that picture of shavkat rakmanov with like an eagle on one hand like a wolf in the other and he's got that's if that was being a divorced dad energy that's my dad is shavkat rakmanov like the most divorced man you can fathom so wait

bald spot ponytail and convertible or what no no no no didn't have the ponytail but definitely infrequent showering i mean i just let's just set that up you have a sports car please tell me he bought a sports car after it he date he didn't but he at the time dated a woman who had a sports car and the license this is this is long since changed but had a license plate that said pizzazzi i fucking swear to god i fucking swear to god that's a i've never told that story how 80s and 90s divorced dad is that shit when you're driving around with a pizzazzi sports car convertible holy fucking shit bro um so anyway springfield blows if there's nothing interesting about it it's just the intersection of highways

and 7-Elevens. Go fuck yourself, Springfield. Silver Spring, Maryland blows? Silver Spring, Maryland's okay. The Fillmore is there, and I go to a lot of concerts there. You can also bike from D.C. to Silver Spring. There's actually two Colombian restaurants in Silver Spring, one of which has a Colombian grocery store inside of it.

So I don't shit on Silver Spring. I kind of like Silver Spring a little bit. It's not great, but it's all right. All right, if you wanted to get killed, which section would you go to first in Greater DMV? I mean, I hate to say this, but I think the place with the highest crime rates are probably going to be in Prince George's County.

That's where all the great athletes, or many of the great athletes anyway are from kevin duran is from seat pleasant um i lived for a time in pg county when i when this house was getting repaired and i had to spend time like renting an apartment like month over month because i this place was still like under construction uh i lived in a place called oxen hill now oxen hill now has like the mgm casino it's like totally different but dude back then i just could not believe how much daily crime i witnessed living in oxon hill maryland and i lived off a place if you if you're anyone from the area will know off indian head highway not for the faint

of heart like just a very very rough area this is circa 2005. um you're probably there unfortunately but that doesn't mean it's not good places in BG County, but it's got a lot of rough areas too. I wish you had, you know, been able to live in one town or one school system your whole life so you could feel what a real high school rivalry is like, Luke. I know you had a cup of coffee with Valdosta in their wars with the Lima Brothers High School with uh with the lima brothers high school

but uh it's only the winningest high school football team in the country but you know nobody really cares that much they care more about the nogta valley league the nvl netflix has a show about my high school do they have one about yours i don't think that they do no no they don't they really nfl films has a documentary about my high school i don't think that they have yeah but is it really your high school? You were there for like two weeks. So two years, and my brother graduated from there. So did I graduate from there?

That kind of is the real demarcation line. Where did you graduate from? Marietta? Marietta High. Marietta High. I went there junior, senior. By the way, changing high schools in the middle of high school, zero out of ten. do not recommend it.

Not fun. Not getting laid from that transaction at all. I don't know. I eventually did, but my junior year was a rebuild year. You know what I'm saying? We had to build through the draft. You know what I mean? Definitely.

We've got one more from Adam. Hello, BC and LT. What is your favorite Thanksgiving leftovers meal? So, Luke, let's say let's say you had Thanksgiving at your house and then you had access to all of the leftovers. When you go to make a perfect next day Thanksgiving leftover lunch. What what is that? What because you're reaching for your favorites at that point. Favorites only. The answer is very simple. Mostly carbs, protein, and gravy. So let me give you an example.

Here's how I'm filling it up. We're going to get leftover mac and cheese. Boom. Leftover whatever they make. Potatoes, whatever variety of potatoes they made. Did they crisp them up? Did they not? Doesn't matter.

You're throwing them on there. Then you're going to get some of the, the leftover meat that still looks the best with you. I don't know. You're like the breast or like the, the, the, you know,

the, you know, the wing or whatever. Then you put that on there and then you just cover that motherfucker in gravy, fire it up in the microwave to get it nice and hot. And then that's what I'm eating. I'm not going back to salads.

I'm not going back to veggies. I'm not going back to veggies. No, like my dad comes from an era where you have turkey sandwiches for days afterwards. I'm not into that. I'm going to take a piece of meat pie in the center of the plate and then build around it strategically. Like I'm playing Risk. I'm going to put the mashed potatoes, the corn, the stuffing, the cranberry sauce. But it has to be the cheap, no chunks cranberry sauce. I always forget that you're the one of the people that eats the shit out of the can.

So nubs. And then you put, then you cover it in gravy. Actually, you cover it in corn and then you cover it in gravy. And yeah, I mean, it's the best meal. It's the best thing ever. Thank you very much. That's all we got for questions today, Luke. you cover it in gravy and yeah it's i mean it's the best meal it's the best thing ever thank you very much uh that's all we got for questions today luke thank you to our people for sending them in um you know by the time people will listen to this and watch this it's friday so get ready pfl

gonna be on shortly uh but luke i hope you have a great rest of the holiday weekend. Unplug a little. I'm going to see Moana 2. I'm going to take toots to see Moana 2. Is that a Dwayne the Rock Johnson production? I think he's in it, certainly. He's played a big role in the first one. But, hey, listen, it doesn't matter what I like. What matters is what she likes.

So there you go. There you go. I really just want to continue to wish the thanks, the love, out to all the great fans who keep MK afloat. I mean, look, we've gotten to know so many of them. By the way, dude, by the way, I'm happy about this. A fella named Chandler, an MK donk, DM slid me and said, hey, dude, he said that because of MK, he became friendly with Damien the donk. Remember MK donk of the Year 2020?

Do you remember that, Luke? Yes. And this man, Chandler, says that Damien the Donk is alive and well, not incarcerated, living a happy life. They talk all the time. I don't know if he still watches our show. I don't know if he watches MMA anymore. But we put out a call out there, a wellness check, if you will.

Seems like he's doing well, despite having the kind of tattoos that will, you know, get you a reputation in the pen. A reputation. How about entry into a white supremacist gang? Okay. Do you have a message for Damien the Donk at all? I'm glad to hear he's doing well. I'm never going to be upset at hearing news that people are thriving so whatever it is that he's doing

that's making him happy if it's us if it's not what it doesn't matter keep doing that that's all i care about all right i got a great idea one of my favorite things ending this podcast now shortly one of my favorite things uh in this job is when we are, let's say, Radio Row for Boxing or the Bellator interview special we've done before at Mohegan, where it's just like it's a run of people coming in. We don't know the order. We don't know who, but whoever slides in next, they're going to sit down

with us. We're going to have fun interviews. I want to schedule an interview show, Luke, where you have no idea who's coming next. I'd do that. Okay. You agree to that? I didn't say there were going to be's coming next. I'd do that. Okay, you agree to that? I didn't say there were going to be good interviews, but I'd agree to try.

So no matter who comes onto that Zoom call. I know what you're going to do. You're going to try and book Ioana. You're going to try and book Jon Jones. You're going to try and book, like, you know, the Avengers of people I don't want to talk to, yeah. I was thinking more like Appy and Damien the dog, but yeah,

sure. You know what I mean? I'll go after John Jones. Why not? Yeah. All right. Yeah. Appy.

I'll just hang up. I mean, I'm just not, you know, okay. Well, let's, let's make that idea reality in 25,

but until then, happy Thanksgiving to you. Long Island, Luke. I hope you feel better, sir. You can follow us right there on the socials, like,

and subscribe. If you haven't, let's continue to take MK to the next level look my dream my new goal is for at some point in the near future people will go hey in hindsight 2024 might not have been the best year for the mk brand but those were my favorite shows they ever did you think someone will ever say that no no i don't think that's really even remotely anything anyone's going to say. All right, we always have next year, Luke. Thank you so much. I will say this.

I will say this to everyone. I mean, it's quite sincerely, obviously, thank you to everyone who has been a part of the MK experience from whatever day you have been on and the longer the better. Separate from that, do not drink and drive, everybody. Do not fucking drink and drive everybody do not drink and drive get an uber call a cab do whatever the you got to do do not get behind the wheel of a vehicle if you have been having some drinks and enjoying yourself which is okay

just don't drive afterwards please text somebody for call somebody uber somebody do the right thing yeah and don't uh hang out with conor mcgregor yeah i can only go to black bad places seems that way all right that's it that's all we got mk for life we are out of here