MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - The Year Combat Sports Made History | 2024 Recap & Awards | Full Episode | MORNING KOMBAT

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

2024 was a groundbreaking year in combat sports, filled with unforgettable moments that will be talked about for years to come. From the rise of new UFC legends to some of the most epic boxing matchups in recent memory, we witnessed it all. In this special year-end episode, Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell (BC) reflect on the biggest highlights, including Max Holloway's jaw-dropping knockout of Justin Gaethje, which not only stunned fans but also solidified Holloway’s place in UFC history. They also dive into Alex Pereira’s incredible journey and how he cemented his legacy as one of the most dominant fighters of the year. On the boxing side, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk went head-to-head not once, but twice, delivering two of the most highly anticipated heavyweight bouts in recent memory. Luke and BC also dish out their year-end awards and rankings, breaking down the fighters, performances, and moments that defined this historic year.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille Reveille Look at us now Tip to tip Oh Jesus Do you want a margarita? Yes! Oh my god I'm on combat. 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. Can you hear that? Can you feel it? Luke's blending his own mixed drink here, and this is the best damn combat sports show they ever put together. Morning Combat, welcome in Monday, December 30th, 2024, and you've arrived at a great time because today, myself, Brian Campbell, that man next to me, Luke Thomas, will be presenting our year-end awards for combat sports for 2000 and 24 LT. I'm not in my normal location here, but I made it the road kit works. I think you can hear me like Donald's wifi,

all things considered how you're doing here. One day out from the end of 24. This is the best you've looked on this show. maybe ever. I don't know what your setup is. Don't ever change it. Now we're starting to get to disgusting territory. You absolute barn animal. I'm doing well and I'm happy. I gotta say it could be my imagination. This looks better than your home setup

except for the lockers in the back where you're obviously storing dead hookers. But short of that short of that Oh, I got the iron in there short of that uh it actually looks awesome i'm not really impressed thank you very much and isn't it crazy that the i used to take the expensive road kit and always have issues and now i take the cheapest pieces i have and it looks and sounds the best okay i've got stuff that i've paid a lot of money for i got stuff that i've paid very little money for in terms of all my gear. You'd be surprised at what works. You can consistently use it and reliable. Sometimes

it is the cheapest shit you have. It honestly is true. There it is. Whoop, there it is. Hey, we're fired up. We're excited. The new year is almost here. Obviously, today's episode will be all about looking back at the year that was. we have 15 categories with myself, LT, and, of course, Long Island Luke giving our takes. We're also going to put out a poll so you, the fans, can vote in the chat here on YouTube as we are revealing our picks. We definitely want to see you have your voice heard. Luke, all in all, would you call 2024 a great year for combat sports?

An eye-opening one? A frustrating one? Where are you at? I will tell you this. I went, when we were doing these awards, because we do them on both the boxing and MMA side, and we don't have a separate one really for women. We just kind of have a category. Yeah, it's like those bathrooms that are trendy and hip that anyone can go in.

It's great actually those are my favorites at the restaurants are when it's just like your own individual little bathroom you know what i mean they've got like four of them but are you prepared to blow up a commode with a woman in the stall next to you all right because that's where this that's i've never i've never done that but like if you think that i'm going to be a gentleman and not let not let the feces train do what it's supposed to do because there's a woman next to me i mean i live in a house with nothing but women trust me they ain't gonna stop me and now let's go to macy barber wow yeah yeah yeah uh in any case to answer the question it was not an exemplary year in combat

sports there were i mean like any year there were definitely some great high points for sure. And this is true across boxing and MMA. I don't think boxing had a uniquely better year than MMA. It had some bigger fights, historically speaking. Yes. So maybe like a little bit on that end. But it didn't have like, oh my God, there was just this insane run of, you know, guys who you could have picked for fighter of the year and knockout of the year.

Good choices. I think both in MMA, good choices and boxing. Nothing exactly like outrageous and outstanding across the board here in ways that maybe we would have gotten, let's say, for boxing in 2023. Yeah, definitely huge fights in boxing, but a lot of questions about the future. I think a lot of that's going to get answered very quickly as Riyadh says and continues to organize, take over. I mean, look, we don't have an award for MVP of boxing per se, but would it have to go to Turkey Al-Sheikh, his awesomeness? Or, I mean, it kind of was a unifying force, a polarizing one, but we got the big ones because of that man.

I mean, there's a reward I think is a strong way to put it I think what you could say certainly in the most fair thing would be at a bare minimum at a bare minimum you could say he had the biggest impact in boxing I think that is definitely without question you know whether or not these are good things or bad things I think is a little harder to parse uh but in the short run definitely the most powerful and in the short run by far the biggest impact in any of the combat sports and we don't again we don't have an award for the flip side of mvp of mma but i'd have to give it to whatever fabric you wear as an undergarment luke for holding your bonair down as well as it could

have during a year in which ilia taporia knocked out two of our heroes in violent devastating fashion he shows up on my awards list frequently so yeah but you're you know your under ruse really provided us you know kept kept us back from that all right thank you what a year for that this man still has a phoner hey we've got a third member of this team we'll be hearing from him today as he gives his pick for each award. But let's bring in now Aussie Rules Long Island Luke, son of a down under, co-host of the Main Card Minute, bong extraordinaire, expert, legal advice, if you're willing, gambling advice.

What do you got for us today, Luke? I got a lot of titles. That's what I got. I got some new ambient lighting behind me. Yeah a little upgrade to the office would you say that you have established titles or are we not gonna go i mean i'm not a lord but you know i'm on my way to getting there you know if anyone interested i could still send you sell you some samurai knives right there luke what a time we used to have those lives are good those knives are good those kamikodos i still rock those uh thank Thank you Long Island Luke for checking in. You can

follow us below on the socials, of course. Hey, subscribe. We've been at like 175, 176K, you know, for a long time here at youtube.com slash morning combat. If you're a new one, be a real one and drop that like drop that subscribe follow us of course on our solo channels and all of that luke before we get into the meat of this 15 award structure no shit today okay no ish all right next week all right for the new year um anything else you want to talk about luke we're in that between just order of business friday we're gonna do our prediction show yes right for the new year and then next monday i don't know if you've read the emails from that dude who sent it from the office

thing are we back in studio next monday i'm not sure that jan 6 is our first day back luke are you sure about that that's yeah we're back i saw the emails too you guys don't got to worry about that because we'll be in it doesn't apply to us we're good good. Okay, all right. So then there you go. Back in studio on Monday. Is it Monday, Jan 6th? Yes. Are you going to be wearing a dead animal on your head or in your face? But long I don't look, we do have to figure this out. I believe this is right.

January 20th, which of course will be Inauguration Day, is a Monday. Last Inauguration Day, I couldn't even make it to the train station. You couldn't even drive there. I don't know what we're going to have to do for that day because I don't know if I'm going to be able to travel or not very easily. So I'll have to figure that out. We'll either just do you from home or we'll all go remote that day.

We'll figure something out for that one. But yes, Monday. Monday back in the studio. All right. Luke, we're in between Christmas and New Year's. Any big New Year's plans as we head into 25? I'm taking Tugi to the ski slopes on Thursday, I think. So that should be kind of fun. And I took her to karaoke yesterday. And in Kanto, we did Lion King.

We did Circle of Life. We did some other ones. Wasn't a big hit. Was not a big hit. She was very shy. Yes. So it felt but i wanted to say this when i was outside because um abuela injured her knee so i was like oh let me go leave

early and go get the car and i'll pull it up out front and you guys can come out and uh so so it's a short walk for her i walked outside i think his name was damien i cannot remember exactly it was a dog yeah no no it was a tall black guy and uh he recognized me immediately he was a huge mk fan he actually lives in new york and he was saying he uh that he knows that you gave me reference to he's like i know bc comes from connecticut i know you come to dc but i never see you guys and he goes i was joking to my friends haha maybe i'll see luke thomas when i go to dc and then i actually ran into him on a rainy night i was on i'll say it it was a it was the

ginza karaoke bar on barracks row for anyone who knows where that is i was walking outside he stopped me he was a huge huge mk donk uh super enthusiastic super cool if i got his name wrong he's seen this i apologize but shouts to that dude you were awesome it was great to meet you okay two quick questions uh did abuela is she okay with this knee injury we can she'll be fine it's just i didn't want to make her what the car was parked like a ways away i didn't want to make her walk in the rain all the way there and two did uh toques uh criticize santa at all on the mic during the karaoke song she has maintained steadfastly that santa really dropped the ball this year but no mercifully during karaoke there was less of that.

You know, oftentimes I think she shows her Colombian side, Luke, and her acceptance of culture, her, you know, her pizzazz, her charisma, but she became a Thomas again with that. Yes, she did. Okay. Somewhere Robert Thomas is very happy. That's a fair way. That's a fair way to put that.

I'll accept that. That's a very good way to put that. Hey, without any further ado, it's time to get into our show. We've got 15 awards. This is the best of 2024 from your friends here at Morning Combat. You're going to hear the picks from myself, LT, Long Island Luke. We're also going to have a poll for each category, as I mentioned. So jump into that chat, push away the mis misogyny take the racism and remove it and let's get down to business

topic category number one knock out of the year we are going to start in the sport of boxing LT I'm going to put you on the hot seat first and foremost what's your pick for boxing's KO of the year man there's a bunch of good ones we could have picked from um and i guess we'll go through our just order of business i have a second and a third pick we're gonna hit the honorable mentions after we reveal i got it okay very good so for me these are not guys i knew very well i want to be clear about this this is not like i have a lot of expertise and understanding their career and in fact this happened relatively late in the year i guess this was about a month or two ago, BC, not that long ago.

But for me, it's got to be Angelo Leo KO-ing Luis Alberto Lopez, which was brutal, ugly, beautifully, well, not ugly, ugly in the sense of what it did to the gentleman who was KO-ed. But BC, this was beautifully set up, executed perfectly, misdirection, caught him, landed thoroughly, closed the show basically right there in the moment. A walk-off KO, essentially. Just spectacular. Just spectacular. Very, very good KO. So it was hard for me to put this one as number one.

I debated it for a bit because i there are more significant ko's yes but because of the way in which this was perfectly executed yeah i have to give it to him i mean ko is a great subjective category because it can help an argument of picking one if the significance is higher if it was a massive pay-per-view but at the same time it's really sometimes about the artistic nature of the violent fall the fighter took there's a ko out there that some people want for ko of the year luke that happened on i think it was pro box tv where unfortunately the guys that got knocked out his body started doing crazy dances that was too much carnage for me that was too gnarly but we do sort of sometimes prefer the stylistic beauty of the finish as,

you know, gnarly as it can be sometimes over the stakes. So I liked that pick what you mentioned there. That was not only an upset for Angelo Leo. It was a top-ranked show in which Joe Tess, who I think can be too theatrical at times, especially now in his era of calling Monday Night Raw and that mini golf show he does. But I thought he nailed that knockout call.

He went from zero to 60, and that was a big moment for Angelo Leo. My pick, though, Luke, I got to go out to Saudi, and I got to bring up Big Frank, poor Big Frank, Francis Nganou, as Anthony Joshua, who, by the way, Luke, was on the business end of my choice for second best knockout of the year. But my knockout of the year was from earlier this year when Anthony Joshua just blew through Francis Ngannou in just a few rounds. I mean, remember that knockdown in the first round was a legitimate right-hand knockout

punch. And we know how good Ngannou's chin had been historically leading up to that. But, you know, I've told you before, I talked to Glenn Feldman, who was a judge, who was judging that fight sitting right on the ring apron, and he's like, I've never seen a KO that brutal. The punch was beautiful in how it connected, but it was the overall just bomb nature brutality of that. It's hard for me not to give AJ Ngannou as my KO of the year.

I think that's a great call. It was brutal as shit. You easily could have gone that one. He and his body kind of just got warped and twisted in the way that it fell. We've never seen him hurt that way. Easy. Again, there was a few of these where how you want to weigh the KO versus the significance plus the KO could have got you to a different result. I don't really have any issue with yours.

Again, I picked mine because it was such a flatline single shot. This one was two, actually. This one was two. But just to get him... Yeah, you could have gone either way. You really could have gone either way. Well, now look. Who did you go with?

I went with Lucas Boddy over Ashton Silva. That was on the Jake Paul, Mike Perry undercard. Lucas Boddy was losing that fight down six rounds to zero. Just lands a hellacious left hook. That was a stick shot. Face plant KO and was out for a while. He landed two left hooks and a right hand. Either way, fucking out.

He hit him with one, and then he kind of leaned over, and then he hit him with a two-piece on the way down. Face first. That was, I think, my number two choice, BC. That one was vicious. You know, I choice bc that one was vicious you know i didn't have that one of my three but re-watching it this morning it's it could easily i saw dan rayfield fight freaks unite gave that as his knockout of the year it was such a brutal shot i think you also have to factor in it was a monster upset because h2o had been jake paul's prize prospect

and was unbeaten and sort of being pushed for the future. And it was good to see body come off of that kale by getting that opportunity on the Tyson, uh, Paul card. So he's really capitalized on it, signed his own deal with MVP. So there's some significance added to that, that it could easily be your kale of the year. I was going to say I had body plus two 70 and the whole fight. I'm like, what a terrible bet. This was fucking knocked him out. I was like, Oh yeah. So that was honorable mentions here. The biggest one, Luke is what I mentioned off the top AJ on the business end of the Daniel Dubois KO. It was the fifth round and a fight in which Dubois had been dominating. He literally jumped on Joshua from the opening bell, but what

I love so much about this KO, why I made it number two, not only was it in a big title fight it was a an upset it was a big moment for Dubois but don't forget AJ had been coming on that round and starting to almost turn the tide but he got backed up into a corner I'm sorry he backed Dubois up into a corner and he started to throw without protecting and Luke you saw how devastating that right hand was if anybody had picked Dubois over Joshua they wouldn't be wrong this year no in fact it's my honorable mention so I gave the one that I gave him with Angela Leo that right hand was if anybody had picked dubois over joshua they wouldn't be wrong this year no in fact it's my honorable mention so i gave the one that i gave him angela leo then i had lucas body and ashton h2o sylv that was ridiculous and then this one that uppercut sent him crashing to the mat or excuse me the overhand to the uppercut from anthony joshua sent him crashing to the mat it was so so surprising. It was so thorough, essentially, in how that fight basically went,

although just before that, obviously, Dubois had been rocked. But nevertheless, or he'd been hit hard, I think, and then he had hurt Joshua a second time or whatever. I forget the exact sequence, but you recall. But in the end, just a dynamite performance. I guess I didn't consider BC, the Francis Ngannou one with Joshua, more because it was a semi-freak show fight. It was kind of a gimmick fight for sure.

But I think because Ngannou nearly beat Tyson Fury the fight before and knocked him down, don't forget the feelings we had coming into that fight is what I'm trying to say. We all were like, wait, AJ might be broken. Is this going to be, you know, so, but hey, also shout out Jean Jolet, Big Bang. Dude, his knockout of Deontay Wilder after he spun Wilder around. So they both landed right hands at the exact same time. And that right hand made Wilder theatrically spin around. And then of course you saw that leaping punch from Zhang to finish him.

That's got to be an honorable mention. Long Island, Luke, who did the fans pick here on Boxing's KO of the Year? So it was overwhelming for your choice, BC. Anthony Joshua over Francis Ngannou, 73% of the votes. Damn. There it is. All right, let's go to MMA's KO of the Year. I can't see this being a long discussion.

All three of us had the same pick. It went down April 13th, UFC 300. Max Holloway with one second left in round five, knocking out Justin Gaethje to win the BMF title. Let's not forget coming in, we were almost worried about Max's health for taking this fight. We knew it would be a war. It was. Lukeke why is this a no-brainer for ko of the year yeah i just don't even know i mean as much as i thought ilia taporia knocking out volkanovski and then max is big and it is it just doesn't touch this ko i mean you we had seen first of all the lead-up to that fight the entire conversation was around how much a destroyer and a punisher like Justin Gaethje is going to beat up a natural 145-er like Max. Don't forget, he had kicked DP before that, too. Right. He had just finished Dustin Poirier. We were all terrified for Max's future. Then he goes in there and is winning the fight, basically.

And it was a good fight, but it was kind of one-sided, to be honest with you. And then Max does what Max does, points to the ground, the gesture that started a million copycats, but there's only one Max Holloway duking it out with one of the most punishing guys in the division and a former interim champion, and then absolutely one punch flatlines him in a crescendo in the final seconds of an important bout both for their career as well as that card as well as for the UFC the whole nine yards it was it was a middle finger to every one of us who was thinking oh Justin's gonna go in there and walk over this guy and blah blah blah it was a reminder of Max Holloway's prowess and it was just like the only kind of KO pointing to the mat, slugging it out.

Like there's just not many guys who are willing to do that, who can provide entertainment and stand there in the fire and deliver. And then to do it over a guy whose whole career has been based on. I mean, this is the guy that basically ended Tony Ferguson's career. And Max Holloway put him face down in one of the most vicious ko's you'll ever see what else is there to i mean this is just as good as ko's get in mma that's basically and it came at the end of a fight that that is in discussion for fight of the year that should have been the main i don't think i don't i think that's bullshit i don't think it is a fight of the year thing we can get to that when we get to fight of the year but um i think that you know

in hindsight it should have been the main event for 300 which you could argue is the the company's biggest card of all time and max delivers on that stage with that level of drama not known as a ko puncher despite two stoppages of a prime jose aldo yet look at what max did against gaechi and look what he did against um korean zombie luke that was also a highlight reel type of one-punch finish, even though Zombie was kind of asking for it, right? Zombie was like, knock me out, sir. Send me to the grave for the finish of my career.

It's one thing to get a guy at the literal end of his career, and it's another one, again, to take him to a place he'd never been quite like that. I mean, obviously we've seen gaethje stops but not like that not what max did to him long out of look you have anything to add on this beautiful ko uh just for the hell of it i did put a poll in the chat 86 percent you know and i mean you know there were some other good ko's that one was historically special quickly that flying knee that venetius olivera dropped on bernardo how do you say that last name luke so i think it's so by yeah i think it's so good that would win any other year would

it not that was beauty so that's on my list as well the flying double switch knee i mean landing as perfectly as can get slumping your opponent like a sack of potatoes to the canvas it just doesn't come much better than that also bc you know I don't know if you guys have it on your list, but Shara Bullitt doing the double spinning back fist. Heck yeah. The Armand Petrosian. You know, I've been a bit of a skeptic on Shara. He's starting to, you know, grow on me a little bit,

but that KO was sick. Super sick. Got to give him credit for that. And the rumor is he only has one eyeball, Luke. I don't know if that's a rumor, motherfucker. I can just rumor is he only has one eyeball luke i don't know if that's a rumor motherfucker i can just see he's only got one goddamn eyeball i mean you knew a kid growing up with one ball but just the same but in a you know in a different realm one ball but it was it was it was not in his eye do you see that guy's ball um let's move on over to m

oh sorry also uh any other k.o's we missed in a man i mean there was i was gonna say along on luke did we skip one? So we got the Sopai and Oliveira. We've got Matt Favola got sent to hell viciously. Oh, that is a good one. I know we love Matt, but that was a bad one. That was a bad one. Who sent that? Who did that to him? Was that a kick?

Faris Ziam. It was a knee. That's a knee, right. Are we putting it could be either of those Ilya ones without a question i think that those are very very good ko's the max one in particular for like one perfect shot yes the max one is better the alex one was i won't say anticlimactic but it happened so fast that it's almost like whatever whereas that one he rocked max and then there was a subsequent kind of follow-up that really began to do it um i think that those are very good ko's but they're more impressive for what they mean rather than

like visually sure how great were they there i mean it's it's you know we're it just doesn't deserve the best one of the year kind of thing i'm with you on that weird how max holloway and anthony joshua either delivered one of the best KOs and also were on the business end of them in the same year. That's gnarly. Submission of the year time in the sport of MMA. Luke Thomas, you could go a different, different directions here. The sub pick is very subjective, like KO,

where sometimes it's the difficulty of the submission. The stage that the fight is on, where a fighter is in that fight. Did they rally and pull that submission out of thin air? Was it, I mean, you know, you tell me, Luke, what goes into you picking sub of the year? So for me, it would have to definitely be stakes is a huge one. Like anybody can, like, you know, it is. Seth Smith of 5050 BJJ told me this a long time ago,

which is like, it's very, very hard for one black belt, a really good one, to submit the other one from guard. Excuse me. It's going to be hard to do a lot of things to a very talented and resisting opponent. And so you're just going to get a lot less highlights sometimes. You're going to get a lot less variety sometimes because it's just much more difficult to come by you know so you know it's easy to go go plot of somebody who's not very good it's very very difficult to do that

so i i tend to value the acrobatics of a submission less although you do have to take into account as well i think you know if there's a flying arm bar out there or some kind of unique way in which a submission was secured, that is valuable. But to me, stakes is much more important, significantly so. This year, you did not have any great ones. You got a bunch of ones that I thought were good or meaningful, but you did not get one that was high on both of them. So that's the reason why this one is a little bit wishy-washy for me. But in order to get for my list, and I almost went the other way, but for my list, because of the stakes involved and because essentially we had never seen anyone do this to him, certainly within UFC, but I think ever,

for DDP to submit Izzy the way that he did was pretty remarkable. And again, it wasn't the cleanest submission, you know, Hadra Gracie back take and all this kind of stuff, but the way in which he just snatched it and physically forced it and to do it in like, you know, it wasn't like long set up. He just kind of chased it down and then just jumped on it like a like a like an attack dog you know to do that in a ufc title fight and then get the the belt essentially or maintain the bell i should say as a consequence that's a big deal so for me you got to give it to dvp and it was a very competitive

fight up to that point i mean everything played into that But, Luke, I didn't have that one in my top three, but I certainly hold it as being a finalist. Anyone could choose that. But you've got to go, in my opinion, Hamzat Chumaev and Robert Whitaker. It wasn't just the brutality of the face crank slash broke his jaw slash I know there was a preexisting injury, but it's still dramatic brutal round one he did that to Robert Whitaker I mean are you kidding me like it was a perfect Jamiah fight where you're like oh this is finally the fight I'm gonna see him have to go back and forth I know he did that

against Gilbert but it's like you sort of have those expectations and then he just pulls the rug out from under you destroys you in less than a, and we still don't know where the man's ceiling is. I take all of that into account, but also the damn brutality of just taking an elite fighter and just crushing him that quickly into saying, yeah, I'm done. I'm out. Dude, that's my pick for sub of the year.

I mean, that's almost a KO, right? I mean, it's almost just like he put him right out of commission. So that was my number two, and i really debated with it i think the like for some reason the fact that it came almost effortlessly kind of downgrades it but that's not right again i struggled with this one i think the difference for me was they both kind of just snatched it in the end but one had a much higher stakes but the way in which like chamaya just ran over robert whittaker to then break his face if you've got that number one i you know it's hard to argue against that it's just the other one came in a title fight long island luke settled the tie here

which way are you going i'm going hams out over whittaker it was just brutal dude the tap was so quick i mean everyone wants to talk about how whittaker was injured before, but it was an injury he had when he was like a teenager. He's been fighting his whole career with that injury. I mean, shit was vicious. I debated, should I pick like a really technical submission here or this? Yeah, would you go Patty Pimblitt over King Green? That was my next one, BC. That was the most technically savvy submission,

but this had the highest stakes and the most brutal yeah i got no issue with anyone picking r2 or patty because of that said luke will you give any love to my guy who has a history a good history with the word snatch brian ortega the yair rodriguez rear naked choke it was redemptive for him in his career arc um maybe i just love the guy do you have any love for that was it a rear naked joke or was it an arm triangle i cannot remember i thought it was rear naked but i could be wrong here luke whatever um i i've seen him on various people's lists here let me see back here and double check it was an arm triangle i love the way it made me feel just the same okay

yeah it was an arm triangle i mean i definitely give it a lot of credit for how valuable the win is, but I just can't. There was nothing extra special about it. Like the Patty win was a big win for his career because of what it meant. Yeah, same for Ortega. It brought him back, Luke. He was back at that moment. Yeah, it was valuable.

It was definitely valuable. But, like, that was a breakout moment for Patty. And then for Hamzat, I mean, he will get a title shot off of that. And then for the DDP, it was securing or maintaining anyway a UFC title. The stakes are just bigger in each of those. But I can certainly recognize that Brian's in the conversation. Throw some love here, Luke, to GM3, Gerald Mearshar, who was on this list in terms of like contenders for this award.

A few times I'm going to pick his Edmund Shabazzian one as my third best of the year where he got brutalized at times in that fight, but Mearshar can take a lick in and keep on ticking. And then when he got that rear naked, it was like, damn, he pulled victory out of the, out of the defeat hole, Luke. And he did it elbow deep. You got love for that guy too, right, Mearshart? Yeah, baby.

Yeah, I mean, he has been one of the kind of interesting, if you look at his career, like a really submission-oriented winner at middleweight in ways that is somewhat unusual for that division. And so he has kind of set up himself as like that, as like that as an identity and with good reason, he's very, very good at that kind of stuff. So I absolutely think you could,

you know, again, you could put it, I don't think it would win outright, but you could put them in the conversation. All right. Long Island Luke, what did the people say on sub of the year?

So 64% are taking Homs out over Whitaker. Next was a DDP over Izzy 28%. Yeah. Good stuff. All set. Let's go to upset of the year. taking Homs out over Whitaker. Next was DDP over Izzy, 28%. Yeah, I understand that. All set. Let's go to upset of the year. We will begin in the sport of boxing. And LT, we all, you, myself, and Long Island Luke had the same pick here. And when you consider the odds, which were as high as 40 to 1 on some books

from Bruno Sirachi or Sirace, being the underdog here. The, the lamb brought to the slaughter. What do they have? Four or five career KOs. And yet he sent Jaime Munguia looking for a get well fight to the canvas with one punch and he was done. This was a shocking KO or upset. As I, as I remember in recent time, it just kind of was like, what? What just happened?

That's all of our pick for KO of the year, and I think it's a slam dunk no-brainer. I'm sorry, I don't know. I don't know what else would be close. I mean, I've got a couple that are some decent choices otherwise, but they don't come close to this one. I mean, again, to your point, Munguia was an astronomical favorite. This was boxing in the way that we understand it typically to be,

where guys who are prized by the promotion for various reasons at various points in their career get certain fights that are, you know, get well, tune up, blah, blah, blah, you name it, mandatories in certain cases. And this was supposed to be one of those. This was supposed to be an ordinary night for Jaime Munguia to get another win, to look pretty good, and he ended up getting an absolutely disastrous defeat.

No question about it. He let his guard down. Bruno Sarasi, I think that's how they pronounce it. I'm not sure. I'm not really sure anymore. Hit him with a ridiculous cross. Sat him down. And that was all she wrote.

Fair and square. No question about it. With just absolutely enormous consequences dude Munguia was like minus 2500 to win that fight right just something obscene something insane yes and when when the guy delivering the KO of the year as a non-puncher that makes it even more reminds me of a KO of the year candidate a few years ago oh of course I can't remember it in the moment wow that's great the guy Titoacero, not a puncher at all. Who did he knock out?

That white dude. And it was a big upset. The guy from Boston that was promoted by Murphy's Boxing and the dropkick Murphy's. I'm talking to myself at this point. Anyway, Luke, we all nailed that as the pick for Boxing's Upset of the Year. But you and I both had the same second choice. And that's Liam Parrow going to Puerto Rico and taking the title from the boogeyman himself, Subriel Matias.

Dude, that was a big time, big ball sack performance. Dude, Subriel Matias, Puerto Rican, as you mentioned. So Paro is in his backyard. So you know it's going to be a tough one. And then on top of it, this was the Matias who had retired five guys in a row who quit on the stool. Five of them in a row who quit on the stool. Five of them in a row were just like, yeah, I'm done with this fucking guy.

Please get him off of me and quit on the stool. That happened five fucking times. And then Paro said, I'll fight that guy in his hometown and beat him. Yo, sorry. That is impressive. And of course, there were some arguments to make after the fact, BC, people being like, well, maybe Matthias was a little bit overrated because guys quitting on the stool obviously is impressive for Matthias,

but it's a little bit of fool's gold. There are some holes in his game. And as you know, he is wide open to be hit early. He just tends to come on a little bit later. But Paro can fucking box, man. You got to give the guy credit. He can absolutely box. He did his job

he stuck to it and he went into the mouth of the lion's den and got a dub like respect that's tough to do very very close the year as champion because richardson hitchens won that uh split decision over him in puerto rico just recently to take that but what a breakthrough performance for paro for a night turning the division upside down, eliminating, you know, a guy that we thought, okay, not the most skilled as you laid out there. But when, when he starts getting up on you, when Matias starts, you know, he opens the fight almost with his hands down, almost telling you, you know, empty out what you have. And then the second he feels like his opponents were slipping, he would put it in that other gear and just wear on them. Jarrett Hurd style, right? So it was a big time upset to see

that go down. Also, don't forget, I was at this fight and called it, but let's not forget Tim Zhu who came in as a monster betting favorite, even though Bokrum Mertazaliev was the champion and undefeated. Luke, you recall Murtazali of just going through him like nothing. It was shocking. That comes across as a major upset because that derailed PBC's plans, Zoo's plans. I mean, who would have thought Tim Zoo would exit this calendar year 0-2, losing two monster title fights that way.

Yeah, and then the first one, you could kind of forgive him because he had the worst cut ever, not on his forehead here, on the top of his head, and it just couldn't seal, and it just bled and bled and bled. But okay, he was also fighting for a title. It was against Sebastian Fundora, whatever. And then he goes in there against a guy who he was also supposed to get a tune-up against.

PBC, that was their one and only non-pay-per-view that they did that year, and the guy they'd been propping up got fucking waxed and, like not even close bc not even close i say waxed i mean waxed rinsed you name it got crushed that was a bad one that was definitely uh we do we should we put daniel dubois over anthony joshua in this discussion he's on my list and i don't know if it's the biggest one you know i some of this is if you're talking to boxing insiders it's a a matter of like, well, this one was more important

and that one was less important. But just from the public's perception, Dubois was the guy who maybe kind of complained about the low blow, not counting against Usyk and wasn't much more than that. And people thought he wasn't going to beat Hergovich, and he did. And he just kind of kept climbing, kept climbing, kept climbing. And then he got the fight with Joshua. I think most observers, I certainly did.

We all kind of recognized that like, hey, Dubois can make it tough, but Joshua, kept climbing. And then he got the fight with Joshua. I think most observers, I certainly did. We all kind of recognized that like, hey, Dubois can make it tough, but Joshua should win this. Joshua himself had had, up to that point, a good rebound after losing to Usyk twice. But that appeared to be fool's gold. Dubois running him the fuck over, which is what he basically, basically did.

DC, I just feel like the optics of that and the significance of that is too big to ignore. I feel the same way about Martin Bacoli running through big baby Anderson, even though that fight was like a cool kind of almost 50, 50 ish fight with a lot of questions about Jared Anderson. Is he on this level? The brutality and the fun. I mean, that was a war back and forth. Anderson went out punching, right? Like he was there to fight, even though he got bewildered and overwhelmed. But I think you got to mention that. Long Island Luke, what did the fans believe should have been boxing's upset of the year? I didn't put one in the poll because I just assumed everyone would take Munguia on this one.

I got the MMA one ready to go, right? All right, let's go. The Munguia one is just so overwhelming. Yeah, it had to be. It was perfect. Back to Luke Thomas. MMA upset of the year. Which direction are you going?

Man, this one was a little tougher, and now I'm looking at the way in which I did it, and maybe I would change some of this. In terms of, I think, betting, this might have been one of the biggest ones. I don't think it's quite the biggest, but I think it's up there as one of the biggest ones. But again, I'm going for surprise factor.

Didn't see it coming. What are we talking about? And it's got to be Gabriela Fernandez over. And again, I don't know how to fuck pronounce her name, but Wang Tong, Wang Song. Yeah, just say Tong and be done with it, Luke. Yeah, Wang Tong. I hope I'm saying it even somewhat right.

Wang Tong. BC, again, it wasn't like she was a proven, proven commodity, but she had that amazing UFC debut. She had all the hype and swag. She, on the feet, was doing really, really well, we thought, for the most part. But Fernandez just wouldn't go away, wouldn't go away, wouldn't go away, and then found her moment and absolutely bludgeoned her. I mean, it was a little bit more to it than one strike. It was actually a series of strikes, a head kick, and some other stuff. But the way in which

she just kind of refused to relent, refused to buy into the hype, did her thing, and then the only reason I even know her name and she exists on the roster is because of something like this. And I just feel like, again, there are upsets with bigger stakes to be very clear.

But this one came so far out of left field and was so decisive. Ultimately in the end where I wasn't a split decision or something, she polished her off. I think Gabriela Fernandez did wonders for herself. That's gotta be her for me. Look, this was my number two.

It was quite nearly my number one for everybody else. It was their number one. It seems if I'm taking the pulse of social media, but it has all the elements, right? I mean, look, dude, when Wang Tong, when she is stepping up her own hype game by complaining to the promotion that she's not higher up on the card, by doing the Joker thing, by, you know, I mean, look, she looked like a killer. She had that lottery ticket in the back of her, you know, pocket of having once beaten Valentina in a kickboxing match. Like it was all set up perfectly and she got derailed.

And it was, uh, it was one of, one of those jaw dropping moments for sure. But also I think we instantly all went, wait, Fernandez is kind of good here. Like where, where has she been all of our life? Maybe we should have been paying closer attention, but look, my number one, I'm going to go to one championship because I just did not see Umar rug rug rug Kane in what was a fun fight but a pride style matchmaking fight against heavyweight champion Anatoly Malikin considering Malikin had been a killer over three divisions had this hype around him was mini fade or was knocking dudes out. Not only did Khan win this fight by upset, he won it over five rounds and he sort of gassed out Malikin and left him completely ineffective because Rug Rug took every punch Malikin had. And I know that in hindsight, Malikin did look flat from start to finish.

It wasn't a good representation at all of who he is. But in theory, his inability to find a way to pull out a close decision, that's the biggest upset there. Khan was the better fighter over 25 minutes with an insane chin. Luke, that's my number one, and I think that needs strong consideration from everyone. That is a great one. Again, sometimes the stakes of these things, not like the one that I picked had enormous stakes, um sometimes that can muddy the picture but that's an interesting

one too i did not see him at all being able to do that against anatoly malikin i thought he could make it interesting at first but then malikin's wrestling would wear him down over time remember he'd be the triple champ blah blah blah all this stuff and then rug rug just said no, I don't buy into this at all and really changed what they had with Malikin as a consequence. And that was one of their bigger MMA pieces that they were able to showcase again, their their triple champ at that time. It's a huge loss for them as a consequence. So when someone upsets the apple cart in that way, it has to have, you know, year long significance. Yes. So we have dueling

choices long allen luke you want to settle this which direction did you go i went gabriella fernandez over wang tong uh i'm pretty sure if i remember correctly wang tong was the only bet i got wrong on that card so i was extra salty on that but yeah as you said i think she was like a minus 900 favorite coming in uh just huge upset i want to give an honorable mention though to what you guys brought up before uh the chat seems to love balal over leon that's on my list too yeah that's on my list as well i mean that one obviously much bigger stakes than anything else we're bringing up so that that could have gone on there it's on my list because dude you know not a lot of people were giving giving below a lot of chances in fact they were mocking him for like the canelo hands com i was luke i was

a jerk about it dude i'm so straight up i was a jerk he went and did like dude good for bulal muhammad there's no question he earned that win he did it also in enemy territory at five or six in the morning that's a good one that's a really good one and and that's my number three and i have to say it's not always just the betting odds. Like obviously on paper, Ball had a shot at this. It's against your own expectations, to be fair. I mean, this was a monster upset of the direction I thought it was going to go because Edwards had been on such a great run, pound for pound top five.

I just didn't think Ball had one category or one dominant skill that was going to get him there. But the story of Bilal's career is it's not one thing, it's everything. So shout out to him for being on there. But Luke, you've got a number two choice that makes me angry. Well, I've got Tetsuro Taira and Brandon Royville, Royville winning that contest. Now, this is not a huge upset in that particular sense, although it is an upset. But the reason I picked it was because, one, it was a great fight.

If you go back and recall, it was a very, very good fight. And I think it was a split decision. He eked it by. But the bigger issue for me was that they were kind of setting up Tyra to move ahead in the rankings, right? They were kind of like, hey, let's, you know, maybe promotionally we don't have a lot of plans for Royville at this moment. Royville's like, well, you better start making them.

You better start making them. And I kind of love how he upset what was a pretty – not that I blame the UFC for doing it. I get why they would do something like that. In fact, I think that's honestly what a promoter should be doing to an extent. I'm just saying if you can force a promotions hand by upsetting their plans in this way, excuse me, that seems relevant to me. I just don't. The reason why I can't put it in there is not just because I love the raw dog and he had a great appearance this week on our show

or last week, excuse me. But I just think that it wasn't like he was a down on his luck veteran that got an upset win against a big prospect to bring him back in the conversation I felt like he was already strongly in that conversation so that's what you know but then again then how can I say that but then declare that Bilal was a monster upset I just didn't think Bilal had a chance I think I you know I certainly believe Royval had a very strong chance here of doing this yeah fair enough again this wasn't nearly the same I don't know what the odds were but I do think that there is much more significance to what Belal did but you're like asking why is it on my list I don't know man I I good fight

well earned and upset the apple cart in terms of what the promotion had wanted out of him and and Tyra I like that I like that for him yeah would you put um paul hughes over aj mckee on this list so that's another one you could have put i actually toyed with that one um to me that's could it honestly by the odds it might even be a bigger upset but i was a little less surprised by that i still thought mckee was a tough customer but i was like there was a part of me that was like man i think people are just sleeping on on this dude Paul like I really do believe that and then sure enough he went in there and if you watch that fight again dude it's kind of you know one side is a little strong but yeah it was decisive it was decisive you can LIL what are the people like in

this one the people are riding with Bilal over Leon 43 percent percent wow all right i understand that i mean that's a huge win dude that's a huge win second place was rug rug over anatoly malik in 26 percent and then gabriella fernandez over wang tong 24 percent roy val over tyra seven percent hey it's on the list there you go there you go hey let's move on our next category is best win of the year which essentially comes down to what was the most impressive singular performance, in your opinion, in a big fight. Let's start in boxing. I have a top three, but I didn't hesitate. I knew right away. What do I thought was the biggest win in terms of stakes mixed with performance mixed with everything that comes with it. It's gotta be Alexander Usy, May 18th in the first fight against Tyson Fury to win that by split decision, to have the smaller man walking down and then knocking down

the bigger man and having that knockdown around nine, be that, that difference that was that close. Uh, I'm still humbled by Usyk, even though he's done it twice now to Fury, very competitive, close fights, but dude, I'm like, you you know that that's the rare times like when achievement makes you want to tear up when you're just like i can't believe he did it i can't believe he's that great because luke it wasn't just oh he did it he scored an upset went over fury the method in which he did it he walked down the bigger man and threw the bigger punches like come on now you know we never thought he'd go through fury to get this done and it was also a very competitive fight

in which he got beat up in those middle rounds and really showed what he's all about class i just don't know what would be bigger than this one this was the big one this was the most fun i had watching a boxing fight in real time i I think this year, this was magic. It was tough. He had to figure it out. He had to really problem solve. And as you indicated, like relative to the second fight,

he got hit a lot more in the first one. I'm not sure if the numbers, yes, the numbers do speak to that, but you know, just visually like some of the uppercuts that Fury was able to land in that first fight were very important. He was doing well.

I mean, there was just so much for, for Usyk to overcome. Again, never fighting at home, being the smaller guy with a shorter reach, and as you indicated, walking him down, landing the more significant punches, nearly stopping him in the ninth round for all the marbles in a way that we hadn't seen in boxing in 25 years. And then to go and do that, how could anything else be at the top of this list? And there were some good performances to be sure there was nothing like what

this was the year of Alexander Usyk in boxing bar none. No doubt about it. Long Island Luke, which way did you lean? Well, as Luke says, there's no other choice. I had another choice.

I took Ryan Garcia's upset win over Devin Haney. Wow. The guy missing weight and popping for like 75,000 PEDs. That's the guy you picked? No, because you said most fun watching a fight. I assumed that was going to be a boring Devin Haney decision. It turned into a great, he dropped him three times or whatever. It was awesome.

Also, we had Ryan Garcia by decision plus 2,000 cash that. Thank you very much. Wow. That's not a bad bet right there. Wow. it was awesome also we had ryan garcia by decision plus 2 000 cash that thank you very much wow that's not a bad bet right there wow um i have this in another category later in the show but i can't discount the impact if you want to say best win i mean you can you can put it in could you put this in upset of the year yes i think you could right there's a a billion percent you put this in upset i think i did i think i did have this so like yeah there it could touch anywhere it was a significant moment this year but was it a singular dominant

performance i mean against our expectations yes also we're gonna see a fought in a swag a confidence that i've just never seen him have in a big fight before maybe again it was that experience against haney in the amateurs through six fights sparring against him he knew that no matter what happens if he can time that left hook he was going to be able to to dominate that but look do people forget by the way in the same way that they forget that Adrian Broner rallied late in the Maidana fight and made it very interesting do they forget that Haney like made this a pit it was like a very close fight at the finish. Haney did a great job. Well, okay, let me back that up.

There were times Haney was doing a really bad job, but then there were other rounds where he was really kind of sticking with what he could do well and then collecting round after round after round. The problem was Garcia would just find an opening at various points and then the whole thing would start to crumble again I felt like he was trying to put together a sandcastle as the tide was coming in BC that's really kind of what it felt like but you know did he make an earnest effort at building that sandcastle despite the tide coming in I thought he did you know a great fight I hope we see it again honorable mentions for best win in boxing. I got to go Dubois over Joshua. It was from the opening bell. He jumped all over him.

He would not be denied. We knew he could win by knockout. I don't think we expected a walkthrough. And it really took AJ getting up again and again to really prove that Dubois is that dude for one night or maybe one year. Dubois has been that dude. So that's in it. And also, hey, look, Bam Rodriguez going in there against a legend in Juan Francisco Estrada and then like getting hurt but

still bodying the legend and getting him out of there dude they're the the class and maturity that Bam has shown in such short time is insane to me I want to mention that one Luke what else you got in this category I think both Usyk Fury performances for Usyk belong on this list, to be honest with you. I think both of them just give you, honestly, something close to, not quite because there's so many things to boxing, but those two fights to me, those performances by Usyk, give you what is a version of the best that boxing has to offer.

I think all the choices that you bring on there are great you see i would also throw in there tank davis over frank martin not nearly the same kind of stakes or difficulty but for tanks first fight back after being incarcerated um the reason i picked it was because of how like thorough it was how easy he made it look against a guy who i think is still a very, very good fighter, the devastating nature of the finish, and honestly, some of the boxing IQ that Tank Davis was able to show. I mean, I wish he would be more consistent and fight more often, but I don't put that nearly.

I'm going to be clear. I'm not putting that on par with either Usyk performance for any number of reasons, but like, was it a very good performance? I think that it was. I got one more for you. In defeat, Dmitry Bivol against Artur Beterbiev. That's a good one. Yes.

Why wouldn't you give it to Beterbiev then? Because I scored it for Bivol, and I thought Bivol fought the better fight, fought higher above expectations. But if you want to criticize B-ball for circling away at times too much and maybe that cost him certainly you can say that i just thought his performance i mean that's one of the better performances of all time losing in a big fight in my opinion it's such a great fight we'll see it again february 22nd on the mma side luke you and i have the same

pick and uh ilia taporia could have gotten it for either of his wins, but what he did against Max Holloway without those asterisks that are kind of around the Volkanovski went to some degree of whether Volkanovski was a step down, what have you. I know the Volkanovski fight was more thorough, but I think it's because he had to deal with Max really bringing a great game plan, a great will to that fight, and really making Teporia work for it to see the patience that he showed under fire and then to find that angle and deliver that finishing shot. Dude, he's your guy. He's all of our guys. He's the best in show this calendar year, in my opinion, and this was the best performance

against Max Holloway. Yeah, I mean, just tell me who had to overcome a more difficult challenge than that and looked better doing it. You could say maybe Islam over Dustin Poirier, but I wouldn't call that the same thing. There's a couple other ones you could go to, but this one to me, you have a guy in Max Holloway, an all-timetime great one of the very best to ever do it at featherweight as we just indicated in April of this year resurrected his career with an hour and more than resurrected just read I mean just the the level of what he was able to inject the in terms of life into what he was doing with that win over Justin Gaethje at 55 was incredible goes back down and you know had I think something for Tporia but for toporia to go in there and

become the first guy to ever put him uh put him away via strikes it was going to have to be somebody special in order to do that and toporia you know he might be congratulating himself on social media as we speak bc but that fucking guy can fight and that was great evidence of it obviously i'll throw respect at what max did to Gaethje. That could still be in this discussion, but my number two, by the way, my list is Ilya over Max, Ilya over Volk,

and then Max over Justin. I think those are the best ones. Much respect. They could easily be there. My number two though, was Hamza Chumaya for everything we said earlier against our expectations of Robert Whitaker to do it that demonstratively. It was,

it was a shutout. It was a demolition, like, holy crap. And also let's put some respect on the champ Valentina Shevchenko having to sit out a year for this trilogy having to do it in the sphere having to come back from a fight in which a lot of people thought she had deserved to win but was ruled a draw and being at her advanced age come on Luke we gotta put Val in there I I have great respect

for what she was able to do because to lose a title and then wrestle it back especially when you're 37 is insane very difficult to do don't misunderstand me but there's just no way to look at that and be like Grasso's takedown defense got better it got worse it got worse over the course of that trilogy it got figured out she had no answer for it that's not the same as max max did not come in there like looking on like like like over the course of the last year his game had just completely deteriorated no nah not at all um just a i i it's not that i don't respect the win it's a it's a it's a great win for valentina and it really shows why she's such a special

champion. But you have to take into consideration what she was up against. And I think that big part of that fight's story is how Grasso's takedown defense really crumbled over the course of their trilogy. Yes, but I don't know, man. Some people think I'm just thirsty for this type of stuff. Luke, I'm thirsty for you. Yeah, I just don't think you want to have sex with Ilya Teporya, and I'm not sure it goes the other direction. I don't like the direction that you're going, to be fair. Should we also give Chris Cyborg her respect being off for so long and then

going in there against a true killer and taking it to her, Luke? I mean, she didn't make... It was kind of dominant, right? Would you say? A dominant victory? Dominant's a little strong word but i mean clear who was better in the end is the way i would put that and i said it before she was a she wasn't a strike force champ she was an invicta champ she was a ufc champ she was a bellator champ and now

she's a pfl champ dude chris cyborg's longevity you just won't see something like this hardly at all in combat sports and certainly not in MMA. That is an outrageous ability of hers to not just be relevant, but to be good across vast expanses of time, changes in the sport, the sport getting better, even though women's MMA has still got a long way to go certainly has gotten better since when Cyborg could just go in there and just thrash overmatched people who had barely you know had any skills at all that's not what she's up against now she's got real real fighters she's up against and she's still finding ways to do it if you missed Cyborg when she was a strike force phenom it was like a feeding frenzy it was almost like Mike Tyson like they'd put up against some kind of Japanese prospect or whoever and and then you'd ask the question, well, how long can this person last? And the answer was usually not very long. That's not what she's doing now. Now she's figuring out everyone and using all of her skills to get her to that next place. She has blossomed

into such a well-rounded and experienced fighter. Man have so much respect for what chris cyborg has been putting together we go to this debate all the time bc you know amanda nunez thrashed her amanda nunez is probably the best ever but the level of longevity that chris cyborg has been able to maintain is one of the most special things i've ever seen in women's mma no doubt um people think some people i think would think we should have Juliana Pena, if not on this list, just recognized in some form. But that's also hard to do. I mean, you're not letting me celebrate Shevchenko on that level. I mean, would you say that Kayla Harrison over Holly Holmes

should be considered at this level? Performance of the year? Yeah. No. What about Deceva against Tyler Santos? I'd be willing to entertain that, okay okay all right i see where you're going with that uh luke let's keep oh long island luke what did any uh did any of the fans and also who'd you like on this one i had max over justin it was just hard for me to deny that uh again this is why i don't want to talk about it so i'll let on luke no

people are calling it fight of the year and i please don't misunderstand me. I like the fight. It was a great fight. Kind of one-sided, man. Like, Max took it to him. I don't think that should be lost. Best win performance. Max was a huge dog coming into that. It's like, dude, that was a great.

He was up five rounds. It wasn't like it was a back-and-forth slugfest. Max beat him. I agree. That's a great win performance. The fans, though, they went 44% Ilya over Max. Next up was mine, 33% Max over Justin and then Hamzat over Whitaker, 13%. That's all great choices. Can't go wrong. Can't go wrong. Hey, let's keep the show going right

now. Luke comeback fighter of the year. All three of us had the same pick in boxing. It's a slam dunk. It's Daniel Dubois, triple D. Look, he's just a different fighter in the last 12 months, and it certainly began at the end of last year with that stoppage late against Jarrell Big Baby Miller. But that was a close fight. What has happened since then has been destruction. Going in there for the vacant IBF title, granted, there was no need for that title to become vacant.

Usyk had just become the undisputed champion but what did Dubois do with his opportunity ran through unbeaten Filip Urgovic and then gets the Anthony Joshua fight and even though in hindsight like yeah it was closer to 50-50 than maybe it feels like coming out after that shocking performance but like he's done it a couple times this year now Dubois is different not the same guy from the Joe Joyce fight when he was criticized, not the same guy from other times when he looked like he was about to show us how great he could be, but he leveled off right now.

He's raised the roof. He's pushed the ceiling past. This was an incredible comeback year for him. Um, I, he's going to get a chance against Usyk, a second chance, and he's going to deserve it.

If he ends up being the undisputed Champion because this guy's turned his career around, and you've got to recognize that. But also, he is awkward on the microphone, so shout out to Triple D. Yeah, I mean, he looks like he reminds me of Anthony Marbury eating Vaseline on

fucking camera. Stefan Marbury. Stefan, what did I say? Yeah, Stefan Marbury. Sorry. You said Anthony Marbury. My brain's not working. Good old Tony Marburybury yeah tony tony marbury yes okay good i'm glad you corrected me you get what i'm trying to say just fucking eating vastly but dude he didn't okay you mentioned like he got criticized with a joyce fight no he got left for dead on the side of the road against joyce they called him a quitter. They said he just didn't have it. He was weak.

He would never going to, he's never going to amount to anything, you know, good athleticism, decent British boxer, but that's all he's ever going to be. Fuck that dude. He completely transformed not just his career,

but the way in which he is perceived this way. You're asking like, what was his signature win in his career? I don't even know what he'll do the rest of his time bc i know that winover joshua will at a bare minimum serve as at least one signature win that he'll have had in his career that is insanely impressive what he was able to do just ran a guy over and in doing so ran over all of the nonsense people had said about him following that joyce fight which, by the way, turned out he had really severe injuries that he needed to quit in that bout, and he saved himself.

And also just kind of showing how stupid some of the boxing analysis, and this happens in MMA too, where people just write people off like, oh, he's a quitter and blah, blah, blah. It's like, dude, if your fucking eye socket is broken, like I always say this, Matt Ser didn't stop george saint pierre cold matt sarah rocked him and if you go and notice saint pierre tapped to strikes so you can call saint pierre a bitch if you want to that's okay but look at what he was able to do after that fight he got revenge and went on and insane he was he had a good run before that

but continued an amazing run after that like the notion that people who quit in combat sports are these you know defective cowards you just there's then there's too much evidence now to know to realize now but that's just really really unfair labeling to a lot of otherwise really talented fighters no No doubt. You nailed it. And I just said, by the way, that he'll get his second chance at Usa. He's going to fight Parker. Look who I'm overlooking.

The number two guy on my list for boxing comeback fighter of the year, that's Joseph Parker. What he did this year, which is take that wide decision from Deontay Wilder, I get Wilder was washed as heck in that one. But then go in there against a red-hot Big Bang Zhangang and come away with yes, a disputed majority decision win, but a strong performance from Parker. He will get his chance February 22nd to go up against number one comeback fighter of the year Dubois. And if he wins that Parker versus Usyk, I wouldn't hate that either. I'd more prefer, of course, the Dubois rematch, but I got a shout out to Joseph Parker. I also have to shout out Virgil Ortiz Jr., who was out of the ring for a couple of years,

had all those medical scares, went up into a new weight class, and really put on some thrillers this year, including that fight of the year contender against Sergei Boachuk. Shout out to Virgil Ortiz Jr., reminding us of how great he seems to be, how exciting he is, and exciting he is. And now he's proven he can do it at 154 with the health concerns behind him. Anybody else you're considering, Luke, in this? No? I had a hard time with this one because I was looking for something akin to what Dubois had achieved, which is really shattering the nature of what he was up against.

And you'd pick some decent ones, obviously, but there was nothing that really stood out for me hardcore. The Dubois one was the one where I can't recall more people being like, I was wrong about a guy than that fight. Actually, I don't even know what a close second would even look like. There's no close second. So let's go over to MMA comeback fighter of the year. Three of us had three different picks. Luke, I want you to go first.

Who had the best comeback year? So you can pick, I mean, this is one I struggled a little bit. So I'm going to go partly off narrative. Okay. And what it symbolized, and that's not always the best way to do it. And sometimes it can be applied inconsistently, but for me, I'm going to give it to Francis and Ghanu. Now I understand he only fought one time,

and he fought against a guy who, in the end, was really not up to his level of skill. But you'll recall he'd been out of the MMA cage. I know he'd fought in boxing, but we're talking about MMA comebacks. He'd been out of the MMA cage for several years, obviously, at that point. Or was it two years he'd been out, something like that? More than that. Yeah, by the time he returned.

Remember, that was the first time we saw him since recovering from knee surgery right and this is really the linchpin to what pfl does like it like dakota dichova is interesting for pfl because she is what they do well which is they can find someone put them in a tournament and I know it's been more than just one tournament, but put them in a tournament, and they win it, and now all of a sudden they're on everyone's radar. They got a good amount of money, and this tournament was able to rise through visibility ranks

to become something special, at least to hardcore fans. That's the core of what they do well. But they have to figure out another level to what they do, because if that's all they can do well, once they service someone to that top level from the tournament, they have nowhere else to go. So like Francis is huge for just being able to have a

section of their business BC where they can say, hey, if you've graduated to a different level, this is what we can do with you. I don't know if they're actually going to do that with Ditchabob. I'm just making a point. I'm like, what they need. So between the knee surgery, I should say among the knee surgery, among the

time off, among the stakes about what it meant for... By the way, remember, Francis had lost twice in boxing, one of which was the one you had spotlit, BC, where he was viciously KO'd. He had a lot to come back from, not least of which, I haven't even mentioned the fact that he had a lot to come back from not least of which i haven't even mentioned the fact

that he had an absolutely unfathomable personal tragedy on top of that and he went out there and he fucked hen and fajita up doing it with smarts athletic ability he was brought to tears as a result of the relief that he was able to enjoy from this being over. I'm not saying there aren't guys who didn't do more in 2024. Of course there are. But that was big for Francis. I think he wins it for me. Yeah, that's a great choice.

He wasn't in my top three, but in hindsight, I was wrong for that. He should be strongly considered, if not outright, having won it. I mean, he was devastatingly knocked out by by anthony joshua like i talked to people in his camp and they were like oh it was bad you know and he came back like nothing and the personal tragedy like we're dealing with somebody that's just different has always been different wow i, going to give my vote to the Korean superboy, Doohu Choi, who had that stretch of defeats devastatingly all in crazy brawls and wars where, like, I had forgotten that the time off he had recently

was due to the military service in South Korea. I thought he had taken too much damage and had stepped away. So for him to come back be completely off the radar and go to an O this year and I think with two stoppages like that's that's a nice rebound like he's back to some degree Luke maybe not definitely a title contender back but he's opened our eyes and reminded us once more and I'm happy to see that for him yeah I think that's a great call. I had kind of forgotten about him, right?

I had kind of forgotten about him. And then to look as smooth and as improved as he did while still being a devastating force, again, he's still got a little bit of prime left or post-prime or at the tail end of the prime, however you want to put it. I think that's a very, very respectable choice. Long Island Luke, you had a different number one than us. prime left or post prime or at the tail end of the prime however you want to put it uh i i think that's a that's a very very respectable choice long island look you had a different number one than us please share yeah i went a little i guess off the radar went yusuf zalal i mean the guy was in the ufc got cut comes back i mean he won a few on the regional but now he's three and oh

on a second stint in the uf three subs, beat Billy Q, Jack Shore. Like, this guy's solid. He looks like a kid. Great choice. Again, not the biggest fights, not the biggest names, but quality names for anybody who knows what they're looking at. And you're right. Like, a lot of times guys get cut, they go to the regional scene,

that's a wrap for them. They might get back, but, you know, they're not all that much better. He looks like he's a lot better. Absolutely. But Dom Reyes, we also have to shout out, wasn't incredibly highest level matchmaking, but a step forward, gets the two wins, gets stoppages. He needed that at 34.

Who knows? Who knows what's left for him? We'll see. Luke, it's hard. I wanted to give Joaquin Buckley the respect, but the reality is last year he had won two in a row in a new weight class yes but I wanted to throw a vote at him though just to basically say he still made this insane leap from that point to where he's almost kind of in the fighter of the year discussion to some degree so

that's a that's not a full comeback but it's it's a it's a huge change it It doesn't match what we're looking for for comeback, but to your point, there's something about the year he had that doesn't neatly fit in any kind of one category, but it's still worthy of acknowledgement about what this guy has done to change his fortunes. Sure. I acknowledge that, certainly. Do you have anyone else you want to recognize

again i think you could put brandon roival on this list two wins in this year yeah again he was not supposed to be anywhere near relevancy following uh his last loss and just decided i'm not done yet i'm not even close to being done yet and i really feel like again let's not bury him he was pretty close to relevancy in that division come on i'm just saying if you lose a bunch of title fights, they're not going to give you another one. I think the matchmakers want to move on beyond him, and he simply just won't let them.

Yeah. No, in that regard, yes, he deserves the respect on here. Let's keep it going. Breakthrough fighter of the year. This is kind of a generic way to combine prospect of the year with the idea of who just stole the attention for the year for the first time in a lot of ways. Not a comeback fighter of the year with the idea of who just stole the attention for the year, you know, for the first time in a lot of ways, not a comeback fighter of the year, but who was the big breakthrough one Luke in boxing. I struggled with this because we're kind of casting a wide

net. You can go more of a prospect who finally took a big step up or what have you, but I got to go Keyshawn Davis because I think he closed this year, not just by selling the tickets in his hometown and then delivering in that big spot top rank gave him, but raising his level of competition, regularly calling out the biggest fighters in and around this weight class, carrying himself in a way outside the ring that raises your expectations into what this guy can do. But then going in the ring and showing you that already, he's very close to being of that top end ilk. We just got to see it in the big fights, but he wants the big fights now.

He broke through, in my opinion, from prospect territory to aggressively now take him very serious moving forward. To me, I give him a lot of respect for that. He blew me away. I'm going to give him my vote. And had a fight in his hometown, delivered, can do media, has a personality, has a boxing identity. All of that kind of came into focus this year as well.

So I think that's part of it. I went a bit of a different route. Excuse me if I may. I went with Bam Rodriguez. I know he only fought two fights, and it's hardly some new thing that everyone knows he's good. But to the point you raised, what he did against Estrada is fucking amazing.

And then to follow it up the way he did so cleanly with Guevara, I feel like what he did this year was again did he transform everything no but I think this was one of the years where I really began to notice he was on a lot more people's radar as a consequence of what he was able to put together and in a way where you're talking about I mean pound for pound greatness potentially you know unifying ability down the line again he's not quite there yet but just 24 years of age it just felt like he took a big step up not just in terms of what he showed us he could do but what we were allowed to imagine him being capable of and then how much he was on everyone's radar after the fact i i'm

going to give it to him yeah i'm i'm not against that at all. Both of us have the same number two, Luke, and that's 20-year-old UK heavyweight Moses Otauma, who's getting a lot of love in Riyadh's CISN circles and will get big placement to do big, huge things like maybe make this run at Mike Tyson's record for being the youngest heavyweight champion at age 20. I think there's still time. But this calendar year, I'm counting one, two, three, four wins all by stoppage and went from a guy who, you know, I hadn't known much about to, oh crap, we better all catch up quickly. This guy's coming on.

He's ready to burst through. Can I just say something too? Yeah. Well, I mean, BC, you know, this as well as I do, you know, top ranks trying to make us think that Richie Torres is like the next big thing in American boxing. And maybe he is, you know, he trying to make us think that richie torres is like the next big thing american boxing and maybe he is you know he seems like a nice dude and um he's got he's got some ability and he seems like a decent athlete but i remain unconvinced what was this itama looks i don't know there's something special about him he looks like he is ready ready and just you know

what is he now 1920 whatever the he is um i don't know i feel like they're not i don't think they're headed for similar uh accolades i think he thomas headed for something special yes and he's in he's in there he's aligned perfectly because i think turkey's going to give him a chance to do huge things and if he can do it he'll be a star like he's he's ready uh martin baccoli at heavyweight he had only that one performance against big baby anderson but raised his stock so aggressively with it that it was a breakthrough in that regard uh luke you threw a vote at daniel dubois similarly could easily win this right he could easily win this yeah again i feel like for breakthrough dubois was already fighting usic before all of this so like you know he had been in a level of relevancy that, um, was a little bit different

than what kind of guys you're talking about. Certainly like Keyshawn Davis. However, as again, a guy who shattered the way that people understand him, not just with the Joshua fight, he kind of laid the foundation for the Hergovich fight and the Big Baby fight as well, and then just blew the doors wide open on the Joshua fight. I kind of feel like he matches this criteria here a little bit as well. Long Island Luke, do you have the fans' view on this? Do you have a vote to throw out yourself?

I was going to say, I told BC Pre-Show that I really struggled with this. I had no idea who to pick, and I maybe thought of it a little outside the box. And I did David Morrell Jr. because he's finally breaking through getting that Benavidez fight. Didn't really have a great 2024, but he finally getting the big shot. So that was my call there. Terrible. Didn't even put it in the poll for the fans.

The fans win Bam Rodriguez, 58%. Next up, Keyshawn Davis, 19%. Moses Atama, 14%. Hey, great performances from all. But on the MMA side, tell me it's not Dakota Ditcheva. Luke, I got a text message from my dad this week that said Dakota Ditcheva, wow. And then I'm like, what are you talking about? He said he ran into some YouTube highlight video and was like, who is this?

What's going on here? That's pretty breakthrough. But obviously when you go in the cage, step up from the PFL sort of regional levels to the world levels of what they're building there. And then facing like legitimate ex UFC title challengers and running through people and making it look efficient and effortless star power too yeah they got something there with pfl they got something i mean they even got ufc to pick up the phone and offer a trade

like holy crap i don't know if you can say more about that i can't you kind of just drop in some nuggets here huh yeah yeah i i if i was ufc i would want to trade somebody for her too. She is maybe the most electric talent in all of women's MMA. I mean, I don't know if it's quite far and long enough for us to say that, but if she's not, she's pretty close. She is dynamite. And by the way, BC, this is what I mean about what PFL does. Now, again, this is a little bit slightly beyond what the tournament itself can offer but like they had two people i thought really kind of

maybe had a breakthrough fight of the year performances both paul hughes and dakota dichova i think could be part of this for the pfl but in the case of dichova dude it's just so fucking easy finishing everybody she's got she's got personality she has well-rounded skills she is a born finisher like i mean who is doing that on the women's side of the game on the way for ufc right now with that same kind of verb nobody and has like somewhat of a ronda rousey's backstory with her mom being a legend in her same sport and so yeah there's a lot to like paul hughes got my number two vote so like for all the things we say about pfl these are two very big things that happened to them in 2024.

And they did it through their homegrown system and trying to get people from the European PFL league or the Mina or whatever, and then bring them, you know, look, do I think that's the best way for them to try to succeed as a number two? That's out there saying they're already co-number one. No, we've argued against that, but these are great developments in this in the sport of mma in terms of young fighters about to do huge things and pfl's done a very good job with them um luke carlos protest will probably deserve some love from us because he's had a year or that could get him in this discussion no doubt long out look what was your vote? Was it Proches? Where'd you go here?

I was debating on him. I went Joaquin Buckley, man. Four straight wins. I mean, two over former title challengers. How can you not have him as a breakthrough fighter of the year? He's headlining events now. I mean, I don't know. I think he belongs. I think also Carlos Proches.

And honestly, Diego Lopez belongs on that list as well. There's a few of them on the MMA side that really neatly fit this criteria that you could pick. All right, let's go to fight of the year and in boxing. Do you have the fans pick? Oh, yes. Can we get the fans choice on this, Luke? Yeah, so 43% Dakota Ditcheva, 33% Carlos Prates, 21% Joaquin Buckley.

That's all right. I'm all right with that. All right. I mean, my dad only texts me usually about Sean O'Malley. That's the only person he knows in this sport. He still thinks it's bare knuckle. Well, my dad doesn't text me about it at all. All right.

There you go. All right. I said, we're going to boxing fight of the year. Luke, my choice. You already knew it. Usyk Fury won May 18th. I thought it was better than the rematch, which I still really thoroughly enjoyed from the drama to the skill level to the technical nature.

But the first fight had more action, more pockets of sustained dominance for each fighter as well. We got to see so much heart and character from both in this. We got to see a breakthrough performance from Usyk. I didn't, you know, this is, they produced a fight that as a fight fan, to be fair, you only dream of. And now this wasn't this, like this fight, isn't going to get the reverence of Gotti Ward Pacquiao Marcus for, you know, it wasn't on that level of an action fight, but I thought it over delivered on the potential for entertainment for seeing two all-time greats who are both

undefeated champions coming into this historic fight really show the best of themselves in certain areas, and yet one fighter fought through that with a razor-thin victory. It's your dream that fights on this stage end up playing out that well. We got a few of those this year, but this was a gift to gift to boxing it was perfection to me that's my fight of the year this is one of those fights it's my fight of the year as well uh one of those fights where sometimes we get to these questions of like you know what has better main events mma or boxing and of course you know there's a lot of different

ways in which you could preference is going to play a role here and i'm not saying that there aren't mma fights that are better than fury music there are but what I'm trying to point out is these 12 round up and down undulating narratives these like you know almost like a horse race one guy takes the lead then the other then the other then it bleeds over the course of you know more than 45 minutes essentially beyond that would you have to take you know as the rounds expire so it's got this long pronounced feeling of like an epic battle taking place and when you have the skill level involved and you have the stakes involved and then again that ninth round involved it just shows you like what a first rate boxing main event can do and what it can feel like and what it can special it can be

i can't even think of anything that would be even remotely close to Fury versus Usyk. Better be Bivol was a fine fight, but it wasn't anything close to this. This was the boxing fight of the year, bar none, and an example of what the sport can look like at times when it's at its best. Yes. Well, I can only disagree from this standpoint.

I think there was a number two that came close to make this an argument. I think Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano and the rematch given the platform and the stakes and how many casual fans saw that like, holy crap, we got to see not in the main event, but in the co-main event, we got to see in a lot of sense, everything you just said about it was like fury one,

the best of what women's boxing can offer. And they again, like kind of overachieved in delivering that the first fight instant classic the second fight instant classic it had controversy it had a lot going for it it was also two of i think the four greatest female boxers of all time not at their physical primes anymore but but yet at the same time perfect dance partners to have this epic rivalry yeah if you have that at number one i'm not upset with that at all at all yes but at the same time i you know that thing was so marred by how its live broadcast went yes and the double cheeks from tyson yeah yeah and then having to

look at mike tyson's butt cheeks was not awesome um i i think that was a great fight and i do think it is it has it deserves a place it's on my list as number two yeah but i just don't i think it's a distant number two to be honest with you all right i gotta throw love as an honorable mention to virgil ortiz jr and sergey boachuk look golden boys had a had a very good year as a promotion and this was a fight that was originally going to be on that augustrd card as a replacement to the original idea of Tim Zhu against Virgil Ortiz. But consider that this was Ortiz coming back from a couple of years off, all those medical concerns in a new weight class. And he gets a replacement opponent in Sergei Bochuk that they realized this fight was so good. They pulled it off that loaded LA card, made it its own main event, and it absolutely over-delivered on brutality, action, ebb and flow, controversy or dispute with the scorecards.

I mean, what a classic thriller that would have won, in my opinion, in most other years. Phenomenal fight. It was my number three fight on this list. I don't have much to add beyond what you had said, but these three, to to me stood out far in excess of the others this year in terms of like, well, all the things

we've mentioned, but the last two in particular two-way action fights that still had significance in a variety of different capacities. Obviously, it's going to be different for Serrano and Taylor versus Otis and Bojic, but in any case, those are the three that I picked. I think those are the best

by far yeah um should we throw respect at bevel and better be of and and put this in this discussion no it was a technical brilliant dramatic fight but it wasn't overly action and maybe i think i think we can acknowledge a fight having incredibly important value being between two very very very skilled guys and it being a fine maybe even a good fight but not an award-winning fight no it was not an award-winning fight no long island luke you had a pick different from ours but i don't hate it break it down for me well you guys all picked ones that went the distance which i think is solid when picking a fight of the year i went for that two round bround banger, Abdullah Mason versus Yohan Vasquez. I mean, dude, that was one of the best fights of the year, Luke.

Let's be real. Luke, it was. It was a sick fight. Guys, you can't pick a fight of the year where one guy just says, you know what? Fuck defense. Creates a good fight, dude. Creates a good fight.

This is why MMA fans love Yuri and why I'm like, do you guys not notice he doesn't use defense? Like, we don't give a fuck. We just care about his offense. why I'm like, do you guys not notice he doesn't use defense? Like, we don't give a fuck. We just care about his offense. And I'm like, all right. Aussie rules, Luke. Do the fans have a consensus pick on this?

Yeah, they're going 59% Usyk Fury won, and they're going 30% Serrano Taylor 2, 7% Ortiz Jr. Boachuk. Also, Fundora versus Zoo. I'm going to put some respect in that one too. Fight of the year contender. Honorable mention. I mean, it was gnarly.

Yeah, it was definitely gnarly. I mean, it was a fucking bloodbath. I think we're going to have a big debate here in MMA. Luke Thomas, what's your fight of the year? So this one was really tough for me. And this is why... Okay, so I picked three of these that I would ordinarily never pick. That's not quite true.

That I would not put near the top of the list. But I don't have a choice. A lot of times what people do in MMA is they pick the wildest fucking brawl. You know what I mean? Or like a guy, a fight where there's like... They pick the... Okay, BC. You know as well as I do that in college football,

these guys can only take snaps out of the shotgun, right? They cannot take snaps under center. And you see these scores like 52 to 49 all the fucking time. Because in college, they're playing different schemes, yes, but they're just not as good defensively at all. And that shit comes to a stop for the most part when they get to the NFL, with some exception. And so it's just a different ball game.

And to me, what a lot of guys do in MMA when they make awards is they pick the college football version of what the best fight is, which is just rock them, sock them, no defense. I hear you. Now, I ordinarily never pick that kind of a thing, or at least I don't rank it as number one because I feel like that's the wrong way to look at the sport. However, in this particular year,

there just wasn't really a clash of the titans that was... I mean, Max and Ilya was the closest. Yeah, no, it's the answer. No, sorry, not Max and Ilya. Okay, Max and Ilya is in this discussion i will say it was a great back and forth fight at the highest level in terms of technique but also the reality of the brutal shots but i don't see how max versus gaethje is not getting more argument that's my number one fight of the year ufc how is that possible it's one-sided it's not completely one-sided but i want to add in this it's a it's a fight that had a lot of pressure

on it because it's a bmf fight it's in the position in the slot it was to almost kind of hopefully carry ufc 300 and it did it really did and it helped that card like deliver in such a huge way but there was the tense opening round of seeing Max deal with someone so dangerous and Gaethje considering where our expectations were coming in. Then you have that sort of crazy strike at the end of that round that Max lands that creates the injury on Gaethje. And I get what your point that it wasn't back and forth action entirely throughout that middle.

And maybe that's the blind spot there that would prevent it from other people giving it the number one slot, but it was enough. And to see how it was going to end and where we were and then have it elevated so further, the only finished remotely comparable to that. I mean, maybe beyond Yair Rodriguez doing that to Korean zombie in a situation like that with one second to go in a very close fight. This one wasn't as close, but it gave me like Pacquiao Marquez four vibes to some degree. I don't know, man. It was just that, that was a piece of entertainment and I was entertained and it, it had so much pressure on it to do that, and then it smashed through and gave us like the ultimate feel-good moment. This might be MMA moment of the year, Luke. It also, I think,

was the fight of the year because of that, not just because of that, but because of the total entertainment experience. Performance of the year, not fight of the year. Fight of the year has to be a two-way street. It just wasn't enough of a two-way street it was a movie it was so it was so in the end i ended up picking uh daniel zellhuber versus esteban ribovic i can never pronounce his name from noche ufc this is not a this is not a fight i would have picked ordinarily this is not the kind of fight i usually like to pick but i just feel like the kinds that i do were in short supply this year. Going with the insane fucking back and forth. You could always go also BC

with Tayush Rebesky. Dude, that was a caveman fight. That was a brutal caveman fight. You got to give respect to it. I had Rebovich as my number two. Think of the card it's on. It just had this elevated feeling. There were back-to-back

bangers on that sphere card to be fair. How about this for a five-round main event royval versus tatsuro tyra i know there were donk moments as well but it was so exciting so back and forth dude that's got to get some love that was excellent mma those guys were well matched and they were well matched in areas that they are both confident in and you saw some of that and it was just chess at a really, really spectacular physical level. Well, is it chess when Tyra doesn't move his head once in the whole fight? I don't know about that. But that wasn't the sole reason why he lost.

That was a big reason why he got whooped on but like there was more to it on certainly on the ground component as well. Which is what I was really referencing but I feel like that fight deserves contention. And also one of those fights where you're going to look back and see how I think different Tyra will be in terms of his growth. Okay, would you have a problem if someone said Alex Pereira against Khalil Rountree?

Because you knew that Pereira was down 2-0, and we didn't expect that. I think you could put it honorable mention but I I would not give it the award outright I just I know some people feel like they could I feel like that's kind of grading it on a curve a little bit would you be upset if somebody then said Islam Mahachev Dustin Poirier that one I'd be a little bit more accepting of that one was a little bit more back and forth and um I take Poirier as a tougher challenge than even though I know obviously Roundtree started out with a great lead I don't think he was built to sustain it whereas I feel like Poirier can be dangerous throughout all five rounds uh it's tougher division anyway you know okay then should we also give Poie a love for the bsd

fight i mean come on that's that's in there not an award but i could certainly give a salute tip of the cap kind of thing all right long island luke what's your pick what are the fans pick i had reba vich zell huber i mean that was definitely just back and forth best fight of the year uh the fans are siding with ub, BC. Holloway Gaethje, 47%. Donks. 33% for Zellhuber, Rebovich, and 13% for Rebeski. Team Snack Pack over here. They understand.

Not a fight of the year, really, at all. I mean, I loved it, but not a fight of the year. All right. Were you not entertained by that? How about this, Luke? I wasn't entertained. I just wasn't entertained in the sense of, like, this is an epic battle i'm transitioning okay luke let's go to event or card of the year in boxing currently riyad sizin had its first full calendar year and it's going

to be a lot of these picks luke i went with the august 3rd card in la even though there's a lot of things to criticize from the pacing to the weird moments of the hall of fame induction for Turkey, a lot of weirdness. We also got Crawford Madrumov, which was this kind of a surprising thriller, uh, Valenzuela upsetting Pitbull Cruz in the way he did the Bacoli Anderson brawl, even though it was at times painful, like a 10 hour WrestleMania card. It was the card of the year in my opinion so I have a hard time doing card of the year in boxing for a lot of different reasons but I also I went with a slightly different way of well with a very different way of looking at this BC you we called it event of the year and not card and so I feel like you could make one be like the other

but they can also be a meaningful difference I actually went with haney garcia for my event of the year because first of all the event the the the fight itself was fucking bananas right but the entire week leading up to it with garcia drinking in the goddamn bar that week was an insane circus you had to live on twitter you had to live on twitter that week it was like it was it was madness it was madness from beginning to end and by the way in a lot of ways not good i don't i'm not sitting here saying that all parts of that were like oh wholesome fucking fun i don't mean that garcia appears to be you know a very distressed and and troubled person but in terms terms of just edge of your seat, what is about to happen,

that week had a lot of that, a lot of that. Yeah, I'm not against that. I'm also not against in strong consideration here to the first PBC pay-per-view in the Amazon Prime era that came March 30th in Vegas. Fundora versus Zoo Bloodbath. You had Pit cruise knocking people, Cruz knocking out Rolly Romero,

Boa Chuck in that brawl with Mendoza, Arislandi, Laura with the KO win to defend against Zarafa. That was a pretty good, sneaky, great pay-per-view from PBC there. And they had a couple of these where they've put some good undercards together.

No doubt about it. I, I think that that certainly uh matches the criteria again this was a tougher one um i think you're looking at more like a obviously like a boxing insider would i'm taking probably a more casual view but you know there's a lot well do you put tyson paul in the discussion because of that it took hold of the casual crossover universe and kept us even if we were angry it has to to be. It has to deliver. It has to deliver.

That didn't deliver at all. You did get Barrios Ramos and Taylor Serrano too, and then you got Netflix problems like there was no tomorrow. And then you had a dog shit main event. No chance I could pick that. If the main event had

all been interesting, whatever that means, maybe you could have picked it. But it was a fucking, like it under-delivered in the biggest of ways. Would you throw Masvidal versus Diaz in this discussion at all? I mean, as much as I think

that you did a great job on that desk, no. Thank you. Hey, that fight over-delivered, all right? It did. It did over-deliver. That's true. I mean, it was a fine fight in the end, but nothing special. Thank you. Hey, that fight over-delivered, all right? It did. It did over-deliver. That's true. I mean, it was a fine fight in the end, but nothing special. All right.

Long Island Luke, you have any lean on here? I went with you. The August 3rd, Terrence Crawford, Israel Modromov. I mean, we had Andy Ruiz. We had both big babies. Pitbull Cruz, you mentioned. David Morrell Jr. We had Andy Cruz.

That was a stacked card, both on paper, and it played out pretty well, too. I got to choose that. There was some shenanigans, though, that card as always here uh and then the fans actually though and 72 are actually siding with luke here on haney garcia oh interesting look that that fight's gotta fall in some of our words in some form it took it was a moment in time i'll get to that shortly mma i gotta go 300 april 13th there was a lot of pressure for that card to deliver they didn't have the main and co-main combo that i would have wanted but in totality i was entertained aggressively that night you got to shout them out when they

win luke they won big didn't did they not 300 come on that? Come on. That is the biggest one. That's the best one this year. No question in my mind. Did you get the epic main event you were wanting? Maybe not. But Poetan stepped up and over-delivered. You got a meme-worthy kind of fucking response there. And the Max KO and everything else.

Like, that is just your king event. And, you know, there's some other good ones. But UFC 300, easy call. All right. Long Island, there, you know, there's some other good ones, but UFC 300, easy call. All right. Long Island. Look, you agreed with us on there.

I'll get back to you in a second, Luke. I got to shout out UFC 306 in the sphere. I got to put it up there. Okay. Again, that fight people argued wasn't, you know,

deep enough for that event. I think you have to take into account the entertainment value that they were trying to provide with the screens. They did the best they could to translate that to TV. Do I want that every time or all the time? No. But if that ends up being this one-off thing that, you know, costs so much, they delivered, dude. And there was compelling results. There were fight of the year candidates on there. There was, you know, a breakthrough story of Merab winning the championship right after Valentino. Valentino gave you a breakthrough story of Marab winning the championship right after Valentino. Valentino gave you a breakthrough story, although that fight was not exciting.

I'm going to put that as my number two. Respect it, Luke. I like those choices. I mean, for me, for MMA, I judged it a little bit differently because MMA does have cards in ways that boxing typically anyway does not. So I went with 298. 298 was the Volkanovski and Teporia card but on that you had Whitaker and Costa which again was a great win by

Whitaker, Gary beating Neal not the best fight per se but then Marat beating Cejudo I thought was pretty thrilling Fluffy Hernandez of a Roman Copulov was phenomenal Amanda Lemos defeating McKenzie Dern was a tough battle and there were some other ones Rinyan Nakamura was on that card which was important and Oban Elliott was on that card which was important um and obon elliott was on that card which is important so for me that had

quality and consistently consistency all the way up and down that one i would put that one on the list i would say that stretch from 298 to 300 was fantastic absolutely you could have put 299 on the list as well i'm with you but my number three three though, was UFC three Oh eight in Abu Dhabi because they UFC still delivers big on paper at that location for the site fee. You got to pour you against Holloway. You got to my of Whitaker. You got the shower bullet, double back fist thing.

Yeah. That's enough to put it on there. Long Island. Look, what did the fans think was the best this year? I mean, they had to go with UFC 300. How could you not 71% next up?

No, Jay UFC, 15% UFC three Oh eight getting 6%. Yeah. I want to go with UFC 300. How could you not? 71%. Next up, Noche UFC 15%. UFC 308 getting 6%. I want to throw an honorable mention. Okay, Luke, you tell me if I'm crazy or throw an honorable mention. PFL versus Bellator. It was fun. It didn't stink.

Not award winning. Okay, then what about the pfl battle of the giants where you had cyborg pacheco and you had uh paul hughes mckee and you had francis coming back and johnny eblen on there not award-winning but better yes good all right all right let's go to soundbite slash quote of the year uh this you know, these are the enduring quotes that come out of post-fight interviews, tweets, whatever, that, you know, become part of our lexicon that change us. For me, I was able to secure a video of this. It's one man in its big bang zhang.

Hit it. Chinese power, Alabama power. We are going to ban each hour. hit it. Chinese power, Alabama power, we are going to ban each hour. So to recap, we are going to ban each hour, Luke. I didn't know what to do with this category

at all, because nothing, dude, I mean, except for Ryan Garcia just dropping the N-word and saying he hates all Muslims, which are not things I in any way wish to give awards to nothing stood out was memorable dude uh do not be afraid i will not leave you alone or the greedy belly those two i think are in this too okay but he called him greedy belly like all the time it wasn't like he didn't just drop like a boom a greedy belly one time long island Luke, it's a little bit of a quirky category. What do you got? I went BC's quote of getting dicked down,

and then he repeated it in the Aljo interview. I mean, I thought that was like the MK soundbite of the year. Yes, it really was. I put the poll out. I'm waiting to see, give it a minute to see what the fans say. Oh, yeah. Telling Aljo he got dicked down. I was like, okay.

We'll hear from the fans in a second. I wanted to go to best broadcaster of the year. Oh, yeah. I don't think it was an insanely great year in boxing broadcasting, but I think we definitely have shouted people out along the way that have performed well this year. And I know that to some people this is a polarizing pick, but I disagree. Timothy Bradley Jr.

I thought of the best 2024 of anyone as the top rank on ESPN color analyst, right? Used to pair with Andre Ward, but that, that duo broke up a couple of years ago. And I think Bradley stepped up his game. Yes, he can play character at times and it ruffles people the wrong way when he's throwing money in the air. But when I give him the, this nod, it's because he tells the truth more than any fighter in the game. That's become an analyst without question. He tells the truth, even if it's against the promotion or the network or the young fighter that's being propped up. He tells the truth.

Obviously he's a hall of famer. So he's got a credible background. He's not afraid of controversy or have public disagreements with fighters he's entertaining me at the end of the day and educating me i got a shout out to tim uh i appreciate that i think that is uh a little bit strong i don't think he actually is that good and he has a lot of like really shitty takes um did you see him say that usic was not an all-time great i don't like that take at all i was like i was like are you out of your fucking mind but okay uh for my broxing best broadcaster of the year for boxing i actually picked brian campbell can you believe this oh get out of here i really did i'm not kidding now you didn't get as much work as you did in 2023 that is true because showtime went kaput and so did our lives in many ways. But nevertheless, you did get some of the desk work, obviously, for the Diaz and Masvidal fight.

Plus, you were there, obviously, for the Zoo fight, correct? The Zoo and Murdazalia fight? That's true. And calling it. BC, listen, you're a contemptible, horrible person. However, I got to give you credit. I feel like you're the most underrated boxing broadcaster that there really is. I truly mean that.

You didn't need to do that, Luke. I appreciate that. Well, listen, you're absolutely right. I didn't need to do it. But if I'm just being honest, I'm sitting here listening to you half the time, and I'm like, I cannot believe this guy doesn't get more consistent work. There are other people who do a good – like I really – people may or may not like max

kellerman i like max kellerman a lot right but he's been sitting on ice for however long mark creagle is fine or whatever um some of the guys on the zone are okay but they're a little weird like i like manix's broadcasting style but i often disagree with some of his takes you know so there's a lot of that but i just feel like for ability level-headed takes knowledge of the sport clean sounding the whole nine you did the callum walsh fight this year as well right that one on top of it i don't know man i really feel like somebody's gonna fucking figure this out eventually that they're just there's a guy out there sitting around and he might masturbate during the pre-production meetings

and do whippets right after the event is over but when it's time to call the fights he's good at it thank you for the glazing I appreciate that a lot it's going to happen the breakthrough is coming I got a shout out Todd Grisham Luke I know he's not always everyone's cup of tea I think he delivers

some of the best knockout calls and carries the drama of the moment. And being with DAZN at the right time with the Turkey-Ella Sheik connection, we saw Todd in some huge, historically great fights. In fact, I thought it was in error that DAZN pulled him from the Usyk-Fury rematch instead going with the British broadcasting team. I think Todd brings that theatrical boom and excitement to it. He had a very good year.

I also want to shout out Sean Porter, whether it's on our podcast as a guest analyst, I think he's some of the best takes in the world on his own podcast. He works for various broadcasters. Uh, he's always in my sphere as a guy I get entertained by and enjoy listening to. Uh, I'm going gonna add just a couple

more names i think that the guys over at pro box tv chris algeri and paulie malinaggi do a fucking phenomenal job jimmy smith too jimmy jimmy smith too i mean he's doing play by play i was kind of thinking more on the color side in this particular case um but i think those guys chris algeri and paulie malinaggi just as boxing analysts are phenomenal they have just a wealth of information trenchant observations. They're high on my list as well. Long Island Luke, can you come in on your choice as well as update us on the recent poll?

So I'm not as familiar with a lot of boxing broadcasters. I didn't know we could pick BC. I probably would have just picked BC. I went with Sean Porter. I thought he had a great appearance on MK episode earlier in the year. If you guys didn't see that, go watch that interview. It's a lot of fun. Poll, overwhelmingly 79%, Brian Campbell.

Yeah. Got to give an honorable mention to Long Island's own Chris Algieri, though, 6%. Yeah. Chris Algieri is great. He's going to be a lead guy for a long time on a lead broadcast. I just, we got, you know, the lay of the land is getting figured out as we speak. On the MMA side, I did have a top five ranking of this on my YouTube channel in terms of my favorite announcers. But who had the best 2024? I got to give it to Paul Felder.

Dude, he has made a monster leap where when we sometimes go, okay, who's your preferred A team for pay-per-views if you could choose your own team? I think he's starting to fill that third spot for me because the personality is so believable obviously the background as a elite you know elite fighter but a gnarly uh hard-nosed guy too but like his delivery is great he's improved his technique and also you like you kind of just cheer for him he's got he's always had that very you know fan-friendly vibe i think he's carried that into broadcasting too. He doesn't let me down with his takes. He's great, Luke. I think they should consider him in an extremely elevated,

right below DC role. That's what I'm saying, all right? All right, Paul Felder's on my list. I go with Laura Senko. She doesn't get the biggest assignments, and so I think a lot of this gets lost along the way. I'm going to say this. I think she's't get the biggest assignments. And so I think a lot of this gets lost along the way. I'm going to say this. I think she's their best color commentator.

That's certainly debatable, but she is the best for me. Now, I think when DC is talking wrestling, there's no one quite as good at explaining any one individual skill as good as he is at that. But, you know, he often does like the Joe Rogan podcast while they're doing commentary. Yes, he does. I think that ends up kind of ruining it a little bit, but I do recognize his skill in certain areas. I agree, Paul Felder has come such a long way. I really like his contributions. But for me, Laura Sanko is the biggest combination

of technical know-how and then doing prep. And then why that leads to, it's more than the sum of its parts when you get that, you get actually something a little bit special that really elevates the broadcast, elevates individual fights she sees things and observes them and then can match it to various points of interesting history in ways that none of the other guys on that entire ufc team can do and as i indicated there are some other guys on there that are actually quite good but she to me is head and shoulders above them it's just you

don't get to appreciate it as much because of the nature of the assignments that she is giving and by the way i'm okay with her working her way up i'm not saying they have to put her to the front of the line it's fine that she's on these smaller shows to start you know everyone has to earn their way up but i think she's doing that quite greatly if i may bc yes uh i think another name that needs to be thrown in here is dan hardy dan hardy for the pfl we all have our problems with PFL, but Dan Hardy as a commentator is fucking great, great energy, great understanding of the sport kind of knows what fans want, knows what the sport needs, understands the guys. And to me, no one makes the PFL when they're speaking about it. No one makes the PFL product more palatable than him. Um, I think he is a massive credit to that organization.

He is a massive credit to the sport. And what you want is guys to entertain you with the way they commentate, but as well to raise your ability to understand it. And I think he does it every single time. He's probably too busy with the combination of broadcasting, being in the administrative side of PFL, and then also training his wife. But I think he could be one of the sports elite's trainers too. Like he really seems to fit that role and vibe perfectly.

Yeah, I mean, the guy can wear many hats and commentating, it may just be one of them, but he's damn good at it. I gotta say, I gave my number two vote to DC. I think he's pulled back some of the over-the-top of the entertainment side of him that people haven't liked. Um, it's, you know, you're getting such great entertainment. Obviously you're getting the X, you know, some degree of expertise, certainly in wrestling, but

dude, the guy's just perfect TV. And what I love the most like Tim Bradley is DC is not afraid to take, you know, they don't take as aggressively hard takes on a UFC broadcast. Certainly not against their own people. Not that they need to, but when they need to dc's not afraid to get in a verbal battle with a fighter and and be critical that's his job man i think he's great laura senko got my number three but i think in general ufc has very good broadcasters you know down to the second and third string in some levels not a big biz ping fan luke but that, but that's just me, okay? That's really just me. Yeah, I mean, you know, we don't have to kill him, but I do think that the ones that we mentioned,

they've got some real talent. By the way, also, you know, again, he doesn't stand out as much because of the nature of the assignments. Obviously, we love John Anik. John Anik's the best, you know, in the business. But Brendan Fitzgerald, very, very good. Very good commentator. Dan Helly.

Also, I like Dan, DC sports legend. Dan Helly, I think, is great as well. Also, BC, I don't know if you saw the Jaden Daniels train yesterday. Not the one that I was offered to ride in the summer of 1999. I mean, a very different one. But nevertheless, a locomotive named Jaden Daniels, number five, placed with the Washington Commanders. Sorry, I haven't been following the game much.

Long Island Luke, do you have anything to add to this? Luke just gave him a shout-out right at the end there, but I picked Fitzy, man. Brendan Fitzgerald, the guy does not get enough love. I know Annex, the guy, but come on, Fitzy, second best for sure. No, Fitzy's fantastic. Did the fans have anything to say? Yeah, let's see what they said.

45% picked Laura Senkoko 38 percent paul felder dc coming in third 12 percent no love for dan hardy y'all are fucking haters man i didn't put dan hardy on the poll luke okay i recant then all right let's go to mk moment of the year luke thomas it's been one of the more tumultuous years in MK history, to say the least. But is there one moment that we've delivered, that we've been a part of, that's happened to us, that stands out the most to you? Yeah, I mean, just continue. I literally wrote this, continuing to exist. I don't know if folks understand how perilous it got this year.

It got close to bad. It got close to non-existent i suppose in some ways um so you know this was it was kind of funny when i read this question it's like i was i was literally talking with my my wife about i was like i don't know how to answer the question because it's like hey what was your favorite moment in surviving the tornado that destroyed your house it's like yeah the part where i lived through it that's the that's my favorite part of the year the part where we didn't die yeah i try to bury the trauma and and and turn you know and and get back in line the best i can but yeah there was a lot of trauma

but we got through it so i'm not but i literally mean it mean it. The fact that we're, okay, I could kind of this whole break, I've been kind of dusting myself off a little bit. I did that in August when I needed a vacation as well. All kinds of stuff. You know what I mean? This was a strange, strange year. The fact that we actually made it through to the other side and now have some, I

want to say hope. I think it's maybe the best way to put it for the present moment, but hope for some other possibilities is a fucking blessing. Yes got we got wrecked by a tornado but you know if you live through that and you can rebuild from that that is a blessing there are ways it could always always always always be much much worse than you you know you ever perceive it uh this was a tough one but i do feel like we made it the the I do feel like the worst of a lot of it anyway is over. Not all. We got through a tough,

a very tough storm and I don't discount that. But to me, the show outside of the community that we've built, it's always been about the content. What was our best piece of content this year? I think it was also our MK moment of the year. And that was Craig Jones in studio ahead of CJ. I won.

He was doing a lot of media but when you get a chance to get a guy that hilarious who also had big news to share and big things to say about MMA uh that was just perfection the the back and forths that were being had I couldn't even keep up with the jokes in real time. That's how good that, that guy was armed and ready. What a time, right? I mean, that was, what a marvelous guest booking right there. And like I said, he hit me up again. I think he wants to come back. He was kind of hinting at January. I guess we'll see once I finally talk to him,

but we can't wait to get him back in studio. I agree. That was fun. We need to create more fun. Like we need to go off script on these Monday shows a little bit more, dude. And it's hard that we, you know, we're renting a little bit more, dude. It's hard that we're renting a studio that's very busy. It's not our studio in that sense. It limits

what we can do, but we can do more than we are. I know that. We can get that secured space that's ours. We can change the game again. I want to shout out, though. Hey, we went to the Sphere because of Otiel Burbridge of Dead & Company. We happened to be out there that weekend for a PBCbc pay-per-view

we're covering and not just the experience of getting to enjoy the sphere with with john mayer and company and dead company bob weir but the hospitality shown us by otiel the what a time look what a time to be alive right is the man the man no question about it um also maybe Macy Barber calling you out for that story on air was a great moment Mike Perry by the way had like two or three appearances and I thought he was great but I think even in a crazy wild year we still we had some fun moments there Reggie Jackson had a few bites on camera uh Long Island Luke what did you point out here as your moment? I put Craig Jones coming into the studio.

That was the most fun for me. Anytime we got fighters in the studio, that's exciting. The fans, though, they went 55% on continuing to exist. Yeah, that's a big one. 30% on Craig Jones, 10% on the Macy Barber interview lead-in. Yes. Well, there you go. Luke, you had one more. Hey, M more hey macy i have diarrhea anyway welcome to the

fucking show uh luke you but you wrote down as your number two choice um getting to you know become more intimate with luke nocita i i get feedback about this all the time people love what he brings to the show which is amazing to me because he's high and usually pantsless half the time but nevertheless nevertheless people seem to have responded quite well i do think he adds a different dynamic to the show and um yeah i think it has made a difference this year so it's not one singular moment but that that change to things is uh is is has gone well much appreciated thank you yeah he's like by the way look look come back come back come back for a second. Hey, look at me. You're fired.

Get the fuck out of here. I was going to say he's like Jay Aaron, only we want him around all the time. He's Jay Aaron, only skilled and cool. Shout out to Pennington James. Great stuff there for our MK moment of the year. Let's go to our best moment of the year in boxing. Look, I don't know if this is the spot for it, but I mentioned that this fight was so impactful in April at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn when Ryan Garcia went in there against

unbeaten Devin Haney, following a crazy grudge match build, following inconceivable soap opera drama caused by purposely by Ryan Garcia, not just fight week, the whole three months. Like, let's not forget, I wrote a column as as did a lot of people in this industry, that like this fight probably shouldn't be happening. Garcia fooled us. He did the beer on the scale. Obviously, to some degree, it seemed like he was off kilter and had a year after that with the suspension from the drug use in this fight

that he had many highs and lows. So why am I saying this is the best moment of the year? Because this sport is crazy and it breeds moments like this and it deserves moments like this. And even though there was a lot of this that was awful, it had a wild entertaining ending that shook up boxing. Ryan Garcia, I think if you want to point to positives, he's making it become not only normal, but the goal to get huge fights and get them before you might even be ready, just chase greatness. He's kind of setting that standard through the lens of some of the weirdest behavior that I think has been really bad for the sport, but that's the sport is always riding this

wave of being the worst and the most entertaining and the most compelling at all times. That was a compelling night. We deserve it as the sport as we are. Yes, we had great moments in Riyadh season and the grand war of Fury and Usyk and Beterbiev and Bivol. Gimme Garcia versus Haney though. And the nuts craziness surrounding that. It made me uncomfortable, but like any great film that's supposed to take you on that ride as part of the deal, that's what we sign up for here inside the box, Luke. So that's it. That's what I got for you. Yeah. I want a bit of a different way to look at this best moment. It's hard for me to say exactly what the precise moment is, how you want to do it. But I think the best thing that I saw

for it, the fight itself sucked in an under sucked and under delivered and the event itself doesn't deserve awards as a boxing event but the fact that they were able with paul tyson to pull in the audience they were on netflix to me i think bodes well for their future in combat sports so i don't know what that would be and under what terms and like there's a lot that just remains, you know, unknown here at BC, but that was an overwhelming business success. Yes. That I think could portend a lot of extra combat sports on their, on their.

Whether or not you believe the rematch of Taylor and Serrano is, you know, firmly in the fight of the year discussion at number one, or you think it should not be there. It like if, if the night ended right there with that audience, that pressure, that everything, like that was a pretty damn great moment. You know, like they, like, like that's crazy. The totality of the event, how many people that woke up to the sport, even with that absolutely shameful main event. Wow. That didn't get a vote from me, but I understand it. I voted for crazier

things. My number two is John Fury head betting a member of U16 because it's not like that fight needed that, but you're going to add some John Fury on top of that. And then how about the Sandy Ryan, Michaela Mayer back and forth? That was weird. Sandy Ryan getting covered in paint outside the hotel. Like I never imagined a real life soap opera storyline infiltrating boxing like that it was very compelling and the fight by the way probably deserves a toss for fight of the year contendership because it was thrilling i mean that was great stuff uh yeah you could do that as well i mean this that's a little bit weird though this person got like attacked and then she was like she got nude for a box weird look you yeah it's really weird i went uh it didn't matter in

the end about changing anything but i just thought it was actually like a nice gesture on the part of turkey i'll give a little bit of credit making that pay-per-view for better be of all 20 bucks or no not even that one sorry it was the other one uh the subsequent one even the one this last week was 40 right it wasn't hardly anything at all so you could just say turkey reducing the price of pay-per-views it's not going to last because it doesn't work and the way in which they're structuring it but it's a nice change of pace for as long as it lasts and i'll take it absolutely right there along i'll look quickly what do you have on this i had uh usic becoming undisputed heavyweight champ in the first three. Yeah, that was on my list as well, obviously.

I'm not against that at all. The fans chose that 65%. 27% had Ryan Garcia over Devin Haney. 7% liked the Netflix boxing debut. Yeah. All right, let's go to MMA. And how are we not picking Holloway Gaethje, UFC 300? Enough said, man.

Enough said. I mean, it just is the moment by far nothing else comes close. Why don't we just show your reaction in real time to it? Why don't we just do that? Yeah, let's see. Shit. Rolling Thunder from Justin Gaethje right in the middle. Let's do it. Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!

Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Just in case he gets slapped! Just in case he gets slapped! Holy fucking shit! Oh my fucking god, dude! Holy fucking shit! Holy fucking shit! Holy fucking shit! That said it all. I mean, I don't know what comes close to that. No, I mean, Perez tweaking after the submission. Fiona, I don't know.

This one, like when Poetan did that. Oh, that celebration from Pereira, incredible. That was an interesting one, because that one ended up getting memed. So that one actually was pretty good. I thought the Nganou post-fight interview after the win with the family connection. Great call. Emotion. I'm definitely in on that.

I thought, oh, that was Long Island Luke's mention as well, that Nganou moment. What do the fans believe this time, Luke? You guys were too quick with this one. All right. Let's keep it going. Let's close strong. It's definitely Max. I mean, come on.

Okay, worst moment of the year. It was the Mike Tyson backward shot, Luke, in boxing. All right? It was. And you can maybe just group that with the fight because my number two was the main event. That was the second worst thing, but it's also one of the better things to happen to the sport.

That's boxing. Okay, what do you have? So I have Ryan Garcia during fight week. Not the event overall because there were other parts to it that were less troublesome. But the fact that it was just insanely self-abusive behavior and it didn't cost him in the fight in the traditional sense we'd understand it where I thought he was going to go in there and get whooped and that obviously is not what happened at all uh but like just how

troubling it was in terms of what he was showing you and what he was willing to do i think a lot of people were like oh well it's not going to matter because he got away with it and i'm like well if he doesn't fix what he's doing it's gonna matter but you know we'll see what he let's see what the year brings let's see what the year brings the only other vote i had was turkey getting inducted into the nevada boxing hall of fame on california soil that was weird long out luke you got anything to add yeah i had the sad uh francis and ganu lost to anthony joshua that was a pretty it was very sad that was bad mma fan That was a bad one.

All right, let's go to the worst moment in MMA. I'm going to say it. It was definitely PFL's handling of their own PR, but I think it was the Don Davis moment in the town hall with Mike Heck of MMA Fighting where he said that he not only doesn't have a favorite MMA fight, he doesn't watch it outside of work. And just obviously, it may not even been fair

the way it's being quoted and framed, but that's the worst result of what that interview could have produced for them from a PR standpoint. So that's my moment. Yeah, for me, I'm going to say the civil trial for Conor McGregor. Again, he's probably going to appeal. We'll see what happens there.

It's not really directly related to the sport. In fact, some people think it makes him go further away from the sport. I think another interpretation is it brings him back closer. We shall have to see. But just for a guy who had the world in his palm and then through what appears to be

anyway, one's opinion or otherwise, what appears to be a series of decisions over the course of his last, well, since Mayweather, McGregor that have just undermined any ability to stay on the straight and narrow. You know, I don't know if that's like the final point in the story,

probably not, but it does seem like a turning point. Yeah. For a different direction that, you know, yeah, there you go. I'll also throw a vote for Chris Weidman's repeated following of Bruno Silva accusing Poeton of witchcraft the Nina drama Tom Aspinall interview and uh yeah that's all the worst things how about versus mokai of like trying to kill each other before the fight and then basically having two and a half rounds of a bad fight that was bad long island i went a little personal here uh three of my favorite fighters all got brutally finished alexander volkanovsky max holloway and robert whittaker

all just destroyed yeah you had some heroes go down man yeah and uh 38 of the chat agrees with that but the winning thing 46 to the mcgregor trial yeah yeah good choice right there all right fighter of the year this is the biggest individual award we can give out and in the sport of boxing it's usic and it's usic with a bullet number one pound for pound was the undisputed heavyweight champion now has two wins over tyson fury enough said that's the king in a year that of a few guys that i think had great years but nothing bigger than that us, the face of boxing in 2024. Maybe if Crawford had gotten the Canelo fight,

we'd have a different conversation. Maybe if Canelo had fought Benavidez and beaten him, we'd have a different conversation. But this was the year of Usyk. No question about it. He did the most impressive things this year. And in a year where, as we just mentioned, Bam Rodriguez, who's also on my list,

did some amazing things. no question about it. But this was the year of Usyk. You could throw Inouye in a way for sort of staying relevant and on top, but it was Usyk. I'm going to throw my second vote to Artur Berberbiev. Don't forget he knocked out Callum Smith and then had that win over B-ball. I didn't score it for him, but that's a monster year. Junto Nakatani, the Bantamweight star from Japan.

Nakatani had a good year, yep. Three wins by knockout. He fought a guy that was 76-0 and gave him his first, or 75-1, something like that, and knocked him out. I mean, he was on fire. Yeah, that's it. I think Long Island Luke is going to throw his vote to Usyk, which we agree with.

The big debate is obviously MMA, but we've had this debate really for the last six months publicly. It's either Poiton or Teporia. I'm going to go Ilya. The quality of those two, both were ranked pound for pound when they fought him, meaning Volk and Max, and everything with the star power to the way he carries himself, it's going to be really hard to beat the year Poiton had in the three knockout title defenses in 175 days, a new record.

But knockouts of Volkanovski and Max Holloway at the times that they, that he fought both, even with Volk coming off the loss against Mahachev, come on, it's Ilya. It is, it is. And I'm not mad if anyone gives it to Alex, but it is Ilya. I'm not torn on this. You know, I think as I said before, not to beat a dead horse, but to very quickly say Poetan was more important for the UFC in 2024. About that, there is simply no doubt

he was he saved several including their biggest card of the year by willing by accepting a willingness and risk that most guys in his position can't or won't and certainly even if they do they're not very successful and he did all of those things and for that he should be commended Poiton had an unbelievable year, but finishing off back to back to all time. Greats were both ranked pound for pound. I'm sorry. You cannot come in on short notice and beat those guys.

It is not going to fucking happen. You cannot do it. It is a much, much more difficult thing to fight a pound for pound ranked guy to all time. Greats. Yes. And the way that he is, then it is to fight a number eight ranked ranked guy to all time greats. Yes. And the way that he is, then it is to fight a number eight ranked clear entry who fought

spirited. But you know, I'm going to, I'm going to tell you, I'm not going to take you down and I'm going to bother. Like, these are just luxuries that a guy like to pour you simply does not have there.

You're never going to get a shout out to poet on a legend. The man, what does the man, but Dakota, I think ditch of us in this conversation. She got my third vote. Luke, you threw aova. I think Ditchova's in this conversation. She got my third vote. Luke, you threw a vote. I think Proches and Buckley for getting four wins

in a year also in the calendar year also deserve it. Luke, settle this. I just want to say if you're going to congratulate four wins in a year, Charles Energy Johnson also got four. Yes, him too. Those are the three that had four wins this year i went against you guys though i'm taking poet on man three title defenses in that short

of a span and like you were saying the way he saved those events he had a broken toe he was ill before the last one yeah like he's he's been you gotta give him credit for doing what he did oh hold on hold on did you guys can you guys still hear me yeah we still got you one second just take me off screen let me fix my thing all. All right. Our final category is MK Donk of the Year. And to close after this difficult year, could we have given this to anyone from LNW to Lazy Bed to Telvin Kipapa to so many of the valuable members who keep us afloat for sure? Well, Luke Thomas also had an idea,

and I don't think he was wrong on it, that it wasn't one this year that artistically stood out or backed the MK. I mean, Christian DeGiro, he put it on the package for the MK. But it was everyone that stayed with us, stuck with us, through our tech issues, through our life issues. And we are still at where we are today. Yeah, all of you is the 2024 MK Donk of the year.

Is it not? Is it not? Luke Thomas, are you alive? Do we close on that note? Yeah, we probably should close on that note of technical difficulties. There's Luke Noseda. Oh oh there he is there he is he's muted give him a sec he's muted okay we can't hear it luke oh yeah i i forgot to plug in my uh my here you go luke i set you up we named everyone the donk of the year we couldn't be more thankful for this, but what a way

to keep it. Shouts to Danger Mouse who came back into the fold. We're glad. Shouts to Telvin Kupapa who always submits stuff on the DMs for Donks and a bunch of other guys as well. There's so many to thank, but it would just be wrong after the year we've had to not say thanks to

all the folks who have stuck by us. Even the ones who pushed back at times and hated some stuff and were mad and blah, blah, blah. Like if you're, if you're still here and you're still with us, you're the donk of the year. And we really appreciate you. All right. That's it, Luke. We gave it to him. That's it.

I'm about to run out. It's over. That was our 2024. Thank you to Long Island, Luke, for his great work and joining us. Thank you to the fans for voting for these awards, for staying with us, us afloat Luke Thomas take us out of here that's it that's it all right so thanks to all of you out there thanks to all of the great boxers and MMA fighters and everyone else who made the year what it is stay tuned for our predictions on Friday's show for Brian Campbell for Long Island Luke and everyone else on staff here my name is LT we

appreciate you we're're out. Happy New Year. We'll see you in 2025. Until then, may all of your gains be loyal.