MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Tyron Woodley vs. Gilbert Burns, Jon Jones, UFC 250 | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 45

Episode Date: June 2, 2020

Episode 45 of Morning Kombat is here as Luke and Brian dive into everything that happened in the UFC over the weekend. The boys break down Gilbert Burns dominant win over Tyron Woodley and examine where both fighters go from here. They also discuss the continuing fued between Jon Jones and Dana White and look ahead at UFC 250. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Reveille, reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas.

I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. It is Monday, June 1st, can you believe it, 2020, and it is time for Morning Combat. Hi everyone, welcome to today's program. My name is Luke Thomas, I am one half of your hosting duo. I am joined by my Northeast Connecticut brother, the gas station aficionado himself, the one and only from CBS Sports, by the way, Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian. How are you this fine Monday morning? Doing well, Luke.

Almost had a major tech snafu there. Was able to connect the dots and the cords, get them on point right where they needed to be to start this show, Luke. Hey, Luke, you want to talk? Yeah, I want to talk real quickly. What does the shirt say? Is that a Carol Baskin shirt that I see correctly, I think? Yeah, I mean, she is innocent until proven guilty regarding her husband, okay? That is amazing.

That is amazing. Can we all observe her warnings and words for the moment there and stay cool? We certainly can. A couple of housekeeping notes to get to right at the top of the show here, Brian, as you well know. First things first, of course,

if you're watching, we appreciate it. Give the video a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel. It's a very free and easy way to help us out here to get this program going to the next spot that it can get. And if you want to try Showtime, who makes this program possible for free, you can have a free trial. Just go to Showtime.com right now.

For 30 days, you can go kick the tires on it, see if you like it, look around, check things out. If you do like it, and of course you will, you can keep it. But if not, you can bounce and go do something else. So Showtime.com is the place to be to see if you want to check out more about the great network that makes morning combat possible. Now we have a lot to get to on today's show, BC. We're going to talk about, we're going to preview UFC 250. We, of course, have to react to what happened over the weekend with Tyron Woodley losing to the phenomenally, I mean, what a performance by Gilbert Burns. We'll talk about that in just a second, but it would feel inappropriate very quickly without getting overly political about it. It's a little hard to start

today's show without some kind of acknowledgement of what's happening in the wider country. Obviously, I think it was on May 25th or 26th, a 46-year-old man by the name of George Floyd was arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Or he was detained anyway for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to purchase cigarettes. And was detained in such a way that one of the officers who has now been charged with his murder killed him on essentially phone camera in one of the most gruesome and awful ways imaginable. And it has sparked protests and, worse, riots and looting across nearly 140 cities in this country. And not even really this country. I'm seeing it protest internationally now, sort of in solidarity with some of the perhaps better parts of this larger movement. Listen, the only reason I wanted to start today's show with this, with a very quick mention to be candid about it, is because, Brian, you know, you and I were talking about

when we first had to start doing these shows remotely, how the weight, initially anyway, the weight of the COVID news was hanging on top of you. And at the time, I certainly felt it and was worried about it, but I had obviously a bit of a different reaction, even though I was worried too. I have to tell you, after this weekend, I could barely even tweet about what was happening in the country. And even in my own city, I got a note on my phone last night. There was a curfew that was instituted. There was all kinds of angry and ugly protests by the White House and everything imaginable from people setting fires on Connecticut Avenue and I Street and worse. I have been so dismayed by it.

I could barely, I mean, I actually was looking forward to UFC just as a total distraction, which when I was going through the initial parts of COVID in late March, early April, it was the opposite. I was so focused on that I could barely pay attention to UFC. I mean, here's the problem, right? I mean, I saw someone tweet this. I forget who, so I'm not giving them proper credit,

but it's like, I'm just saddened by it all. I'm saddened by what happened to this poor man. I'm saddened by the pain that the African-American community feels and has felt for a very long time quite righteously. I'm saddened by the cascading problems that we're experiencing. It's the 1917 Spanish flu mixed with the 1929 economic collapse, mixed with 1968 social fabric just fraying right in front of us, and they're all feeding into each other.

The last thing I'll say about this, BC, because I'm curious to get your thoughts. I saw some story of small business owners, friends of mine, including in Richmond, Virginia, where there was also some destruction of property. These are all people who are entirely sympathetic with what happened to this guy. And then there are other folks who are just, I mean, who knows what their motivations are, but this riot cheering that has also sort of happened as a part of all of this. I mean, people who are small business owners who are laying people off, who are barely hanging on, who might be sympathetic to this, and then this happens on top.

I'm not here to compare small business owners' pains with that of generations of generations of African-American in this country. Merely to say, it's just, it's depressing, dude. It's incredibly depressing, and i'm like legitimately for the first time in several months saddened to the point of uh i don't even know what to say beyond beyond this yeah i i love that honest response because that's all you can really do right now is be honest with how sad this whole thing is the op the opportunism is really what what what hurts me the most beyond the actual reason why protests started which is an abhorrent event that i don't think we take

serious enough in this country and i know like coming into the show we're like should we even do a show should we even be throwing dick stick picks up there and have a have you seen this crap moment well it's like i do think it's important that we we provide the service we provide breaking down mixed martial arts and giving a distraction and a little entertainment and all that but it is also just the same important to to to have our say to address the situation and not just you know stick to fighting so to speak uh you're obviously a lot closer with it living in a major city than i am at the moment but it hits us all hard i hate the opportunism from the looters who have no connection to it to the people that are making

this completely a political debate when it's really you know social and it's really more about uh what we should learn about how to treat each other than anything else and um you know i don't have some long thing to preach i'm not going to quote uh jesus my savior but i may quote jesus jones the 90s pop singer and say from this standpoint of uh there's there is some good we can bring out of every situation so it wasn't that jesus jones who said i was alive and i'm waiting waiting i was alive and i'm waiting for this right here right now uh he was talking about the you know berlin wall going down and a lot of that related stuff but there's some major change that needs to happen in how we

perceive and treat each other and you know all we can speak of or all i can speak of is from the suburban white guy philosophy but even from that philosophy you know it's not enough to just not practice these really awful things it's you know you also need to be against it and be loud and vocal so i'm hopefully that this whole horrible situation can wake us all up in the right ways that uh all you can control is that little circle around you each day when you walk luke but can we fill that circle with uh love and hope and grace and and not anything else please so i certainly think that's the right attitude you gotta you have to live you have to live according to your ideals and uh simply just being against

murder well great everyone's against murder but what are you going to do about it right so all right with that bc i just wanted to get a statement out there. I know you did as well. It's time to put our game faces on, Brian Campbell, because we do, as you mentioned, we have a responsibility to each other. We have a responsibility to this program and to the viewer. So with that being said, I needed a bit of a distraction on Saturday. Perhaps we can do some of that on this Monday morning with topic number one.

So on Saturday night, as I indicated, wow, man, Gilbert Burns, holy Jesus Christ, what a phenomenal win by this guy on Saturday over former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. We had discussed, I think last week, Brian, we both took the chances of Gilbert Burns very seriously. We knew, we knew he was very much a live dog. But if you would have told me, Brian Campbell, that when the fight was over, you'd be able to look at me and say, not only did Gilbert Burns win, not only did he pitch a shutout, he was better in literally every phase of the game. I'm not sure I would have believed that. And yet, that is exactly what we saw.

So the question goes to you first, Brian Campbell, does this win in the way that he got it, make Gilbert Burns the number one contender at welterweight? The way things are financially, given the coronavirus pandemic at the moment and the UFC's preference on matchmaking and which fights they will or won't try to make crown them right now Gilbert Burns should be your number one

contender for that title I know that sounds a little crazy because Leon Edwards seems more deserving at eight consecutive wins Jorge Masvidal is more deserving although I question in a lot of ways whether Dana White and company ever even want to make that match but where else you gonna go how about a guy who's won six in a row and he's evolved to his gate, his game to a point, Luke that Saturday night was like watching the, the butterfly, you know,

stretch the wings and get out of the cocoon and take shape. I had doubted that he could do this against somebody on Woodley's level. And I will get to Woodley in a moment in terms of what this performance said about where he's going. But there's also a reason why Woodley performed that way because Burns was perfect in every category that you mentioned even to the level of this you know I said before I'll say it again you don't know if you can go five rounds and go into those deep waters until you're thrown in there you can't necessarily

recreate that in training camp he went in there and he was swimming and he was thriving and he was walking down the more experienced quote-unquote better fighter on paper in those championship rounds this was a flawless performance in which he disarmed Woodley and gave him reasons not to come forward and I think he showed you at 33 he's red hot in UFC when they're smart they typically play the hot hand and see what they got. I think right now, UFC's not going to be putting on super fights, not going to be putting on huge marketable fights for a while without a live gate. It's time for Gilbert Burns to slide in there.

Now, he's teammates with Kamaru. That's a storyline. That's part of it. But he's been very open and honest on the whole build to this, that if that door opens up, I respect him as a man, but I'm coming for that belt. Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, go back to what Woodley even said after this fight, what he lost to Kumaru. I'm not saying he made excuses. Maybe he was just being honest. In fact, we talked about it last week, trying to work through some of those demons, but he was like, yeah, I wasn't really there. I just, I don't know what happened. I, but you know,

it just wasn't me in there. Well, after this fight, he was like, I trained hard. I did everything I was supposed to. I had spoken to one of his coaches, Dean Thomas, prior to the fight, and they were like, dude, all the distractions he had the first time against Kamara. I mean, yeah, he trained really well, but he had distractions. None of those distractions existed this time. Woodley was quite clear that he was ready to go. He just got bested by a better man.

So we'll talk about that later, as you indicated. But getting back to Gilbert, the question here is, does he deserve to be the number one contender? There's a part of me that still wants to see how would he do against somebody who, I mean, part of this conversation about Woodley is to what extent he is on the decline. I don't think you can make those same kind of comparisons

or conversations about a Jorge Masvidal, about a Colby Covington. I don't know where Leon Edwards stands, given some travel restrictions. So to me, it's like, do I think there should be maybe one more fight that I, in an ideal world, Brian, would like to see? Yeah, in an ideal world, there probably will need to be a little bit more. But given the way things are, where, as you indicated, the conversations between Usman and Masvidal have fallen apart and he's looking for a dance partner in either case but maybe Masvidal is going to go the Nate Diaz route or something else Usman needs somebody while there is this

situation where it's his teammate that makes it more intriguing for us and also given the circumstances around the other top contenders you can just slot Burns in there because I don't think it would necessarily cost them all that much to put him in that position. Whereas some of these other top contenders, it's just a little bit more legwork. So I don't think he's necessarily done more arguably than Jorge Masvidal. Again, that's debatable, but given where the division is and where everyone's kind of coming and going, he might just be the best guy to fill into that slot. Let me just say one more thing about how well he did. I was truly blown away by him.

You know what he reminds me of, BC? He's like the second coming of Jacare, where you get some of these guys from jiu-jitsu and they all have very, very different games. Some excel more in no-gi, some excel more in gi. A guy like Gilbert excelled in both. He was excellent at both of them, the highest level you could get basically. And what he showed us in this particular case and with his overall game is he was one of these guys from jujitsu who had real significant athletic potential. I'm not saying he's on par with Jacare, but he's not one of these like Demian Meyer,

Demian Meyer grip and hold onto you kind of guys. He's a motion passer. He can just learn things quickly. And you're just seeing that game develop. He is reaching his potential here at age 33 and showing the promise of what it means to get some of these real athletic types from Jiu Jitsu who don't cross over as much as they used to. It's not as common as it used to be, but it is

in this case, and it was just an absolutely magical performance. It was a signature win. It was dominating in every way that it needed to be to send a message, whether he gets title shot or not. Absolutely, I think you would agree, Gilbert Burns is a force to be reckoned with in this division, taking down Tyron Woodley in ways that only two other fighters ever had.

I was so impressed. Yeah, and the fact that he has come together and put the complete package together, it's not that somebody wouldn't be as deserving if they were more of a one-trick pony or more of a one part of their game that they ride, but it adds to the conversation of whether he deserves to slide in now,

the fact that he's put the entire game together. And if they made that Usman rematch you'd be talking about one of the best wrestlers we've ever seen inside the cage and Kamaru against a guy who can handle himself on the ground in Gilbert Burns I wonder if that fight Luke could end up being a lot like Colby Covington Kamaru Usman where the potential of the ground game cancels us out so we just get two hungry guys throwing bombs the whole fight i think no matter how you slice it this could be the right opponent that kamaro needs uh it wouldn't cost a whole lot for the ufc you got that big fan base potential with brazil behind burns and you also

have the potential to make a magical fight and after five rounds dude burns didn't have a scratch on him i mean how many hard shots did he really get hit with? A handful, if that. I mean, I'm sure numerically it's more than that, but he barely had a scratch on him. So he might be ready to go here in short order. Now, as you indicated, that leads us to point two, which is the other half of this conversation, namely Tyron Woodley. This is bad. Tyron Woodley has now lost two in a row and by itself, that doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. People go on losing streaks in the UFC. If you fight the best over time, that's what's going to happen, BC. I'm sure you know that as well as I. However, there's more to the story here. First of all, it's a 10-round shutout. He's essentially been on the receiving end of. He lost all five

against Kamaru, and he lost all five here against Gilbert. A couple of 10-8s thrown in along the way here. The first from Gilbert, I think it was the second or the third maybe, against Kamaru and he lost all five here against Gilbert. A couple of 10-8s thrown in along the way here. The first from Gilbert, I think it was the second or the third maybe, against Kamaru. And so, at age 38, losing two in a row, not even claiming a round on the judges' scorecards along the way, there becomes a serious question about where

Tyron Woodley goes from here. BC, I'll pitch it to you one more time if I can. Where does the former welterweight champion go from here? Look, what I'm about to say, I want to set it up by saying, if you follow me on the show, you know I'm a huge respecter of Tyron Woodley's game. What his title run in the four defenses meant, how underrated I thought he was in his mindset, how he disarms his opponents, takes away their greatest skill,

and then beats them with it. No one's a bigger fan of Tyron Woodley's ability and potential than me. Yet after Saturday night, I got a quote without trying to make a joke here. The great Nassim Hamed, the prince, the former British boxing champion. I think you should finish. I've seen enough to know that I've seen too much. And as harsh as that sounds, there's different kinds of being quote unquote washed up and being done.

It can be all physical, right? It could be like a chuck liddell who can't take a punch anymore yet still has the championship mindset and wants to go out there and win every fight or it can be what we saw from woodley out there now i'm not going to take anything away from gilbert burns there was a reason why he was closing all the avenues of victory for tyron woodley but woodley did not show you passion he did not show you urgency he slept walked through the flight the fight the same way he did against Usman in which we I think rightfully held from making too harsh of a criticism from that fight because Usman's style is so draining on the gas tank

and because Woodley had been looking so great leading up to that despite his age but now that you have 10 rounds of footage to go over, I mean, you know, could his corner A have been less instructive or pushing him to dig deeper? I mean, it was horrible. But even worse, he seemed content. He seemed content to lose. And the times he was finding success

where he would land that trademark counter right hand, you'd go, okay, let's do this now. Didn't follow up with anything and you hear the comments afterwards of you know wow i can't believe i'm so peaceful given how you know badly i lost uh it's time to go i mean i'm could he beat a mid-road contender of course he could physically i think it's all still there i'm just saying mentally i'm saying emotionally spiritually it's not there anymore and that's not a a crime. He's 38. He's had a great career. He's dabbling in other avenues to try to set himself up for after fighting.

But on the elite level, he's going to set himself up to get knocked out cold if he keeps going. You can't take these type of fights where you're in the main event and you have something to protect. It was the title against Usman. It was the future of his career on the elite level in this fight. And he didn't fight to protect those things, Luke. He was content with defeat. You can't do that at this level. You're going to get hurt.

Yeah, I mean, to your point, his response when he was asked about the loss, it was a very classy response. He didn't offer any excuses. He was very clear that the other guy was just better. But you're right. There was a certain piece about it. He didn very clear that the other guy was just better, but you're right. There was a certain piece about it. He didn't seem angry about it. He didn't seem like it was hard for him to swallow. And I'm sure that it will be. Don't misunderstand me. But if you've been in this

game long enough, when fighters in peak positions of their career, when they lose, you can tell that it disturbs and troubles them in very uncomfortable ways. And this one just didn't seem to register in that way in the immediate aftermath like it commonly does. Certainly not even like the last one before this. So I appreciate certainly the classy response that he gave, but it also comes with a bit of a troubling set of questions about how comfortable he was. Now, you had mentioned about whether or not he might be done or he should retire. Again, these questions are left up to them. To me, it's a function of, you know, listen, if he continued to fight, do I think he could win? Sure. Pretty obviously, I think he could win. He looked to be in phenomenal condition. He went the full 25 minutes. And again, Gilbert Burns looked

to be a very, very tough customer. That was the very best we had seen from him. So I'm not confused that he can somehow not win fights anymore. But here's the problem. As I mentioned, you have a 10 round shutout. That's just not good. You haven't won that really in a long time, but you haven't even shown signs of life in a very long time. This is the first time also in Tyron Woodley's career where he's's lost back-to-back in every other case prior to this, and I think it was four other occasions, when he had lost, he had immediately had a bounce-back fight, and usually with an emphatic KO, some kind of really devastating performance. This one was right on brand with the last one.

He is the oldest person to win a UFC welterweight crown, and he is the oldest to be dethroned. And that tells you he was able to do things later in his career than even other elite welterweights. But 38 humming in on 40 is just a bad place to be in a very, very stacked weight class with surging contenders and youth kind of all around him. I don't really know exactly what the right answer is for him. I do think he is capable of, if he would like to continue to collect paychecks, I certainly would not be in a position to argue against him.

But if all of this is in service of capturing a title, that to me, BC, seems very illusory. I don't know what a realistic path back at this point even looks like. I mean, look, it's always a slippery slope for someone in our shoes to say a fighter should finish i'm saying that i understand that right but i'm also again i've there was a failure to launch he was uh you know he had trouble pulling the trigger that's a very dangerous sign and i know there are people who respond to me on twitter and said look you know have you watched

his last three or four fights that's how he fights now well no i mean he he has built himself up and to be almost a front runner style and i don't say that negatively i say that to be he does so much better in a fight when he's controlling the terms gilbert burns never let him control any of the terms yet at the same time in round five gilbert burns almost fought reckless in the fact that he's still walking woodley down standing right in the pocket, and Woodley didn't have the passion and commitment to let it go. That's the scary sign. That's when I say, for your own good, it's time to go away. Because, you know, it's okay.

So what do you win if you go out there against the middle-of-the-road guy and you're able to dictate the terms of the fight? You know, it always builds back up to a bigger fight. And if that passion isn't inside you anymore, look, when he had said in the build-up to this fight that he couldn't explain why he was so flat against Usman that he acknowledged that it was not him in there that he couldn't explain it that should have been a bigger warning sign I was blinded by my understanding of who he is as a fighter and athlete that it could be a bad night at the office, that maybe he wasn't training enough. Maybe he underestimated Usman, all those things.

Well, you know, it's a pattern now. So, sorry. He should go. And again, when he had a bad fight against Rory McDonald, BC, he would come back in his next contest and look great. When he had a bad fight against Nate Marquardt, he made a jump to the UFC in his next fight. I think it was Josh Koscheck and looked great, right? But it was emphatic in knockouts, emphatic wins. There was

just signs of life where like, okay, everyone has a misstep. You're fighting in the UFC or in Strikeforce welterweight division. It's going to happen. But the question is, what can you do over time? And again, it's not even just 10 rounds, although that by itself is really bad. Remember, he got taken down and controlled in the wrestling by Kamaru. He got taken down in consecutive fights. I don't think that's ever happened in his UFC or MMA career, number one. And now he's getting outstruck on the feet. He's getting beaten everywhere.

And the other part about it is it just looks like these guys have more adapted, modern games. When you watch this, even if you didn't know anything about fighting, just look at what Gilbert Burns is doing. It looks to be the more modern version of things. If you look at what Kamaru Usman is doing, it just looks like the more updated version of the program. Again,

what he did in his time cannot be taken away from him. He is truly one of the best welterweights ever. And welterweights is one of the toughest divisions inside the sport and has been for a very long time. He has done tremendous, tremendous things, but he's also a really good analyst, and he has other outside businesses, and I think he can win, but even Dean Thomas, his coach, told me on Friday, this fight is kind of a test to see, are we going to get that title back, or is it something we should keep doing? If even his coaches are saying that, you know, I don't think it's out of bounds for us to wonder at this point, whether or not that's an appropriate consideration. Last thing you mentioned the cornering advice, uh, BC, I don't know what the right answer is. We get on Mark Montoya in his corner corner

for going ham, uh, for Anthony Smith. And then this one, they kind of lay off. I had asked Dean Thomas about it as well. Like what is your cornering strategy? They don't like to say too much because they want the fighter to think for themselves. So maybe this has been a winning formula up to this point, but it all just, everything BC, everything on Saturday, it just seemed, you ever have an old gas stove and you're trying to get the gas to light and it's clicking, but the flame doesn't come on. You ever have one of those in college and one of those old houses you lived in it just felt like that like everything is kind of turning you hear it there but it didn't work yeah yeah all right i'm not here to piss off jay

we gotta keep going all right all right jay wants us to keep going all right segment three or topic three rather i should say we transition away for the moment from saturday's fights and we have to get back to this john jones and dana white they're they're just feuding over and over again now I want to ask a question here BC that I was going to pitch to you first but there was something of an update even since the questions we had put together for today's show first things first John Jones apparently uh if you believe him and this is certainly up for debate has relinquished his UFC light heavyweight title he tweeted over the weekend

I basically have nothing to gain from fighting at 205 at this point it doesn't do anything for me relative to what I am being paid right and so Veni Vidi Vici I came I saw I conquered he's ready to move on and then you

talk to other folks in the know who have spoken to his management, and they say, dude, it's real. Now, again, it's sort of like going back to the Henry Cejudo thing. How real is it? Like, you'll just come back when a better offer is made? Jones has been more explicit about that, I suppose, than Cejudo, who has made grander overtures of departure. Nevertheless, it is a weird time, BC, where these fighters, you know what's so interesting about it? If you go back to 2014, Jones was willing to stump for the UFC

and say that they were doing more to create millionaires than boxing. And I don't really want to wade into that debate anymore, but it just seems over time, what fighters eventually realize is they're willing to make some sacrifices on the front end for a series of rewards, some might even say promises,

on the back end. And then they get to the back end of their career and they realize that bus ain't coming. That ship ain't docking. That train is not coming to this station. Not in the way that they thought it would be. Not saying that they're underpaid in the sense of they're not making good money by objective standards. And then they get kind of angry and then they get sad and they do what Randy Couture did, BC, where they just say, you know what, I'm retiring from my contract or

I'm done. I'm not doing this. And more often than not, USC usually finds a way to draw them back. So BC, to start this off, I don't actually think that Jon Jones is done. I want to get to the Deontay Wilder claim in just a second. But on this case of why this is happening, where in two different weeks, essentially, three years, I suppose, you have two champions almost the same age saying, you know what? I kind of had enough at the current price range. I don't think it's an effective tactic. The UFC doesn't like to be leveraged and they show when people try,

they dig their heels in even harder, but it does underscore what we already know. We already know that these guys are underpaid and you're seeing this frustration where it leads as anyone's guess, but that it keeps happening is not an accident. No, there's so many layers to this story. I mean,

this could be the whole damn show. It goes beyond just a bunch of tweets. Look, is John going to give up the title? Well, you know, we'll believe it when we see UFC.com slash rankings, John's picture off of there. And when we see some type of press release saying, you know, it's over with. I do think he'd be willing to because he's hit a certain crossroads now that i've been waiting for i've been waiting for luke a fighter with both leverage and something to lose to make that stand because you're never going to get a fighter union you're never going to get balanced pay until somebody with something to lose really makes that stand and more than one person i'm sorry you know until a

group does because look the fighter pay system is broken there's the haves and the have-nots and what happens is the haves get rewarded enough and they'd fought so long to get out of the have-not category but that that's why they're willing to have it announced that they only made 300 000 for their fight when in reality they made three four million behind the scenes there's a reason they don't share that publicly or argue for more because they finally got to that point and they're holding onto it. It's really kind of smart the way UFC controls this and has set it up, but no, it's not right. It's not right. The percentage amount that UFC pays, it's not right when you compare a top end UFC fighter to someone on the boxing side, who let's say more often than not is fighting lesser competition yet making more. It's not

fair when you compare it to NBA, NFL, andfl and etc so somebody's got to take a stand to make it work the problem for john right now is that as dana had said it is the worst possible time to make this stand ufc according to dana is scheduled to lose upwards of 100 million this year without having a live gate that lack of a live gate is going to prevent any type of super fights from happening so it is very likely that john doesn't fight again this year at all and waits for 2021 maybe february 1st 2021 when we can get people back into stadiums and arenas and have those type of big fights i'm hoping though just like i'm hoping that all this craziness going on in the real life news cycle will lead to broader change we're going to need more fighters making this stand because 1000%

Jon Jones should be getting a lot more Dana can't in one breath say like Jon had said that he's the greatest of all time and he's all these things and then once Jon you know chirps up crack down on him there's but I did mention there's layers and elements to this luke ufc's put themselves in a tough spot they bend the rules so to speak and choose not to extra punish fighters of late when mishaps happen connor throwing the dolly through the window well you know the criminal system could take care of it because we got to make a big payday at 229 how about john jones with the dui and weapon how about john jones with the usada issue uh you know in december 2018 when they moved that card during christmas week you know in such unprecedented manners they've done things to protect him for the sake of making more money and now when that person says hey i deserve

more money they're going to say oh sorry john you know you're reckless and screwed up well do you think there's any enabling in that system luke where where i think that overall who's winning this argument who has a greater point i still think it's john yeah i mean the whole point about moving that card at the last minute it's like did the ufc do this in a way that totally accommodated john for the second Gustafson fight? There could be no argument otherwise. Of course they did. Did they also do that because they wanted to make a shitload of money? Of course they did. I'm not even really mad at either of those considerations, but the idea that it was some kind of altruistic effort on the part of UFC to really do a solid for John Jones, I'm less inclined to buy that interpretation of it.

And you said something, though, that I really disagree with, which is, well, there's haves and have-nots. Well, there is in terms of who is able to have a comfortable life versus not a comfortable life, right? You even see certain fighters on the undercard, which, by the way, had a tremendous amount of finishes and great fights on Saturday, saying, I could really use this money because I want to do this full-time Or, you know, I've been living in the gym or I've got some various

form of hardship. In that sense, there's haves and have nots. But let's just be clear about it. They're all have nots, right? You can't say that that 18% that's being shared is somehow going effectively and appropriately to all of the, or to a portion of them and then not. It's an underpayment generally. And honestly, this was the original question. Dana White was saying over the weekend that he wanted Jon Jones, Deontay Wilder money, and he doesn't deserve Deontay Wilder money. To which I say, I don't know. I don't know, D-dubs.

He actually might, right? Here's the point. It's actually your A-listers ufc that in terms of aggregate dollars bc they're the most underpaid of all if you add up who has generated the most revenue and in a different sport let's say what that would have been the share they would have gotten versus what they've actually been paid uh there's no argument that the most underpaid is the a class we always think of it as the bottom class. But if there was a fighters union, they would just create certain protections to raise their standard of

living, enable them to have a more comfortable lifestyle. But to the point, they are somewhat interchangeable. It's the top stars that generate the most that are the most underpaid by far. It's a big misconception. So the question is, is he entitled to Deontay Wilder money now the reason why Deontay makes what he makes is a function of the fact that he has in many cases at least over the course of his career had multiple bidders kind of edging his purse up when he fought Brazil and knocked him out inside of a round he fought on Showtime but it was just on TV there was a bit of an arms race that was trying to secure his services, and that inflated a little bit.

But here's the point. Before he even really made a real jump to pay-per-view, he made between $13 million to $18 million for that fight, and that was just on linear television. The idea that Jon Jones, whatever he's making, let's say $5 million, which is what he indicated on Twitter, was what he was getting over fight, fight over fight, is what he should be getting is ludicrous, totally ludicrous. He has been a bigger draw on pay-per-view for nearly a decade relative to what Deontay Wilder has done.

Matter of fact, now not every fight has been a blockbuster, but every big pay-per-view there's very few of them i think two that wilder has had jones has matched and then exceeded so not only is the rate over uh time not been great all the money added up that he's not been paid that he could have been paid under a different system makes 30 million a bargain bc it does and look you know to defend the ufc in a small point the difference between boxing and mma look ufc's got loaded for the most part on pay-per-views you know somewhat loaded cards in which they have to pay those people you don't get that same quality below a dionte wilder on a pay-per-view card in boxing we understand that but yes the system is broken

and if ufc uh ufc is going to have a lot of a lot of discussion explaining to do in the future luke if more fighters are willing to take this stand john's always been a little bit of an outlier going i think it always goes back to that ufc 152 situation with the dan henderson fight and his refusal to take chael on short notice that was his first stand and we don't see fighters take those stands luke so i'm hoping this is a step toward the direction of ufc reconfiguring their their financial model and and feeling out the you know how they're going to better reward these guys and i do by the way think there is a have and have nots and that's why the haves don't argue that's why you know because

they're they work so hard to get there but they do deserve more at that at that highest level uh luke from the question and standpoint of what happens next i mean i could see them overpaying john to fight a jan blahowitz of that group of of respected 205 contenders probably the best matchup for john to to win you know in his style somewhat handily and maybe then john sits out to move to heavyweight in 2021 but if john sits out the rest of the year and does give up the title look this is the kind of the move we wanted for him and i'm kind of happy that he's realizing that there's not a ton to gain outside of a consistent paycheck in staying at 205 and fighting these younger hungry guys luke how much do you think this is an extension of a question from last week john's you know small decline with age is playing into ufc's hard stance right now got

got to be part of it absolutely no doubt about it there's a thought in my mind that they're sort of reading the tea leaves here and they're wondering what i've seen on look if i can see it on tape you know i suspect that they've got experts who know far more than me in their ear kind of saying to the same things, like, there might be some sort of a decline. I mean, remember the guys, like the earlier you start is the earlier you finish in terms of your athletic life. That's especially true in fighting. Now, on the 30 mil part, very quickly, I don't think he would actually, I don't think there's even any way under an ideal circumstance to get John 30 million because the business model doesn't have multiple suitors bidding up his purse and so as a consequence that's not realistic but more than what he's getting is basically what he's asking for I do think that they could find a way to get that but you're right BC what's happening here is he's like

at a point now where he's like I could fight Jan who's going to be a tough fight and make decent money but it's going to be hard it's going to go probably five rounds it's going to be difficult if I'm going to go probably five rounds. It's going to be difficult. If I'm going to do this kind of thing, I want to get paid. And UFC is looking at this and saying, your defense is great. Your offense is not what it once was. Why do we want to invest a ton of money for just that? But that's why he needs some kind of other mechanism in the market to help his value in terms of what he brings to the financial table to make sure that he's rewarded effectively and right now i think we could both agree that mechanism whether it's the ali act a union whatever it's just not there and if in in closing if john also is feeling a little bit of that right

age piling up the other guys getting closer it's not impossible that he's starting to plan a two to three fight exit strategy right where where if i you know maybe i don't fight two three times a year like i did coming off of that usada suspension where i wanted to make a ton of money and prove to everybody that i'm back maybe now i'd be more selective take and really aim for super fights only not a bad business strategy either not a bad business strategy at all i also wonder lastly i know it's very different bc and we'll move on to UFC 250 here in just a second.

I wonder how much of what St. Pierre did, going away, coming back, and then dropping the title again, I wonder how much that spooked him, because it did create for one magical evening that night when he fought Bisping. And that wasn't just that fight. That card in general was pretty good there in New York City. I was there. I think you were as well. That might be the best card.

That might be the best card ever., that might be the best card ever. All right? Yeah, exactly. I mean, it was a tremendous, tremendous event, but then there was nothing to build on. There was nothing to go from after St. Pierre did what he did. I wonder if they worry, you know, if we just accommodate these fighters in their latter stages of their career where they're still actually really, really good,

but they've got their eye on the exit, and they want a bunch more money, and they're harder to deal with. How much of that business do we really want to be in versus everyone who's kind of in their late 20s early 30s who's a little bit and then john's in that you know late 30s or early 30s stage but i mean it's sort of again the guys who haven't had superstardom all the way up through that time how much of that business do we want to be in especially now with you know they're 100 million dollars less in the pandemic i don't know the answer to that, but I think it's a sort of existential question that the UFC is kind of facing at this time.

All right, so let's jump to the fourth topic we have here on the Rundown, BC. Let's turn our eyes forward, if we can, to UFC 250. In the main event, the greatest women's fighter of all time, certainly one of the best fighters ever, irrespective of gender, Amanda Nunes puts her featherweight title on the line against Felicia Spencer. Now, there's been some criticism, BC. I saw you take some, by the way. I don't know if you're aware of this, because you called the fight not a real headliner. Now, I actually agree in the sense that it doesn't really move people. I don't know how much folks think that Felicia Spencer is all that competitive. Great fighter, and certainly

we have all the respect in the world for Amanda Nunes. But the fight doesn't exactly... It doesn't move us that much, right? You never know. You never know, right? Felicia's talented, but it doesn't... I'll pitch the question to you. I'll pitch the question to you. Here's the thing.

This is why I'm asking. It doesn't exactly move us in the way that other fights maybe could. So I'll ask you, BC, in this way. What exactly is at stake for nunez yes the featherweight title but more than that what what is she what is she up against here i think this is just moving the chains for her and adding a little bit of uh pixie dust on the history she's already making if she wins this fight she'll be the first female to defend titles in two divisions she'll join suhudo in dc as only the third ufc fighter to do that and the fact that it's been 17 months since she's won that title to finally put the

145 belt back in motion seems like the smart move even though go to ufc.com slash rankings we still don't have women's featherweight rankings and we never did right it's a division that doesn't need to really be there right now as things look but with that said it's not a pay-per-view headliner and this card is interesting this weekend because i'm really excited about it as a hardcore fight fan who's not necessarily paying for it out of my pocket because it's got such killer bantamweight fights it's got the you know the fighters fans type of fights but this is not a worthy pay-per-view main event fight yet at the same time it's pretty damn interesting so for Nunes I think it's less interesting it's less important it's more just let me stay busy and

defend the featherweight yet Felicia Spencer for a a nothing division that's shallow as heck proved a lot against Cyborg has shown us a lot Luke you've seen the odds here i've seen uh newness as much as minus 675 i don't think the odds represent felicia spencer's true ability in this fight uh should it be a pick them hell no will she most likely you lose yes but i think she brings a lot more to the table i like the hell out of this fight it's the perfect co-main event it would be a fantastic ufc on espn main event uh i got really nothing bad to say about it, except for the fact that this may speak more to the UFC's exclusive ESPN pay-per-view deal,

in which we're led to believe they get that minimum payment no matter what they put on pay-per-view. This seems to be, given the pandemic, given the lack of reach to international fighters for the moment, that they kind of, you you know they punted on this card and just said it is what it is we're going to throw it out there yeah and also i think that's totally true like who do we have available right is a big part of matchmaking i mean the other part here is like we think the world of amanda nunez we are trying to see interesting ways that she

could be tested i think everyone respects felicia spencer She has performed ably win or lose thus far in her MMA career, certainly very well at times. It just doesn't exactly tell us the most interesting possibility of what Amanda Nunes can show us. It's not as exciting as a potential strike fest against Holly Holm. It doesn't have the same significance of a Ronda Rousey fight. It doesn't mean anything even close to what she did, even in the run-up, the anticipation we had, rather,

about the Cyborg fight. Nevertheless, going back to the Duran-Dami fight, I mean, that was a person that she had even beaten before and rather handily at that. And then she has, you know, the fight of her life on her hands the second time around. So Felicia Spencer could be very, very credible as a challenger. She might even win, for crying out loud.

But the point being is, it just doesn't capture our imagination, and i think that's why we're not calling it like the most interesting headlining fight in that particular sense now in terms of hold on hold on stay with that point admiral akbar because you just dropped a it's a trap on us and i respect that um considering gdr was closer than maybe she should have been in that fight and consider Amanda is shaking off an injury just postponed the day of this fight and is awaiting her first child with Nina are we you know not only are the odds a little bit too wide and for my taste does is Spencer the right the right trap opponent here could she surprise us again when you ever you have a situation like this your mind won't even let you entertain the idea

that somebody like this could win. And then you look at the facts. It's like, dude, for Felicia Spencer, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. For Amanda Nunes, this is an interesting opportunity. You're asking what's at stake, which is for me, my answer is the accumulation of consistent achievement,

whether it's high or it's low, it aggregately adds up in the end to something truly grand. That's what you mean by moving the chains. I think it's a different way of saying the same thing. But you're right, dude. They're not looking at this with the same kind of thing. It's hard to be that person

that constantly has that target on your back. And you can say whatever you want about the 145-pound division. Felicia Spencer is talented. She trains her ass off. She's a black belt in jujitsu. And this is her moment to get something in her career that she's never had for amanda nunez she's been had this she's been having this for a really long time how she could lose this and she still has it in another division for crying out loud so i'm not even poopooing the

fight again though it's just not like listen matchmaking is about a lot of things the interesting fight and the contender and the style matchups and it's the timing and it's the location it's also star power felicia spencer just doesn't necessarily have a whole lot of that that does not mean however that she cannot win and that she cannot do uh important things and if she does hell then you've got an opportunity here to make something a lot more interesting than we thought with a secondary fight but i don't think it's wrong to say that this fight will a do as well at the at the at the box office and b is as interesting as every other possible fight that amanda nunes could have i just don't i don't believe that to be true all right who are your three favorite canadians by

the way luke i know this is an oddball question um Mara Ranallo Aaron Bronstetter's solid Aaron Bronstetter's up there yeah he's a top contender I and I guess St. Pierre or maybe Faraz it's a tough call there's many great Canadians BC I think you could agree Mike Myers um I don't know he kind of wore his odd as welcome uh all right The lead singer of Nickelback who banged Avril Lavigne? Wait, wasn't that the lead singer of Sum 41? Yeah, both, both. She made the rounds, okay. It was Nickelback.

By the way, there's a video. There's a video of the lead singer. There's a video of the lead singer of Nickelback singing on stage with the band, and then someone hits him with a bottle. He's like, if one of you a-holes hits me with one more thing and then someone hits him with a shoe and then they walk off it's actually one of the funniest things I've ever seen so go check that out on on YouTube uh okay with that in mind there is one more fight BC we should get to for point number five on the rundown here and I have to tell you I am amazed at the lack of speaking of interesting fight without a I am amazed at the lack of,

speaking of interesting fight without a whole lot of buzz, the return of Cody Garbrandt. I cannot believe there is not more buzz around this than the, I can't believe that no one's really paying attention to it. So he takes on Rafael Sonsao.

I think it's even the co-main event. Let me verify that here very quickly. It is, Luke. It is the co-main event. The co-main event of UFC 250. Okay, BC. This is amazing to me. So one, one there's a question of like why aren't more people paying attention but two like what is he up against here against asun sal go first if i can which is bc this is so tremendous so we all talked about dominic cruz not deserving a title shot against

henry cejudo but we sort of understood it because they wanted to give it to Aldo. And he was looking for a name. And, you know, we weren't happy about it. But, hey, one of the greatest bantamweights ever and blah, blah, blah. But, you know, he wasn't ranked at the time. And he hadn't won and fought since, you know, 2016, December. Well, Cody Garbrandt hasn't won since that time. That's the fight.

That's the last time Cody Garbrandt has really showed signs of life. Now, he looked pretty good at parts of the first T.J. Dillashaw fight, but here's the point. He hasn't won since then. Then he's only fought once in 2017, once in 2018, once in 2019, all three losses. And the interesting part is he looked to be a brilliant tactician, super smart, on his horse, amazing against Dominic Cruz.

And then he just kind of regressed over time. Now what he's done, he kind of flirted with going to 125, but he's back at 135. The key here is he has gone to other places. He went and trained with the East Coast Super Friends, with Mark Henry and all those guys up there in New Jersey. He has sojourned to get the most out of himself, to rediscover what is possible. And to me, this is very much, for a guy who I think is in his late 20s, early 30s, this is still very much, I'm not going to say your career is on the line, but if you're not

going to rebound now, when are you going to rebound? Because I believe that Cody Garbrandt, when he's performing as ably as he is naturally capable of, when I say naturally, I mean through hard work, but that natural talent combined with effort, I think he's as good as a Bantamweight can get. I have such high admiration for his game, but you can't deny, not really the slump that he's been on, but what he has showed, which was just being a wild gunslinger, which I know that might be his instincts, but that's not the upper bound limit of his ability. He is far, far beyond that. So to me, the question is not merely, can you beat a 37 year old, but still very talented Rafael Sonsal. The question is, can you recapture the very thing that catapulted you to getting that belt? And the answer is, I don't know. But if you can't get it by now, I don't know when you can.

Yeah, you nailed it. I mean, get busy, be on the line. This is, you know, just like Woodley last week, this is an inverted crossroads, right? This is it. Meaning you lose this fight, you're not done, but we no longer consider you an elite or a potential elite. You win this fight and don't take a lot of damage.

You can really pass up the line pretty quick because of your age at 28, your finishing ability, and your star power, which is the reason why this is the co-main event. And at first, you know, we all grown a little bit because as we talked about last week, Aljo and Corey Sanhagen is a frigging fight fans, fight fans, fight, dream, wet dream, if you will.

Somebody give me a towel. And it could be the co-main event. It could be for the friggin' vacant title it's that good. But Cody's story is just not getting talked about. And this comeback from three straight losses all by knockout, the last two specifically of a more reckless manner where he sort of, you know, put his skills away just to get in a fight. This is the crossroads.

We're going to find out the exact direction that he's heading. And you nailed what the countdown show played up well, which is, you know, very quietly went to Hikaru Almeida to really work on his ground game and his jiu-jitsu. And, you know, you think of him as a slugger. You think of him as a wrestler. This is the right move to do it this way to do it quietly i mean have you heard one soundbite come out of cody in the build-up to this i had to you know like painstakingly search to see if there's any interviews out there this is the right way to do it under the radar not promising big coming back and the proof will be in the put-in as floyd likes to say on saturday against a just as hungry as sunsao who's proven that with

his own age he's not necessarily you know washed or going in the wrong direction but he's coming off with two defeats to to some you know pretty elite fighters where he's going to be just as hungry to go out there and very well could be a live dog to get a win himself um it's a great fight there's so much at stake and believe me if Cody comes out and does Cody things we're going to be quick to forget the past and be ready to move on and see where he's going as a title contender but we may just write him off Luke with a damaging loss I also think you picked up on something that is absolutely true whether you like this or not I think BC you're right which is let's say he goes in there and we're like, oh my God, this is the guy that beat Dominic Cruz.

And he either looks good on route to a decision or even gets a finish over the very, very tough Rafael Sonsal. Dude, he might just skip the queue. I mean, we all kind of think that the winner of Sterling versus Sanhagen should probably fight the winner of Aldo versus Jan. That just seems like the fair and interesting way to go about it. But Cody Garbrandt is your X factor here. When that guy won the title and beating Dominic Cruz,

we all said at the time, dude, the future of Bantamweight is here. This guy went from unranked to champion. Remember that over the course of four fights, basically in a calendar year. It was not unheard of, but pretty damn impressive. And he was young and he was marketable and he was friendly with the media.

Like he had the wind at his back and it all just kind of went away but he's young enough and making enough changes where you think he could recapture it you're seeing that in bantamweight they're putting a premium on names for titles and people that uh have resonated with crowds before and a surging returning cody again you can like it or you can hate it. I would not doubt that if he shines on Saturday and he asked for a title shot, he could very, very easily get it. That's where I look at it. Yeah, it's almost like UFC is like, they have an embarrassment of riches in this division

to begin with, with the balance between unheralded future stars and old names who can sell, but they almost have too many of them, Luke. Like, I must remind you, Frankie Edgar's coming down to fight Pedro Munoz in a month, potentially. You know, Faber's lingering, Cruz. Like, they got too many of these people they can plug in, but I think you're right.

Cody delivers, you know, the top-level performance he could. You may see him fight. I don't want to say fight the winner of Jan Aldo because that would be heartbreaking. I just hope Sanhagen and Al want to say fight the winner of jan aldo because that would be heartbreaking i just hope san hagen and aljo get to fight the winner of that yeah i mean but anything's possible is really the point okay so bc and i have been quizzing each other but you guys also quizzed us it's time now where we get to your questions it's time for ds from dogs. There's the animation, BC. It all looks great.

All right. First up, from TheRealKCarter, what do you guys think is the most underrated striking technique in MMA? What do you think, BC? Most underrated striking technique. Can I go first on this one? Yeah.

Professor Salt-N-Pepa, school me while I think about it here. People are going to, I mean, I would have said, you know, a year ago, the low calf kick, but everyone does it now and it's very, very effective.

I'm going to say, and you could also say the jab in the sense that everyone knows it's effective, but very few have like a really good jab in MMA. But what I would say is a jab or cross or a hook or whatever and then rolling underneath someone's punch to get out off the center line and reset the angle. It's what Justin Gaethje did.

Sometimes he would mix in the stance switch along the way, but Dominic Reyes is very good at it. It's common in boxing. It wasn't taught for years in MMA. This is my understanding. Because a lot of striking coaches were wary that when you rolled underneath a punch like that, or weaving, whatever you want to call it. They call it rolling in MMA, but weaving in boxing, whatever.

That you would get hit with a knee. And you still can, obviously, depending on how far you either slip or how far you roll underneath. But you're also seeing that maybe some of those fears were a little bit overstated because a lot of fighters are using it much more effectively now and it's such a game changer if you can throw and then change angles as your opponent is throwing and so by the time that they have fully extended you're in a new place dude you are you are cooking with gas and the better strikers are showing you that it's not only possible but extremely effective it's just not very common yeah i mean you know a simple easy answer is is body punching you know hooks to the liver to sort of take away the gas take and slow people down we saw dom reyes have great success against john jones obviously it's a staple in boxing for a

reason that you establish early in a fight to help you late same thing with you know how people come out strong, usually with hard outside leg kicks. I wonder, though, having listened to Justin Gaethje on the Rogan pod, whether more people will try to adopt what he uniquely does so well, which is land hard, devastating kicks at very close range, sometimes off the clinch, which is something that people didn't even seem to think of for a long time.

True, true, very interesting. I mean, you have to have a little bit of hip dexterity to do that, but that can be trained. You can, you can work on that, right? You can get more flexible. So that'll be interesting to see. But I mean, there's a lot, I mean, here's what's interesting because MMA has become a predominantly striking sport, right? For better, for worse, it has, you're now beginning to see that that portion of the game, people are really kind of investing in. And so it's taking a while and we're not there yet, but the striking part of MMA is, I hear more often now, 10 years ago, I never heard this,

but now I'll hear other boxers get asked about MMA strikers and be like, yeah, you know what? Guy looked pretty good. Or so-and-so's footwork was, you know, there was not bad, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And there's cross training more and blah. You know, you're beginning to see a little bit more begrudging respect about mma striking now than you ever used to and i don't think that's an accident it's because the best practices have

gotten better luke since i know everyone is thinking it right now can i ask a filthy casual question under the uh unified rules here can you can we get a like a like a titty twist luke or that be a joint manipulation no you can do it but the problem is if you actually did that like you occupied your hands like people always ask you ask um like why can't you tickle in jujitsu because you know if you tickle someone they're gonna is the answer is one like the cost the opportunity cost is extraordinary to occupy your hands in that kind of a way. It's also awkward as balls, Luke, okay? It's awkward, and the short answer is it just doesn't work.

It works under the circumstances of a confined, playful wrestling scenario. It doesn't work when you have two athletes trying to dominate one another in combat. So that's really the way it goes. Keith Hackney would punch a hole through your balls into your soul, Luke. All right? Certainly would. At Lloyd H123, how do you see the new small cage affecting fights long term? Will wrestlers have a massive advantage over strikers?

BC, will they? That's an interesting question because we talked a lot about that last week. week i'm sure you did on your radio show luke about that potential every fighter i interviewed had more or less said you know i expect more striking which was our de facto knee jerk like okay yeah small cage you're gonna see more fighting but yet you're right we saw more decisions and we saw wrestlers having more control um yeah i mean i i sort of believe with the smaller with the smaller area that that's more like it. I was surprised we didn't see more just straight-up brawling, Luke.

Maybe it was just the fighters in question and the matchups, but do you see any other long-term effective strategic change? So the only research that's been done about this is a little bit outdated, which isn't to blame the research. It's just no one's kept up with it. And so to me me fighting has changed uh since the initial results were compiled in 2014 so i think some refreshing of what it means needs to be also done but the initial research tells us that it's easier to push someone against the cage right uh and then from there the fights take place longer along those lines particularly along

clinch work but i didn't see a lot of that on saturday now that could have just been the individual matchups and there was no data by the way at the time on women so to me we did have a bit of a reset moment but it's just remember it's if you push someone behind the two black lines on morning combat dissected we go over it all the time i call that the danger zone because it really narrows your options about what you can do either in the striking or wrestling department you have some but it creates a much more contained universe quite literally and so it reduces the number of choices and if i know your choices are reduced i can make a much easier read on what i need to do based on your um uh your responses so i tend to think that it will give people advantages

who do their best work in pressure situations. I think that part is true. It will put a premium on angular footwork. I think that is also true. That I'm ready to say it's going to give wrestlers an advantage in modern MMA. I mean, intuitively, I want to say yes, but takedown defense has generally gotten so good.

I don't know. I don't know if that's true anymore. Okay. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. We'll see, though. I got a user-summited question from at bcampbellcbs on Twitter.

Luke, will you, while shaving your beard would be a no-go, that's off the table, what about modifying? What about about you know maybe coloring parts of it hollywood hogan style what about uh trimming the mustache but letting the the bush if you will grow a little bit longer you have any can we get insight on the future of your face i've never seen so many men interested in my appearance uh as i have among mma fans and media more folks want to tell me what to do with my appearance than i've ever had anyone suggest in my life you guys you guys are either my like hairstylists consultants my fashion consultants really you guys are very invested in

what i look like i'm not entirely sure why but well i'll tell you why luke i'll tell you why because you have a life you'll tell you why because you have a you have a beautiful daughter that you've shared pics with on social media and people are invested in her financial future knowing that you play an ungodly 100 per haircut well right now i'm gonna get in these barrett cuts barracks cuts from the wife bro they've been they've been all right they've been pretty good i think i'm getting by not bad not bad uh all right so we go to at pulse reloaded is brian campbell aware that he resembles kid rock's protege early to i was gonna thought he was gonna say the midget who died uh early 2000s pop rock artist uncle cracker and if not would someone please let him know now what does

uncle cracker look like because candidly bc don't know. This is just not true. Jay, do you have any Uncle? Jay, how quick can you put Cracker on the screen, Jay? Okay? Seriously. I mean, if you're calling me a Cracker, it's probably more accurate that you call me a Cracker than say I look like Uncle Cracker.

I mean, come on. Do you look like Uncle Cracker? Let me see. BC? A little bit. A little bit. But he lost a bunch of weight is he alive is uncle cracker alive that's a great trivia question so you're saying you know yeah he is alive he's 45 all right you're saying at my core that i i have a very uh

you know truck driving middle america look to me I don't believe in that you know us Lithuanians you know we may be industrial but you know you're a Lithuanian I'm half okay BC is that you right there on the screen no no no no that's probably the cleanest Uncle Cracker has ever

looked but no so which one are you are you the what is it overweight Lance Bass is that the one yeah Chubby Lance Bass? Is that the one? Yeah, chubby Lance Bass is where people are nailing me. Yes, okay, great, yes. Does anyone ever tell you you look like anybody else? Yeah, unfortunately, most of my life,

due to my hairstyle choices as a late teen, I was told Big Country Bryant Reeves, which is just not, come on. Who's Bryant Reeves? Big Country Reeves, Oklahoma State, you know who i'm talking about you have to look that up come on oh shit dude you do look like bryant reeves no i don't no you don't have the johnny unitas flat top but everything else is the same oh god i just get next week i get i get compared to any, cantankerous man with a beard. That's basically what I get compared to. Yeah, it's probably your general attitude on life.

All right, so from At I Am Taskmaster, what is your favorite scary movie? The Devil's Candy and Incident in a Ghost Land are mine. What do you got, BC? We've talked in the past about our favorite horror, horror, horror, horror, horror? Yeah. Horror movie? Is it Fador Bator or Fader Bader?

I'm not really sure. You know, I think Saw I is a classic. I always stand by that. F you if you think differently, okay? I love that ish. It was smart and well done. Do I have a favorite movie that freaks me out and scares me? You know, I haven't gone in that direction in a while.

You know, I did tell you I went to The Invisible Man in IMAX. And I may have scared myself based on substances, Luke, going to that movie alone. But, you know, that happens, right? Did you go to a movie and trip acid that's not a good idea that's not that's not best practices uh for me again scary movies like when they're designed to be scary they're usually like so comically stupid i can't get into it but there was one movie that was like a grindhouse kind of movie uh did you ever see the 2018 nicholas cage movie mandy no oh dude the way it's shot and then some of the some of like the evil people in it like that was one of those movies i was watching at night with my wife and both of us were a little bit like you know hold me kind of uh scary it's it's a very strange sort of artsy fartsy grindhouse kind of flick and it is

frightening some of some of the characters in it are truly truly frightening and the scenarios are frightening um i walked out of a theater once in the 90s because of being sick to my stomach and frightened and it sounds it sounds a little like maybe lame and in hindsight do you remember natural born killers with woody harrelson yes i was just so like expecting a different movie and was just sickened by it that's the only movie i've ever left early where i didn't leave early because i was puking i've got a horror movie for you that'll scare the bejesus out of you you're ready and it actually was like a little bit unnerving to me as well because there's a scene where a lady's trying to cut her own head off with piano wire uh hereditary have you seen that no i haven't whoa whoa dude that's that's another level of horror movie that is a little bit uncomfortable if you know what i'm saying

a little we used to do as kids we'd put on peewee's big adventure put our eyes right up against the tv screen for the large marge segment where our eyes popped out and then just freak ourselves out to see who could have the worst nightmares uh i never did that but but i sounded like uncle cracker there i know i did a little bit a little bit where where is your uh i called him a midget earlier i should not do that little person what was his name the kid rock little person is Is it Joe? Something Joe? Jay, can you look this crap up? I try not to be involved in Kid Rock projects, all right?

Joe C. Joe C. You never had a bottle of Boone's Farm before a party, BC? Oh, I've had a lot of bad nights with Boone's Farm. Believe me. Remember that? When you're 18, you can get that for like $2.25 and just get... If you drink two Boone's Farm bottles, you're going to be doing some illegal things. Yes.

I've done. I've had a lot of good times on Boone's Farm. I'm not above it. All right. Last but not least, this comes to us from DS Crapo. What's your worst breakup story? You know, I actually don't have terrible breakup stories. All of mine have been... What's the parameters? What's the parameters of a worst breakup story? You know, I actually don't have terrible breakup stories. All of mine have been...

What's the parameters? What's the parameters of a worst breakup story? Like, what are we looking for? The most distraught we were and things we did that we regret? Or how heartbroken were you? Or did you tell the girl off? Like, what are we looking for?

I mean, I've definitely been broken down from being distraught before. But I don't know that've had like like you know there's one of those moments where you get dumped and then like you're standing on the sidewalk and it's all cinematic that the car comes by and splashes the puddle on over you all over you yeah it ruins your take you're holding up a boom box yeah wearing a trench coat yeah yeah yeah like one of the one of the bad nights with boone's farm not one of the good nights like have you ever had one of those uh yeah yeah you know i've

i've taken some l's luke we can leave it at that you know oh buddy i've taken i've taken l's but not quite like that uh yeah yeah yeah no no no uh next question yeah oh you can't leave them hanging if you got something you got to share. It's still real to me, damn it. Yeah, I'm trying to think. I've never had... I've definitely gone on benders from being sad and stuff like that. But the breakup themselves were all fairly unremarkable as it relates to like great

stories i don't have any of those unfortunately yeah yeah but i've done some bad i've done some bad breaking up i tell you that over text uh i i wish they were that formal yeah yeah i wish i had been that communicative have you ever left in the middle of the night just got in the car and drove away and never never had correspondence again i did one of those i used to ghost on the i even ghosted i've even ghosted from my own room where you know you wake up and you're like who is this creature next yeah well that's a different story. That's not a relationship.

That's to ghost a hookup. Ghosting a hookup in your own place of residence takes skill. Like, I would sometimes set the alarm for five minutes and then go take a 30-minute shower and hope that they got the message by the time I got out of the shower. Oh, no, I wouldn't do that. But I had one where I had a i had like a board on my uh fraternity room door and i had it would have like a schedule and like where i was and it was i mean very rarely filled out and you know my fraternity brothers would draw dicks on it and stuff but i remember i woke up one time i'm not gonna say it

was like the best moment of my life and i was like oh my god what am i gonna do and like this person is in my room so i'm like what am i gonna do so i actually went and wrote on my board this was like 7 30 in the morning this was uh i just didn't have the heart to like kick her out so i just wrote um at community service won't be back for a while and then drove to like a local coffee shop and just waited till noon and then came back and she was gone that was i didn't have to say anything it was great at herpes test be back later getting covid nasal swabs won't be back ever please leave hey luke do you have any uh political commentary on the lack of socials distancing during the rioting over the week and that was the other part about i was like did you fuckers just forget what we've been doing the last two months? I guess you did.

Get ready, Luke. Full stadiums, February 1st. I'll meet you there, okay? Are you paying attention to what happened in South Korea? They tried to do that. You know what happened? They yanked it fast. What happened? They tried to start putting people in the stands. And it backfired immediately.

But Denmark has opened up all their schools, and they've had no issues. So who the fuck knows? I think I would move to Denmark if this country went under, Luke. Yeah, I might. They might. It's pretty nice over there. Okay. Without further ado, BC, it is time for your portion of the show where you get to drive the ship, sir.

I hand the keys over to you. You could argue, Luke, that we have never needed this more as a society as a show as an audience we scour the globe for the good bad the ugly the in between wow hey it's you chubby lance bay there he is chubby chubby lance bay i don't see the resemblance at all okay i mean shout out to lance base okay he had a great music career you know he wanted to go into space that time you know like i don't i don't do stuff like that we don't have the same hobbies luke okay all right all right anyway here here we go uh let's start with uh we always start with with with real fights and people getting sent to the deep dark depths here's one championship how about this triple uppercut ko from the ultimate warrior

check that out two three and from an angle so look the first two the first two are inside the right the left arm and then the third is a behind it you see that two three you see that yeah he steps all our our warriors out there who flood flood my dms with this stuff but yeah that's amazing that's fantastic all right we'll roll on to there, Luke. I want to go to a promotion called Battle 4, and this was the Volgogard battle. The gentleman's name is Imam Shafi. Check out this savage head kick KO.

Oh, my God. Bro, holy Jesus. Where is this? CTE Society indeed, Luke. Wow. and the best part was the dude was even fading away from it oh i'm looking to pull the sword in celebration that is this is tremendous well i mean he's fighting i mean who is this gas station attendant this gentleman does that guy have like duct tape around his left shin oh good question he's got that luke rockhold against yon blow hovich thing oh yeah like the the glove the the the shin sleeve or whatever did you ever see

luke rockhold on that show millionaire matchmaker on a and e when that lady uh sent him to hell the host she just buried him i told you about this dude my dms were flooded after that from women looking for him oh wow i never told you this thirsty women no you did not tell me that oh dude so after he goes on millionaire matchmaker my dms get lit up with all of these thirsty women and i'm like lady you are you're about to be disappointed in ways you never thought possible uh this is not the right luke from mma trust me oh oh they were coming out i thought okay i thought they were going to ask you to like his contact info no no they just didn't pay attention to the

deets and they thought he was me and i was like ah come on come on luke you look a lot more than you look more like kid rock than you do luke rockhold i'm not this is what i'm saying i was like with all these ladies blind do they understand like there is a a clear departure here we're barely the same species me and luke rockhold but uh they did dude i can't lie they did all right jay let's go to the next one here uh check out this new drunken dance here luke you down with this i don't know what we call this the purge i mean look at my man right there look at at this homeboy. Bro, he's not wearing one thing that fits. Including the alcohol he drank. Get that crap out, Luke.

Dude, the bag doesn't fit. Yeah, he is. He is just like a Mario brother. He's wearing overalls that don't fit. The backpack is sagging. The shirt is like a triple XL. He's got a snap back on wow he he's getting it right though i mean he's in mid drink he realizes he's gonna have issues

so he's like i need to get this poison out of me so i can go on with my life luke we've all been there the next morning you know what i'm saying listen listen i'm not gonna sit here and tell you i've never puked and rallied uh because i have wow this gentleman was living my life this is me 20 years ago basically yeah yeah this is great i love that like you know it didn't break his rhythm he's still you know i gotta dance you know i just want to dance i want to i want to know this is he dancing to uncle cracker what is he dancing to that's great oh wow yeah yeah wow okay all right hey uh uh check out this drunk grandpa this has got to be in florida here

check out this drunk grandpa shouting out some people in the upper day yeah we had a good time out tonight oh watch out it's just not morning combat without elder abuse bro santa had a few too many is this the guy that had the diabetes commercial who is this wilford brimley no no is that that's awesome oh that is awesome he looks like a mix of wilford brimley and jimmy johnson uh shout out at dutch fails one of my new a little bit i think if you zoomed in you'd disagree with that it kind of looks like a prime uh uh murph griffin right there maybe uh oh maybe yeah yeah it's got to be florida they have a lot of rich tan white people down there and uh shout out to this guy all right luke uh let's roll on here.

Check. You ever been on a chopper before, Luke? You ever been on a chopper naked? What the fuck are we watching? All right. Yep. Easy rider there, Luke. Is he like sitting on the chopper so it'll vibrate against his things? I don't know.

I don't know. But yeah, it sure breaks this quarantine up a little bit, right? That's got to hurt. I'm not sitting on that seat afterwards. Luke, would you smell that seat for $1,000? You can't smell much worse than the chair i've been sitting in all quarantine where i infrequently shower all right hey let's pull it back together hey more on this guy to come but i wanted to show

you my new hero uh the uh the alpha the ginger the alpha ginger spike carlisle luke what do you make of this way in uh crane kick and mask setup can you catch the covid through that shit i don't know uh but that's the mask is that the mask that people use when they go to orgies yeah i was gonna say it's very it's very eyes wide shut like normally you don't wear pants when you wear that mask yeah that's like one of those like are you in a cult that you murder the poor and also bang everyone else's wife and stuff? I don't know.

Isn't that one of those masks? It does look a little. Look at Billy Q no-sell the hug afterwards. I mean, it is quarantine season, right? I know we're going to fight. I mean, if you hug a guy like that, you've got to do other things to him. I mean, F-ing, fighting, it's all the same, Luke, right? It's what War Machine said at a time oh wow is that you wow don't you don't you remember when he first started doing porn he took to twitter and he was like now i'm

effing and fighting my two favorite things i'm like well you seem like a very stable person now i'm dead the ultimate high yeah that put that yeah all right i wonder how his quarantine's going all right let's roll on here luke um here's a you ever do a skateboarding trick in front of your parents look you know your parents will will chair anything but check this out all right all right yeah not bad right not bad okay wow they failed as parents what is happening here luke that that i think that's basically what my parents think i've done with my life yeah so like my dad's like sure i mean you haven't been evicted yet or gone to jail great you know but have you opened a restaurant right have you done foreign diplomat service? No.

You're still talking about the damn cage fighters, Luke. No, but here's the thing. My dad also thinks that my brother and sister are losers, even though they opened a restaurant, too. It's like, dude, we're all losers in our own equal parts way. Wow. Your dad's a hard ass. Can we get him on the show?

What's his name? Robert. He's hard to please. He's hard. his name uh robert he's hard to please he's all right oh bob is hard to please i'll get i could do you think how could i pop colonel bob in five minutes or less just to have him laughing his balls off no it's not possible dude i got i got i remember one time my brother and i got this academic award i won't say what it is for but it was very prestigious in high school, okay? So we get it, and we tell them about it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why are you all like, you know, why are you all like weird about, I won't tell you that I was a Rhodes Scholar. Like, what are you talking about? No, it wasn't.

It's high school, so it's not that, I'm just trying to set the context. And literally, we told him we got it, and he looked at us, and he goes, and this is a very old person

thing to say, he goes, well, yeah, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king we're like great okay all right thanks dad yeah sweet yeah you wonder why i'm depressed all the time yeah i can't believe i'm laughing at it all right hey luke you remember baby jessica from the late 80s we got a new one trying out here. Wow, that's a great setup.

Bad Parenting 101 here. God. Oh, no. Down in a hall. Wow, dude, she just tossed that manhole cover like it was nothing. Losing control. Hey, I'm P. Lane Staley, alright?

Block him. Peace. Why are we laughing at this? Dude, you know what? He was just playing a real-life game of Mario over there. Yeah. Hey, Luke, I don't know if you heard, the salons in Russia are now open post-COVID. So check this.

Yeah, check this out. Can we advance the video here, Jay? I mean, you know, if you have an aversion to scissors luke this may get the job done right you know dude why do we watch haircuts like on this show haircuts are by fire machete animal attack by uh uh you know uh what's on the hammer and sickle yeah uh this is infectious disease uh no one ever gets a normal haircut on this show what the fuck are they doing look at that uh look at that handle i got it from luke look at this russian oh i bet there is just a smorgasbord of material on that thing. Yeah.

All right, let's roll on here. You know they call Steve Spurrier the old ball coach, Luke? So is this guy. I mean, this is too easy. It's just too easy. All right. This week in art, Luke. That is great.

Yeah. Come on, guy. You can't stand there. Okay. This week in art, Luke, I do ask the same question that Lisa Turtle asked once. Is this art? Are we art? Is art art?

Luke, have you ever visited that valley? What the fuck am I looking at? A great vacation spot. Hello, all you cool cats and kittens. Yeah, okay, all right. You need psychological counseling. All right. I guess that one, you know, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

We'll take an L on that one. Okay, let's go on. We had that beer chugger last week, Luke. That guy, you know, Ronnie Deutch. Shout out to him. Check out this beer chugger. Luke, please break down what diseases this man has acquired from this move right here. Are you fucking kidding me?

Dude, we're literally drinking out of the garbage now? Not us, Luke. We're just laughing at it. All right? This is a mirror on society at the moment, Luke. This is homeless wine. Yeah. All right.

That angered you, Luke. Wow, we had a good run on this segment. No, I just don't even... I can't believe that we're... I mean, I mean i guess i can you know the common denominator here is whether it's in the netherlands or russia or here in los estados unidos there's a lot of bored white people who oh this is us dude this is this probably at the preakness or something i mean they're crazy oh yeah there's probably a lot of caffeine in that. It's because it looks like there's a lot of Red Bulls and coffee cups in there. Yeah, maybe so.

Maybe so. That sounds about right. Would you drink that for a chance to sit front row at Jones & Gano in the John Morgan chair? I wouldn't drink that to go back in time and be 20 years old again. Okay. Borrow some gigawatts from Jay. Hey, did you ever see Jay's Back to the Future future documentary called back in time it's a classic flick i mean all right let's close with

this luke we started a new movement last week with those indian boys we didn't know what to call it well our um our viewer fernando as someone sent me this too iqui on instagram he's calling this Fernando at F-O-C-H-I-Q-U-I on Instagram. He's calling this Grip to Grip is the new COVID handshake. Jay, can we play it so we don't have to watch this grossness anymore? This is him and his buddy, I think. But can we zoom in a little on that, Jay? He's wearing a Luke Thomas shirt, the gentleman on the right. I didn't pick up on that.

That's great. Jay, can you zoom in? I mean, come on. Post-productionproduction can you get in there jay can you oh dude can you can you swim in a little bit jay can we uh don't worry it's a live show it's all right my man is what happened jay well can you put it back put it back on the screen at least. Whoa, whoa, whoa, Jay. All right. Anyway, this is the new handshake during COVID. And shout out to Fernando on Instagram there who is putting it into practice, Luke. There we go. There we go. It's not what you think it is.

This is the new handshake. This is grip to grip. Luke, what should we call it, though? He wants to do grip to grip. Should it be grip to tip? What are we going with this? I like grip to do grip-to-grip. Should it be grip-to-tip? Where are we going with this? I like grip-to-grip. I think grip-to-grip is pretty great.

All right. It makes it a lot less awkward and relational. That is amazing. These gentlemen are true believers. Look at our audience, BC. Look what we have cultivated. We have started a movement, and the movement goes through your fly, apparently. Look what we have cultivated. We have started a movement. And the movement goes through your fly, apparently.

Amazing. That's great. That is great stuff. Thank you, Fernando. Thank you. Now you're the laughingstock of your community. Thank you, Fernando. All right.

Luke, that's the ish this week. Hope you enjoyed it. We needed a laugh. Okay, Luke? That was good. Except for that sad part about your dad, we needed a laugh. Okay. I'm over it. Not really, but I'm over it. Okay, Luke? That was good. Except for that sad part about your dad, we needed a laugh. Okay. I'm over it.

Not really, but I'm over it. Okay, BC, with that in mind, it is time for Odds and Ends. What do you got for us? I was going to talk to you about Lance, but I had some setbacks technologically-wise this morning. I did not get to watch it. So, wow, I ruined that segment. What I did watch, Luke, was what I teased earlier.

This past Saturday, UFC Vegas, Spike Carlisle. I was not prepared. I was not woke for all things Alpha Ginger. He pushed Billy Quarantillo to the limit. He almost gassed out. He got almost sucker punched KO. He's a frigging weirdo, but I love this man, Luke. I love this man. I need him on TV as willing as he will be to go out there and make money because unlike the clowns that you love,

Johnny Walker Red, Michelle Pineda, this guy clowns in an effort to win the fight. He started with a running kick to the face and he's just putting it on billy q the better fighter the guy who rightfully won but he created so many of these oh crap crazy moments and most of them except for the odd end to round one when he started walking away and got got uh floyd on victor ortiz uh it was in an effort to win the fight i think he's got potential here he's fun to watch he tweeted afterwards that they should build a statue for him i will i will kneel at that statue luke give me this guy give it to me give him i don't know when i became the guy who was like

the biggest johnny walker or perera fan i just didn't think that they were awful human beings but okay uh certainly i agree the dude is first of all he appears to be like a physical powerhouse which is part of it and he's got like this uh he's got like anthony pettis grappling where when you think you've got a dominant position he reverses it all the time you know what i mean and so constantly he was able to like reset the fight but then he would just gas but then when he walked away before the round ended i was like this is the greatest man in the history of fighting i don't know what the fuck he is doing but i love every part of it you're right he is he is he is absolute entertainment and by the way someone like there's this parody twitter account thing happening all the time now with fighters

there was one for roosevelt roberts and there's one for him he's not on twitter so if you see something like that that's actually not him. Just so everybody knows. Real quickly, I guess I have two of these. I did not put this in the rundown, but I'll mention it very briefly. Dana White confirmed that the Reebok deal is expiring this year and that they may go back. But if you talk to other fighters who've had conversations with Reebok, and I had one with Joe Lazon years ago, on the record,

I mean, he did not think that Reebok was up for another one of these. But at the same time, Reebok had CrossFit in their portfolio at the time, and they no longer do. And the two biggest ones they've ever had were CrossFit and UFC. So I don't know. I don't know how that's going to go. But pretty clearly, the UFC is not going to go back to what they had before, which was this $100,000 sort of tax

essentially allowed to be sponsoring someone and then the whole NASCAR effect. They're not going to do that. I remember also, BC, I don't know if you remember this, before they got to the Reebok deal, they started having select fighters wear head-to-toe UFC apparel. And it actually was pretty decent apparel.

They might just go back to that, to be honest. But we'll see if they sign with an Adidas or a nike or something like that or maybe tap out it is an expression of combat known worldwide luke uh yeah but now aren't they with wwe or something yeah they're co-owned or something like that yeah whatever whatever the last thing i'll say about this is i remember when the ufc started that they announced a lot of proceeds would go to this charity in brazil i don't know what the hell ever happened with that and that all the proceeds of sales with their fighters name on it would like go to them I don't know one fighter I mean I'm saying it hasn't happened but I can't find one fighter that got one royalty check from that not one so maybe like a Connor or a Kane or

Rhonda did probably maybe even a John Jones. But everyone else didn't get jacked. So I don't have much hope for a rebound deal. I guess we'll see. And then lastly, Sean O'Malley told me that he wasn't willing to fight higher echelon guys unless he got paid more. So I don't know, BC, is this the new trend? Fighters are like, I'll fight who you want for X amount, but you want to do that, it's got to be Y amount. I don't know don't know well i mean it's a new trend if you're at the very top obviously sean is is a

marketable younger guy so it's a little bit different than normal but i do wonder what this will mean to the value of a championship if more fighters at a certain point in their career go you know all this title gives me is a gauntlet of tough fights in a row when i believe my star is bright enough that i can start making connor one-off you know super fights right i could start fighting the the diaz is the masvidal type guys in one-offs and that's more important it's better to my health and business financial future than staying in the gauntlet it's it'll be interesting i don't know i, how they would get around that is by making it more profitable,

but we'll see. Yeah, last thing I want to say about this is to all of our clients, I don't want to say clients, to our audience here. Clients, yeah. Sorry, I can barely think of all the stuff going on.

I mean, I started the show and I was sort of a sour note. I don't want to end on a sour note, but a little bit I kind of am. A lot of layoffs that have taken place in the business, particularly on the Vox Media side, so that would be MMA Fighting, Bloody Elbow, Bad Left Hook, MMA Mania,

they take place today, they start today. And so I know there's been a lot of cuts from a lot of good folks. MMA Fighting lost Pete C. Carroll. They lost, I just found out they lost Mike Chiappetta. You know, there's another major site that's had a bunch of furloughs, rolling furloughs. It's a tough time in the media business generally. And here's the funny part about that. UFC maybe missed a couple of shows, not a whole lot, which it goes to tell you that these cuts

from COVID-19 loss, I mean, the losses have been so tremendous and hit the advertising business so hard. They were going to happen no matter what. UFC could have put on all of their shows. It wouldn't have changed anything. So to all the folks who are out without a job today, we hear you. We see you. We're sorry. We hope you make a quick rebound, and we've got our eyes on you for your next step.

So just thought I'd say that. Very nice of you, Luke. I like that. Okay. And just regarding your your father it's not your fault are you gonna hug me now like goodwill hunting and i'm gonna cry in your arms i just i just goodwill hunting to you yes yeah but then my dad's gonna show up my dad's gonna show up with like he's gonna slam a napkin on the on the glass and go how about those apples uh okay

it'll be like a bill for my braces when i was a kid uh all right yeah indeed uh we're proud of you we're proud of you uh you know thank you to everybody who subscribed and and stuck with us and uh you know i'm not going to sit here and give you a spiel on that times are crazy but uh be nice to people okay and take shelter and and uh yeah thank you. Be nice to people, I think is a great sort of, to be nice is free. Speaking of free, it's free to give us a thumbs up here on this video. It is free to give us a,

click on that subscribe button, right? And share it with somebody. All that is very, very free. So please do that. And if you'd like a free trial on Showtime, you can do that as well. Go to showtime.com and you can for free, give it a trial for 30 days.

If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. And you saw our social there for like a whopping six seconds. If you guys can put that back on the screen. BC and I are on Twitter and we are on Instagram. You can give us a follow there. And then Morning Combat on Instagram. Morning Combat with a K on YouTube.

Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. It really makes a big difference when you do, so we really appreciate that. BC, any parting thoughts? No, no, that's it. Watch our show on Showtime Extreme, Morning Combat Classics with the great Mauro Ranallo and Scott Coker. We're pumping those out. A lot of really good stuff and a lot of really good stories.

Seriously, seek that out. I don't know, Luke, whether those are going to end up being accessible digitally or on demand or whatever, but that's a really good memory lane show. You get to rewatch the fight. You get some great storytelling from those who are there. You get some MK-style breakdowns from Luke and I. Good times. And then lastly, we recorded an episode recently. I don't think it's aired yet.

Scott Coker talked about working with Vadim Finkelstein with Fedor for the Verdum fight. You're going to want to hear that. Yeah, Fidomi, as Dana would say. You're going to want to hear that. So, okay. For Brian Campbell over at CBS Sports, my name is Luke Thomas.

For everyone at Showtime and Malka and everything else, we appreciate your patronage today. Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.