MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Tyron Woodley vs. Gilbert Burns, Kamaru Usman, Mike Tyson | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 44

Episode Date: May 28, 2020

Luke and Brian are back for a special Thursday episode of Morning Kombat. The boys preview all of the UFC action coming up this weekend, including Tyron Woodley facing off in the main event against Gilbert Burns. They also discuss a potential Mike Tyson return to boxing and debate why Kamaru Usman is asking to fight Conor McGregor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is Thursday, May 28th, 2020, and it is time for Morning Combat. Welcome, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo here for the show. The gentleman on the other side of the screen is the peanut butter to my jelly. I don't know. The frick to my frack. Whatever else you want to call him.

You know him from CBS Sports, among many other places. It is the gas station aficionado himself, Brian Campbell. Brian, how are you doing, sir? The bait to your tackle, Luke. I am fired up like Montell in 94. This is how we do it on the MK to the Ultra. I was waiting for a, it's Monday. This is Monday from the great Luke. but no, it's a thirsty Thursday.

Still bringing it to you despite the holiday week. Hey Luke, I hope you enjoyed Memorial Day and shout out to all the fallen soldiers who have provided us with this freedom. But that was basically the last time we're going to be off for a long time, brother, because the fights are back. It's a marathon and it's a sprint. That's the way it feels. Now, before we get into today's show, Brian, as you note, we are normally on Monday. Today is a Thursday because of all the holidays and the changes.

We'll be back to normal this coming Monday, so you can check us out there then. For the time being, let me say a couple of things. Number one, please give the video a thumbs up. Hit that subscribe button, that notification bell, and share this video with anyone you think who would benefit from seeing it, which is literally anybody else on planet Earth. Last but not least, we are a product of Showtime Digital.

If you want to try Showtime, there's an easy way to do it. You can have a free trial for 30 days. Just go to Showtime.com, and you can try out all the different stuff that they show from documentaries to sports to original shows to how about morning combat strike force classics bc you can check that out thursdays 10 p.m on showtime extreme we're starting to put a few of those in the uh in the chamber so to speak we're going to shoot them off like fireworks and uh just to echo what you're saying real quick, Luke,

I don't want to be the bad guy, but I don't really want to do your sleepwalk dance anymore. These people need to hit subscribe because this rocket ship, it's going somewhere, and we want you to come along with us, cashing them checks. You know what I'm saying? Well, let's do it.

Let's do this MK revolution. Let's do it. Good start. All right, with that, let's get to the very do this mk revolution let's do it good sir all right with that let's get to the very first topic if we can saturday the ufc gets back to action this time for the first time in nevada since the pandemic started they got approved for it yesterday different story for a different time but let's talk about the main event former ufc welterweight champion tyron

woodley gets back to action after 15 months off against the rising sensation Gilbert Burns. BC, I start with you on this one. To me, this is one hell of a main event for a lot of different reasons. But let's focus in on this. Tell me what you think the stakes are in this welterweight main event on Saturday. Well, first of all, luke i love this fight love this fight a great fight the stakes you could be legitimately looking at the next i said next welterweight title contender look we know what's sort of going on right now kamaru usman trying to

draw on a big opponent using names like mcgregor like mazvidal even though dana yesterday with uh phil murphy of espn kind of said look it's either going to be jorge or colby for for masvidal or or maybe no one else but look if someone comes out there meaning woodley or gilbert burns and puts on a spectacular quick performance you just might see them get subbed in right away for that title shot and both would be deserving an incredible five fight win win streak for Gilbert Burns, in which he's completely well-rounded his game in such impressive fashion to add some striking to that already great Jujutsu base. But really, I think the story of this fight is the 38-year-old Woodley.

This is the crossroads, okay? We're going to miss everybody. We may be missing him pretty soon if he loses this fight this is his opportunity to prove that that that loss to Usman was nothing but an aberration and Luke I did talk to Tyron yesterday I was expecting that you know angry sort of edgy you know maybe defensive Tyron Woodley he's calm and confident entering this one he can't really put a label on why he looks so bad against usman i know a lot of us have said maybe he was juggling too much trying

to be too hollywood he just says mentally he wasn't there so however you chalk that up if he comes out and beats gilbert burns like we probably would have predicted him to do let's say a year ago it kind of puts to rest the idea of him laying that egg against Kamaru and the idea of him being 38. He's got a chance to get right back in there among the truly elites. I think you said it exactly right, BC. This is truly for Tyron Woodley. This is a crossroads moment. 38 years old. He turned 38 in April when he took the title from Robbie Lawler that made him the oldest welterweight champion in terms of how old they were when they grabbed it. And when he lost it to Kamaru Usman, that also made him the oldest in terms of how old

they were when they lost it. You look at the other greats like a Miletic or a Hughes or a St. Pierre, most of them won it in their 20s, lost it in their early 30s. I think Pat Miletic lost it at 33. So on the one hand, you're right. Tyron Woodley has done things at a more advanced age relative to other great welterweight champions than those other great welterweight champions. He was better longer later. On the other hand, this is a division that trends young,

not by accident. To be 38 years old, coming off of a 15-month layoff against a rising Gilbert Burns, having looked pretty not great in your fight against Kamara. I mean, I had Kamara winning all of those rounds. You could maybe even argue one of them was 10-8. I think, in fact, someone did score at 10-8 along the way. There are a ton of questions here. It feels like the guy who beat Darren Till is just a long memory ago, but it would be very, very foolish to sleep on Tyron Woodley. So for me, who Tyron Woodley is a modest betting favorite heading into this, I think that's right.

He deserves to be the favorite. For me, if he wins this, I don't think he gets a title shot, BC. I'll take issue with your argument there. However, I do think it sets him up right in that space. He's already the number one contender in terms of his ranking, but it gives him a rematch, not a rematch, a first shot opportunity at a returning Colby Covington. Maybe it puts him in the Jorge Masvidal sweepstakes. Maybe a rematch with Kamaru after one more win. I don't know, but I think that Colby fight makes sense. On the other hand,

as you alluded to, if Gilbert Burns wins this, he's going to jump into the top five last thing if Tyron loses this that will be two losses in a row and now he'd be losing to somebody outside of the top five it's one thing BC I think you would agree to lose to Kamaru who we both probably believe is not only the champion obviously but the best welterweight on the planet there's no shame in losing to Gilbert but those are not equivalent things at this stage it would say a lot about whether he's coming or whether he's going. Yeah, and the reason why we said this is a crossroads moment, because if he's going, you know, he's not dead, but he enters into celebrity fighter, you know, the second half of Rich Franklin's career.

Let me find a catchweight. Let me find another big name I can match up with to sell some tickets. We don't normally cheer for fighters, Luke. And by the way, talking to Gilbert Burns yesterday yesterday as well one of the nicest guys ever you have to be cheering so to speak for the run that he's been on the ability to round out his game just the joy he shows in the cage but i will say this there is something in my heart right here for tyron woodley i don't think he got a fair shake ever from dana white when he was on top i don't think even the fans give him the credit for how great that title reign was how he disarmed and took away the greatest skill from each of his opponents and

essentially beat them at their own game i know tyrant can get whiny i know there's some reasons why people don't always love him but there's a big opportunity for him to stick it right back down everyone's throat once again and you know i think this division's better with him in a key spot i want to see him get this opportunity to really prove himself and bounce back from such a tough defeat in which it was so one-sided and maybe in his favor luke is this gilbert burns never gone past three rounds you know he's not afraid he says i welcome the deep water but if tyron woodley can control distance and fight the fight on his terms like he was unable to against Kamaru Usman the there is a gap in experience this is a legitimate step-up fight for Gilbert Burns

with with you know high risk comes reward of course but let's not count out Tyron so quickly no no certainly you shouldn't be I just mean his back is up against the wall a little bit in terms of what he's up against I suspect he'll be his back will be against the cage in thatfoot cage. They're going to be in at the UFC Apex. One thing you alluded to... That's going to be interesting, Luke. Yes, it's going to change the fight a little bit because Tyron likes to go backwards. Gilbert likes to go forward. So it's like, on the one hand, you're going to have Tyron in the very place that Kamaru was able to do great work against him. On the other hand, when you look at some of the losses Gilbert has had, it's from rushing in from the outside. And Tyron has that great pull counter with the right, so it could

get dicey. But I want to focus in on one thing you mentioned, which I thought was right on the money, BC, which is I don't think Tyron can just get away with a win on Saturday. Yes, of course, a win is significantly better than a loss, obviously. But remember, he butted heads with the UFC management. And I agree with you, it's not fair. I think even like two weeks ago, Tyron posted a video that I had done about how he's underappreciated on his own Instagram page. And there's a lot about what he did during his title reign that never got appreciated. That being said, you know, he wasn't the favorite son of the UFC. Whether you agree with that or not, it's just a reality. I don't think he can go in there and just eke out a win against a guy who used to be a lightweight. He's

got to go in there. I don't know if he has to get a finish BC, but it's got to be dominant one way or the other. Otherwise the title shot sweepstakes, whether they're right there or even, you know, two steps beyond, it's not going to happen. Yeah, it's a good point. And maybe the small cage will end up producing the urgency to make Tyron Woodley have to bring out the very best of him. And, you know, we never saw that against Kamaru Usma. I mean, not only was it, you know, in the end, a bad style matchup in a way, he just never was.

He wasn't there, Luke. He never happened. He never flipped the switch. We never even saw him being willing to go out on a shield. He just wasn't there. Look, if Gilbert wins, and you mentioned he's a nice guy, he's the nicest guy and a decorated combat athlete. You couldn't say anything bad about Gilbert Burns. And if he earns this opportunity by beating Tyron, then he earns

it fair and square. And that's the end of it. But I think something would be lost in MMA history. If Tyron doesn't fight Colby Covington, I just firmly believe that if he beats Colby Covington, I think he's entitled to another title shot at that point. About Jorge, I don't know because they're boys. I guess we'd have to see. But I think there's fights that go away. And I'm not saying it's Brock versus Fedor, but I want to see that fight. I think you want to see that fight. I think the fans want to see that fight. You got to get through Gilbert Burns first. Any last thoughts on the conference? Hey, gun to your head super quick. And I know Jay's going to be all in your cochlea in a second. Who will Kamaru Usman face this summer? Gun to your head. Who do, and I know Jay's going to be all in your Coakley eye in a second. Who will Kamaru Usman face this summer?

Gun to your head. Who do you got? Walter White title. Tell me. I think I just have a hard time not imagining Tyron and Colby facing off. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's just what I see. So who's that for Kamaru, bro? Oh, what do you mean?

Who's facing Kamaru? Sorry, if I said Woodley by accident, I didn't mean it. Who's facing Kamaru Usman this summer? Oh, well, let's get to that now with our second point because it leads us right into it. So with that, we go to, as BC has indicated, about Kamaru Usman. So Kamaru Usman is your UFC welterweight champ. And out of nowhere this week, he and his manager, Ali Abdelaziz,

were calling for a Conor McGregor fight. And I'm thinking to myself, BC, okay, on the one hand, it sort of makes sense, right? You've got a guy who is a champion. And technically, Conor is ranked 14th in that division. Whether you agree with that or not, he is. And fighting Conor is obviously a money fight, but it's like, wait a second, Jorge is not somebody's afterthoughts. He's the BMF champ. He has elevated himself to star status in a way that, you know, five years ago, we didn't think possible, but we hoped he'd get there and he finally did.

BC, why is Kamaru calling out Con connor is it just the money angle yeah you know it's funny i did bring that up yesterday to to tyron woodley and type of ask him you know why he thinks and why is connor being entered in and he says look at connor's not in this kamaru is the most boring fighter of the elite welterweights you can't draw a dime this is his only way to try to elevate his brand i mean look there's some truth in that you can take that for what you will uh dana has sort fighter of the elite welterweights. You can't draw a dime. This is his only way to try to elevate his brand. I mean, look, there's some truth in that. You can take that for what you will. Dana has sort of squashed any idea.

This seems to be a well-orchestrated Ali Abdelaziz plan to maybe try to bring this to life. And in some ways, you could argue that it makes a lot of sense because right now, Conor McGregor needs a stay-busy fight that doesn't affect his status in the lightweight title lineage, you you know in terms of the ladder right there i know anyone can say why does he deserve it well look habib versus connor is going to break every single record possible so ufc is going to do everything in their power to keep that fight alive if habib could get past justin gaethje so he needs an out of division stay busy nate diaz type fight with the potential history at stake.

Could that have been Kamaru? Could Kamaru have benefited from the rub of beating Conor? Could Conor have gotten away with an excuse and not hurt himself by losing by getting out wrestled? It seemed to all kind of make a ton of sense. Plus the idea that maybe Kamaru would be a little bit too ballsy against Conor and maybe leave himself open to get caught. I mean, there's storylines there.

Dana White squashing it. I tend to believe it's not going to happen. It's just Kamaru Usman's way to say, hey, look, UFC, I've been trying to get into a big fight. Like, let's do this thing. We did hear Jorge Masvidal in an interview with Ariel on ESPN yesterday say that Kamaru has been pricing himself out in the negotiations. Luke, you never really know who to believe in these spots. But Kamaru does need a big fight. And I don't necessarily want it just to be Colby Covington rematch

because that's the only guy that will make sense in the end financially. Like, great fight the first time around. But let's continue the narrative. If they're going to hold Jorge Masvidal out because they believe in his BMF brand and they believe that making a fight against Nate just seems to make dollars and cents, I'm okay with that. But if not, let's get Jorge in there and let's fight for the title.

Let's play this thing out. Yeah, I mean, if you're asking who has done enough to merit a title shot among the active contenders near the top of the division, so we're talking Jorge, we're talking Colby, we're talking Tyron, you can throw in whoever else you want behind that, Gilbert, Stephen Thompson, something like that. You know, the answer is pretty clearly Jorge Masvidal. He clearly has done enough at this point to merit a title shot, whether he wants one or not, or whether he wants to DS fight more or whatever. He's the guy

that has lined himself up for that opportunity. But the reason why I think Kamaru Usman, let's even assume that what Jorge Masvidal is saying is absolutely true. Let's just take that for what it is. Maybe it's not, but let's say that it is. All Kamaru is doing by pricing himself out of a fight with Jorge, or then asking for a fight with Conor McGregor, is responding to the very incentives that the UFC sets up for champions and fighters once they become champions. What do I mean by that? Well, you saw with Henry Cejudo that he didn't even, it's not that he was necessarily ducking all the toughest challenges because, hello, he was a natural flyweight who went up to bantamweight

and beat Marlon Maraich in one of the most impressive fashions I've ever seen. But after that was really looking for some kind of name that had nothing to do with whether or not they were the toughest challenge. Why? Because the amount of money that this guy makes in a very narrow window is going to be a function of the celebrity power of his opponent, period. And no one has celebrity power at welterweight, frankly, in the UFC at all, like Conor McGregor. In that sense, the call-out makes total, complete, rational understanding. On the other count of potentially pricing himself out of a fight with Jorge Masvidal,

we don't really know what he's asking. We know UFC athletes year over year tend to get 16 to 18% of gross revenue. So I seriously doubt he's actually asking himself or pricing himself out of the market. I bet he's asking what the market value is, just that the market value for UFC fighters is depressed. So it just kind of feels that way. way but again fighters who have to kind of eat an s sandwich along the way you see it

every time once they become champion they use that to leverage the most amount of money possible either through playing hardball in some of these contract negotiations or calling out opponents who have nothing really to do with a meritocratic title shot, BC. They just make them a lot of money. But that's where, that's exactly the incentive structure and the roadmap that's laid out in front of them. All Kamaru is doing is responding to it. It sucks for you and I because we're not going to get a Conor fight. We're not going to get a Jorge Masvidal fight, at least not right away. So we have to play this stupid game where we're talking about things that aren't even really all that relevant

in the actual sense of things. But this is the way it's set up to go. It's set up to go exactly like this so we find ourselves here again. Yeah, very well said, Luke. I actually believe that with the lack of a live gate for a while, I really question whether we're going to get

any of these potential kind of crossover super fights. And I do think the idea of like a connor uh usman would be one of those because of the potential history at stake for connor i mean you know just connor's numbers alone say it best when he averages between what like eight and eleven million per live gate that really affects negotiations it really affects the ability to make these kind of big fights when you know off the top you're not getting that for ufc but to close on this topic i would be remiss if i didn't mention leon edwards and i did remember that dana also mentioned him to phil murphy in that interview yesterday saying that he's also in this conversation with all this uncertainty with contract demands it you met that may end up

being the fight luke because it's probably a cheap fight to make leon edwards you have to say is deserving so maybe that's just the quick fix this summer to throw a card together, save on the big fights, and just kind of keep that division moving along. Only problem is Kamara already fought him and beat him handily. So it's like, what do you really get out of that? The last thing I'd say, though, is about the live gate. Here's the thing, man. UFC loves to talk about how successful they are and how

capable they are. And what they do is just figure things out. And then when fighters come and stick their hand out for more money, they talk about how poor they are. It's the most amazing thing. It's like clockwork. It happens all the time. If the UFC was willing to pay for different kinds of changes relative to jumping up in weight or a fighter reaching new status and thinking that they're entitled to a new contract. If they did that when all the money was coming in and now that there's this lack of a live gate, they were like, look, we got to make some tough calls. I'd be much more sympathetic to the idea that the pandemic is really tightening their belts.

And I'm sure on some level it was, of course, tightening their belts. But when they were flush with cash, they did the exact same thing. It's kind of what they do. I don't give them the benefit of the doubt now that they don't have a gate. They've got tons of other contracted revenue. They don't have near the same volatility in pay-per-view that they once did now with this new ESPN deal. To me, this is just who they are. They pay fighters, certainly relative to other MMA promoters, a ton of money. No one could say otherwise. But relative to the overall share of revenue, it's a pittance.

And that's just a fact. That's fair. That's fair. It's relative to how much they actually budget for fighter pay. And obviously, we hope that changes. But yeah, it is what it is in that regard. And Endeavor issues or not, good luck getting extra money out of them right now i mean buying the palms didn't you read that i saw that for 800 plus mil maybe we'll see

let me ask you one more question put it to you who do you think kimura was fighting in july i started to feel like with the if this whole pricing concern is real and look i think it is even though you're right they they, they seem to have more money. They're not paying the guys enough, but I, again, until I see it, I'm not sure they're going to make a truly blockbuster fight.

And as great on paper as something like Tony and Justin Gaethje was, and it was important for them to come back with a bang with a big fight. Uh, that also had sort of a ceiling financially. It wasn't a true crossover fight. Yeah. I think it might be Leon Edwards, you know, unless Colby will take it for cheap money like i i doubt we're gonna get masvidal i doubt we're gonna get connor all right well i hope maybe woodley luke maybe woodley maybe

he's the star power you know he's the real a side there maybe it's not a bad point because if he is the guy who knows uh that he's been on the outside looking in, all the other people who are ahead of him don't want to play ball. I mean, if you're going to play ball better late than never, right? And you could just waltz in there and get another title shot. Actually, I don't think that's crazy. But it's contingent on what the guys ahead of him do, less so than just absolutely butchering Gilbert Burns on Saturday. So I guess we'll see. Let's jump down to 135 now for our third topic, BC. This is one that's got you hot under the collar. I know you had a whole column about it on CBS Sports.

So let's go to you on this. Henry Cejudo is officially no longer the champion. You can go to UFC.com right now slash rankings. UFC.com slash rankings. Excuse me. And you can see he's no longer obviously the flyweight champ, but more especially no longer the bantamweight champ. He is not ranked, and in fact, he put out a message on social media

sort of confirming, thanking everyone. It was a nice sentiment, and it was a picture of him with the belts on, shaking hands with Dana, obviously post-fight, whether it was the last one or the one before, I'm not sure. In any event, BC, it brings into question about what the future is of the bantamweight division. I will, for a third time, be seen because I'm feeling generous today. I want to pitch it to you, but I want to pitch it to you in such a way.

We know, for example, Sterling and Sandhagen, they're fighting a UFC 250 on the main card. We appear to know that Jan and Jose Aldo might be competing maybe for a title. I guess we'll see. What do you make of the future of Bantamweight? Well, the future of Bantamweight is great. It's bright because it's such a frigging deep division. It's bottlenecked with young guys that are about to make the leap, right?

The Aljos, the Sanhagans, the Peter Jans, and also has like the perfect mixture of old names. I mean, you even got, let's not forget, you got Frankie Edgar coming back in July, probably against Pedro Munoz at Bantamweight. We got Mr. Faber lingering. We got Aldo. We got Dom Cruz, all that.

You got Cody Garbrandt coming back. It's an awesome division. So to remove a guy in Cejudo who, let's be honest, I love Cejudo. Does get hurt a lot. Does look for other fights. Sort of, kind of was doing a poor man's Connor in terms of hijacking that belt to a small degree in a division that needs clarity. So in that regard, actually good news that we can start getting some bang up fights. I think the problem is the UFC's choice in this spot.

I know Jose Aldo already had been given a shot against Suhudo and we already went through that conversation. You know, it's not the right move, but it feels so good so good aldo look great imagine aldo being a two division champion i love a lot of those things the problem is you just did that with dom cruz like you already did that move of taking the popular uh guy for your b-side spot to sort of try to help extra sell tickets at this point it's time to find out who the actual best is and i think marlon marais who was already scheduled to face peter yan uh it makes sense that guy fought great against henry suhudo before losing the vacant title comes back and beats aldo in a very good fight he's deserving why not go that direction i love what they're doing ufc 250 two saturdays from now three bantamweight fights on that card,

not just Sanhagen against Aljo. You got Sean O'Malley coming back in a spot to really push himself up. You got Cody Garbrandt coming back against Javier Alessandro. These are great fights that in some ways is like a de facto tournament to try to trim the fat and figure out who's next. But as much as I love him and I do love me some Jose Aldo, he don't deserve this and we just

did the dom cruise experiment don't go back to the well twice on this give the guys a chance to figure out who's the best i know you're probably not going to ever do another tournament even though let's not forget ufc did a flyweight tournament a couple years back right turned out good for me but it is very bellatory very strike forcey dana's not really into that now would be the time to do it but if you're not Luke at least let the guys who have been itching get in there I wouldn't mind Aldo being in the tournament if it was eight man right that to me would be okay but if it's about two man how about a two-man tournament with Aldo no no but I'm saying if you had the top eight contenders even that it's like okay why is Aldo But okay, I'd sort of find a way to live with it.

I'd be like, fine. I mean, is he really taking the most prestigious slot or something like that? No. But when you do top four and you're leaving Morais out, to me, I hate everything about it. Look, I'm not telling you it's going to be a bad fight. I'm not even telling you that Jose Aldo can't win that. I think he's probably as live a dog as there might be. I favor Peter Jan to win, but Jose Aldo is certainly a very talented fighter and he looked

very good against Marlon Marais. But the point being is like, you finally have a moment to lean into this burgeoning youth movement that is happening at 135 between, as you mentioned, Marais, Sterling, Sandhagen, and Jan. That was such, I mean, the idea of those guys fighting and how good the fighting would be and what it would say about the person who emerges from that would be so important. And I wouldn't tell you that they'd be a star overnight, but here's the truth.

If Jose Aldo was criticized for anything during the course of his career, it was one, kind of taking fights or rounds off, even when he won, he was just kind of being lackadaisical about it. People hammered him for it in the Frankie Edgar fight, even though he won that the first one. And then also that he was never really much of a draw.

He was constantly criticized for never really trying to learn English. And I don't think that's very fair, but that's exactly what was leveled against him. Now we're supposed to believe that he's a kingmaker when you beat him? I mean, maybe for Max, because it was sort of novel in the way that he did it not once but twice, or for Conor, for the extraordinary way that he's a kingmaker when you beat him? I mean, maybe for Max, because it was sort of novel in the way that he did it

not once but twice, or for Conor, for the extraordinary way that he did it. But now at 135 at this stage in his career, this is going to turn Peter Jan into some kind of overnight celebrity. I just don't buy it. I don't buy it at all. I don't think you're getting much of a boost.

And now where's Marlon Marais sitting in all of this? He's watching everyone else compete for a space. He's legitimately earned. People always say, oh, you can make a case that Aldo beat Marash. I can make a case for a lot of shit that didn't happen. It didn't happen. In the end, he recorded the W. That's the guy who gets to, or run it back. Have him run it back, and that's fine. You can do that again. But if you're not going to run it back, and that's the guy that's going to get the W, then he's the one who is

entitled to the spoils of the victory. And so why not embrace this new generation of like extraordinary fighting talents that are coming up, which they're doing at UFC two 50, Brian with San Hagen and Sterling, and everybody is pumped for it. You'd get the exact same thing. Peter Yan is going to be a star one day, but it's not going to be because he beat Jose Aldo.

Yeah. And look, we almost justified the first Aldo idea because it was really meant to, to, you know there's a great possibility of helping suhudo really become that true superstar if he beat him more than it would putting him in there against a younger killer but there's enough younger killers now let's let them all bang i mean come on come on dana you should be better than this it's a bit gratuitous right here let me ask you one more of these and we'll jump to the next topic which is we got our unofficial four-man tourney let's assume that they don't give a title to

jose aldo or yon right let's just assume it's non-title okay oh you don't think i think that's gonna be vacant bell all the way luke no no i suspect that it will be i'm just saying for the purposes of discussion let's assume that it's not uh who wins that fight who wins san hagen versus sterling what do you think you know i i think i may end up favoring josie aldo when it's all said and done uh he looked that good in his first fight you know what i mean i think you know for all this that we said right who are we right we're just some losers with uh cool t-shirts in our basement uh the deal on the san hagen aljo one is it's the best fight of the group i mean you know i wouldn't even be mad if that main event did UFC 250.

Look, UFC 250, sneaky good undercard, just doesn't have a main event. So I get why people are a little bit upset that that's a pay-per-view and we got Cody in the co-main event, but Aljo Sanhagen is the best fight. I think Sanhagen's the dark horse of this division and I think he has been since the beginning. He could be the guy standing at the end of it, Luke.

Yeah, Sanhagen's my guy to win the whole thing too, although I think the fight with Jan would be pretty incredible if Jan is able to get past Jose. I do think Jan will, so I think eventually it will be a Jan versus Sanhagen showdown. But Sterling and Aldo, I'll give them credit, dude. They're not out, especially Sterling. They're not out of this, so it should be kind of interesting.

All right, let's jump now from super elite in their prime fighters to the exact opposite, BC. Look, man, we grew up in the 80s, BC. We know what Mike Tyson means to combat sports fans of even remotely our age. He was the guy. He was the great white shark. He was the menacing figure. He was the great white shark he was the menacing figure he was the figure among all figures he made boxing more popular in his era than it otherwise would have been and that's just a fact and now at age was it 52 53 he is sort of teasing a bit of a comeback i believe he was on i'm told aew last night i think yeah you are told you're told by me pro wrestling baby oh yeah and i think henry sahudo was there too i don't know what they were doing but uh here's the point he's been hitting pads with jafael cordero of king's mma you know obviously that looks pretty good and he's teasing

a comeback we don't know exactly what bare knuckle is off for him i spoke to david film and the guy who runs it uh 20 million dollars potentially potentially with Vanderlei Silva on the line to do bigger than Mayweather numbers, which is cockamamie. And my question to you is, are you interested? Let me go first on this one, if I may. Listen, man. Yeah, you have a producer credit.

Take the floor, Luke. Well, I gotta get one of these in. But here's my point, BC. I doubt we're too far apart on this one. You like the Carney stuff a little bit more than me, but even then, it's just a degree of difference, not kind. I'm not telling you that if he came back in bare knuckle in a four round exhibition or whatever it may end up being, that it wouldn't do decent numbers, maybe even good, maybe even great, but it's not going to do even anything approximating Mayweather numbers. Although I

take it seriously that his celebrity is enduring. I remember trying to explain to people about Kimbo Slice why folks were still interested. Remember, Kimbo Slice is easily the most popular fighter in Bellator history. That's just a fact. No one has even come close to what he drew. And it's because even though he had those losses,

and even though he didn't quite look the same, and even though he was fighting Dada 5000 and whatever else people had an attachment to this guy that was bonded during a really interesting time in their lives through a very interesting medium and those bonds they die hard well imagine Mike Tyson for crying out loud who achieved legitimate things in boxing and was a worldwide celebrated figure so I get that there's going to be a market for him to do virtually anything. One man shows, marijuana strains, AEW, you name it. So if he does it, it will do well. I will be comfortable with it if he's not really putting his health in super jeopardy. So I don't know how I feel about Bare Knuckle, but like a four round boxing exhibition,

I don't think is the end of the world and if a commission is regulating it I feel even better so if people want to watch it which we would have to do for this job anyway I'm not even going to lecture them about it BC because I'd be a huge hypocrite but I guess what I am going to say is am I actually interested do I really want to see this does it get me out of bed in the morning to think about oh my God, what this might look like? No, it does not. It does not at all. And I just think we have to kind of be honest about it. I think I understand

where the appeal comes from. I just can't share in its vigor. Where are you on this? Yeah. There's a line in everywhere. Like, I'm the gas station food guy. I'm the old guy fight. Hashtag old guy fights. I've been threatening to start my own promotion for years the difference is i like old guy fights under the guise of what like the big three is to the nba right i like when aging names get sort of

one more chance to scratch that itch cash a paycheck maybe come back and go out on their own terms and some type of fun little setup against either another aging name or somebody younger who has a size disadvantage but i normally like that when guys are like late 30s and washed or in their 40s there is a limit even for me and getting excited about that and i think tyson is just a different element in this conversation because like i don't care if you if you loved him or hated him if you lived it if you were there in the 80s when he was the biggest star in sports and one of the biggest cultural icons of the moment almost worldwide you have this soft spot in love i mean let's be honest he should be dead he's lived the

life of like 30 people in one and the fact that he's been able most recently to find some like legitimate uh emotional happiness first through marijuana and now uh as you can see on this AEW video last night he came out with Cejudo, Vitor Belfort, and Rashad Evans and uh I do a weekly MMA podcast with Rashad Evans on CBS Sports and Rashad's big in the psychedelic game from the idea of healing Mike Tyson's also gone through that as well and he's for the first time in a spot mentally and emotionally and Rashad and I had a great conversation about that this week where he actually

can train if you look at any Mike Tyson interview over the last decade he doesn't even like to talk about the crazy man he once was the fighter he hates that person it was like shame as Rashad put it for who he used to be he's finally coming to terms really through his

psychedelic medical drug use to being okay with that and to putting back on the gloves and being okay getting in great shape. Now, I don't know if this whole great in great shape thing is going to lead to a pro wrestling match with Chris Jericho. And if it does, hey, that's great. That's fun. That's fun stuff. But I have such an emotional connection, like a lot of us, to seeing Mike stay healthy in every category that, you know, I don't want him. I don't want him in bare knuckle against Vonderlei Silva, even though it's seemingly the perfect slop for me. I don't want him in a, hey, let's hug with Evander Holyfield and pretend to bite each other's ears. And oh, maybe we throw some real punches for one round. I want to see Mike make money, but I want to see him happy

it's hard not to really care about that guy luke when you've seen how hard he's taken falls yet continually come back from that um great that he's in shape great that he's happy but let's let's leave it there let's put a limit on that yeah i think that's a great point i mean if you watch that movie that came out in the aughts about him the first sort of psychological documentary that he was a part of and talking about his own mistakes and he still has not whatever one's view of the uh with the rape charge and the time he did it's still something he denies to this day but he has to me if you watch that documentary and even listen to those one-man shows which have a comedic element to it, you realize two things. One, he is consciously aware, in general,

of the trauma that he has caused to other people and himself. And he is consciously and he is fully internalized about the trauma he experienced bringing up and the actions he undertook to deal with it. And it weighed on him in a significant way. I mean, it twisted him to the point where it took him, what do you want to say, 20 years almost, 15 plus, to work his way through it

in the most sort of undulating, difficult, exhausting kind of path to where he's now in a place that is, as you indicated, significantly healthier. The worst thing that could happen to me is not so much that he gets knocked out and that would be brain trauma, although that by itself could be certainly at 53, not a great thing, but let's assume he gets off the canvas and he's more or less okay. Does

that trauma itself trigger some kind of reconsideration about all the things he has already processed himself through? Does it make him regret certain things? Does it just undo the progress in a way which he has already made? Certainly, we can all agree Mike Tyson is probably a better human and a citizen today than he was in 1990. And that's not by accident. He had to work to get there. And I just,

I don't know. I can't deny a man a paycheck if that's what he wants. But I can't pretend that this is something that I'm eager to see. I'm not. I'm just not eager to see it. Yeah, it's like someone saying, oh, you're the adult film guy. Well, here's one where the girl gets peed on. No, R. Kelly, get out. I don't want it.

I mean, don't speak for my preferences. Only speak for yours, okay? All right, by that, we move on to our fifth and final topic here, BC, which is the UFC. We had talked about fighter pay just a minute ago, talking about Kamaru Usman. Let's circle back to it. So John Jones made news this past week, a little bit before that too.

He live tweeted his exploratory negotiations, if you want to call that, with the UFC to fight Francis Ngannou. What he wanted was more money to go up to heavyweight. And the UFC told him basically under no uncertain terms, no. Like, I mean, we'll pay you more if under your existing deal you generate more. But we're not actually going to change the terms to give you more to take on something that is pretty easily, I think, a risky proposition for him one way or the other.

BC, why is the UFC reluctantc reluctant to pay john jones and by the way francis wants more too so why are they reluctant to pay them more and should they i think this is such a fascinating conversation about the the real decisions that get made in the war room so to speak with the ufc and obviously the answer to this is financials in a lot of ways but i think there's other elements that people might not be looking at that do connect with that. Now, just one point, Dana did speak on it finally a second time.

We know originally he told John Anik in that live stream, everybody wants it, but I don't see that happening. Well, he did tell Phil Murphy yesterday, don't believe everything you hear from fighters when they speak publicly. So there's probably some truth to that, that maybe John saying UFC told me anytime I'm ready to go to heavyweight, they'll rip up my contract and give me a new one. You know, maybe john's saying uh ufc told me anytime i'm ready to go

to heavyweight they'll rip up my contract and give me a new one you know maybe that's not fully true we don't really know but if some of that is true you certainly can uh sympathize with john you can sympathize with fans who who would go nuts for this fight you'd sympathize with the idea of like hey ufc like this is what you're all about you're all about people daring to be great and making super fights why the hell would you not do this so i think it's a little bit too easy to say just money even though money's a big part of it again there's no live gate for a while again uh maybe ufc doesn't want to pay john like super fight money for inganu and then you know if john wins what do you pay him for the next one do you have to double you know would you have to go up even more maybe there's some of that maybe

there's some of the belief through UFC's eyes that John is not as big of a draw as he thinks he is but I wonder Luke if it's more to do with the long-term vision of matchmaking per division now deal with me on this a second okay they've got something again here in Francis Nganou like we just talked about Mike Tyson he's the Mike of mma potentially he was the soaring rocket ship that got shot down only he didn't explode he's rebuilt himself great i love the idea of jones jones and gano most most of all because i don't care who you are how expert of a fan of a fan in terms of breaking down the technique you could be professor salt and pepper or you could be you know filthy casual bc and you don't know what that fight's going to look like but what if ufc thinks john's going to figure out a way to win that did we just damage a potential

rocket ship in nganu who may be the perfect guy to go up there against an aging steepay or an aging dc to to pass the torch interesting and if you did that, if you sacrificed Francis Ngannou's brand potential to John, what are you leaving that light heavyweight division? Yes, you have a potential future star in Dom Reyes, but right now you have no one marketable there who can consistently headline pay-per-views. I wonder if UFC is thinking this. John's been pretty, pretty close lately at 205 he's almost lost to mahetta almost lost to dom reyes if he stays there he's probably gonna lose eventually

soon that might be what they want luke they might want an official passing of the torch where they don't have to pay john a whole ton to fight a dom reyes and he may end up losing to them and then if john goes up to heavyweight, then it's still a big deal. We still need to see what it looks like. And you also leave someone behind at 205 who now has the rub of beating John Jones. And, you know, if you flip the switch and say, well, what if John doesn't ever lose again at 205? Well, at least you still have that headliner every single time who can be a, I mean, how,

how many people in the UFCfc right now are a side pay-per-view headliners not a ton luke so i wonder if it's more to do with ufc either saying we think john is closer to the end than we realize let's leave him at 205 or maybe we think john secretly could beat the crap out of in ghanu we don't want to do that then hey we don't want to pay john i think that's an interesting theory the The second of the two I take, both are, I think, a pretty decent ones, especially about the idea that what happens if he beats Francis? What do we do then? But here's the thing. It's like, if you can beat Francis right now, and Francis has beaten, look at all the contenders around him. I guess Derek Lewis would be the only one close to him that he's not beaten. But, you know,

Kane, Curtis Blades twice. I mean, you go down the list, JDS, he's just knocking them all out. So if you can beat Francis, it's hard for me to understand where you couldn't beat the rest of them. I'm not even playing MMA math per se. I'm just simply saying the riddle for Francis is certainly different than the other ones. But if you can solve that one, chances are you could probably solve a lot of the other ones too, especially with John's skill set. But here's my point. When they say, oh, they don't really want this fight. Don't believe what you read on social media. It's like, okay, call their bluff. Right? I mean, here's the whole way you know that they don't want to fight. Okay, we'll pay you more. Sure. No problem. Sign. Here's your bout agreement. And then if they get wishy-washy, well, then you know what the answer is. But the

fact is, again, oh, in a pandemic, we don't have a gate, we don't have money. But when you didn't have a pandemic, you were doing the same thing. Oh, well, they don't want to fight. Okay. Well, if you actually never make them the offer that they're asking for, at least something competitive, you always go into a job interview, BC, asking for more money than you actually expect to get. So you can negotiate a little bit higher than what you would ordinarily receive. If you can negotiate down to some kind of middle ground that's higher than normal, offer it to them and then see what they say.

And if they don't say yes, well then we know that this whole thing is a charade, but they never seem to call the bluff. They just keep saying, oh, it's all smoke and mirrors. And then John is doing extensive interviews with John Morgan over at MMA junkie about how he feels about this.

And I get that they've got strained relationships, which both sides certainly have the hand in creating. I think you could say, I'm just pointing out. They always want us to take the promoters idea about this at face value. And I'm saying, put your money where your mouth is you say they don't want it prove it yeah yeah prove it that's it that's a fair point but you know if they say

prove it and those fighters say yes that's not a championship ballot and they'd have to pay championship money so what about i always try to look at it what i think you're i think your theories are good but what about the idea that like mentioned, there's not a lot of headliners? Okay, UFC, to a degree, pretty strong degree, let's be honest, has taken out a lot of the volatility in their pay-per-view business, right? It used to be like,

we just don't know what we're going to do. 100,000 or more depends on the headliner now. It's not that way. However, Jones versus Ngannou, I mean, I can't guarantee that that sells a lot, but I have a feeling that would sell a lot better than virtually any other John Jones fight. You can make a two of five by a factor of two. And so if you can make money like that, which will then make up for a potential lost gate, why wouldn't you just do that? Fair question. Fair

question, Luke. All right. So last thing thing i'll go back to you one more time you think they make it or no no i i you heard i hear i heard enough in dana's voice that you know maybe for some of the reasons i laid out you don't want anything to do with that at the moment and it is it is by the way i'm not going to act like you know i'm going to pretend i'm some matchmaking a financials expert oh it's it's it's certainly disappointing because that's a it's a absolute slam dunk of a type of crossover fight that anyone would understand and need to see so it is a little sad because that seems to be what the ufc is all about yeah and lastly it's like what is the point of having all the fighters under one roof if we can't get them to fight it's like okay all right

whatever uh okay with that in mind, we're going out to where you, the viewer, gets to ask a question. We always put a post up on Instagram 24 hours before the show, and we took your questions. It is time now for DMs from dogs. Alright.

There we have it. BC, I will go to you first on this one the first question is from at this is potu um is there a more pointless argument in mma than who is the goat until charlie zelenoff crosses over from boxing there is no mma go what do you think oh charlie z the unbeaten uh yeah um no i i i am a here's the deal there's a lot of people and it mostly starts with fighters and i get it but there's a lot of people who say you know palm for palm rankings they're stupid greatest of all time rankings they're stupid because there's a goat today but somebody else is going to be the goat you know next year well the reason why this to me matters in in its

true currency is because like it's the only way you really can rank guys in a sport where everyone doesn't face each other there's weight classes there's a lot of different things so in a lot of ways this is the way to rank greatness it's also kind of fun you know so fighters may say oh that's what all you nerdy journalists do in your basement well yeah us nerdy journalists also have hours to fill on radio and podcast shows and stories so we do get into this stuff um it is interesting when somebody like conor mcgregor puts out like 15 straight tweets with like a detailed breakdown on who he believes is the goat now it can be i get the frustration with an mma because it's such a new sport so amanda nununes knocks out Cyborg and

she's the GOAT. So what happens if, you know, somebody else beats Amanda Nunes? Are they the GOAT? Well, no, but I don't think it has to be like a title that changes hands, you know, potentially every few months, but I do think it's important to sort of have a working hierarchy. We've said that, you know, you've heard it said before in any sport that Hall of Fames are great, but there's levels within Hall of Fames. And i've always outlined that there's levels at the goat table right you know i've always told you i think it's john jones gsp anderson silva demetrius johnson daniel cormier and fedor those are the people who are allowed in the upper room at the moment disagree with that all you want i think the floor below that are guys like jose aldo conor mcgregor you know bj

penn there's but there has to be levels to this at the end of the day. So no, I don't think a GOAT conversation is pointless. It fills time. It's fun. Step off, okay? If you're only into this game for the technique, then watch Morning Combat Dissected, all right? Yeah, which is a fine program,

but certainly will not get to larger and broader conversations. I would say I don't think that the GOAT conversation is pointless, in part because it's simply inevitable, right? People have a natural tendency to sort and rank. They want to know who is the best. It seems like an obvious question. It's a very simple question. It's just not one with an easy answer. And so it becomes a bit of a tedious debate. And I agree with you, all the names you mentioned, I would put them in that sort of upper tier. And then from there, you know, the problem is you can't standardize experiences, right? They're all not running the same obstacle course. They have to kind of do their own obstacle courses through the course

of their career. And then you're trying to say, well, which one matters more and what do you look for? What was interesting about Conor's BC was that if you notice, he didn't lay out a definition of greatness, but if you just read between the lines, to him, what constitutes greatness, by the way, again, borrowing from Floyd's playbook about taking some time off, come back, start declaring yourself TBE,

it's just like, I mean, 2A, T, he's copying Floyd, but the thing I would say is he doesn't care about the floor. He only cares about the ceiling. All the guys you mentioned, they all have losses, but they all have these incredibly long win streaks too. Consistency over time against what is believed to be high-level opposition. Conor doesn't necessarily have that.

He's got win streaks, of course. He doesn't have that many losses. But what he's got are these punctuated highs. And I'll say this, BC. I'll throw it back to you on this one. What if he... I know you might say this is totally impossible, but let's just say...

Let's say he wins the welterweight strap. So then he becomes featherweight champ, lightweight champ, first to hold two at the same time, and then the first UFC fighter to win across three different weight classes. And then let me spice it up a little bit even more. But then he can't beat Nurmagomedov in a rematch. So now what is he?

It makes the debate about what defines greatness very difficult because Conor does not have what St. Pierre and Jones and Johnson and Silva have. But he would have something that they never even got close to it's a complicated debate it is it's a great debate i love it and i love pump for pound even more by the way like that's the only way you're going to be able to sort of have a working idea of who's better than whom so eat it all you people out there yeah and uh yeah charlie z unbeaten keep it going what else we got here all right all right at the alright at the drunken swan BC that's the guy

first of all shout out to the drunken swan that's the guy who floods my DMs not with dongs but with good stuff shout out to that guy he's a supplier who gets more dongs in their DMs you or Laura Sanko I don't know if Trump loses in

November does Colby change his personality what do you think or Laura Sanko? I don't know. If Trump loses in November, does Colby change his personality? What do you think? Here's the problem. Jorge is pro-Trump. A lot of fighters are pro-Trump. Bryce Mitchell is pro-Trump, right? They lean to the right and they're pro-Trump.

But Colby is something different. Colby is a Trump mascot. And that changes the equation here a little bit. Well, Colby plays into the negative stereotypes. Like, I believe you can be pro-Trump but not be, like, pro-racism. Like, you know, there can be, like, distinctions within there. But, yes, Colby plays into the arrogance, every single element with that. No, I think he'll keep the gimmick.

I don't know. I feel like Colby's time, even though, like like he showed us a lot in that Usman fight, like who's to say he's going anywhere outside of leaving ATT, which he announced he officially is. I feel like that gimmick doesn't have much shelf life left. I feel like we saw him slowly evolve in the buildup to the, you know why the buildup to the Usman fight wasn't fun. Cause Colby wasn't Colby.

He was like taking it serious. He was in the gym. He was actually working out. I feel like we're going to see more of just Colby wasn't Colby. He was like taking it serious. He was in the gym. He was actually working out. I feel like we're going to see more of just Colby the fighter in the end. I don't think you can keep that going now that we all know it's fake. And it's not that we didn't know that, but now he's officially coming out in interviews and saying it's fake. It's sort of like once people realized pro wrestling wasn't real, right?

Like you can never go back to those days again. You know, like pro wrestling could still be fun. It could still have ebbs and flows there's still moments where i get hooked and i really enjoyed aew by the way last night with mike tyson and all the mma guys shout out to them but uh but once it wasn't real anymore it sort of lost a a you know a a certain part of that conversation that are never coming back i just saw a highlight on twitter and for some reason tyson lost his shirt i was like are you no he ripped it off it was it wasn't like innovative stuff it was cheesy and basic he took his shirt off there was pushing

pulling you know rashad and vitor there oh by the way if vitor belfort's going to be part of wrestling can you please bring back the 2013 mohawk and the 2013 Juice and just TRT yourself up? Maybe you already are, and I support that. Go do that in one, right? But come out there and be an animal. But yeah, it's fine. Look, it's fun. To AEW is the cool wrestling at the moment.

Luke, I know you don't care. WWE sucks the horn right now. So it was fun to see Tyson get the score right on who he should be participating with. Well, I'm a big Tony Khan fan. So anything he does, I wish success for. Okay. Yeah, don't you slide in the man's DMs? Yeah, on occasion. All right. At NatRaj1803BC, how do you see a prime Mike Tyson do against Wilder? How many seconds would Wilder last? You mean before absolutely decapitating him i don't know well look that that's a legitimate size difference right six foot seven with

really long arms and wilder against uh you know 511 tyson obviously 511 tyson beat up on a lot of tall guys and knows how to do it that's why inevitably tyson's going to knock him out because god, like I always say, Luke, from a cultural standpoint, unless you live the Mike Tyson experience in the eighties, you know, including the,

including the Barbara Walters interview, including everything that went with that. You don't know it. Well, if you didn't live it from the boxing part too, you don't realize that, you know, he was technique wise,

incredible speed defense pretty much everything incredible he wasn't a wild slugger like he kind of became post-jail yeah he's absolutely going to knock Deontay Wilder out but sir you know if you're going to take any raw person and that's Wilder and give them a puncher's chance good god it's him so that that is a dream fight of beyond dream fights did i tell you i spent um the last week of maybe an hour every night breaking down his uh from just for my own personal edification his peekaboo style uh tyson's how he closed distance i did not realize how much there was i mean i knew there was a lot to it but i didn't realize how much there was to it wow i was knew there was a lot to it, but I didn't realize how much there was to it. Wow. I was sort of blown away. He gets kind of known as being like, what did you want to watch him for? Oh, it was like watching a lion catch a gazelle and eat it, right? That was

sort of what the value was. And again, I'm not sitting here saying he was as good as Ali or something like that. I don't mean to suggest as much, or even Lennox or Holyfield for that matter. But I do think that there is a level of technical sophistication with what he was doing that doesn't get the proper credit. And when you really begin to see the tiny details on how the footwork plays into the side-to-side and then the weaving side-to-side and how he could switch stances, take an angle, go southpaw,

switch it up, make it look like he wasn't, just a lot to it i was kind of blown away by it it's very very impressive what he did for a guy whose entry path is almost the most dangerous way possible right square up and sort of come at you his speed is frightening and his defensive responsibility was incredible and you know this is where you give so much credit to customato like he legitimately took a a raw being in this early teenage 13 year old or whatever mike tyson who was like knocking out adults at that point because the power was so ferocious and brainwashed him into being an absolute destroyer who had the full knowledge

of boxing history right they had that collection that you know the jim jacobs fight collection they could you know that no one else had that eventually uh espn bought from them i mean his knowledge of technique in history i mean he was like the perfect specimen it's just obviously it's a shame that you know the don king influence and the robin givens influence eventually everyone that cared about mike dissipated and that's why his skills went with it but you know at his short absolute prime like give that killer the respect he deserves yeah when you watch him the and they and you see it executed you're right most like tony ferguson i showed and dissected when he would go square tony he got lit up by justin gaethje but the peekaboo style entry is predicated on being fully square biggest target possible in technical

terms in front of your opponent and he would just waltz right in. Amazing. All right. We go to at Taylor, excuse me, at Tylorian. Who has the best dad bod in the fight game, BC? Well, is that an oxymoron saying best dad bod? Because dad bods. Who's the best fighter with a dad bod?

Weird Ben Rothwell? He's got a pretty good dad bod. Yeah, it's not really a dad bod. That's like a grizzly dad bod. The answer is Daniel Cormier. I mean, he's thick with about four Cs at this point. But he's almost a special, unique individual. I respect guys like Rothwell who look sloppy. Not sloppy in a Roy Nelson way. That's almost a special, unique individual. I respect guys like Rothwell who look sloppy.

Not sloppy in a Roy Nelson way. That's almost gross, but who sort of look sloppy yet could absolutely dismember you in 10 different ways. I'd say shout-outs to Eric Spicely. Very good fighter. Not exactly like Eric. I don't think he's going to win any bodybuilding contest,

but very good fighter. He got a bit of an old dad body. He had a great fight against Daron Wynn. Who else? Anyone else there in that light heavy, sort of like welter-ish? Everyone is so cut down in weight. It's really only the heavyweights

or like 205 and up, and Spicey I think is a 185er. Yeah. All right. What about Jay? What about Jay the producer? He's staying pretty fit. When he's not spitting back at Uriah Hall

I guess he has to stay in the old... We need to get Uriah Hall on this and make Jay answer for his sins. Yeah, he really needs to talk about that. Alright, lastly, at JonahGriff underscore, what would Luke and Brian's call signs be if they were fighter jet pilots?

Top gun, baby. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think? I fancy myself a goose, right? I sort of fit that mold, right? Yeah, I guess so. I definitely see myself as Val Kilmer in that movie.

For sure. I would take you on the highway to the danger zone. Okay. I was bitter that the pandemic pushed back the uh the sequel i know i know it's the song i get it i just no sold it uh no that's jay putting up the 90s counter god okay uh they the sequel was supposed to be out with tom cruise is now a essentially what would be a marine corps uh colonel an 06 still fighting jet pilots or still being a jet pilot and you know totally absurd premise but okay neither here nor there uh do you have an idea what they would call you

um uh heavy bulge i don't know i you know whatever whatever whatever heavy bulge they would not call you heavy bulge okay they'd probably call you soup because of campbell's yeah that's probably true they probably yeah that's probably true yeah uh some of the dudes in the marines called me uh dino dino is it like dinosaur uh because i was because of your archaic views on life and women or what you You're the one with archaic views on women, motherfucker. Not me. You're the one who's like, BC literally believes in honor killings. That's a true thing.

No, just because I was large and lumbering. There you go. Okay, BC. Speaking of all the things you do that's crazy, it's time for your portion of the show, good sir. Take it away. All right. I've said this before, but I will say it again. This might be the best we've ever had we scour the globe for the good and bad the highs and lows and in between in combat sports

it's have you seen this shit luke i'm telling you i got gold today so get ready get ready right juice up three needles juice up all right here we go here we go luke um we always start with sending somebody to hell in traditional combat sports how about this brutal ko to the face oh my god luke oh god kickboxing come at me bro step through knee jesus right after the ref breaks them no just jabbed his way in popped them i don't have a name i don't have a promotion but what this looks russian to me have you have you seen those memes that's like, my plans, then 2020? Yes, yes. This is one of those. Once he's on the canvas, it's 2020.

All right. A lot of people really into this in my DMs. Fight Time Promotions 34 is the card. Luis Gomez is the man with the arm drag KO. Check this-ish out, Luke. Yeah. It's not an arm drag KO. Check this-ish out, Luke. Yeah! It's not an arm drag. Sorry, sorry, Judoka.

Please, break down the technique for us. This is a failed drop seianagi. He was supposed to go ass over tea kettle. He just took him face first. An arm drag, you'd be pulling to take a side, to take the back. That's a drop sayanagi he may have did a miyagi do karate but it worked look you knocked the dude out i mean come on he

certainly did it's the best failed it's the best failed drop sayanagi i've ever seen all right shout out to fight time promotions on that uh hey it's pandemic time so we get a lot of craziness here's a fight in a home depot parking lot don't get wet here this is a look at the what don't get caught watching the paint dry here luke this is great stuff right here there's old guy going after that you know bro they're fighting with they're fighting with raw materials bro i know look he's slapping some stockton slap he got that guy covered in paint i mean what's going on here it gets so real in the home dep Depot parking lot because there's dudes out there looking for work. You get to sit there and watch them make deals.

People are angling for a parking spot. They're trying to get the raw materials. They're backed up, bro. It is the real deal Holyfield out there in the parking lot. This is a pretty good fight, though. Shout out to, is that Jeff Goldblum? No, no, no, no. I think that's Jeff Wackenheim.

That is Jeff Wackenheim, yes. Wow. fight though shout out to uh is that jeff goldblum no no no no i think that's jeff wagenheim that is jeff wagenheim yes wow this may be outside the uh the the med dealer i'm sorry jeff wagenheim jeff wagenheim is fucking up these uh parking lot home depot workers it was a cannabis delivery day and they were out so uh our buddy wags going off wow is that Mike Chiappetta he just took out? All right, okay. Hey, let's roll on here. No, it's Marco Mondi. Remember we had Aboulea break up that wrestling match in Armenia a couple weeks ago?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Check out this backyard boxing. I don't know where this is, but check out the lady in the front row holding the baby. First of all, sick knockout by blue gloves. But check out this mama with the baby. Don't F with Aboulea. Wow, she came holding the baby. First of all, sick knockout by Blue Gloves. But check out this mama with the baby. Don't F with Abulea. She came over the rope. Don't F with Abulea.

Oh, my God, Luke. She's coming for that ass, Luke. Bro, she should have been the one that gloved up with the guy. She's in that ass. Look at her. Dude, she literally said, hold my baby, and then she jumped over the top. While it's body shot over the top, and then another left hook.

That's a nice combo right there. Do you think she's the mother of red gloves, the lover of red gloves, the grandma? What are we doing here? I mean, spicy Latin women, this is your territory. She'd be the abuela, which means the grandmother. And for sure, she's the, yeah. Look at her, dude. She's like, doesn't give a fuck about her hairstyle anymore, but she still will put hands on you she like doesn't care anymore bro that's that's you love look

luke you this is spicy woman 101 for you this is great you love that is what i live my life for bc i live my life for uh latin women by the way i only show you respect the fact that your first date with your wife was at a shooting range like the cannibal corpse stuff is weird but like that's on brand for you guys you know i'm shout out to your to your uh your your love story there hey let's we did a grandma let's go to a nice thing to pick up uh yeah indeed check out this grandpa fail here look every old guy wants to be cool and join the party and grab the funnel but this what the hell that's not how you do it luke that is not how Is this one of those porn videos you were talking about where they were peeing on each other? What is this one?

I know this guy's trying to relive his glory days at Marquette in the early 70s, right? When he played quarters with his friends. I mean, come on, guy. Dude, what is he drinking? There's nothing left. He just wore the shit. No, come on.

Look at Grandpa. Stay away from that. Luke, this drink i like i like look look when he takes it out he takes it out like all triumphantly watch this i watch this right here we go ready takes it out he goes look at this crushed it well to be to be fair he drank it with his eyeballs and his nose uh so luke pause the video here jay this guy can't drink but i'm about to show you somebody who can luke i don't know how i came into contact with this fella his real name is tom dowd he goes by at ronnie deutsch on instagram this man where i come from we would call him a

diesel man he can handle his stuff are you ready to meet ronnie doish you ready for this ready as i'm gonna be all right here we go these are three 22 ounce stella artois funneled together with a makeshift poland spring top tell me if you give any respect to what this man's about to do here luke let's see how he does no i don't know this i don't know this guy personally i can't vouch for him but this is heroic this guy is the asa akira of beers he's the john jones well actually that might be too true but yeah yeah yeah he's the sada hada o of slamming beers luke i have to admit that's pretty impressive he's the peter north right no no no he was the that would be the person that on the receiving end of peter north he's the lyle and eric menendez

all right um let's go on to his next trick uh the last dance concluded and we broke all that down here's this guy tom dowd celebrating the last dance that's's the London keys of beer. Yes. In his Jordan throwback, Luke, this is six pints. Six pints of, I believe, Miller Lite. Does that look Miller Lite-ish to you? It looks that way. Wow. I mean, are you giving this respect?

I mean, are you going to put some respect on this man's name? Wow. Wow. He took a bit of a pause there between three and four. Luke, you remember that old guy they had on the man show, the Ziggy Zoggy guy? Yeah. I think this guy, Ronnie Joyce, could take him. I sincerely do.

I know that guy died shortly after, so good luck. Good luck, Ronnie. But wow, Luke. He's impressive. He's impressive. He's impressive. Yeah, he's going to the fast food right now. If that didn't impress you, Luke, then tell me if this does. This is 72 ounces of beer inside of one giant glass.

Can we roll the next one, Jay? He's like Little John. How long do you think it would take this guy to drink that how about 11 seconds luke i'm telling you your organs would shut down right what is this man made of so he's like the joey chestnut slash takeru kobayashi of beer is that the idea yes yes he is yes he is that is incredible i got one more for you. Tell me if you're impressed. You got to be a special individual to pull this one off, Luke. I bet his piss stinks.

I'd like to see his driving record. You got to be about 6'5", Luke, and be able to pull this off. I like basketball, and I like drinking. This is very impressive right here. Chug a beer. He's got his Daniel Cormier gear on. Yep, yep. I tell you, this could win the dunk contest right this is way better than spud web that's pretty cool i like that chugging a beer between the bounces all right i'll give him respect that's good as long as he has an uber driver i'm down with this guy all right let's speaking of bad driving luke uh it's boat season coming up right now uh check check out how this one ends luke you any you hang out in any lakes

in the greater dc area over the summer no fuck no all right well you could hire this guy to drive you and and uh and your family around he's he's coming on shore to park it luke is that the dude with no neck from 90 day fiance big head you know i'm talking about that dude who flew all the way to thailand then made some lady take an std test yeah i think he drove the boat there and this is this is what he did again again here's him driving the boat my plans and then when he wrecks it 2020 2020 well one more of those let's check out this asian moped driver luke this is this ain't gonna end good either this is why you don't drink and drive luke call uber look at this oh god the only thing missing from this clip is the fact that the

driver's not elderly luke i'm trying to figure out who is the the reigning champion of have you seen this shit right now it's that guy ronnie deutsch the bear drinker but i'm gonna bring this asian fella back into your life are you impressed with this trick i know this guy's the guy who yanks stuff off of his tiny genitals yeah i heard he pitched for the yankees oh sorry that guy's coming up next check out this two cousins the younger one challenged the older one to a dual football style he put on the pads luke i think this is how Aaron Bird died. Check this out. Dude, you got two refrigerator parries.

Oh my god! You got jacked up! You got jacked up! Oh, he got lifted out of his feet! Wow! Oh, that was... The other one just had a nice running know he just had a nice running start

man that was great you know what junior you know what junior you learned a valuable lesson today luke you and i would not be a good match for this i'm a i'm a very uh uh skinny fella well i'm skinny and fat at the same time but what if we got ronnie deutsch the six foot five drinking legend and lined him up like this against you, full dual style? See, here's the thing. He'd probably win, right? Because the key to this is,

look who gets the running start first. He had that momentum built. I think that guy would be quicker than me. So he'd probably just win. Yeah, you got to get low, too. I don't think you can bend over anymore. No, I can't. I'm old and frail.

I'm 40. Hey, let's go to the Asian guy. Let's check out this week's trick. I'm down with this luke i think this is one of the rare ones he does that i can pull off this is me in the morning trying to you know go to the bathroom all right let's go on to the next one uh check out the balls on this detlef schrempf look like you remember that guy right great casers sonics forward look at the balls on this Detlef Schrempf lookalike. You remember that guy, right? Yeah, of course. Great pacer, Sonics forward. Look at the balls on him to wear this, Luke. What is it?

Is this art? Are we art? Is art art, Luke? What is this? Dude, what bet did he lose that this ended up being his life? Yeah. Wow. Great Euro mullet, though.

Shout out to that. Indeed. Luke, we're going to close with this. Don't play. Yeah, Rocky Mountain. I, though. Shout out to that, indeed. Luke, we're going to close with this. Don't play. Yeah, Rocky Mountain, I like that. Shout out to that. I want to close with this. Look, there are people that are saying, Luke,

you're a big COVID-19 head, that we may never shake hands again. We're certainly not doing tip-to-tip again, Luke. We're going to have to find some old tradition. We've never done tip-to-tip, Brian. I am. Just go ahead. I can't even deal with even do i don't get down like that i don't don't put stuff on me i don't get down like that um my wife and i entertain people in our backyard over the weekend for memorial day and when they came over we had to awkwardly like what do we do bash brothers do we do fist bumps

do we do like elbow fives? Check out these Indian boys. They may have the newest thing during COVID Luke to, to greet people. That right there is innovation. Look, Jack, can you zoom in there? Check.

This is the dumbest show on the internet i don't know if there was a transaction money or fluids right there luke but that is oh wow yeah what do you even call it what do you call this uh i don't know i don't know wow that is uh i would do that with you luke i would do that with you all right the old the old trouser shake i mean the the trouser greeting i mean the trouser something i don't know that's it that's it no more shit i've seen it that's it thank you let's move on let's move on i'm like floored by this i don't even... That has to be the official greeting of Morning Combat. I think it has to be. BC, if we ever do like a meet and greet

or we do like a live show somewhere, everyone who wants to shake hands with us has to do it through an open fly like that. Just like that. Look at you embracing that. I thought you were going to quit the show after that picture. This is great. Quit the show?

Dude, this is my life now. I have fully leaned into the fact that I'm also going to be associated with your love of by the way jay what was the handle what was the handle on that instagram account where that picture came from jay did you see that what was that jay is that uh at wholesome boys of india i do not follow that one okay dude who the fuck are you jeffrey epstein fucking brian epstein over here look here's who i stand for on on instagram uh cte society hoagie farts hoagie farts, nut shots. Ronnie Deutsch now. Ronnie Deutsch. Ronnie Deutsch.

Okay, very good. All right, well, amazing. If you want to hit Brian up, you can do that. We'll put the Instagram thing up later. All right, BC, time now for our odds and ends. Good sir, what do you have for odds and ends? Yeah, I got two of them. One I think is interesting. We all lived the last dance with Jordan,

and ESPN did a great job of that over five weeks. They have filled that spot on Sunday nights with the new two-part Lance Armstrong documentary. Now, full disclosure, I never really cared about Lance Armstrong either way, but I was interested in learning a lot. I have only watched the first one. The second one's going to air Sunday. You have seen them both, correct? Correct.

I saw them both, yep. First of all, it's really good. And second of all, I don't think you can go forward without taking the first biggest takeaway from this show lance armstrong's an a-hole like he's an absolute d-bag he has advertised i think his personality sucks the way he was raised sucks i think a lot about lance armstrong uh yeah it sucks okay so i'm gonna put that out there i'm gonna just gonna put that foundation I don't think I could spend five minutes with the guy but seeing the exact details of what he went through right winning the world championships in 93 and then two years later essentially being an also ran because the sport went in such a direction of PEDs. And the foundation that they laid that this is already an insanely dangerous sport

in ways the average person doesn't realize, right? For what it does to your body physically, for how easy it is to crash, all that. The only way to compete at a certain point, Luke, was to do that, was to dope, EPO, whatever. Stick things everywhere um it's a little bit different than the combat sports debate in caught in in PEDs when you're hitting another person in the face although even within that debate and you've had many PED combat sports debates you could say well look if the other guy's doing it is it dangerous that I don't do it too but let's put that aside that's a separate topic you know some people look at the 90s with mcguire and sosa and get just angry because it you know

blew up the the sacred record books of their previous heroes even though all their previous heroes were you know swallowing amphetamines and you know staying up all night with mickey mantel and you know hot dog in a in a hando with bay br all that. I actually don't blame Lance Armstrong for what he did. The guy beat cancer. The guy came back and won a million Tour de Frances in a row. Wait till you see part two. You might have a bit of a different view on that. I will reserve judgment on that, Luke.

But as things stand right now, is he a dirt hole of a human? Probably. No, no, actually I'll say it. Yes, he is. But I don't damn him and blame him for playing the game that everybody else was and just being better and while people wanted to look back at everything good he ever did for cancer and crush it because he was a liar and he was he was an absolute liar um he did do a lot of good there so you know what at the end of the day he's kind of like that guy ronnie deutsch you know i'm not gonna stand for that guy i'm not gonna i'm not gonna tell

your you know your sister to date him but i respect that guy you know he did his thing so as things stand right now i think a lot of us if we were in lance's spot we probably would have done the same thing. Lance is the embodiment of infinite contradiction. You'll see this in the second episode. It really brings into contrast all the good that he did, and then all the bad. Because here's the point.

If you didn't see part one, what they basically said was, if you looked at the Tour de France numbers between the first place runner, racer, biker, whatever the name is, and then the last place, it's about two hours, okay? Which over the course of the race in terms of its totality is about 2%. If you took EPO and all the leading teams out of Europe were taking EPO, it made a 10% difference in your ability to race. So here's the reality. It's a pass-fail test. Either you take EPO and you can compete, you're at least in the game, or you don't and you have no choice. To me, and I've said this before

for other reasons, everyone's all high and mighty about PED use in MMA, and there's absolutely no indication at all. there's zero evidence that MMA is at all safer now as a consequence or UFC is safer as a consequence if you saw his introduction I think most of those arguments are total trash people watch Bellator and one and regional MMA without the slightest degree of concern for safety relative to the same concerns they apply to UFC and so to me the the whole argument is totally hypocritical. But keeping it to just Lance, like, dude, that was the game. I mean, if you didn't want to play, then you don't race.

Like, that's just what it is. And there were guys who said in the Peloton, which is the group that races together, they didn't want to take it. And then the race team would be like, okay, well, you're the guy who supports the front guy. You're the guy in the back. That's what you are. So I don't blame that.

The thing where it gets a little dicey, and not even dicey, where it just gets outright bad, you'll hear about all the things he did for cancer that are more than just raise money, more than just raise awareness. Like there's real specific things he did that save people's lives,

and that should count. On the other hand, you can't dope and keep it a secret. You're going to try to, but when you try to, in the way that Lance did, you're going to ruin other people's lives. And he went after people. He sued them into bankruptcy. He destroyed reputations.

Oh, so you're saying that after episode two, I will change my tune completely. And again, I'm going to tell you, I'm not that well versed on the Lance story. You won't change your tune. It will make you feel, I came away feeling more conflicted than ever. Because here's what you can't figure out. Is he a good person who trended into bad? Or is he a bad person who did good?

And the answer is, I'm not sure I can tell the difference anymore. That's philosophical. I don't know what the difference is. It's true. It's like, how do you tell the difference when it gets that narrow? He didn't... You'll see cancer survivors

that credit truly very specific things that Lance did to save their lives that the medical professionals around them did not do. And you're like, dude, these people are grateful to him, man. And then on the other hand, you'll hear about people he tried to sue into oblivion. And they can only talk about him in the most demonic terms possible. He's both.

He's both. I think a lot of people had that reaction. I don't give a flying fuck about the doping. Wow. Wow, Luke. I think a lot of people had that reaction following your Twitter feed during COVID. It's like, you know, I know he's doing good, but he's scaring the crap out of me, you know? He's angering me.

He's irritating me, you know? Here is the reality about the majority of some of the more controversial views that I hold. I certainly would not say that I'm ahead of the curve because I don't think that's true because even I either amend or change opinions over time. As adults, we sort of all do, right? You get new evidence.

You have to kind of figure things out. But it has been a consistent and pervasive theme in my life. Two different things I've noticed. One, over time, people find that they agree with my ideas more and more. So there's initial resistance up front, which they come to later. And that's the same thing with my personality. My wife hated my guts the first time she met me. Oh, she met you with a gun.

She had a gun in her hand the first time she met you. No, no, no. But the first time I met her, I mean, that was our first date. That wasn't the first time she met me and you know oh she met you with a gun she had a gun in her hand no no no no but the first time i met her i mean that was our first date that was the first time i met her uh she hated my guts i had to woo this person over time and so it just becomes a pervasive theme i i don't know what the future holds for the world of anti-doping i tend to think what's probably going to happen is they're going to try and criminalize it uh certain countries already are and i think probably only after you're starting to throw people in jail will they realize how fucking insane this all is but you know i don't i can't i can't say with any certainty that that's true now you mentioned any i love any sorry real quick i love any documentary that does it right and they leave

the they make it gray they leave you know and i and after one episode it's gray i don't really know who you know what i should really think about it's gray i don't really know who you know what i should really think about lance i'm torn so shout out to them can't wait for episode two and then the other part is you see the other guys who doped in that generation because hello they were competing with the guys who were doping right and some of their countries would turn on them and some of their countries would embrace them and there'd be no real rhyme or reason for who got turned into what now lance's case is different but let's say there was they talked about like certain german or italian writers where they'd be two german writers they did the exact

same thing same accomplishments same transgressions one would be a scapegoat and one would be a hero and there'd be no difference between them other than how the public and the media treated them and you just begin to realize like so much of this is just media hysteria and arbitrariness. Lance deserve what he got. I think, I think it's pretty fair thing to say, but it just brings into larger question about how we treat these topics and how difficult they are to grapple with. Now you mentioned COVID. Here's the one thing I'll say. I, and again,

I'm going to say this in my defense BC. So, uh, the UFC got approved to do shows in Nevada, which is great. It's a great development. They're going to be at the Apex. I don't know how long they're going to be at the Apex, but for however long they got the green light, my hunch is they're going to be there, right? Because it's just a great opportunity to leverage this infrastructure

that they've built. Thumbs up. But the way they're going to do it is by virtue of what the Nevada Commission passed, which is in Florida, what happened was Florida just said, come on down. And the UFC made a pledge to stick to that 20-page document, which I read through that the New York Times had reported on. But you'll note in the waivers that they made everybody sign, including media, they said, we don't have to do any of this.

And if you get COVID, not our responsibility. They went ahead and did it, but they did not have any obligation to do it. This is different. Nevada is drafting the rules. Now they may cohere with the UFC's plans, BC, but now the UFC has to agree to what the Nevada commission wants. And you read through their plan. I'm not saying it's perfect. I suspect that will be amended over time too, but it's materially different. Test results for antibodies or the swabs, either nasal or back of the throat. I think they're going back of the throat now. They have to be reported

for their antibody tests or any kind of oral fluid. They have to be FDA approved. I don't know if you paid attention to this, but at first the FDA didn't regulate the antibody test market, so you could get all kinds of false positives, which they got in Florida with Dan Ige and Claudia Gedalia, which they reported to Sirius XM. And so here's my point.

Go back to March and early April. What was I asking for from UFC? I had made explicit, you can dig it up on the show. I had made explicit that what I was waiting for was for, I had made the argument, we don't know what safe is because no leading commission, Nevada, California, Nevada, has come up with protocol. Well, now we have it and it looks like this. Was that so hard? I mean, I'm not saying that Florida was necessarily a mistake in many ways. Maybe you could even make the argument that getting that first push is what enabled Nevada to be at the space that they're in. And I'd even entertain that to a degree.

But I don't think waiting for Nevada to put out their list and making a promoter adhere to it is some kind of crime. It's some kind of like crazy request. This is what I was waiting for. We have it. Is this the finish line? Who knows what the finish line even looks like, BC. But this is that turning point that I was waiting for. And I'm glad see it the sport's better off for it and now it's off to the races

because any promoter who can copy that you're free to resume shows including top rank in june yeah it looks like top rank is going to do like a tuesday thursday night thing maybe that's playing nice with espn for ufc going on saturday night but I'm down with it. Luke, I'm hoping that this change leads to more boxing and MMA promoters saying, look, if we don't have a big-time fight on Saturday night that's going to compete against college football, it's going to compete against the other combat sport of the moment, whether it's UFC or boxing. Can we please put it on a Tuesday night, a Wednesday night,

a Sunday night, a Thursday night, whatever? I've always been that guy. I've always been that guy when they had fights on Wednesdays. They always like, oh, we don't want to do it. We don't get the best ratings. But to me, to break up your week with a fight night is like one of the best things that there is. Let me ask you about this. Top rank only doing like, what, four or five fights on a card total.

What do you make of this? Well, I mean, it makes sense because you can't do walkout bouts where there's no crowd, right? Or curtain jerker bouts so uh you know yeah the people that are going to lose in boxing right now of course are the smaller promoters the the fighters who who you know aren't tv guys for sure but that's all you can do at the moment so it makes a lot of sense you're not going to see great top rank fights and you know to start off uh look i think boxing promoters are are in a much worse spot than the big mma ones who are more reliant on tv deals and and it's going to be

interesting luke but hopefully by february 1st 2021 we can get people back into arenas and uh yeah all right hopefully yeah by that point maybe maybe in taipei and seoul that's about it hopefully you will swallow your doubt turn it inside out luke and find faith in nothing as you always do uh luke also on odds and eds i wanted to hit this up um you know we i love weird fights gas station fights gas station food anderson silva has started it up again banging that drum for the one fight in mma that i want more than other no it's not jones and ganu it's anderson silva versus conor mcgregor and while you and i were preparing for this show news got out and connor tweeted i accept now who knows if it's actually going to happen but remember when we

talked about conor mcgregor kind of needs a stay busy fight that would keep him ready for the winner of habib justin gaethje if you believe that ufc's business plans really point in that direction i this came up a couple years ago when both showed interest i'm gonna bring it back up again even with anderson silver at 45 luke this fight bangs andy wanted a catch weight of 176 connor just said on twitter I'll fight you at 185. Why wouldn't you do this? Luke, just like Jones and Ganu, just like Conor McGregor versus Oscar De La Hoya in boxing, you don't know what this is going to look like. You really don't.

Why wouldn't you do this thing? Because I am not a weirdo. I hate this fight. I hope they never make it. They probably won't. It's sad. i don't have any interest in it and why is it sad i'd rather creative i'd rather dip my balls in a ninja blender than watch five seconds of that fight so first of all you couldn't last 10 minutes in my

uh vasectomy exam room all right first probably three needles right three needles second of all luke um what the two you know two of the biggest brands of all time it would sell and it's this is oscar de la joya fighting manny pacquiao this is what that is it's like wow what would that look like right and this is how you make this is so not oscar de la joya fighting manny pacquiao this is not all right then what would it look okay okay smart guy then what would it look like this is like loma chanko fighting kermit centron or something i mean this is i have you know we're talking we're talking a silva who is much bigger we all know and so far past it i'm not telling again so same thing with mike tyson i can't tell you it wouldn't do well. It would probably do great. Okay, so are you insinuating here that Andy picks him up? Conor has a limited amount of fights before he either stops

or then goes to do crazy shit. Can we keep him on the straight and narrow for crying out loud and get these fights that matter first, and then we can talk about the fuckery later? That's fair. Okay, that point is fair. But really, revisit it right now. Are you insinuating that Andy's too old for this

and he would get his ass kicked? Is that what you're insinuating? I'm saying he's too old to make it as interesting as he otherwise could. Whether he gets his ass kicked or not, I don't know. He's got a good chin for the most part. He'd have reach. Probably has a better gas tank.

You know, took a round from Ades you know you're talking yourself into it no i'm just like it's like oh he wouldn't die in 30 seconds oh let's make a fight that's that's your threshold like again he would have an inherent advantage luke jones and in ghanu is interesting for precisely the reason that Connor and Silva is not. Connor is still in his prime and appears to be rejuvenated and interesting. Silva's only advantage is that while he is so far past it, he's still got a relative size and reach advantage. That's

not especially interesting to me. What's interesting to me is when both guys are in the relative, and we don't know about Jones, but again, relative peak of their powers. Not, oh, the reason why we can bring in Silva here is because he is so far past it that the size advantage makes up for that in some kind of way.

That's why it works. If he was in his peak of his powers, you couldn't make this fight. Conor would have got killed. Right, well, to me, watching a guy who's got a foot out the door Fight against a guy who's much smaller Who doesn't

I mean I'm not saying there's no permutation where that works It doesn't work for me in this one I could not care less Luke have fun in your life I do have fun I have plenty of fun Starling vs. Sanhagen Well you know take your pants off Fucking

Get in the pool and do the beer funnel and throw it in your face like the old guy did. I'm down. Go fight in a Home Depot parking lot with Jeff Wagenheim. I'm down for that, just not for Conor versus Silva. Find that child in you from old Marietta, that one that believed in life, possibility, enjoyment, fun, entertainment, right?

Find that guy. Find that kid in Qatar, okay? In Doha. Yes, I certainly will. All right. Let's do this. Let's remind everybody you can follow us in a bunch of different places. Let's put the graphic up.

I think there's one for Instagram. There's one for Twitter for me and BC there. And then in the middle, Morning Combat on Instagram is where we put the, all the assets up for a post-show stuff, but then pre-show 24 hours for the show, we put a post up where you can put all your questions and that's what makes the show. And then morning combat donks, thumbs up on the video, subscribe to the channel, share it around. I always appreciate that when you do. And then we have to mention one more time. Of course, if you'd like to try Showtime, who makes this show possible, I don't know why you wouldn't, you can go get a free trial,

Showtime.com right now, 30 days. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can skip it in BC. We should tell folks, Showtime Extreme, tonight at 10 p.m. East Coast time, Morning Combat Strike Force Classics. It rolls on, baby. Stop, Luke. Hammer time. East Coast time. Morning Combat Strike Force Classics. It rolls on, baby. Stop, Luke.

Hammer time. Yeah, yeah. Okay. With that in mind, if you want more of Brian's work, you can get it at CBS Sports. I'm Luke Thomas, and until we see each other on Monday, may all of your gains be loyal.