MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 | Dern vs. Rodriguez | Ngannou vs. Gane | EP 213

Episode Date: October 8, 2021

On Episode 213 of MK, the guys preview Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder. Which fighter has the edge heading into Saturday's rubber match? They also preview UFC Fight Night: Dern vs. Rodriguez and react to the news that Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane is in the works for UFC 270. Next up the guys discuss some of the news coming out of Bellator, Was vacating the belt the right move for Pitbull? Should all main event fights have already been five rounds? Finally they close out the main topics with some quick hitters. (7:40) - Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder (41:45) - UFC Fight Night: Dern vs. Rodriguez (54:00) - Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane (58:00) - Bellator News Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's the spirit we bring to this show I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell This is Morning Combat Oh, there he is Oh, yeah oh there he is oh yeah friday october 8th 2021 we back trust me we back it is morning combat the best damn combat sports talk show in these united states and beyond, period. You best damn believe that. My name is the BBC with that. BDE, the American alpha himself, Brian Campbell.

Word to your moms, I came to drop bombs. I got more rhymes than the Bible got psalms. And my co-host is sitting next to me. Many people, you know, would question whether he actually is younger than me, given the color of his hair but he is and he's the best damn fight analyst in the game today, 42 year old Luke Thomas

I don't know about some of those things were true some of them weren't but nevertheless pumped to be here BC for a Friday edition we got a lot of fights this weekend and I is ready it is Wilder Fury three fight weeks For our Friday edition, we got a lot of fights this weekend, and I is ready.

It is Wilder Fury 3 fight week, so you best believe we'll have a big-time preview, predictions, a little sprinkling in of the sound of Mike Hetchup with Deontay Wilder from yesterday, so check that out on YouTube.com slash Morning Combat for all of your extras for what we do here. If you're new here to the MK Experience, it is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, this time 11 a.m. Eastern, live, breaking down all things boxing, MMA, and beyond in the combat game. Follow us, like the video, and subscribe. Guys, I don't need to tell you about the road to 100k because you're the ones paving that shit for us. We passed the 99,000 mark. Luke, what do we do at 1-0-0? What should we do? Should we light some Ben Franklin's. Luke, what do we do at 1-0-0? What should we do?

Should we light some Ben Franklin's on fire? What do we do? We need to do something. I'm not sure what the answer is. I'll say this. In many ways, it's just an arbitrary number. It doesn't really signify anything other than what YouTube says it signifies. But it'll be a nice chance to celebrate the journey to get there,

take a break, you know and kick our feet up for like a day and then it's back to the grind to hit 200k so there we grind is is where i'm from it's where i belong believe that shit also look you want to wear our merch you want to hold up these fine mugs you want to do a lot of good stuff for our business it's morningcombat.store and i got a little bit of a deal for you if you purchase something right now during this show and use our special code live 10 10 off everything on the store you want factory town MMA fanny packs you want uh donk core bomber jackets what do you want we got that shit and Luke I don't know if you heard our merch man RJ Dunkelmaker before show, but the drug rugs are in route, brother.

Okay? As RJ would say, bong basement friendly drug rugs on the way. Yeah, I don't know how many of them we're going to sell. I don't know how many of them we're going to sell, no matter how many we get in inventory. But I feel confident, Brian, in saying this. I think you'd probably agree fairly niche niche marketing well so if you are a drug let me just say this if you are a drug rug person if the mk drug rug is what gets you going by all means i don't mean to dissuade you in fact

quite the opposite go ahead and get your holiday shopping done there won't be many of them oh wow well let's just say we we've created a hawaiian shirt with my face on it and they sold out within like two hours luke so uh you know i don't know but like that was like half the price i think these will be a little bit more expensive all right don't you also they look they look once again luke get excited about something we're going to do but oh by the way there's going to be part of it that you don't like that's the luke thomas tradition right there all right i promise on such a loaded weekend, I won't go too deep here. We're going to get into the topics, but I do want to tell you about an excellent consummation that has happened between all things MK and DK.

Yes, DraftKings, they got our back right now, and they've got a great deal out there for first-time subscribers. Here's what we want you to do. DraftKings, if you don't know, the official betting sponsor of the NFL, the UFC, so many great places there. Download their DraftKings Sportsbook app today. And this weekend, Wilder Fury 3. I know you want to be putting a little bit of that powder on top,

sprinkle a little action on top of your action. Luke, what can the people do with this special code, CombatWithAK? What do they get, bro? Well, here's how it goes. If you put in $1 into... If you bet $1, I think, on what's it? The upcoming Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder fight. Use the code COMBAT.

If you do, if either fighter lands a punch, they're going to give you $100. $100 for free to bet however you want i i can't possibly imagine what would be a more simple straightforward and frankly rewarding deal yeah well so why don't you take the plunge if it is legal in your state if not by the way please stay with draft kings plenty of daily fantasy contests and your chance to enter to win one million dollars uh it's going to be a fun relationship, so let's keep continuing this. And look, sports betting,

it's no longer passe, Luke, okay? We can do this openly. Let's do it. Let's have fun with it. How about some free money to put on top as you watch the big fight this weekend? Luke, that's all the business I got on this end. You got anything else? No, I'm ready to get going.

Yeah, let's supercharge it. First topic of the weekend, your boy BC at the controls. And you know I'm fired up for this. Saturday night, Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena for the third. And both fighters say final time. We get a somewhat historic and certainly exciting heavyweight title trilogy bout as WBC and lineal unbeaten champion Tyson Fury looks for his first heavyweight title defense yes almost McGregor like in that aspect when he welcomes back Deontay Wilder Luke

it's been 20 months since Fury's seventh round TKO back before the pandemic boy have we set the storylines this week boy have we uh talked about just about everything except for what this fight is going to look like. You know I've gone on record and said, I think this third one will be the most action-packed, the most fun, the most violent. And we're going to see which man is the last man standing. Our friends at DraftKings at the moment have it like this. Plus 235 for Deontay Wilder.

Minus 295 for your favorite Tyson Fury. I want to start with this, Luke, as we break the matchup down. Would you say Deontay Wilder has anything more than a puncher's chance with all things conspiracy theories and mental makeup and all that entering this third fight? No, no. He's got a hell of a puncher's chance. He's got about as good, like obviously a puncher's chance about he's got about as good like obviously a puncher's

chance can mean it's supposed to mean one thing like well if they kind of get lucky and land the shot that's sort of true except the margin for what would define lucky in this case doesn't need to be as wide as it might be for other fighters even a not only totally glancing blow but we're talking about a historically powerful puncher in Deontay Wilder. I don't think he's like pound for pound where everything he threw, like Julian Jackson. I don't think he's quite like that, although obviously he's a heavyweight and Julian Jackson was not. But you get the idea. Everything he threw was heavy.

Everything Ernie Shavers threw was heavy. Not everything Deontay Wilder throws is heavy, but that straight right, that overhand right, it's dynamite. If he lands it, it's over for you. So in that sense, he's got, what do you want to call it? An elevated, excuse me, puncher's chance. But BC, you and I have been talking about this. You spoke to the man yesterday. You got a greater sense of this than anybody. Dude, we just need to call it like it is at this point. You cannot disrespect Deontay Wilder's power. You cannot disrespect what I think is a limited but intense focus. But he has not reconciled with why the second

fight went the way it did at all. Whatsoever, nothing. He has not confronted why that fight went the actual way that it did forget about Mark Breland chucking in the towel in the seventh what about the first six rounds before that he has not really given the proper consideration to why that has happened which means he is absolutely setting himself up for the same kind of thing to happen this time I will say in his defense BC and I wonder if you got a sense of this talking to him, he hasn't engaged with the reality of the second fight. He is in complete denial, and frankly, I think he's a little bit,

he's, every fighter I've ever met is sensitive. He's sensitive to an extraordinary degree. Yeah, this is, sometimes fans hate when we play, you know, armchair psychologists, but this is a big deal on when we play, you know, armchair psychologists, but this is a big deal on how this fight's going to play out, and it's also heavily intriguing. Why? Because Wilder has blamed seemingly everyone but himself. He fired the assistant trainer.

And then, Luke, I mean, let's be real. He threw a conspiracy-level outbreak of accusations. If he had just stuck, I mean, Fury said to himself at Wednesday's press conference, if you had stuck with one accusation and actually went down the road of like, you know, calling an investigation or whatever, like, we would believe you, but when you get to the level of 50 of them,

it can change what you think about where the man's at right here coming in. And Luke, I mean, look, it wasn't just loaded gloves, it wasn't just Tyson Fury's gloves slipping off a little so it was more fist on the wrist, which, by the way, you look at the tape, I mean, look, it wasn't just loaded gloves. It wasn't just Tyson Fury's gloves slipping off a little. So it was more fist on the wrist, which, by the way, you look at the tape. I mean, there's maybe some kernels of the beginning of truth to this. But Wilder took it so far further by blaming the referee, saying his trainers, what did they say? They poisoned him before the fight, blaming it on the 40 pound suit.

I mean, just going to crazy levels. So Luke, this conversation is always going to be hedged by this idea, which is the truth. Wilder punches so hard that none of this bullshit might end up mattering at the end of the day. Seriously, that's why it's never mattered that he's a horrifically raw boxer

who came to this sport at like age 19 to his credit, went all the way with a bronze medal in the Olympics which is really a remarkable story and has ridden that power and that toughness and that stamina and that athleticism despite a pronounced lack of technique or or even to some degree game planning where he's been able to take that big eraser and cover up for everything. Obviously, he's now found this unicorn, this 6'9", quick, strong, mentally tough giant who you can't do that to.

So, first and foremost, it may not matter because if Wilder lands the boom, that's where we're at. But secondly, Luke, I want to ask you this because I wrote a column about it for CBS Sports this week. Wilder is stuck firm when asked this week about those accusations and the conspiracies and all that. And he's like, no, he doubled down, Luke. He's like, I still believe

in that shit, okay? It's all real. He goes, I know the truth, and the truth is going to set me free on Saturday. Luke, does it really matter at the end of the day whether his truth is true? As long as he believes it 1,000% and is using that to fuel him to come back.

Like you can read my story. You can watch him at the press conference. Let's be real. Let's put the cards out front. He sounds batshit crazy. But that might not be the wrong lane to come in. When you got to go in there and avenge your first pro defeat. Which came by stoppage.

And you got to con yourself. Into coming out there and being that guy again. It's funny that you're showing the 12th round here because this is the round, obviously, where the bad things happen to him. He gets knocked down, but it's also the round that set into motion the second fight. Why do I say that? Because afterwards, you see, when he from this he doesn't he doesn't sort of box around in orbit of wilder he actually backs him up the whole time which is what we saw in the second fight to answer your question it does matter if he believes something fictional even if he believes it intense intense intensely which is to say there are all different kinds of fictions that fighters, really athletes of any kind of high level, will entertain. Sometimes they won't actually know that they're

better than their competitor, but they'll believe it. And so in believing, they give themselves license to just do the impossible sometimes. And you don't want to lose sight of that. So to that end, I will give Wilder a little bit of credit. Obviously, I don't think he has reconciled with one second of what happened in the second fight, but I do think he has not enjoyed the sting. He has not enjoyed his corner throwing in the towel previously. He does not enjoy the press saying negative things about him. He did not enjoy what it felt like to lose that night, and he has come out with a renewed intensity. I don't know the right word but certainly an intensity where I'll say this BC he's not going to want to get backed up this time there's going to be a real key question of who can physically maneuver the other man around the ring

it's not simple enough to say if you're leading you're winning but there will be a pretty big positive correlation but to answer your question for all that intensity and the real benefit it does confer if you are facing a tactician and you have not wrestled with why that tactician beat you so thoroughly not not a little bit thoroughly the second time you guys met you are destined to repeat at least some of it no matter what your power is yeah well i want to put a pin in the the wilder mental you know makeup talk for a second. Luke, you know, I had a chance or were supposed to have a chance to interview both of them yesterday, Thursday during the satellite tour. I ended up getting Wilder. We're going to throw to that in a second.

Fury, unfortunately, decided he didn't want to do any interviews and canceled the entire satellite tour during that portion. His call. That's fine. Whatever. I've been there a time or a dozen. Yeah. To set this up right here what's interesting is what you mentioned that the 12th round of the first fight really changed the whole flow of the narrative of how these fights play out why because fury took wilder's best shot rose like a phoenix like the damn undertaker and then as a lot of people forget put it on wilder to close that round i mean you watched the last 90 seconds of round 12. It was a two-way brawl. It was great.

I actually think this third fight could look a lot like the second half of that 12th round. But what it did, Luke, was show Fury that he doesn't have to be the defensive slick boxer here. He can essentially bully the bully. Why? Because he's bigger and longer? Yes. Crazier? As crazy at least. But I think more importantly, Luke, because there's two and longer, yes, crazier, as crazy at least. But I think more importantly, Luke, because there's two things they figured out. One was his former trainer, Ben Davis, and I want to give him credit ahead of the first fight. They realized that Wilder does his best offense when he's working off the jab. When he is pumping that jab and has room, that right hand becomes so much more dangerous.

So to take away that jab, they utilized an active guard, plenty of feints. You see a lot in MMA, right? Just constantly feinting coming in. It took away Wilder's jab in both fights. But what he figured out in round 12 of that first fight, which is what they utilized in the rematch with new trainer Javon Sugarhill-Steward, was that Wilder cannot fight going backwards. So if you walk

into him, if you bully the bully, you're going to catch him in retreat bewildered again it just so happens by the way that fury is six nine with long arm speed balls toughness all that to pull it off so i think that when fury says ahead of this third fight like he said ahead of the second i'm gonna go in there and knock him out i didn't believe him ahead of the second fight luke i believe him now Because you can really talk yourself into the idea that that's the, maybe the smartest or the quickest point between points A and B to get that guy out of there.

If you do have, you don't have the punching power advantage, but you've got everything else and you've added more weight and you're going to lean on him and make this a big man fight, I'll give that the credit to Fury. He's smart enough. I think we'll see that again. My question is more on which version of Wilder we will see,

whereas in the first fight, we saw typical Wilder stand in the back, wait for the opponent to tire, make a mistake, land the finishing boom like he did twice to Luis Ortiz, right? I've talked a lot about how we need him maybe to channel the guy he

was in the 2017 Bermain-Stiverne rematch. Again, against an overweight, maybe under-trained opponent, former champion in a rematch in which he just walked right through that guy. But there was a spirit in the bronze bomber in that fight that was evil, violent, like a movie character. I mean, it's like a Marvel villain. I really, and this is what I asked Deontay, are you going to use the two years you've had in training camp with your new team and Malik Scott and all that to be jabbing and going to the body and being a boxer, or are you going to double down on all this revenge talk

and come out like a bat out of hell like you did against Stiverne? Luke, that was the key question I teed up to Deontay yesterday. Let's hear his answer. You're definitely going to look. We're looking more towards the Stiverne Wilder. You know, as you've seen my demeanor, even from the time of the first press conference, you know, I've always said silent is golden.

You know, my energy was very calm. The press conference that just happened, I've been calm. My demeanor about myself is very calm. And that took some training itself, you know. And that's just the whole thing about it. When I'm a calm fighter, I see it all, you know. My mind is not cloudy. And my decision-making is much better. Now, when I'm

a wilder, I tend to get wild. My mind is cloudy and it clouds my judgment on certain things that I know I could do, but I don't do. So I'm looking forward to displaying to the world the thousands that's going to be in the arena, the millions that's going to be watching more of a Stavron Wilder. Luke, I want to ask you a key question about what he said, because it almost sounds contrasting in a way. He says he operates better when he's calm, yet he hopes to fight in the wild,

stuverne fashion, which is a bit reckless and certainly dangerous and violent and overpowering. Does that make any sense to you? And how do you think that plays into which strategy he should use in this third fight? Here's what I think is going to happen, dude. There's no way Malik Scott came into that camp. I was like, Hey, let's just keep doing the same things this third fight. Here's what I think is going to happen. Dude, there's no way Malik Scott came into that camp and was like,

hey, let's just keep doing the same things. This whole week, Malik Scott has been talking about, if you watch the interviews, body work. I mean, he can't stop talking about body work, body work, body work. And of course, that could be a signal that he actually doesn't want to do any body work. But I tend to think he's actually talking about the real deal here. Dude, Malik Scott is going to come in with a new game plan. I guarantee you a better game plan. And he's tried to put a couple more weapons together.

But the problem is once that falls apart, once it falls apart, that is when Tyson Fury is going to have his day. I do think there's going to be moments in the first few rounds where he gets resistance early. Maybe even Deontay takes one or a couple of them. Again, I think he will do in some ways better than the second fight it's just that how much of that can you really add as a means of beating Tyson because dude if this goes the distance who do you really favor I mean I guess if Fury gets knocked down a bunch or something you'd favor Deontay but I don't really favor

Deontay if he's gonna win he's gonna win inside the distance a lot of that body work stuff yeah if you do it well enough it sets up to the head and maybe some other positions but that takes time that takes a little bit of effort that takes real application there's not going to be enough of that for that to happen I don't think and so yes I think you're going to get a little bit of that hey there's my new cerebral one and then when it all dissolves he's going to go right back to what it is before where he's going to try and find the big the big time for Mjolnir that the hammer of Thor he wants to find a big opportunity for it and that's when you know you're going to get reckless and wild and wilder but you're not going to get the dub probably I mean that that's the whole key here this ain't you know Chris Areola and Luis Ortiz and Ortiz by the way very

very dangerous you know tough out but you can't just wait, and Ortiz, by the way, very dangerous, you know, tough out, but you can't just wait for Fury to tire and land the boom. He's going to get you out of there. He proved that in the second fight. So it's going to be interesting for me most to see, can he establish a jab or a body attack early? How quickly will he throw that away? Will it be a batshit crazy brawl like it has the potential to be?

And Luke, if it is, key question here style-wise, is that smart of Fury? It was smart for him in the second fight to get off on the front foot, be the aggressor, and really just make Wilder uncomfortable. But I want to give respect to Wilder here. We are two years removed from that fight. He has had so much time where there's literally no excuses in this third one. He's either going to be improved or not. Is that smart in your eyes for fury to utilize the same style he had in fight two knowing this will probably be a better wilder yes it is i mean i just understand something dude

what is dion if you had to figure out what is dionte wilder's biggest problem you know what his biggest solution is right the big time hammer from the right hand. Okay, fair enough. And that's a good one. It's got him damn far. But what's been the biggest problem? The biggest problem in fight one and fight two, he just got steamrolled. So it was even hard to see, but certainly the through line between them is he has a hard time on his own at distance creating openings. He has to wait for openings to materialize from an extended opponent. So once the opponent does something, sometimes he's able to react to it, but he can't find a way to open the door. Someone has to open the door for him before he goes in. So the question is, is he going to be able to do that this time? If you're on your heels, I have a hard time,

but like the reason why he just got steamrolled in the second one was because there was no orbiting space between them. Tyson was right up on him. There was no space to wait for that door to be open for you. You were just getting run over. This time, I think there's going to have to be a little bit of patience from Fury a little bit early. I do think that Malik Scott probably tried to show him some things, including with the body work, to begin to open the doors for you. So you're asking about the same game plan. Identical game plan? Like truly identical? No. But with the same principles involved. Smother him, back him up, put him on the ropes when possible, and then just let the difference in the boxing come to life. He'll have to have

a different set of tactics involved to deal with that new pressure and then again to sort of figure it out late but this the general orientation of driving into him and we did a whole thing on dissected for it if you want to see it here on morning combat it did did did nicely people seem to like that one so go check that one out that was key key key and then he was always outside the jabbing range he would double jab his way inside some of all that may change, but the orientation's the same. I think the body punching will be most key for Wilder in close, actually, because Wilder is, like most heavyweights, to be fair,

even historically, not a good inside fighter at all. In fact, doesn't even show good sort of basic foundational know-how of how to defend, especially against a bigger man. By the way, how often is Deontay Wilder going to be in there with a bigger man when he's 6'7"? But in this case, Fury in that second fight, Luke, came in heavier, used the bigger man tactics. I think that he was forced to use out of necessity, meaning Fury,

in that Otto-Valleen fight, which now, which I think was an interesting turning point where we all thought he was going to, you know, maybe mop the floor with Valleen, even though Otto was unbeaten coming in. And by the way, Otto Valene's got a big fight later this month against Dillian White on his own. So that's going to be interesting. But, you know, against Valene, once he had that cut, he had to fight big man style.

Suddenly he had to walk him down, lean on him. This is where the body punching for me is going to be key for Wilder. He doesn't have the inside fighting like a Fury has, like a Riddick Bowe has had, like a Lennox Lewis, like so few big men in history have had. So when they clinch, when Fury attempts to lay on him, and let's be fair, Luke, Fury can do some of those Bernard Hopkins dirty tricks too inside to try to get one up on you. I think that's when Wilder's got to explode to the body and let him know that you can't lean on me, you can't bully me. That's key. But Luke, I think it goes

without saying here, Wilder's going to have to gain back respect, I think as early as round one. While I don't want to see a bad-out-of-hell Wilder gas himself out, comically going for the KO and get caught and get floored in round one, I need him to be

the aggressor. Here's why that's most important. We just established that Wilder does his best work from distance without question. You cannot create that distance without landing something big. And if it's not going to come through his jab, which I don't think he has enough confidence in knowing that Fury has the longer reach and can counter him, it's got to come through him landing a big right early that lets Tyson Fury know you can't walk me down. If that happens, Luke,

we're going to see a hybrid of what the first and second fight looked like. And you have to believe that opens the door for Wilder to find success. If there is a path at all. Yes. Yes. That is a, that is a probable scenario, but it just, the, the, that is a probable scenario. But that whole thing almost relies a little bit too much on Tyson Fury not having any agency here. Like Tyson Fury is just kind of waiting for Deontay Wilder to do something.

Which again, he did a lot of that in the first fight. Maybe he goes back to that for other reasons. Maybe some of this will involve a little bit of rope-a-dope where he wants Wilder to come forward and think he can get the big body shots off and he just kind of rolls with it and then Wilder is sucking wind. Because by the way, here's the factor we haven't talked about. I want to see what he comes and weighs in on the scale. My man's been in the weight room. Listen, being in the weight room is fun, especially when you get them gains. The shoulders start to get 3D. The chest starts to pop out.

The back starts to look like a turtle shell. Those are good times in your life, but the problem is it slows you down. It can make you stiffer a little bit. It's hard to move. Not every time you go to the weight room is it athletically beneficial for you, especially if you're something as specific of a sport as boxing. So I want to see what that extra weight does for him. It's going to make the hammer even bigger,

but it might make some other things a little as boxing. So I want to see what that extra weight does for him. It's going to make the hammer even bigger, but it might make some other things a little bit slower. If Tyson Fury plays it where he wants to just kind of roll with it, some of those things can get going. Again, dude, here's the thing. I can see pieces of rounds or maybe even rounds together where some measure of success can be put together for Wilder. And of course he always has the great equalizer but i just feel like as each minute passes the difference in skill level wilder can only swim at that level right with the current with that kind of speed and the undertow going what is going for a little while but fury is he's got gills and so it's just at some point that will give if they do it long enough that the task for Wilder is to make sure it doesn't go that long. No, I think that's a good way to look at it.

As we look at the officials for this one, Luke, the Nevada Athletic Commission appointing them, two of the three judges originally chosen for Fury Wilder III will score this rescheduled fight. It's going to be Tim Cheatham, Dave Moretti. I'm trying to track down the third. Oh, Patricia Morse Jarman will be the third one Luca I believe we had a late referee change originally it was Connecticut's Mike Ortega now it'll be Russell Mora I don't think that

changes much there but I want to ask you in regards to the to the quote-unquote controversy about the stoppage in the first in the second fight in which of course Wilder let Mark Breland go maybe the only voice of reason in the corner and the team you know or dissenting one or challenging one looking out for his safety Wilder told me on morning combat you know you don't throw the towel in in a warrior sport when you have a warrior and a king like me I've got the biggest equalizer I'm the most dangerous puncher in the history of this sport you know he, he went on to say on the Chris Mannix pod, which he said before, you know, I'm willing to die in the ring.

Luke, if things start to go bad for Wilder, do you believe Malik Scott? You know, is there a line? Could it go past the line where Malik Scott throws in the towel? Or do you think this all lies on Russell Morris' shoulders to take into account this quote-unquote controversy and be smart here jesus first of all dionte's answer is terrible i mean it's the worst i for a warrior and a king like me you are just saying words what does that mean are you saying you have

a right to kill yourself in front of other people um with government sanctioning if you so choose that's what you're saying because you don't you don't have a right to do that not in this particular way no um the boxing ring is not where people can just elect to die in front of others we recognize that risks happen in that way, but I am electing to be permanently damaged in one fell swoop to the point where I die in the hospital a day later. You're not allowed to ask the government to do that on your behalf. So the whole idea idea and then dressing it up in this language of uh heroics is just the most demented thing but luke just be honest about to interrupt you for good reasons while you're right he's not saying i will i have that right to die in the ring so let me try it

he's saying i'm a knockout puncher there are no scenario where i'm not out of this fight that's really what he's saying. Okay, well, he said a lot of different things. I mean, that is also one thing that he said. That's right. He has dressed it up a little bit differently, which is, if anyone's got knockout power late, it's me. To his credit, we have seen knockout power for him late. Obviously, he didn't get the full knockout test in Fury,

but he put him on his ass in a way that it looked like his power carried deep in fights. Okay, fair enough. But number one, why are you talking about yourself in literally royal language? Do you have a palace in Versailles? Stop that, number one. Number two, he has in other ways made the argument that if I want to go out and die doing this, I should be allowed to. No, dude, memo to fighters, you're not allowed to do that. It's a risk that is run, but in seeking that out and in saying the guardrails that we put on this to make it a palatable government-sanctioned affair should just be thrown out because you don't like them or you feel like you have a right to die in front of others in this way, it's absurd. It's the most absurd logic ever. So I don't know what Malik Scott is going to do,

but I will tell you this. Russell Mora has to know what he has on his hands here. He did not live in a vacuum. He saw what happened in the second fight. He saw the aftermath of what happened in the second fight. So to answer your question, BC, not only do I expect Russell Mora to be a little bit more on edge, I probably do imagine he might pull the trigger a little bit earlier

if the moment calls for it. But I guess, well, there's no way to know. We'll we'll see yeah unless unless Nevada points Jack Kevorkian as the referee for this you're probably right let's put a bow on it here Luke and get to the prediction but before we do quickly I wanted to re-re-come back to what I mentioned circle back around to the mental state I got one more quick clip for you uh look I'll give Wilder this credit although he's blamed everyone but himself he did tell me in the interview that he thinks the loss against Fury was maybe what he needed. So there's some humility in that, Luke.

But he did go on to, when I asked him straight up, do you feel in any way like you've been mischaracterized in the narratives put out by the media and others heading into this fight? Here's his take on this topic. It was very unfair, you know um being that you know i can truly say that i brought you know the heavyweight division back on scene being the first american champion in in in a decade to bring it back in you know and how the media cling to this english man you know what happened to team usa and all that you know, and how the media cling to this English man, you know, what happened to Team USA and all that, you know what I mean? It don't make no sense. And, but God is good.

That's why I don't deal with a lot of people. I can't deal with fakery. You know, I don't deal with two-faced people. You know, one minute is this way, and then behind closed doors is next minute. And then when you see me, hey, champ, now get out of my face, you know, and that's just my energy. You know, a lot of this energy I've had, I've already felt around certain people. I knew that it would take that. I knew it would take that me losing or falling down

for them to show true colors. And it was only confirmation for me. And I appreciate it. I appreciate them showing true colors and confirmation. My grass is always cut at this point in time. Well, you know, if snakes do slither around in it, I can at least see it, no matter what color it is. And it's going to be amazing.

You know, my spirit is very high. My energy is very joyful. And my aura around me is very peaceful. So you have a happy fighter. You have so much positivity around him. What could go wrong? Look, this troubles me a lot. Look, I'm going to be honest with you.

If he's claiming that Fury cheated in the second and he won't get off that and that's what he needs to feel invincible again i'm saying if that's his truth and it helps him be better we can all just go okay that's fine this is the wrong lane for me so let me go some full disclosure here what he's referencing there is he thinks the american media should automatically like over fluff him up because he's facing a foreign fighter. Luke, he had the same reaction after the first Fury fight when most of the American media said, look, we thought Fury won that and the judges got it wrong.

He felt that was a betrayal. And full disclosure here, Luke, he almost walked out of this interview. I give him credit for doing that with me yesterday. But when he initially heard my name, he walked out and said, no, that guy's two-faced that that guy's a snake and we talked we kind of got him to sit back down he thought maybe he he misconstrued my name and my face maybe thought i was somebody else who worked for someone i don't know look i don't really know what happened to be honest with you but there was about a five minute gap there where he wasn't going to do the interview and then he sat down

look we got to be real here you can't be fighting with media members you can't be fighting with me in my basement here you got to go fight fury like this should be the least of your worries if we turned on you after you lost quote unquote turned on you because we you know scored a fight against you or thought your reaction to it was poor it was poor luke if this is like the road he's gonna go down and the hill the hill he has you know potential to fall on this this is the wrong lane bro this is troubling to me as i really look to handicap this third fight dude i've seen fighters get i never bemoan a fighter getting bitter with the media you know some of them are more defensible than others but if you'll if you'll spar with the media number this is than others but if you'll if you'll spar with the

media number this is what fighters just don't realize if you'll spar with the media a little bit and like defend yourself against what you felt was unfair headlines more often than not they'll just back down i've seen it but not all the time but it does happen a fair degree and it opens the doors to communication where it then creates fair coverage going forward they never seem to realize that they just seem to always like want to want to beef with them i don't know why but uh neither here nor there the point being is bc name a fighter that you saw have a just an unbelievable performance by holding a grudge against the media not sparring with them because floyd will spar with them i did i've seen floyd do it to us i saw him do it backstage at the howard

theater to then espn reporter dan rayfield about some other issues that were happening before the canelo fight he'll do it but then he'll just talk to you later on again he realizes that you want to use them to change the narrative but they're not they're they didn't betray you you're not at war with them dude dionte is fully on the other side of that. We're like, literally, because we have the same nationality, I have to give Fury less favorable coverage. It's the most insane thing I've ever heard. And again, this is what I mean about reconciling. When I say reconciling, BC, we should examine that for a second. Reconciling with the second fight means probably a couple of things. One, here are tactically the things that went wrong, right?

Ah, you know, I didn't see this, and he set it up that way, right? Getting Malik Scott to go through the X's and the O's. That's one. The other one is just looking in there and saying, a better guy beat me that night. I lost. He hasn't done any of that. He hasn't examined the X's and O's.

Malik has. I'll give him credit for that I'm sure but the other part about a better guy on that night beat me he hasn't internalized that and why is that so important BC we just saw in the wrestling world Jordan Burroughs he didn't even make the Olympic squad but he internalized that lost he accepted it and then came back around and won another world title his fifth world championship that's what i'm talking about that's reconciling with loss and then using that to regroup retool reframe and get your athletic success going again wilder is nowhere near that again dude he's got the equalizer once

he hits the home run the game's over that's how big his power is but buddy i'm telling you he might be in for a rude awakening that that's that's a that's an eye-opener to me as i look at you know but you have to take into account the mental state the physical state all that let's get into the prediction and preview here once again draft king has the line currently like this minus 295 fury your favorite plus 235 the very dangerous Luke Thomas, who wins, why, and when? I respect the power punching of Deontay Wilder. I respect how it is historically significant power, not just big power, not just sort of a flowery way to describe a strong athlete. It's the kind of power that will go down in the record books.

At the same time, he is not the boxer that Tyson Fury is, and I don't think he ever will be. I suspect he will have a little bit of success at certain intervals of this fight, but over time, he will be stopped. I said on HQ around the 7th, CBS Sports HQ, excuse me, around the 7th, maybe he'll push it to the 9th. BC, I would be very surprised if this fight hits the championship rounds and i would be extremely surprised i guess even with that power to be honest with you if wilder wins i like tyson fury to retain yeah give me tyson fury by fifth round stoppage i actually will not be surprised if fury has to take a bit of damage even to the level of a knockdown loop but we've seen the warrior spirit within him and if he's going to keep coming forward on wilder and

bullying the bully it's going to be I want to say a long night but a short one for Wilder give me the fury victory maybe maybe in the best fight of the three at least in terms of compressed action let's see that quick shout out to the undercard because uh the folks at PBC and Top Rank have conspired nicely here on the off TV you'll get a Julian Williams comeback which would be good to see the former unified junior middleweight champion you're also going to get knockout sensation edgar berlanga of top rank luke the future potential puerto rican stud there from new york city who uh hasn't finished every guy in the first round but one but luke on this pay-per-view main card it's

all heavyweights effie ajogba and frank sanchez that co-main should be very fun the rematch between adam kovnatsky and robert helius. Hellenius won by upset knockout before the pandemic. And also big baby Jared Anderson. Not the other big baby. The guy that does the drugs against Vladimir Tereshkin. So it should be a fun night. Let's go here as our producers say, bro.

Enough boxing. Okay? Can we get to the MMA? We'll do that right now. UFC Fight Night has Luke A. Not overly impressive card for Saturday, but a main event I want to see. And just a heads up, you're going to get this boxing fight later at night, but 4 p.m. Eastern is your main card start for the UFC in Las Vegas. Straw weights as Mackenzie Dern looks to take probably the biggest step in her rise toward potential title contention here at 115 when she takes on Marina Rodriguez, the Brazilian, fresh off stopping Amanda Hibas,

a favorite of this show, Luke, in most tattoo circles. Hey, Luke, this is a pretty damn good matchup with the grappler Dern against the very good Muay Thai of Rodriguez. What are your thoughts entering into a very close one, betting odds-wise on paper? This is a great fight. This is good matchmaking. I really feel like UFC matchmaking these days, BC.

I don't know if you feel the same, but I just feel like they're firing on not all cylinders, most cylinders. This is a great one, man. So I did some watching of some fights in preparation for today's show of duran to refresh my memory and i wanted to go back to her last loss and then also her last fight watch some stuff in between but i watched those back to back right because she just ran over nina nina nunez granted she'd had a long layoff but still i want to see you know you don't just run over nina nunez that was the first thing and then i wanted to go back and look at the amanda

hibas fight the one that she lost, we're talking about a completely different fighter, especially on the feet. Obviously, her grappling's always been good, but it's always a question of how you apply it. How do you get there? And what I noticed in the Hibas fight, dude, was she just didn't set up her distance at all. She'd be far away. She'd kind of run in a little bit and get clipped and then throw a shot and then would be off balance. Fast forward to the answer offer Nina Nunez fight. And what you notice there is dude, she is setting things up with her kicks, her distance, uh, engagement and understanding is, and range management like revolutionized in terms of how much better it was and her punch mechanics, much tighter, much crisper, much cleaner, much more linear dude., she made a big leap between that Hibas fight and this one.

Here's the problem, though, dude. Even with all those leaps, and she dropped, who was it? Amanda Cooper, who she dropped? Mackenzie's got some power, too. But, dude, on the feet, you just can't imagine she's going to have a whole lot for Marina Rodriguez, even with all the improvements that I mentioned, which are real and what matters. What matters is getting the fight to the floor. And dude, statistically, you know, not a great

picture for Mackenzie Dern. Her takedown defense, by the way, granted, she wouldn't necessarily fight the takedown. I think she would invite it, but it's at a whopping 0%. It's the lowest I've ever seen measured. Usually if there's no number there, it's because they can't measure it. They don't have enough. Here they've measured it. They have enough of a data set and it's zero and her takedown accuracy bc bc habib is around 50 sometimes you can see guys in the 60 or 70 what do you think the takedown accurate accuracy percentages for mackenzie if you had to guess uh 75 try 10%. She fails statistically. I thought you were going to say it was something ridiculous because she tends to dominate in that regard, Luke.

No? Takedown accuracy, she is 10%. She mostly fails and fails badly. In the Nunes fight, she got a great trip takedown to the mat and then was able to hit a knee cut pass into mount, took the back and got the arm bar and whatever. So again, are those better too along with the striking? She better hope because if she doesn't get it there,

I respect her improvements. They're real, but they may not matter against Rodriguez. Yeah, this is the right fight to answer all our questions because Luke, the Nina Nunes fight, which was Dern's fourth straight win, I mean, she looked like a monster where you're like, that's a future title contender, even with the growing striking game, which is a bit of a deficiency at times. Obviously, Luke, though, there's levels to this.

She's won most of these fights through physical dominance. She's a very large strawweight, very tough, strong, muscular. Luke, I think a big key to her turnaround really was her commitment to the weight room and fitness. She has turned herself around, and granted, look, she came back very quick after her pregnancy, and in her loss, her lone loss, we sort of said, did she come

back too quick against Ibas, meaning Mackenzie Dern, was that a big thing? Well, look, she looks like a different fighter in terms of her commitment since then, but if she's got holes in her striking game, Rodriguez is going to expose that. She's also going to be, you know, tough to take down as you mentioned and stingy in all the right areas so we're looking at a hell of a fight here. How tough do you think though Rodriguez really is? I mentioned the stoppage when he gets Esparza.

She bounces back from that and wins a decision over Michelle Waterston, so she's on a two-fight win streak. We've only seen Rodriguez lose to Carla Esparza, and it was a split decision, along with two draws before that, Luke. Do you feel like, as much as I'm saying, look, Dern wins this, she could be on the fast track to a title, do you think it's the same for Rodriguez based on recent history? Yeah, it could be.

I don't have the rankings in front of me, BC, and I don't really pay too close attention to him absent during the show. So here's what it sits at currently for women's strawweight. Obviously, Esparza's at three, Jan Chow Nan at four. Tied for four, not at five, is Mackenzie Dern, Rodriguez at six. There's still a little bit of an uncertain scenario in terms of how things might go. We have to have this Rose-Zhang Wiley rematch that's going to happen. And you've got,

at that point, Jan Schaunan, who I think is coming off of a loss, and then Esparza and Janjacek ahead. So title shot, I don't know. I do think it's possible. And Mackenzie Dern said this. She wants to get a win so big and so impressive that she just leapfrogs Carla Esparza. You would have to imagine if you're the UFC, you've given Carla Esparza shots before. She was a champion before. She's a good fighter, but I think if you're thinking about popular upside, Mackenzie Dern might be a little bit more in line with that, especially because she's coming from jiu-jitsu and has that pedigree there.

She obviously speaks Portuguese and has an entire brazilian family and can be popular as well for them down there she represents a greater commercial appeal i think for them still though title shot possible possible unlikely and i think the same is even truer for rodriguez even though both of these women are incredibly impressive dern has only gone the three round distance distance, Luke, twice in her UFC run, so she's used to physically dominating fights. We've seen her as a finisher. I'm really looking to see what happens.

If Rodriguez can stuff takedowns, and your percentage thing has me scared here, Luke, and if this fight can go into those quote-unquote championship rounds where we really see what Dern is made of. Of course I'm going to ask you about her accent changing, Luke, because that's what people want me to, but I know you won't really care about that. So let's instead look at this from a betting standpoint. Minus 170, Mackenzie Dern, your favorite, according to DraftKings.

Marina Rodriguez at plus 150. Luke, I feel like I'm talking myself into the underdog here, even though I've been Team Dern from the standpoint that I don't even care if she rounds out her game. Her plan A might be enough at the end of the day I can't wait to see if it is but man Marina Rodriguez when she gets you up against the cage when she can do some of those slick things it's a tough out tough out Luke who do you like I guess I'd

here's the thing. If the Dern who fought Nunes shows up and she gets that takedown, I think she can beat anyone in that division. I mean, I just don't... I'm quite certain of that. Gun to my head scenario, I'll go Rodriguez. I think she'll be able to stuff the takedowns. I think, for the most part. I could be wrong about that.

I'll say this, dude. You phrased it exactly right, dude. This is the fight to tell us truly about the improvement of Mackenzie Dern. Because if you can get a fighter like that to the ground and finish them off at this stage of both of their careers, you'd have a reason to think she could, I'm being serious, you'd have a reason to at least consider that she could wear a belt. I'm not saying that she would deserve the title shot

or that she would beat the eventual champion, but it would not in any way be crazy at that point. And which, you know, back when she was missing weight and nearly up a weight class, she was so far away, 70 pounds, that did seem crazy. So I'll side with rodriguez but i am very curious about the improvement of mackenzie durner what it might mean i wonder if rodriguez would get esparza again if she wins you know to try to run back her only loss it'd be interesting

um i thought esparza should have got the title shot right now i mean who knows could we be headed toward a trilogy at the title level if rose loses does she fight esparza next gonna be interesting here luke in my favorite division 115 luke when we look at this undercard there's not a lot to talk about and I don't want to hold up the show but I am interested in seeing 24 year old Kazakh fighter Maria Agapova who came up on the scene in 2020 and looked to really be something very special but then had that shocking upset loss in which she completely gassed out against Shana Dobson in August of 2020, got stopped in the second round. Luke, I mean, it was about as lifeless a finish after coming out hot

as we've seen. It stifled that run she had of initially losing on the Dana White Contender Series, going to Invicta, going on a run, coming in there, finishing Hannah Cyphers, looking like the real deal. Are you interested in this matchup here against Sabina Mazzo, who enters as a slight favorite? Sabina Mazzo out of Medellin, Colombia, and now over with Rafael Cordero at Kings MMA.

She had started UFC a little slowly, had a bit of an olive oil vibe going on in terms of um sort of the physical look and the and the implementation of her game but she's gotten a little bit physical more physical in the last few fights a little bit meaner a little bit active and as a consequence she's gotten better agapava to me seems like the more frankly dynamic athlete and probably the probably the bigger risk taker which sometimes will do good things for you but when you're a risk taker, which sometimes will do good things for you. But when you're a risk taker, you need that risk to kind of pay off relatively immediately. That's hard to be a risk taker and then have the long view on a fight. Mazo is probably the wrong one to do that to,

which is to say like Agapova could come out and get a 10-8 round and then lose the second and get stopped in the third, right? I can see a scenario kind of like that. She can come out to a big lead. She can have pronounced moments, but she can't be the consistent applier of technical skill and strategy. So for those reasons, I'm going to pick Mazo. Yeah, that's going to be an interesting fight.

Luke, are you with me where the fight of the night on this card could come out of the middleweight division there where a fired up Phil Haas is ready to take on former golden boy mma standout and dc mini me duron win i feel like i've seen phil haas go to the same barber as derrick brunson cisco kevin randleman and kickboxer michael mcdonald and come out with that blonde lock and he looks like it's firing him the hell up, Luke. You're looking like you don't care about this matchup. No, I do, but Daron Wynn is no longer in this fight.

Daron Wynn had to be replaced late, and so now it is Chris Curtis. The story is a little bit more interesting. Chris Curtis not only won... Keep the info here, folks. Okay, please. Thank you. Yeah, Chris Curtis not only won on Contender Series, if memory serves, he got a win via stoppage, didn't get a contract, retired.

I had him on my radio show at the time. Then years later, came back and fought in PFL, retired one or two more times there, and fought on the regional scene, won, and then got the call for this, and here he is in the UFC. It's like one of the strangest careers I've ever seen. He's very good. Phil, again, always had the physical potential and was just

kind of behind technically now those things have caught up and there are much more even he's much more of a different product Curtis coming in on the shortest of short notices so I tend to think Hawes should get the win here but Curtis if you ask me who is the better overall striker Curtis to me is the better overall striker all right wow look i'm all for two here on these uh takes here after watching the takedown percentage you're so in on the big heavyweights boxing you just forgot bro you just forgot meanwhile our producers like god can we get through this segment already all right luke let's move on here i want you to circle your calendar for January 22nd, UFC 270, sight to be determined. But Luke, the promotion in question is targeting,

ho, ho, ho, ho, hell yeah, a heavyweight title unification bout pairing the Predator Francis Ngannou against unbeaten interim champion Cyril Ghosn. Luke, this is the stuff we need. I hope it goes down on this night. Your reaction to hearing we are, we're not too far away from this. I absolutely cannot wait. I think this fight has, you know, we, we, we talk a lot, BC about the state of heavyweight boxing and it's not the nins, but it's not a bad time either. In fact, it's a great time.

It's a great time to be a fan of heavyweight boxing, even with all of the different issues that happen to take our enjoyment away. I don't think that the UFC can boast the same kind of moments, but this particular fight, I would put up there with not the very best that combat sports has to offer, but this is about as good, I think, on paper as a heavyweight fight can get these days. I miss the days of Cain Velasquez and what he represented, but if you're looking at what the modern kind of game can offer, Cyril Ghosn is really at the forefront of that. Here is a guy who does have power, he does have athleticism, but he uses it a lot for deception and fainting and trickery and camouflage, touching and not getting hit, in the words of Nazeem Richardson, as often repeated by BC, to swim without getting wet, all kinds of things like that.

That is what Gon does. And then you have in Francis Ngannou the hope of what could be the bellwether for what could be a future of prominent African MMA, particularly from Cameroon, where he is from. But certainly the most dynamic power puncher we've probably ever had in the UFC. Maybe even in MMA. And, by the way, both of these guys have

French origin. And both of these guys used to train together after a falling out. Francis Ngannou had with his old trainer now is over at Extreme Couture. Dude, you've got the storyline on paper. You've got what itouture. Dude, you've got the storyline on paper. You've got what it means for international MMA. You've got two incredible athletes.

You've got one who does all the cerebral stuff. You've got another who is physically just an imposition of all impositions. What could there possibly be to not like about this fight? Such a great style matchup, as you just alluded to luke i don't want people to forget that feeling we had watching ingano take down stipe last year and when earlier this year and win the belt luke it was that feeling like oh my god he's actually scarier than we ever thought he could be like he's he's actually like like someone learned how to putt, right, Luke? Like, holy crap, the opposite of deficiency on the ground, like the opposite of white belt shit.

His ability to stuff takedowns and then suddenly use his size, strength, and athleticism on the ground to his advantage was like, oh, God, this is an entirely new ballgame now. And just, you know, who knows? The winner of this fight could be facing Jon Jones next year, next for all we know, despite all the stuff going on outside of the cage luke cannot wait for this fight if anyone can disarm this guy francis and ganu it could be cyril gone so we're gonna see can the chin hold up can he dance for 25 minutes can he do damage

one thing to think about bc we talk about Wilder having historic power and it carries, but with MMA, we all know, I mean, these guys basically have bicycle gloves on, right? I mean, there's almost nothing covering their knuckles. Dude, even a moderate, like in terms of the intensity of the punch thrown, even a moderate version of that landing is enough to shut the lights out.

Like Wilder, can you imagine what he would do if he was like even moderately well-trained in MMA? He'd be hurting people in extraordinary ways. France is about as close as we can get to that. Imagine Wilder doing spinning wheel kicks, Luke. That'd be something to behold right there. All right, Luke, topic number four. Bellator

had a big day in the news-breaking cycle late Wednesday after morning combat when CEO Scott Coker showed up on Good Friend of the Program, Ariel Helwani's MMA Hour. Luke, I'm going to go item by item here and get your take on the news. The big one was interesting. We'd rumored it.

We'd speculated it in the past. What would happen if Patricio Pitbull Freire gave up his lightweight title under the Bellator banner under the auspices of his older brother patricky getting a title shot luke that's exactly what we're going to happen the fight which was already ordered a rematch patricky pitbull versus peter queely of sbg fame will now have the vacant 155 pound title on it luke your thoughts on this decision by belts are very, very interesting. I,

um, well, it's, is it, well, it's their decision to make the fight, but it was obviously Patricio's decision to drop the belt. I think it makes sense after a loss like that,

after all that buildup, because remember we talked about it extensively, BC. It wasn't that Patricio was good enough to kind of eke his way there on veteran savvy. He bulldozed his way to the finals, too. It just didn't matter against a phenom in the likes of AJ McKee. But, you know, this has to sit poorly with him, and I think it does. In fact, he has indicated that really what he wants is all roads lead back to McKee.

He has to find a way to get some measure of redemption there. We'll see what happens. So everything about 155 became a distraction. And he even told us when we talked to him at the Bellator Media Day, he was looking to see if his brother could get the championship at 155, and that way both brothers could have the 145 and 155 at the same time. So that part to me, I'm not even a little bit surprised that he dropped it. Not that I saw it coming per se, but now that he's done it, it makes a lot of sense.

And I guess Bellator doesn't have a better option at 155. It's just hard to see either of these guys holding it long term. They're both very good. I don't mean to suggest that they're not. But to this point, they've not shown the kind of overall dominance of a weight class or their or a game to make us think that they are um not even invincible exactly bc but that they are the types to hold off a steady stream of challengers over time you have to be extremely well-rounded and detail-oriented.

And both guys are good, but they're not quite that. Are you saying without saying that the winner of this will hold the belt until AJ McKee wants it? Is that what the hell you're saying, Luke? I hadn't even thought about AJ going to 155. But yeah, if you're asking me what I favor AJ to beat either of them, yeah, I probably would. Or someone else at 155.

It just goes to show Bellator's 145 is strong. Their 135 is strong. Their 170 is pretty strong. Their 155 is a work in progress. Most of the best 155ers are still over at UFC. So they got to figure that part out. Well, Pitbull and Queely, of course, fought in May. Queely winning by second round TKO doctor stoppage due to a cut

that Patrycki Pitbull vehemently argued against and fought. So, Luke, not only will this rematch now have the title, but, of course, Pitbull's got to do it in Quealy's backyard as Bellator 270, airing on Showtime November 5th, will emanate from Dublin, Ireland, with that very good Bantamweight co-main event of Patchy Mix and James Gallaher. So looking forward to this development. Luke, the second bit of news there, Chris Cyborg back to defend her

Bellator Featherweight Championship at the card following that. It's going to go down November 12th, Bellator 271 against Sinead Kavanaugh, also Luke, of SBG and John Kavanaugh fame. Luke, I had some bloke in my DMs on IG going, if you guys at MK aren't woke to the danger that Sinead O'Connor is going to bring to the cage here against Cyborg, then wake the hell up. Luke, he almost went as far as saying nothing compares to her, Luke. This girl Sinead, okay? Wow.

Can we trigger the 90s thing? I don't need to rip up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live for you to get that joke. Luke, is this a real challenge for Cyborg Bill? These are... Where is the 90s counter? I mean, my man is just hitting 90s reference after 90s. Do the kids know about Sinead O'Connor

tearing up a picture of the Pope on SNL? No, they don't need to know about that. As you told our producer, Maneech, it's not your fault you were not born yet for these things we're talking about. Listen, he's still wet behind the ears, BC. Listen, I don't want to completely discount the chance of Sinead Kavanaugh to win, but the guy writing us is overstating it. You know, she has losses as late as 2019 to Leslie Smith. No, Cyborg should not lose that one. She could because Sinead does have some ability.

It's not like a foregone conclusion, but the idea that this is like Cyborg's most competitive fight since the Nunes one is probably overstated. Maniche letting us know he was born in 1993, Luke. I believe that's when my armpit hair started growing in. Good stuff right there. Bellator 271 coming to you from the Seminole, Hollard Rock in Hollywood, Florida, November 12th only on Showtime. All right, Luke, one more bit of Bellator news. Scott Coker announcing,

wow, we're here. We're with the times, Luke. All Bellator main events moving forward, non-title or title will be five rounds. I mean, I could joke about it, but about time, Luke. I'm happy to hear that. Yeah, I don't understand what took so long.

You know, the promotion had clearly grown into a place where that was, frankly, necessary a while ago. But it doesn't do much good for Yoel Romero, who is still probably sitting in some arena being like, where the fuck is my fourth and fifth round? But next time, he doesn't have to worry about that. So there you go. It's the right call, but it did feel like when you drive by a

shady motel and there's that giant free HBO sign, I'm like, I better get free HBO at the very least here. I mean, come on, right? I mean, come on. Or free showtime. I'm sorry. Let me stay on, Brad. Free showtime. Yeah, that's true. Free showtime. Exactly. All right. Let's keep it going. All right, Luke, quick hitters to close here on

segment five. I just want your quick take on this. Matchroom Boxing confirming after the fallout of Triller defaulting on that purse bid for Teofimo Lopez Jr. and George Cambosos that Eddie Hearn and company, which had come in second in the purse bid, will in fact

put this fight on, on DAZN. No date announced yet. I mean, do we care put this fight on on DAZN no date announced yet I mean do we care about this fight at this point Luke I mean no disrespect but do we care at this point uh only if Lopez loses other than that you know this should have happened a while ago I'm glad it's happening I guess but Jesus what a mess yeah did you see Bob Arum send mike coppinger of espn to hell when uh coppinger was like maybe you should have just paid teo to begin with shut up you prick yeah that was uh that was something luke uh no uh shut the fuck up prick yeah you little prick uh luke interesting uh boxing scene story from uh manuk akpoly akpoki ak my guy our armenian friend right manuk what yeah manu edmund tarverdian yeah from our good friend edmund uh

no serious uh teofimo lopez though in an interview he's in las vegas this week for the wilder fight doing media rounds and luke he said in regards to mental health which of course is a topic tyson fury brings into the headlines rightfully so on a regular basis that three times over this past year in which he hasn't fought at all while going through this contract dispute with top rank that he's considered suicide not once not twice but three times luke for a 24 year old that you know on the surface seems to have it all, new wife, new house, all four or three, depending on your stance, lightweight titles, you know, even for me, a mental health advocate in many ways, someone who's, you know, openly fighting the good fight.

This was tough to read, Luke. I mean, this is a battle we're all facing. I don't know what to make of it. I'm like, dude, if you really feel that way You actually should not be fighting So maybe Cambosis has a better shot than we think Or maybe I'm not here to question his sincerity Maybe he described it a little more vividly

Than it was Maybe he was on some prescription medication For something And obviously those can sometimes alter your medical state And your mental state Depending on what you're taking I'll say this. There's a lot of questions that are going unanswered,

and to your point, no one's paying attention to it, but we need to talk to him more about it. Yeah, yeah. He's a veteran of this show. We had a very good interview with him in studio in Jersey City just a couple weeks back. All right, Luke, let's keep it rolling here. Your October 16th UFC Fight Night main event,

a little bit more than a week from now, in Vegas, no longer with Holly Holm. We already saw Misha Tate fall out of her scheduled fight there, Luke. Holly Holm's supposed to be fighting Norma Dumont in the main event. A knee injury will now pull her out. But how about this? Fresh off of badly missing weight and almost passing out on the

scales ahead of her fight against macy chaise on last saturday aspen ladd is going to be plugged in on short notice here to make this ufc vegas 40 main event happen luke is this a is this smart is this a good idea i don't know if this is medically advisable and i honestly still wonder like dude she can't make 135 right I mean it seems borderline impossible you're like oh well she can make 145 can she you know what I mean like let's sort of see that actually play out before we just declare that that's an obvious thing that she can do I'm imagining that she wouldn't have taken it if she had some question about her ability to to make the weight.

So assuming that it's medically okay, which again, I don't know if that is. I certainly wonder about it. I don't mind the call beyond that. Home fell out. Lad is not going to get another fight at 135. It's the Gastelum rule, right? You miss it this many times. You have to have your next fight up a weight class class so that's what it's going to be she can do them a solid after kind of you know fucking things up the last time i sort of get it from that perspective but a is she going

to be any good at 145 b as we mentioned before is it medically advisable yeah i don't know dude this is a it makes sense on some levels and some other ones. I'm like, there's more questions to be asked here. Luke, after this, you know, unfortunate string of injuries, do you side with my conspiracy take that the UFC, or maybe it's not a conspiracy, maybe it's just a take, that the UFC will wake up and go, you know, maybe we should have been putting Holly Holm and Misha Tate against one another rather than throwing out these interim fights that aren't necessary. A rematch between

these two is very sellable it could be a let's say UFC on ABC main event I had a good chat with Brandon Wise of CBS Sports about that I feel like we're going to see this thing resurface in a key spot in the next six months um I think that's a little premature. Don't you? Well, no, hold on. Let's back up a step. Let's back up a step. Did I not say on this show that I thought Tate and Holmes should fight after Tate's last win? We've both been saying that.

Oh, why so soon? This is why. Dude, these are not spring chickens. Okay, but we don't need them against... Like, no, you know, sorry, Norma Dumont. I don't need this fight, Luke. you know sorry norma dumont i don't need this fight luke okay i need that's what i'm saying like dude we could have just we could have gone we could have gone right to that i mean maybe they wanted to drag it out because they had other like they have to fill so much inventory they can't go right to it maybe that's it maybe they

had planned for the winner of this to fight later in 2022 and so it doesn't match the calendar i can imagine that but in terms of like the point you're raising what was the point of the fight when you could have just gotten the tape rematch i don't know what the point was people swore there was one i'm not so clear that there is all right hey luke former ufc bantamweight champion tj dillashaw showed up on the mma hour with ariel hawani this week and said quote i don't even know if Aljamain Sterling is ever going to come back and fight, to be honest. From what he had done, it's kind of crazy.

If I was him, I would have waited to get that surgery done. He went on to say, I think he's just holding on to this belt as long as he can. Luke, you got TJ saying the champ may never forget being the champ again, may never fight again. You think there's any reality to this speculation? We hear a lot fighters say things like this about their opponents. Like, oh, I don't know if they're coming back. This might be the end. And usually it's so absurd.

You're like, of course they're coming back. They just can't right now. This one might be a little bit different. Here's what I'm saying. I believe currently that Aljamain Sterling will come back. I believe currently Aljamain Sterling has every intention of coming back and I think he's getting a lot of he's getting beaten up in the media a little bit not by the media personally but by the fighters sort of re uh stating everything that the uh his his adversaries are saying over and over and over again.

It's creating a bit of a narrative. That said, dude, nerve and neck issues don't go away easily. So while I expect Sterling to return, and perhaps on the calendar under which he states, one, the initial calendar doesn't really, we're not there in that kind of a way. Like the initial calendar was far too rosy of a picture and trying to expedite these things and rush them dude they just cannot they cannot go that way nerve issues are slow to heal neck issues sometimes never do so while I do think that he will eventually find his way back there this one to me that you asked about the claims from t.j dillashaw this to me does not ring as hollow as it typically does when fighters dismiss their

adversaries there's a little bit a kernel of truth as you said earlier to this one yeah as motley crew once saying luke don't go away mad just go away we'll see what happens with al jermaine sterling's future i have no idea what that means. All right, two more quick ones for you. It literally means nothing, but okay. Yeah, absolutely nothing. Hey, Jake Paul, Luke, has an idea to try to entice Tommy Fury, the half-brother, of course, of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury,

into his next fight, Luke. He put out a video, Jake, on social media that said, Hey, Timmy Fury, here's my deal for you. If you beat me in a boxing match, I will pay you an additional $500,000 in top of your purse. But if I beat you, you will need to change your last name to Tommy Fumbles legally for one full year. Luke, Jake even tweeted out a picture of a contract which actually said Fury would need to change his name to Tommy Fumbles. And as we prepared this story overnight for your reaction,

I believe Jake put out a video celebrating saying that Fury accepted it. Here's this video there's no sound but there's uh there's young jake with the goggles on looking like the guys from weird science when they put the women's underwear on their head luke and um wow it's an 80s that's a deep cut there uh luke your thoughts on on this being the next fight on the stipulation on this master troll, Jake Paul. I mean, it looks like it's happening.

No, I don't give a shit. I'm old and I'm not cool and I'm not with it. And I don't get why he is just fanning his crotch to the world. I don't, I don't really understand anything that anyone 20 years old does anymore yes it seems like we all kind of knew the tommy thing was coming we thought maybe there was going to be a woodley rematch but no one really cares for it i gotta tell you bc you know i'll go and

cover that because who doesn't like cashing checks you know that's a nice thing to do. Oh, yeah. But these braces aren't going to pay for themselves on my kid's mouth. That's right, dude. Listen, child care in this city is expensive. Daddy has bills. But at the same time, like you asked me how I feel about it, I don't. I don't feel about it. It does feel like the next logical fight. Fight a real boxer.

You had a guy with some vulnerabilities. It would be interesting. Luke, we'll see if it goes down. We'll see if it goes down in Showtime pay-per-view. Who knows, Luke? Finally, speaking of Showtime, Gervonta Tank Davis, Luke, fresh off that shootout with Mario Barrios in his last pay-per-view outing, excuse me, in which Tank moved up to 140 pounds,

he tweeted out that he'll be back in a showtime pay-per-view sunday night i believe december 6th in los angeles the staples center and that his foe will be none other than roly romero luke you know i love me some roly romero because nobody believes in themselves their power their aura more than the great roly romero luke this one kind of has uh fireworks written all over it am i crazy uh a little you're not as crazy as roly romero who who i never thought beat jackson marines who is dude you know most of the time like if you're looking for an interesting, like, weird person to follow in combat sports, you'll correct me if I'm wrong, BC, you'll have

more success finding an interesting weirdo to cover in MMA than you will in boxing. True or false? In terms of fighters. True. You got some, like, Alexander Usyk's, like, an under-the-radar weirdo. There's a few of those, you know. For sure. Yeah. There's definitely some weird ones that are fun on the boxing side, but you get a lot of them on my side roly romero if you're not following

him on social media is uh and i say this as a compliment certified batshit i mean in the weirdest way in the best way possible like he is very much his own man uh and is an exciting fighter he does tend to bring it he does tend to swing for the fences, for the bleachers, as Joe Rogan might say. Dude, Tank Davis is going to do terrible things to him. I am actually surprised. I mean, I get why Romero took the fight. It's a pay-per-view main event. You beat Tank.

I mean, Tank should. He does take risks. But, dude, Tank is going to decapitate this guy. Tank should. But don't forget Tank's small. And don't forget that roly swings for the damn fences every single time so uh this would be interesting because really ain't afraid of no one shut your shut as connor might say shoot your melt you know full well tank

is stretching this guy stop lying to the audience like you think roly is gonna win you don't think roly is gonna win i think really gonna make it fun gonna make the promotion fun gonna make the fight fun but but yeah my early take luke i think we know uh luke speaking of washing your man parts yes bc i agree i often think about washing my man parts but what did you know bc what's spookier than seeing a black cat on halloween it's shaving your balls with anything other than manscaped when it comes to below the waist grooming dude i can't believe they write this stuff there's no need to carve your pumpkins this halloween because manscaped is here to upgrade your grooming experience brian campbell with the performance package 4.0 what has my life become i'm not only

a manscaped user luke i'm also the the client i guess we love manscaped here on morning combat in all seriousness and that's because the products work well luke i've used other products before i've cut myself before not fooling around okay you got to keep your satchel page all in one working order luke not fun straight up slasher flick down there below the bell not talking about brendan shop luke you know what i'm saying here luckily manscaped's got this badass technology bro that's right so included in the performance package 4.0 i guess bc shaves his balls by stabbing them i i don't but in any case well prior to using manscaped anyway is the lawn mower 4.0 it'll help you tackle the werewolf in your pants that's howling.

I'm just reading this for what it is. It features a cutting-edge ceramic blade to reduce grooming accidents thanks to their advanced skin-safe technology, Brian Campbell. The Lawn Mower 4.0, easily the greatest ball trimmer on the planet. It's also waterproof, so it's great in the shower. Given your teen wolf's father exterior right now, Luke, trimmer on the planet it's also waterproof so it's great in the shower given your your your teen wolf's father exterior right now luke i guarantee you have a wolf down there look i guarantee you dirty bastard by the way luke inside of this performance package 4.0 you'll find what

they call the holy grail of men's grooming items it's called the weed whacker ear and nose trimmer luke we're 40 something and wash but you don't want to be that guy. As you can see, I got a tight haircut. I'm trying to hang on. Hold on to 16 as long as you can, as Mellencamp used to say. You can't have ear hair. You can't have nose hair hanging out unless you really are an old bastard at heart. So you get that Weed Whacker thing pain-free, pain-free.

It does an amazing job because of the proprietary skin safe technology no nicks no cuts no snags no togs unless that's what you're into uh you know what else is commonly neglected making sure your jewels smell great in fact when my jews jewels don't smell great and Brian's not looking, I rub my jewels all over his phone case. You mean this Kate Spade case? Yeah, I don't know. If you were wondering why it smelled like corn chips and feet, it's because I dragged my jewels across to BC. If I had just used the Crop Preserver Ball Deodorant and Crop Reviver Ball Toner from Manscaped, my pumpkins would have stayed fresh.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, look, the only thing worse in life, Luke, is trying to sell a predatory loan. So why don't I tell you this? So many awesome products come from Manscaped. Be sure to check out their new refined body wash. Hey, fellas, the ladies love their signature scent, and it will scare away those vampires

that are always trying to reach in and around. And if your nails are starting to look like claws, check out the Shears 2.0 Nail Kit, only from Manscaped. All right, so go from a bite-sized candy bar to a king-sized candy bar and join the two million men worldwide by going to manscaped for 20 off that's one edit of every five dollars for free plus free shipping with the code combat

yes same code we have for everything k-o-m-b-a-t combat with a k 20 off plus free shipping with the code combat at manscaped.com you can say trick or treat to your beautiful new halloweeny with manscaped wow halloweeny wow all right you remember that code combat with a k all right luke most of what we said there was right some of it though was dead wrong luckily we have a segment for that every week morning combat at gmail.com is where you get one back on us you take us to task you put us on trial it's called dead raw oh i have a wait wait before we go to one i have breaking news so remember how i told you phil hawes was supposed to fight uh duron win duron win gets injured he

was supposed to fight chris curtis yeah hawes versus curtis is off uh uh Phil Hawes did not want to fight an opponent on 24 hours notice so he declined to take the fight there you go I bet you Norma Dumont wouldn't have done that Luke okay probably not all right uh dead wrong starts like this Mike slides in hello MK I don't know his last name Luke Luke. Mike Hunt? Mike Hunt? I love the show, but lately Luke has been using his creative license with the English language. Oh, I like this. He uses the word comfortability often, which is not a word. If you don't believe me, try looking it up in the OED.

That's true. Luke also mispronounces indefatigable. He pronounces it indefeatigable. No, that's not how it's pronounced. Indefatigable. Here is a reference for correct pronunciation. Don't hate me. Hate your high school English teacher. I love the show.

Keep up the good work. I assume there's a link here, Luke. I don't have it for you to get your shit together. I got a five in AP English, so he can lick my balls. He can lick my Halloweeny. Okay, let's keep that going. This is Tyler coming in here. During BC's Manny Pacquiao career look back, Luke, is there people yelling in your house?

No, no. Here's how it's pronounced. Hold on. Ready? Indefatigable? Indefatigable. You might be right on that one, it's still i use the word correctly the other one i made up that's true oh that was your computer talking yes well it's google but yes i thought it was your wife coming in luke wow okay so luke tyler says during bc's pacquiao retirement breakdown

at the four minute mark he said ken burns made a pbc documentary on muhammad ali did i really that would be pbs bubba little sign of the cte boppa dicey dicey bp your friend can we stop can we stop can we stop with that shit please can we not be i don't know look i heard it both ways i don't know do that all right hey it was tyler sabas sabas you know you know it wasn't me okay like shaggy okay it wasn't me all right luke um yeah i'll take that meanwhile he was like he's like yo they even got you on camera it wasn't me they saw you in the shower it wasn't me you were fucking her it wasn't me no wasn't me bro wasn't me it was our obviously it was R. Kelly.

All right, Luke. King Tim coming in here, or maybe King and Tim. I don't care. Friday's episode 210 at the 121 mark. While talking about Dan Hooker and Islam Mahachev, correct, right? Mahachev? Makachev? Mahachev.

Luke said that Adriano Martins knocked out Islam with a head kick. I always do this one. Yes. But it was an overhand right that put Islam out. If memory serves correct, Luke has made this misstep before. Yes. Similar to him referring to Marlon Marais as a former UFC champ on multiple occasions. I can't get it out of my head even though it's not real.

It's okay, you big palooka we still love you just like BC still loves the Monterey chicken tomatoes from 7-Eleven though he abstains nowadays much love from your friend Timmy Poo Timmy Poo I don't mess with the 7-Eleven chicken alright bro it's also true there's just some of these things I just

can't I can't get out of my brain I don't know why can't get it out of my head yeah all right luke um a bunch of people sent this in to zacks a nick and austin they said not that it ultimately matters due to every word being made up but in the opening of today's show on october 4th luke said september 4th and seeing that we've all agreed that these words are meaningful and it is technically october in this, he would be dead wrong. Much love and appreciation for both of you.

Luke, these are the kind of submissions that people hate this segment for. Right here. Right? Semantics, right? Yes. That one is because I have not had caffeine and I don't sleep at night. But it is, in fact, the thing I said incorrectly. All right, Luke.

We've got one more dead wrong from a celebrity in these parts. Remember that man who tattooed our show's logo on his skin from the 209? I think so. Vaguely, yeah. Damien. Damien the Donk Y. Somehow it didn't make that one of our top 20 moments in show history, like a bastard.

I owe that one. Okay, what about him? What about him? All right. Hey, Donks. It's Damien the donk here no not the damien who runs a morning combat fan podcast which my in my opinion isn't really a drawl and has fairly messed up my tattoos but the damien with a terrible instagram handle who was

honored by having mk use my covers oh this isn't Damien the Dog. Sorry. This is Damo. Damo, okay. The guy who we use the cover song of is Enrique Iglesias for the 200th episode. Just Axe J. BC was dead wrong on episode 211 at the 140 mark when referencing a brutal tackle

in a rugby game in Have You Seen This Shit. BC said the clip occurred down under when in reality it happened in a French league and have you seen this shit bc said the eclipse the clip occurred down under when in reality it happened in a french league of rugby union to be candid i considered taking a loyal code of omerta as this dead wrong is considerably nitpicky and ultra specific but hey luke consistently criticizes people's cable management, which is to be candid, dumb as shit. Love your donks, Damien. Luke, I love this Damien too.

This guy, right? Dude, people who don't do cable management for their living rooms, these are people who also sit on lawn furniture in their living room. So guarantee you this guy is in there with an inflatable pool and one of those pull-out chairs. Yeah, he drinks out of nothing but cups with koozies around them, I can tell. Luke, really, be all serious here. This guy, Damo, who sang that Anglesea song, that was a badass rendition, right? I can be your co-host, baby. Yes.

For a guy who has lawn chairs in his living room, that's very good. All right, Luke, there's only one thing left to do on this show on Friday besides say your name a bunch and piss off John Bolton on Instagram. It is tip to tip, tip on tip, or maybe even just the tip. Luke, every week we provide a suggestion, a 1970s vinyl purchase you should go after, something. A TV show to watch, perhaps. Luke, what do you got this week? Has anyone bought any of your shit 70s recommendations?

Yes, I get plenty of DM slides that are like, holy crap, BC, just look that up on Apple Music or Tidal or whatever. You say plenty. You blew my mind. I don't believe you. What does plenty mean? More than one? Yes, more than one. More than one, yeah.

I am very skeptical that anyone does that. All right, but for mine, mine is not particularly original. It's the number one show on Netflix. Everyone at this point has kind of seen it. My wife and I took the plunge this week. Are you bitches out there watching Squid Game? Squid Game is a Korean television show. What would you say the premise is?

The premise is a bunch of people who are down on their luck, who have debts that they cannot pay, some because they're low-life gamblers, some because they're high-level business executives who made bad judgments or committed grift, end up in a kind of secret society of sorts, kind of, where they have to play children's games, and if they don't play the children's games correctly,

they all get ritually murdered in front of you. It kind of goes like that. There's a lot more to the story, but that's the premise. Bit of a spoiler, I kind of ruined it. There's a lot of death. You want to watch a lot of people get fucking brutally murdered in front of you boy do i have the show for you if this sounds like a great time out at the marriage you know hang out hey listen it's a number it's the number one show on

netflix uh you'll have to either watch it dubbed or listen in uh into korean which i don't speak so i have to watch the uh subtitles but more to the point it's beautifully shot, it's very interesting and it also deals a lot of themes of inequality which we saw in the Parasite movie which obviously must be a big thing happening in South Korea these days plus you add in Gangnam Style which also has inequality themes into it and yeah, it's a big part of

Korean artistic you know, milieu at this point, but in any case it's fucking good. If you've ever watched Korean horror movies, they're the most brutal ones that are out there. They, for some reason, have an appetite for it in ways that most Americans don't.

BC would have to watch this through his fingers. But I cannot say it's bad. It is very good. It is ruthless. It's not for little kids. Give Squid Game a try. Number one show on Netflix. There you go.

In the U.S., BC. Not internationally. In the U.S. Squid Game try number one show in on netflix there you go in the usbc not internationally in the us squid game is number one all right see you at the waterbury open this saturday all right luke um look this isn't another manscaped pre-written read i like on tip to tip of course to give you 70s records recommendations but i also like to come original and come real and and not dodge the fact that we're most of us, although we have some female, shout out to our female listeners who, by the way, who, who slipped through the cracks now and then and reveal themselves. I respect you. We need you. Thank you. Well, Luke, most of us are like me. They're 40 washed and male. Luke, I have a history of taking off my shirt. It's been, oh God, that should be illegal in most

states to drop a reference like that Um, luke. I have a long history of being uncoordinated stubbing my toes and also look we're men We're rough. We come from factory towns. We don't like Do heavy toe care maintenance look? I mean i'll trim my toenails when they're when they're long enough to climb a wall barefoot, but i'm not like looking to I don't know, impress anyone, Luke. So over the years, my toes, the nails have become discolored. I've fought off some athlete's foot. Maybe there's some fungus here and there, Luke. Maybe

it's a horror show. In fact, just to steal some references from the manscaped ad read. And maybe my wife hates me for it. And my kids are afraid to see me with the socks off. Luke, I can't be the only one who's been there. So I finally bit down, bit the bullet, whatever you want to call it, visited a dermatologist and they recommended the over-the-counter topical solution called Jublia.

J-U-B-L-I-A. Not expensive, but all you really need to do is once a day, take the little brush, paint it on your toenail. It's colorless. You do that every day for like nine months. I'm, you know, about six months in. You're going to see some major changes. Luke, it is a bit embarrassing to show up in flip-flop somewhere or show up in slip-on sneakers with no socks.

And then you go over someone's house where they're like oh can you please take off your shoes and then you're like oh crap how do i hide the fact that my big toe is like purple and green right because i stub it all the time and i don't take care of it and then the nail falls off and then it grows back in and then there's like hands that come out of it look i'm being real here with our male listeners tell me your feet are glorious please please, please, Luke. Judge me. My feet are grosser than LeVar Ball's teeth. I mean, they look

like ass. As I've talked about on this show, it's like tradition in the male side of my family lineage. Grandpa, Dad, that just you know, you got gross toenails, right? I don't want to be that guy anymore, Luke, okay? Did you see our Showtime producers text just now? Did they say, wrap it up, Luke?

What did they say? Yeah, you're getting the light, B. You're getting the red light in the back of the room. Yeah, he's like, we don't really have a Jubilee sponsorship, so can you wrap the show up? Anyway, there is hope out there. There is a solution yes i'll show you what it looks like right now luke you know what i'm saying yeah all right you're the

worst human in america yeah let's here comes osama bin campbell yeah yeah he is yeah yeah he is all right luke when are we gonna get some m MK back scratchers on the thing, right? Please, okay? All right. We should get some MK toenail cleaners. That sounds like what we need a little bit more. That sounds great. You're so fucking gross with that thing.

MK topical solution. I'm going to drag my pumpkins across your back scratcher because I know you put it in your mouth, you sick person. Luke, you don't know where this thing, by the way, my cats love this thing, Luke, okay? It's great. You can get the backside. Why don't you put it more in your mouth? You absolutely...

Dude, you're the whitest person I know. Oh, I'm going to put this on my cat's back, now in my mouth. I've never put it in my mouth, dude. Let's not be ridiculous here on a Friday afternoon. All right. All right. Our team has basically warned us to end the show

or be done for good, Luke. BC, real quick. You're going to the CBS Sportsbs sports hq studios tomorrow are you not i am doing that luke for all things wilder fury 3 so folks can catch my post fight breakdown there luke you'll also be doing an mk uh an mk shit right right yes i'll be doing an mk instant reacts for the uh for the fury fight i might go live i might not depends we'll see it depends on the situation but either way we'll have immediate post-fight coverage for that right here youtube.com slash morning combat good stuff to come this weekend uh not only do we want you to enjoy the fights but we want you to take the step forward

first like follow us subscribe to what we're doing here on MK. We're very close to 100K. But speaking of 100, you ever want to get into sports betting? Why wouldn't you? Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now because DK and MK are together, and this deal is too good to pass up. First-time subscribers who download the app, who make a bet on Saturday night's Fury Wilder 3 fight,

you put $1 down. Here's the deal. If either fighter lands a punch in this heavyweight trilogy bout, DraftKings is going to give you 100 bones to use on future bets, NFL games, UFC fights, boxing. So much you can get down there. Download the DraftKings Sports Bet Now app, but use our code, Luke, Combat with a K. combat with a k combat with a k you just get free money I mean I don't know what else to tell you literally use combat with

a k at the DraftKings Sportsbook app and you're gonna get free money I mean I don't know what else you would want to get your day going simple as that uh we can't thank DraftKings enough for their generosity and we hope that you donks out there add to your viewing experience with literally, we're not making this up, free money. So come on, let's do it. You like Wilder and a puncher's chance? You like Fury to redo what he delivered in the rematch? Get on DraftKings Sportsbook app today.

Put in that combat with a K code. Get your $100 with a $1 bet on this fight. It's going to be some good times this Saturday. Luke can't wait. Also, special thanks to our folks from Showtime. You want to try Showtime? And why the hell wouldn't you? I am so, oh my God, Billion Season 1 is so freaking good.

I know I'm five years behind or whatever, but I cannot get enough of this. 30-day free trial today at Showtime.com. All the Bellator you can handle, championship boxing, documentaries, all that good stuff. Please take the plunge, pound the sand after. If you don't like it, tell them BC sent you. Luke, anything else, friend?

One more time on that? No, man, a lot to do this weekend. I'm excited about it. And, yeah, go get some merch, morning that story use the code live 10 live 10 live 10 and you can get 10 off your purchase drug rugs coming um yeah should be some good stuff look a lot of people loving the celebrity wheel of death a lot of people saying maybe that's how the segment should be moving forward i just hear i hear things? I don't agree it should be fully them, but if people want to leave us a one-star,

excuse me, one-star, a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, we'd be grateful for it because the wheel of death when we're together in person and you do it is very good. It's magical, yeah. It's just, if we're going to do the Zoom thing,

we need some help. You need some reinforcement. By the way, a lot of people chiming in. I know you don't believe me, but it's true, saying, maybe you took the knee against Oteel. Maybe we need a rematch here. Maybe we need to, you know. All right.

That's all I'm saying. Well, I mean, it's like five minutes to answer a question that would take an entire semester. I mean, you know, what am I supposed to do? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay, frat guy.

All right, Luke. That's it for the show today. You're the biggest frat guy I know. You are so frat guy i know you are so frat-tastic it's unbelievable i just don't know i don't support you know we think we're better together trevor with numbers no you're not here you buddy bunch of bunch of spineless pieces of shit okay luke all right okay all right you know i'm the lone ranger in this game luke i don't need i don't need anyone to get my back you're're the lone ranger in the no fucking section. That's what you are.

I do recommend Jubilat to all of our producers, including the ones who told us to move on, Luke. Alright, that's it for this week. Special thanks. Enjoy the fights this weekend. Check out Luke's IA after the fight. May all your hoes be loyal. It's BC, it's LT, it's MK. We out.

IA. T it's MK. We out. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I.

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I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. He is Mr. Triple-double. I'm Russell. you you you