MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 249, Daniel Cormier, Ronda Rousey | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 38

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

On episode 38 of Morning Kombat, Luke and Brian discuss the implications of UFC 249 being cancelled and talk about a potential 'Fight Island' in the future. They also discuss Daniel Cormier potentially running for UFC president and Ronda Rousey's rant against WWE rans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This life was all I ever wanted. I'm not leaving. Not yet. I was hoping you'd say that. We gotta hit the streets, make some money. People like us must destroy people like him. Buckle up. Get Showtime free at Showtime.com.

Reveille, Reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. It is Monday, the 13th of April, 2020, and it is time for Morning Combat. Hello, everybody. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of the hosting duo of this program. The other half is across the

screen. He is my hetero life mate. You might know him from CBS Sports, as well as many other gas stations finding all the hot dogs that are available, whether they are delicious or not. It is Brian Campbell. Brian, top of the afternoon to you, sir. Yes. Near, far, wherever

the hell you are, you better believe that morning combat will go on. I know what you're thinking, right? High and tight, just like Luke's high school dating preference. But I had a little mishap, Luke, last night with the Razors. I was nervous. I really don't want the world to see me because I don't think that they'd understand.

But I'm back. I'm ready. Let's do this. Everything's made to be broken, Luke. I understand but uh I'm back I'm ready let's do this everything's made to be broken Luke I just want you to know who I am let's do this yeah well everything falls apart as they say uh this that's the reality with barracks cuts you can get a good one here maybe even a great one there but in the end the lack of expertise on haircutting will eventually catch up to you it's going to catch up to me too by the way I'm I'm barely hanging on to what I have I'm probably going to be joining you next. Now, before we get to the show,

Brian, a few housekeeping notes. Number one, like the video, give it a thumbs up if you can, hit that notification bell after you subscribe as well. Please subscribe to the channel because it is free. Now, speaking of things that are also free in terms of trials, you can go to Showtime.com right now and have a 30-day free trial. You don't like it? You can kick it out. You can do what you want, or you can keep it because it's got tons of great programming there as well. So you've got to subscribe here, thumbs up,

check out Showtime.com for a free trial, and a whole lot more. Brian, you ready to get this started? Well, if you're not in on what we're doing with a little spin-off, a little side fun on Classic Combat, just a reminder, this past Friday, Luke and i checked out corrales castillo one maybe the best boxing fight of this lifetime had a fun two hours luke i think the people liked it we cracked a couple cold ones more to come on that so continue to support this show uh maybe we'll get them mk do rag for you you know come on keep it let's keep it going let's let's let's build on this luke i'm ready i'm fired we gotta be like we gotta be a MK do-rag for you. You know, come on. Let's keep it going. Let's build on this, Luke.

I'm ready. I'm fired the heck up. We gotta be like Joe Exotic. You know he had Tiger King condoms? We gotta get some morning combat paraphernalia like that. Yes, yes. Tip covers, maybe. Alright, with that in mind, let's get the show started. Segment one, ladies and gentlemen. Let's do a bit of a

post-mortem. Now, the event did not happen as I slide to my right here, like the expert host that I am on this YouTube program. UFC 249 did not happen, and it has been talked to death. But we now have had a moment to process it. It's over. It's done with. It's not going to happen, but the saga itself is completed. So, Brian, let me ask you a question. Take us away first. Now that 249 has been canceled and we saw the ups the downs the in-betweens all the weirdness

what's the biggest lesson coming out of this whole episode well the biggest lesson from uh specifically how it ended last week is that money talks and at the end of the day we all serve somebody and uh you know upwards of what 75 of ufc's income comes from their exclusive television deal with espn and of course parent company disney so when you are trying to do something and put a message across or trying to accomplish something at the end of the day you answer to somebody and there is a limit of how far you can go and that's how this whole idea sort of ended um it's weird we talked friday during our classic combat episode which was a little bit more of an instant reaction to this luke and you know at that point i was a little bit more heavy into man this crazy guy t White, like just won't stop.

They have to take the tools out of his hand and force him to quit because, you know, he loved to double down in that interview with Brett Okamoto, remind everybody that he could go forward with the card. He wants to go forward with the card. He could do it right now if he wanted to. And oh, by the way, Devil's Island is a making right now. It's happening. They're putting it together.

They're fencing it in. Cheese and lettuce sandwiches are coming. But I'm not going to say that a couple days have given me a new perspective. But it is Monday morning, Luke. And, you know, you can watch the Today Show. And tornadoes are ripping through the country on top of COVID. And, man, am I craving some normalcy. So I think it just brings us back to what,

or me back to what Dana did wrong, because there is a thin line between ambition and this whole idea of what we're trying to do. We're trying to fight within our actual circumstance to recreate some level of normalcy and not all of Dana, what he did was bad. I think the fact that we all knew it was rooted in, in finances with the parent company endeavor at the end of the day, didn't give us a feeling like there's any Robin hood merits to what Dana was doing, but I don't want to stomp on Dana. Like I may have wanted to last week because I want the fights back. I want to figure out a way he can get them back without some crazy Island, without some lack of commission.

Can we go forward now and try to find a middle ground where we can actually make fights safely back? You know, what really occurred to me is something a little bit different. I was trying to put my finger on why was last week inside the MMA community? Why was it so acrimonious? Because there are always disagreements. So-and-so thinks this fighter's best pound for pound. So-and-so thinks Israel's responsible for

UFC 248 being boring. And then this side thinks Joel is responsible. And there's always disagreements. There's always heavy debate. But there's always a little bit of inside MMA, us versus them. Fight fans, they can sniff out an imposter in their community like that, right? They really kind of know who's inside, who's not. But last week felt like the community had turned on itself and different factions were eating at each other. And I was trying to figure out, like, how did we get there? And I think I, here's what I stumbled upon, Brian. I'd love to know what you make of it.

I don't know this to be true. I'm just trying to noodle it all through, which is, if you paid attention to politics in the 80s and 90s, there was something called the culture wars, right, where you had different groups who were divided on really partisan lines, but difficult topics like abortion, like gun rights, right? Very weighty things. And that kind of went away, not because those divisions went away, but because the culture wars have seeped into everything. Some people don't want to eat at Chick-fil-A. Some people aren't going to eat at or wear Nike.

Some people are taking their Keurig coffee machines and they're chucking them out the window. Not really for the best of reasons because it is now involved in every layer of identity. Here's what occurred to me, Brian. Last week, what you saw was for the first time the culture wars eating at the different subgroups inside of MMA. COVID-19 has become part of the culture war. If you follow certain politicians and certain media ecosystems, you got one idea about how bad it is. Versus the other side, you might have a very different idea. To me, this was the first time you saw those subgroups jockeying for supremacy inside of MMA in a way that got really kind of ugly on both sides, to be quite honest with you.

I don't think both sides are free of blame in how they handled it. I mean, it all could have been handled a lot better. I just never seen that kind of conflict within the sport. And this is a sport, as I mentioned, where internal conflict is relatively common, but not like this. For the first time, you saw laid bare the different social groups. And the scary part about it, Brian, is it's kind of like power brokers on one side and media on the other. And whatever side you take, it's not good that those divisions exist. It's not good that they're pulled apart

at the seams like that. Because once you have it as a function of identity, I'm on this side, I'm on that side. It's very hard at any point in the future to then have any kind of consensus about anything. It's unfortunate that the whole COVID debate, which made MMA the sort of frontline story because Dana White was the only sports commissioner seemingly trying to push against it all. It did make it a very right versus left political thing where if you didn't think 49 should have went on, then you're definitely a sissy left-wing social justice warrior. And if you, you know, were willing to go on no matter what, because we just want entertainment, then you're, you know, a gun-toting whatever. And that was sort of false. The darkest moments was sort of the, you know,

people are taking stances. You took a very hard stance in one direction of safety and precaution. And the idea that if you're doing that, you're trying to take away from the fighters and you're trying to be anti UFC. And it's couldn't be further from the truth. And there were a lot of weird emotions that came out of this. You know, I'd mentioned that in our short show on Friday where we talked about this briefly. But it's like when that fight card finally got canceled, those and I was on that side of the line, you know, of it shouldn't go on next week. It shouldn't go on this week.

I shouldn't go on under these circumstances where you're stepping around state commission, where you're going against sort of the natural flow of how things are going. It was like, OK, good. They finally someone stepped in. There was an adult in the room. They made the right decision. We win. But, you know, it's like that old joke. What do we win? We win nothing.

We don't have fights this week. We can't do our jobs the way we want to get back to it. People that are just craving live entertainment so bad that have things a lot worse than I do, let's say, at the moment, you know, just want some sense of normalcy. So nobody wins by this. But I hate the extreme sides of any argument. I want to find, you know, the middle where we can kind of make things work. And I still believe, Luke, that UFC and combat sports in general can and ultimately will come back before organized team sports. Now, that's not a huge revelation, right?

There's no union. There's no players association. It has a better chance. But I'd like to believe we are closer than not to getting a UFC card. But again, I'd just like to see us go away from maniacal, ridiculous Fight Island ideas and kind of bring it back to the center of, you know, how do we create a UFC biodome in Vegas? How do we get the local commission involved to make it as safe as possible? Dana White can't stop talking about how Vince McMahon and WWE is doing it just fine.

And to a certain degree, they are pulling it off. Well, is there a middle ground where that can work to get UFC going to bring back some sense of normalcy in our life? I would support that. I would just not support the crap storm that came out of this and the whole idea that Dana might be doing it for the wrong reasons. That takes us to segment two about this, and we'll finally put UFC 249 to bed. So let's ask this question.

Now that it is all over, whatever we want to say about its biggest lessons, the last thing I'd ask about it, Brian, is how much damage did this do to the sport? Now, the answer could be none. The answer might be absolutely none whatsoever, and there's nothing to worry about. I tend to think in terms of lasting damage, not very much. Not very much in the sense that if the event had gone forward and nothing would have happened, I also don't think that would have been cataclysmic. Of course, if something had gone forward and someone had tested positive, it would have been a disaster. I think at least from a PR standpoint. Um, although I did see that someone from the WWE tested positive, but that's a different story for a different time. Here's what I'll say about the damage. I think that it was

an embarrassing look for the sport, not from the mainstream looking in. People always ask, why doesn't the mainstream ever cover us? And when they do, they're all negative. Because that's what they think about us. Whether you like it or not, that's what they think about us. The Wall Street Journal doesn't care. They don't have a media reporter in their sports section to the extent that they ever cover any sports, which is very infrequently. They don't really care about covering the sport in that kind of a way. Kevin Draper, the guy from the New York times who reported all those stories,

I spoke to him, New York times had a boxing columnist 10 years ago and they got rid of that position as well. They just, they don't, they don't care about us in that kind of a way. So they only care when there's something that already feeds into their negative or somewhat simplistic ideas about what fight sports is. And then having the governor having to step in, even if you want to say there's political party considerations involved, it's just not a great look.

But I will say one thing in terms of, A, we avoided the damage because it didn't go forward, so that's fine. Bit of an embarrassing look, but that's not the end of the world. I'll actually say there was a silver lining in all of this, which is that Dana White declared to the world, we're going to be the first ones back. And the point you had just made, I think is correct. I mean, think about football. Just in the playing surface, American football, you got 20 plus guys, right? More than that on the field. Plus you have all the players in the sidelines and equipment managers and team doctors. And you've got quarterbacks, coaches, wide receivers, coaches, O-line, D-line, coordinators. Some of them are in the booth, of course.

But you have, I mean, what, hundreds of people on a stadium like this? And that's not even including the fans. How on earth do you do that without a vaccine? I don't know. That's their problem to figure out. MMA will be back before football. I guarantee it. And I think in Daniel White doing what he was doing, I think he went too far.

But, Brian, cracking the whip in the way that he did, I think he put commissions on notice. Which is to say, we're going to try and get back fast. We're going to try and get back as fast as possible. Be our partner in this. And let's figure out what the safety protocol should be. Now that's going to take time because the virus sets the schedule. But I think if there's any good coming out of this, when they come back, I think there's a reason to believe they'll come back with commission sanctioning and that commission

sanctioning will open up the doors, not merely to UFC, but to any promoter who can then follow their guidelines. it gives me some hope that's right that's fair and i do echo what you're saying on the idea that long term there's no real pr damage because in the in this in the world of casual sports ufc mma is always going to be the guy from the other side of the tracks that comes to the prom with the tattoos like oh but he's a really nice guy but then oh then the fight breaks out and he stabs somebody because that's who he is so there was always going to be a limit i think we've already hit the ceiling to the idea of how mainstream could ufc go how far could it go went pretty damn far right reality tv show espn deal like i mean it's it

went pretty damn far but it's still cage fighting at the end of the day and i say that with full love and respect this is still the combat sport the end of the day. And I say that with full love and respect. This is still the combat sport. This is still the red light district of actual sports. They are who we thought they were at the end of the day. And that's really nothing bad right there. People will come back for the big fights, but no real long-term damage, obviously, unless the card did go on.

Somebody got hurt badly. It led to something bad but uh man like just to close here the the real tipping the real jumping off point where it just got so bizarre was the whole friggin fight i like i still can't believe this is actually happening that's the only element of this luke that i'm still like was i in a dream last week this will be the thing we remember most it It has to be. Get to that here with our third topic, if we can, Jay, as I expertly turn to my right here to give space for the graphic,

like the true professional that I am in these very, very high-tech studios that we have. Fight Island appears to be a thing. Now, we don't know in what body of water it is in. We don't know exactly when it's going to be open, although UFC President Dana White said the infrastructure should be done in about a month or so, give or take, and that we'll have to see how things go from there, Brian. Again, I'm hoping that they wait for some kind of official state sanctioning to get going somewhere, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. In terms of Fight Island, Brian, what are you most excited about? What do you want to see? What really gets your imagination going about this whole concept?

Look, I don't think it's real, Luke. I'm not trying to be a truther, a Fight Island truther. Do I believe Dana White looked into it? Do I believe maybe even he purchased it? I don't know. Maybe. I don't believe we'll actually ever get there because I think it's even more bizarre than what went on last week with the tribal ground potential of the Tai Chi Palace in California

and where 249 was supposed to happen this weekend. Yeah, I could sit here and say I want sharks with freaking laser beams and go all weird and give you what, let's make Fight Island as cool an action movie as possible. I think that's the wrong step for UFC. I don't actually think we will get there. Maybe it's a little posturing from Dana just to show everybody, just to maybe even to show his bosses, you know, his quasi bosses at Disney and ESPN that, okay, at the end of the day, your voice is the loudest one.

But again, just to let you know, I can and will pull this off. And unless you help me figure this out, I'm going to go to this crazy island and have Savage Fights on there. I really think, again, Fight Island should be the UFC Apex Center in Vegas with the PI next door. Put a bunch of bunk rooms in there. You already have world-class chefs in training and instruction and recovery. Make that your home. Even if that means UFC, which Dana had teased on, creating their own medical

infrastructure that doesn't take away beds in a hospital from COVID patients for fight-related injuries, I do think there are a way we can make this happen. I'm going to say it right now, the shovels will never hit the ground we will not see a fight somewhere on international waters because look that's a regressive step backwards for the the you know i mean i just mentioned that it's only going to be so mainstream but i think that's a giant step backwards for the sport wow that's interesting i did not think you would say that i think it could be depending on how it's used i think it could be be, depending on how it's used, I think it could be just fine, depending on how it's used. Which is to say the following, like if they come back in a month and

we're still kind of in this holding pattern where 1,500 to 2,000 Americans are dying each day, maybe not in New York, maybe it's now moved to Florida, maybe it's moved to Atlanta, maybe it's moved to D.C., God, you know, who knows. The head of biotech at Morgan Stanley made a point about this. It's going to have a long tail, right? It's going to be this sort of undulating path of peaks and valleys in terms of places it hits in the United States. If that's the case and the commissions still have not put together protocol, yeah, that could be bad. On the other hand, if they wait just a little bit and they go with the blessing of some kind of commission of, you know,

punitively believed to be, you know know on the right side of the sport i think it could be just fine and outright interesting you know the nba's attempt at getting horse going is doa because they're just trying to do a cheaper version of the real thing if dana avoids that i don't i i feel to understand what the problem is now i'm not as enamored with the idea of fighting on an Island, like enter the dragon style as most people. I watched Bodog fight with Calvin air. I saw, uh, Karina dam do the whole, uh, capoeira dance when she was fighting off there. I saw Jorge Masvidal fight Eve's Edwards out there. I've seen lots of crazy things already happen, but if it, if it can happen in a

way where fans want something fresh, they want something new. What's one complaint about fans that they have about UFC's product? Not the fights themselves per se, but it doesn't matter if they're in Toledo, Ohio, or Las Vegas. All the arenas kind of look the same on the inside. Well, here's a chance to have it look a little bit different, to maybe have some fights in the daylight, to have reality programming put around it, to just have a new, I don't know, you can't reinvent the wheel,

but you can get the wheel spinning maybe in a different direction. The metaphor is broken and shitty, but you know what I'm trying to say, Brian. It's a chance at doing something a little bit different, a little bit new, even if it's kind of the same old thing. I just think if you wait for just the right moment, this is not going to be some creative boom, but it'll be a great reward to the fans when the timing is right. All right. So let's give 30 seconds to the aesthetics of making it as cool and unique as possible.

Is it outdoors? Is it on the beach with a view of the water behind it? I hope. possible is it outdoors is it on the beach with a view of the water behind it i hope okay i'd like men with machine guns standing at each corner where the cameras are dude did you ever watch that stuff that they had i think it aired on fight pass for a time it was called karate combat it was like sort of this full contact style of karate these dudes were totally inspired by like 1980s aesthetics so they would have fights out with like sports cars, high-end sports cars on the outside, or at the top of really tall buildings, or all the things you would see in video games, or wherever the final boss was in some martial arts movie. And it made for a great and fun atmosphere.

Having a little fun in the sport, if that's what Fight Island ends up being, what's so bad about that? Remember you used to wake up in the 90s and watch ESPN in the morning and there'd be like Kiana's, you'd watch it preferably without pants, there'd be a Kiana's workout show from like an aircraft carrier or from like a beach in Hawaii. Maybe we should experiment with something like that. Get that guy Gilad back.

Remember that dude? He had ripped abs. I don't remember Gilad. I do remember Kiana. I't remember gilad though wow i cannot believe you were so down i thought fight island would have been your magnum opus your chance to paint the world's greatest brian campbell imagination painting you are so down on this you want the dark underground damp musty old basement of familiarity again huh yeah i'm i'm hitting a another i mean look we go through waves there's a hamster wheel this this covid season but uh i'm back in just get me back to normal please um i don't know i don't know look i'm struggling here all right all right all right by the way if they let's assume you think it is real right maybe maybe you don't

let's assume that it's real where is it i'm really tied up on that eddie murphy conspiracy because he's an endeavor client and he reportedly owns a island in the bahamas uh but i have no idea i mean you'd want it in a okay joke okay jay sorry luke's got another job i got it um you'd want it in a spot where the largest hub of international fighters could could fly there safely um i don't know luke it's dude what do you want what do you want to bet that fight island is just hawaii well yeah maybe it's the aloha bowl maybe uh maybe it's uh yeah forget the 10th island maybe it's the actual first island right it's like we're building this infrastructure we're gonna call it bladell Arena for no particular reason.

What do you want to bet? It's just actually, it's like some fucking remote part of Hawaii. All right. Well, whatever. We'll cross that bridge when we get there as well, which takes us to our next topic. Now, Daniel Cormier, a man well-liked within the industry by and large, gave an interview.

I forget if it was to ESPN or to MMA Fighting, but he basically was asked, would you ever want to take over as president for the UFC? And he was very clear. He's like, hey, Dana's going to be here for a long time. We don't have to worry about that. But it wasn't a gig that he had scoffed at. So, Brian, I'll pitch it back to you on this one.

How good of a president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship would Daniel Cormier be? I got to be honest, he would probably be the perfect choice because we're always thinking, you know, we've only really known Dana White in this. I'm like Art Davey before that or whatever, but we've only really known Dana White on this level of a guy who's, you know, trash talking, slick street, street smart guy. And when you're thinking of who could replace that, you know, you've heard Chael Sonnen's name thrown out a lot through the years of a guy who's in that ilk, but Daniel Cormier really has that sort of like lovable, believable, nice guy, politician side into him as well.

And I think that in so many ways, because you would want somebody in that role who was a fighter, who had Matt giant success and was beloved ultimately and I certainly don't know about his you know business acumen and his cutthroat abilities like that but if you're just using someone more in a figurehead role to represent you I really is there a better choice than him I like it's he it's like he almost has thatcareer George Foreman lovability to him. Here's the thing I worry about with this. We've seen former fighters turn promoters a lot on the regional level. You've seen it in boxing with De La Hoya and Golden Boy.

You saw it in Pride with Nobuhiko Takada. He became sort of a figurehead there in Pride for the Mazalas. I think he's still working with Dream as well. So we've seen that transition, but I don't know how well it would work for Daniel. And here's what I mean. Daniel obviously is smart. He is media savvy. He is very well liked by the media and the fan base now, which we did not used to be,

but he is now. He could do the job in terms of the boardroom and maybe even most of the media side of it, which is a big part of it, right? On the other hand, if you want to do that job correctly, not just as spokesperson, but as president, a lot of your interests don't align with the fighters' interests. Right? I mean, I know fighters think that their interests and the UFC's interests are one and the same. They are in many respects, but there's many respects where that's not the case.

Are you prepared as a person to come out and advocate for different positions that are not necessarily in the fighters' interests, like not paying them more than 15% to 18% per year or making matches or fights or demanding certain things from them. That's a great point, Luke. Right, so here's my thing. Because people used to say, oh, Brian Stan would be a good president.

I'm like, dude, he'd be the worst one because he's brilliant. Yes, he's good on the mic. Yes, he was a fighter. All those things. But it would require something of him I don't think he would want to do the question is and i don't know the answer brian does he really want to on occasion take a position that's not in their interest because it is in the interest of the organization he's heading i'm a little skeptical of that yeah see i how i just broke down why i thought he was perfect for really is from the idea of if you're looking for a figurehead, you mentioned the media savviness who really, to be honest, could help that that brand get more mainstream,

get in more living rooms. Well, yeah, that's the guy you'd want to bring on SportsCenter and handle things. I would think he could be he could even handle tough things in a very pleasing way. But you are right on the idea of a promoter at its core is for the fighters, but more for money, more for success, more for financial gain in the end. And it's always that, that great divide. Like, look, we need UFC to treat fighters better. Right. But their history of not treating fighters better has given us a long history of great fights. And you see that even in boxing today, where I think, you know, you give Al Heyman and the PBC a lot of credit for, in some ways,

altering and changing the game. We saw when Floyd Mayweather's pay-per-view rise came, you saw a fighter in the driver's seat eliminating the middleman, like really was in control of everything. And that was great to see. We also didn't see the kind of forced great matchmaking that we saw 20 years earlier with the Don Kings and the Bob Arum types who had at times gotten accused of certain things in their treatment of fighters.

So there is a really interesting divide there. Spokesperson, yes, but unproven whether he could go behind the scenes and make those tough calls. And I will give Dana a positive on this. Dana's largely undefeated with fans no matter what he does uh with his mouth controversially and that's because he always delivers and whether you love or hate what happened last week Luke and we already covered that in the opening segment good lord was that positive for the fans if you're just like I don't care I just want to see fights that's your guy could DC be that? Would he want to be that guy?

Would there be people behind the scenes that could fill that role when it eventually becomes time for Dana to step down? That's the sort of larger, deeper debate. I mean, look at how Canelo has gotten sideways with Oscar, right? It's like Oscar, however you want to assign that debate, I've seen Cormier get sideways with rivals as a competitor. Does he mind, and again, I don't know the answer to this, but does he mind getting sideways with other fighters

from a business standpoint as he represents an organization's interest? And there's nothing wrong, necessarily, with representing that organization's interest, but the idea that at every time they're going to be aligned all the way down is not true. The question you have to ask yourself is, what side do you want to be on? And that's a difficult choice, I think, for anybody. Now, it takes us to our last topic, Brian. And I'm going to really lean on your expertise here.

But it goes something like this. Ronda Rousey, your former bantamweight champion, one of the most successful fighters in terms of stardom, certainly in UFC history. Ronda Rousey went on Steve O's podcast. And on this podcast, she said a number of things. Now, I have familiarized myself with them. She talked about WWE, saying she liked the artistry of it, the theater, but she called it fake fights. And worse, she said, if I'm going to be making this money, and even though i'm working part-time i'm gone 200 days a year i what's i don't need this money if i'm going to be living a certain lifestyle and i have to do it in front of these and this is the

word she used ungrateful fans brian here is my central question about all this which i just can't quite figure out why is she doing this is this some wrestling angle or is she just a malcontent no matter where she goes all right right when it happens you're like man this is validation of why we shouldn't like ronda rousey the person she sucks and look i'm not she handles things horrifically from a pr standpoint in the face of any type of loss or pushback um what has happened since this we saw uh a female wrestler naya jackax of WWE come out and and you know basically put out like an F Ronda tweet I can't wait to get back in the ring with her yes I'll do the job and make her look good because that's the only way she'll look good but I'm

gonna have pleasure and being the first to kick her ass blah blah blah right when you read that tweet like oh wait are they working me is this an old carny trick so that when she does come back to wwe and just to let everyone know a little more than a year ago at wrestlemania 35 was her last match she stepped aside you know under the precipice of wanting to start a family and there'd been rumblings the last six months that she's really getting that itch to come back so is this the beginning of a heel turn for her within the wrestling game right what's the biggest heel move you can do turn on the fans by ripping them and then rip the entire structure in the business and and basically act like you know i'm a real fighter i'm better than this

that actually makes sense storyline wise if you're a day-to-day week-to-week wwe fan because wwe has wanted for a long time to cash in on this angle which is the original four horsewomen Rick Flair's daughter Charlotte Flair and a bunch of other stars that came up through NXT together against Rousey's four horsewomen who of course we know her old MMA training partners who now wrestle in WWE Shayna Baszler Jessamyn Duke and Marina Schaffer so if that's the build to get us there, then it kind of makes sense. But if that's what this is, then it's like yawn.

It's either that and it's lame or it's real Luke. And you're like, holy crap is Rhonda soft. And I look, I don't pile on Rhonda. I don't try to put on the head kick and the head movement

and do all that and rub it in more. Her social media videos are cringe. I don't need to put on the head kick and the head movement and do all that and rub it in more. Her social media videos are cringe. I don't need to see that close of a look inside her kitchen with Travis Brown. But if she's actually really putting this on the fans when she was propped up and put forward in such a positive light by WWE. And the only time the fans really got on her was in parts of that rise when she was just playing brutal on the microphone and by the way if you didn't watch her in wwe she was incredible in the ring a natural had her own unique style incredible pretty cringe on the microphone as you might expect that's when some of the fans turned on her but if that's like the the real case luke it's like wow another another strike against um me really not just being completely done with the Rousey brand at this point.

Well, here's the thing. Okay, again, this is why I would rather have my balls dropped onto a bear trap and then have to deal with the consequences of that rather than watch five seconds of pro wrestling. But this is what I don't understand. What is wrong with the idea of her being the villain, right? Because even if this is not real and this is all just a setup, I mean, what she pulled at UFC 207, the various things she said at other times to just kind of piss a lot of people off.

As somebody, Brian, who naturally pisses a lot of people off, I understand my brethren when I see them. If you're Vince McMahon, why wouldn't you actually lean into that? Like to me, that might be more authentic than just like this undue adulation for yes, a talented physical competitor, but for somebody who, you know, kind of hard to like. Well, they will eventually.

Like what came out of that tweet was the idea of, oh, she's never going to go back now. She's happy at home. Why would I do this full-time style? That's what really leads me to believe that this is a work because any, again, anybody that watched her in her one year, one year plus there, she wasn't that great as a baby face as a hero. Again, great in the ring,

not good on the mic. Who was she in her UFC prime and strike force prime? Luke a heel as a personality against all of her competitors with the, the resting bitch face, all of that stuff. So she would be so much better as a heel in pro wrestling, which ultimately leads me to believe this is a work. She actually loves the business. Luke like loves it.

I don't believe she would turn on it that, that hardcore publicly so quick. I believe this is more of her thinking she's getting people. Well, this is why I don't watch pro wrestling because it's dumb. Okay. Well, with that, I'm just being a shithead. Sorry. Hoppa's gonna

kick your ass, Luke. And I'm gonna be there. Todd Grisham and I are gonna be there to watch it. By the way, I can't believe you no-sold how good that round was that I watched with Grisham in his basement. Travis Brown, Arlovsky, round one, the thing was fire, and you were just like, yeah, I think it was all right. It's okay. It's all right. It's not that great. Okay. With that in mind, it is time now for,

I never know the name of this segment. Is it DMs with donks? DMs from donks? Yeah, from donks. They send it to us. All right. There you go. So it's the questions from da fans. By the way, if you ever want to get in on this, we always post a picture on Instagram on Sundays

soliciting questions. Fire one up there if you want to get one in. So first one is from FluffyBJJ. Brian. Could Darren Till's loyalty to his gym, Kaobon, be detrimental to his progress? Should he not try to align with a technical mastermind if he is want to take down Israel Adesanya?

Brian, I got to say, I don't understand this criticism. Keoban is actually a great team out of the UK. Number one, they produce several UFC caliber fighters. Two, if there was any lesson from the Gastelum fight, it's not to say that he doesn't have any further to go, but that he made enormous progress between the Masvidal fight and the Gastelum fight. Not merely in sort of technical maturity, although that is part of it as well. Really understanding angles, sticking to a disciplined game plan,

fighting to some of his strengths. But he made a mentally mature one as well he grew up it's like i don't understand what the problem is yes he ran into a bit of a roadblock there if he had lost to gastelum maybe switch some things up he not only won and i you know it wasn't like spectacular ko but to me the lessons that he learned and what that performance showed indicated leaving that team now doesn't seem like a necessary call at all yeah you'd need a bad loss to really fuel this argument let's be real of who he was luke he was someone they thought was had potential to be another connor at the

time that connor was red hot he achieved a certain status and i don't think he really deserved he was a good fighter not great and you know okay blew out uh too busy washed serroni i don't think he really deserved he was a good fighter not great and you know okay blew out uh too busy washed Cerrone I didn't think he won against Thompson and then suddenly he's in there for the title and I think he rightfully showed you where he's at now to his credit boy did he turn that around was forced to go up a weight class and figured out who he is at this weight class and he's slowly getting better I think he's he's a really solid fighter who still has very bright potential a little bit too early for that donk to uh be jumping in my dms even though i've never been a big darren till guy but he's pretty pretty damn good fighter and i think

he's only getting better yeah i mean i wasn't high on him before especially after the losses i mean i knew he was good but i didn't think he was as good as like advertised and then he just amazed me with that performance against gaslam so no man it's not broken so there's not a need to fix in terms of where he's at yeah step up your dm game donks let's go that's right this comes from mr moberg uh brian what is your favorite fedor emilienenko moment wow wow all right um great question i'll tell you the saddest fade or a million make a moment when uh when giant silva sat on his face for five minutes and turned his face into hamburger that was i was there i was tough to endure uh uh honorable mention for the greatest fade or moment was

that half second when i thought he knocked out hendo. And I was like, Oh my God. But no, seriously. Um, would you like me to go on this one? And then you think about it. Look, look, the, the crow cop fight, the crow cop fight,

the build toward it was like, this is the epic all time, super heavyweight superhero guy versus guy. And he won it. So to me, yeah, that's the greatest mode. That's the mountaintop Fador for me right there.

All right. So, uh, first of all, I was at that Strikeforce event when he fought Bigfoot. Strikeforce must have hated me at the time because do you remember how they gave everyone those jerseys and they all walked out pride? Not jerseys, but like the letter jackets, you know, and they all, the varsity jackets. And they all walked out and there was like the pyro and stuff. They literally sat me so far back that there were no seats behind me and when the pyro went off it was hot to the back of my neck like they they couldn't have put me further away number one number two i was at the izod center which i don't

think exists anymore the screen for that like the jumbotron at the izod center is smaller than my mac right here that i'm watching the show on. So it was like, and I couldn't see anything because everyone's standing in front of you. I was like, wow, Strikeforce, message received. You don't like me. Now, speaking of the high moments of Fedor's reign, to me it's the Fujita fight. Because in the Fujita fight, you had a heavyweight in Fujita, which the Japanese loved. Of course, they'd never had a heavyweight champion before.

And Fedor was expected to just run right over him. And Fujita cracked him and rocked him. And there was a moment there where you thought Fedor was going to lose. You can actually hear Steven Quadros say, Oh my God, Fedor is in huge trouble. Because you couldn't believe it. And then he found a way to hang on got to his feet

body kicked him and then dropped him with I think a left hook could have been a right hook I have to go back and watch and then finished him off and Rampage Jackson was helping Boz and Steven Quadros commentate at the time

and said that's what a champion does that was a championship moment right there because he got hurt he was not supposed to but he found a way to battle back that was Fedor to me I don't know in his prime but it showed you what kind of metal he had inside i mean a championship moment

is getting pile driven onto your neck and head and then standing right up like it didn't happen and we've seen him do that as well he's an absolute cyborg and we've also seen you uh remove his potential taste for interviews and and and specifically robbed me of my opportunity so thanks luke thanks again i you know what i did i did you a favor hey fedor what's your favorite look at this all the wrong way i was like i was like i do you a favor because i fell on the sword for everyone so that you didn't have to have another bad interview that day you're welcome i was going to talk about the sweater, how many times he washes it, what does it smell like, and you're like,

well, when it comes to dubbed Russian film, which direction do you like to go? Are you more of a neoculture? And it's like, come on, Luke. Come on, bro. Hey, bro, listen. I was trying. He didn't want to give me anything.

I went to the bottom of the barrel on that one. All right. You know that lady who speaks for him? Do you think they're an item? No, they have a weird, weird like transactional energy between them well there are people who who who are items because of transactions in this world yeah but not like that kind okay all right so moving on here at aurelius 92 see i don't understand this question who was the worst interview you'll want any jay check or r Rousey, when you bring up her getting knocked out?

I understand the question completely. Why? Because Ioana's not a bad interview. No, they're talking about who's more insecure at their own worst moments. Oh, in either case, you mean? Like, in either case of asking them if they got knocked out. And Ioana, I have never had a problem with. I mean, look, she certainly doesn't want to delve deeply into the psyche of defeat and that type of stuff. But, you know, I love her

and it goes beyond her Instagram page, Luke. One day I will be the middleman that repairs that relationship in your life professionally as well as others. But I'll start with that one. But she's great. Ronda's the worst. You can't even, she didn't do any media

ahead of the Amanda fight. I mean, she's the worst. Ronda's the worst. You can't even, she didn't do any media ahead of the Amanda fight. I mean, she's the worst. Ronda is by far the worst to the point where she only does, granted, these are shows with bigger profiles, but she'll do that one.

I was looking at what was trending on YouTube over the weekend. She like made breakfast burritos with Gordon Ramsay, you know. She'll do stuff like that or Steve-O's podcast, whether it's a, you know, fake or real kind of thing but anybody or kathy lee and like michael strahan or not kathy lee kelly and

michael strahan like anybody who won't like the kind of person you can go to and be like okay don't ask about this don't ask about that don't ask about that are we cool and they'll say yeah no problem uh you wanna is not that way i mean whatever my issues are with her they've got nothing to do with that i recognize and by the way dude it's got to be hard to talk about that you know it's gonna be hard to be like oh you gotta knock the fuck out like it's not an easy thing no not at all so uh by the way did you see rousey and hoppa like a month ago basically flirting on twitter about butt stuff it got really gross look it got did you know you know what I'm talking about? So I don't have to explain it? No, actually, I didn't.

Oh, God. Remember that scene in Cruel Intentions when Sarah Michelle Gellar was like, you can put it anywhere. They kind of had that conversation. And then Rousey's bringing up poop. And it really went, I'm done. I'm done right now.

Okay, thank you. They were talking about anal? They were. They were publicly. That's why I'm too deep into their kid I actually unfollowed both of them Oh yeah, that's awful That is truly a crime against humanity

Alright Moving on then This comes to us from I can't read this Jay So just throw it up on the goddamn screen Because I can't see the notes in my email. This comes from Natraj Kavirinyani. Would BC be willing to go to a death metal concert with Luke

if Luke agrees to try the best gas station hot dogs, according to BC, once a week for a month? BC, I'll answer this question from my side very easily. When we get back to those famous studios in Malka, once a week for a month. BC, I'll answer this question from my side very easily. When we get back to those famous studios in Malka, next to the Chinese restaurant, and you want to bring every Monday one hot dog for me to try on air, I will do that, but you have to come with me to a Dying Fetus show.

What do you say? That's such a horrible offer, because on side like you know how our brethren at showtime uh brendan shob um has the great the food truck diaries is like a institution it's it's great it's you and i should be doing that at like cumberland farms look together where i'm like look you got to try this tornado the one that has like the maple syrup inside it's freaking amazing but then i gotta go to like like cannibal core like oh god it's the worst that's i even went to a twisted sister show one time and stood in the front row and i was like yeah you know yeah but twisted sister is for you know losers and lameos it's soft and i was just like i don't

want to go in this direction but um do you like what do you listen to you listen to people like do you need a hug and a good cry when you listen to music no no i i like i like it i like hard rock i love indie stuff haunting you know i love jam band i love a lot of stuff luke that gives that gives you like fish you like fish like grateful dead you know that kind of sorry you're damn right i do luke okay okay do you know how there's like a you know like a dog whistle i could blow whistle You remember that scene in Back to the Future I could blow it in the hardware store No one would hear it except for the dog The Dead and the Fish and Jam Bands

Have this way of playing high pitched guitar notes That only a stoner can hear You know what I'm saying You talk about you having old balls I'm more convinced your balls haven't dropped yet Again Luke you're a very smart man much smarter than me you're a you're a i don't believe that institutionalized educational tyrant and then you listen to like abortion rock it doesn't okay last last thing on

this what is the worst that could happen bring earplugs and get drunk who cares is there any satanic rituals during these or is that or you don't know is drinking a bud light a satanic ritual all right i'll yes for the for the sake of entertainment yes i will do this okay dude here's what i'm saying i have to do four things for your one you you don't even have to pay for the ticket and you can get drunk and wear earplugs. This is the easiest thing to say yes to in the world. Will morning combat cameras be rolling? Oh, I would absolutely bring a camera

to document all of your absolute misery. One hundred percent. I'm going to request Jay as my documentarian. I don't know if you've ever seen back in time. Jay, would you go? Jay, would you go? And of course, when you need Jay to come to the microphone, he doesn't. What?

He said yes. There you go. Wow, we got him angry. You know, could you just maybe talk a little faster? Okay, we go to our last one here. Again, I can't read it, so just throw it on the screen from and vic what things annoy you to no end i hate to hear people eating doesn't matter who they are friends family and strangers dogs get a pass though it's called misphonia which i have the same exact thing what about you brian um my biggest pet

peeve in life is when I'm eating, especially in a work-related situation when you don't have a lot of time and someone engages me in deep conversation when I'm in full-on aggressive attack chow mode. You know, imagine, you know, I used to work in a factory at some point. You got a 15-minute break and, you know, you just want to make love to that food. It's fuel. You're just, you know, you're sean shirking that thing luke okay because you need you need to get through that afternoon shift it's different when it's family dinner and the kids are telling me about school and we're all connecting but outside of that uh you know you and i go out to eat we can crack jokes have beers but when i when i'm when i'm attacking that food don't talk don't talk to me no leave me alone what

what factory did you work in what did you do Because I've worked in a factory as well. What did you do? I had like a midlife crisis in my 20s. I sort of reset for a year. The only year of my life since 1995 that I didn't write about sports in some form, I was a shipping and receiving manager at a small parts factory. So I had a job for a summer once because I had to make some cash where I had to get up at five,

be at the factory like 545, six. The furniture would start coming down the line and I had to wrap the furniture to be shipped into the trucks. That was a hard job, bro. That was a hard job. I cropped tobacco too. I had a forklift license, Luke.

I was awesome at it too. Did you really? That's pretty cool. I did stall it in the middle of the road one time. That's a long story. Had to leave it there until the guy could come to fix it. It was awkward, yeah. You were like Bill Murray in Stripes.

Oh, I'm not parking this. I'm just abandoning it. Okay, well, that's it for DMs from Donks for today, which takes us to Brian's favorite segment of the week. Brian, take it away. Yes, please. You know, we scour the globe for the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between in combat sports and beyond.

Luke, have you actually, in fact, seen this shit? Are you ready? This is a long one today. You could argue this will be our best segment in HYTSHS history, Luke. All right. You ready? Here we go. Let's start here with some actual combat

but look at the technique on these guys they're going for the kill right here luke dude this is elder oh god he's throwing throwing elbows this our 2020 election won't be nearly this good who sanctioned this luke oh nobody who cares about human life and dignity i want to hate on it but they're like they're going for it dude they're throwing elbows yeah oh yeah they're throwing hate right now what is the combined age of all three men in this ring 200 i'm gonna to say the Balder fighter is like 68. And the guy with the dyed hair, I know, because I used to dye mine

before this awful haircut, has got to be like 60 in the red gloves. Wait, wait. You dye your hair? Yeah. Yeah, Luke. I'm a professional performer.

All right? I got to keep things young, okay? No, you don't. All right. Thank you. Thank you. We killed that segment. Hey, let's move on from here, Luke. Hey, you don't. All right. Thank you. Thank you. We killed that segment.

Hey, let's move on from here, Luke. Hey, you want to see a dead body? Here's the best spinning back fist in MMA history. You ready for this, Luke? Like eight people sent it to me this week. Good God. Oh, Jesus. Oh, my God, Luke.

Check out the, look how tight that is. That's tighter than the ring dance, Luke. Do you see that? No, the Ricardo Hamos spinning backfist is better than this one. But this one is especially brutal. I mean, no, but straight up, that's 2013 Vitor Belfort Mohawk level tight on the finishing move. You know what I mean? Remember those spinning kicks?

That is ridiculous. That is brutality at its worst. It's so brutal, I'd love to find out this guy's name. Find out if he ever TNT'd, but that's for another day. Hey, Luke, let's roll into Jim Fails. Nothing pops Luke Thomas like Jim Fails. You ready for this? I do love Jim Fails, yes.

All right, is this a pull-up or a chin-up? You tell me. I know you're very hard on Phil Simms and others for this, but this guy getting a running start on this, Luke. Look at that guy watching. Uh-oh houston houston we have a problem luke yikes oh oh that is all you can see he's running like a goober all tight armed and shit you know you can just tell going way too far out trying to be all dramatic with it remember that time i wasn't allowed to show a dead body on this segment they got mad at me are we allowed to show what paralyzation oh dude that is fucking karma why can't you just get under

the bar then jump and go grab it yeah that's bad i mean but he's a goober you're right shout out to that guy he'll never jim has nice equipment though yeah he'll never turn his head again hey let's move on here uh we see a lot of these coming out from the box jump misses but this might be the worst i've ever seen luke here dude god bless the inventor of yoga pants oh oh man take away a point that's to the back of the head luke you know what i'm saying oh little in the middle but you got much back oh all right thank you hey luke um speaking of um speaking of old guys uh it's backyard football time luke you know quarantine season you gotta find new hobbies uh watch this halfback pitch right oh Oh, watch the hit the circle ball. Oh, my God. Dude, can I just be clear about this?

Every week you have some old person fucking taking a dirt nap. It is your watching old people get fucked up. That is your favorite thing in the world. I was going to say hit the circle button. Get the spin move. No, no. God. favorite thing in the world i was gonna say hit the circle button get the spin move no no oh and you had the temerity to make fun of me from phil sims yeah you love elder abuse uh speaking of haircuts luke i found a new barber for you in dc a lot less than 100 bucks check this out see if you're into this he's got some experimental techniques oh oh god oh no that's just salt brother dude is this like one of those like uh you ever go to

those like japanese steakhouses where they're doing all that fancy shit you know it's a hibachi haircut yes yeah oh it's a hibachi haircut exactly wow. Wow, firecracker. Dude, he's getting roughed up, man. That's great. Let's move on to the hero of our show, the spirit animal of our show. You know Andy King from Fire Festival? The guy who would, you know, suck a thing for a thing. Check out this bottle cap challenge, Luke. Andy King's about to win the bottle cap challenge. I follow him on Instagram now. Oh, should we call it a blowjob, Luke?

It's a lot of pink this man is wearing he's got pink shorts like a purple shirt and then like pink rosé or whatever the fuck he's you can follow him at real andy king this is from his ig account uh what does he do now do we know well we know he takes one for the team luke just so you know okay that's like it appears to be financially rewarding seems like he's got a nice house well it's raining men hallelujah here hey luke uh we know tiger king has taken over the world jay just told me there's a new episode on netflix i gotta check out i watched it last night oh is it good no all right well uh tiger king art is also taking over uh social media and popular culture in terms of dress up in terms of art here's sylvester stallone as jeff lowe and his

daughter as joe exotic thumbs up not bad is it's not halloween they just randomly decided to do this well it's quarantine season luke you got to to fill time. Couples need to fill time. Okay. Let's go to MMA's first family here. You ready? Check out Tisha Torres as Joe Exotic. And I think that's Rocky Pennington as Carole Baskin, Luke. Yeah, not bad. I like Tigger being there. That's interesting.

You think she'll feed Tisha to a tiger? By the way, I think Carole Baskin got a raw deal. No one wants to hear that shit, but it's true. Luke, if they fought at a catchweight for control of the comforter, who you got here? Oh, Rocky. Yeah, I'm with you on that. I'm with you on that.

All right, check out this Easter egg art. You know, it was Easter this weekend, so happy that. Happy Passover to Jay and his family. Check out this artwork here, Luke. These are eggs. These are huevos. Creepy, bro. You don't think that's creepy as shit?

No, I think that's brilliant. Look at the basket. That looks like some voodoo exhibit I saw half drunk in New Orleans. Look at the basket. That's fantastic. Luke, I got you a piece of artwork for your house here

to honor Joe Exotic and the sanctity of marriage. What do you think about this, Luke? Did you commission this? It's fantastic. I would seriously put that up in my office. It is pretty fantastic. So if you see the next episode, I won't ruin much of it,

but I will say the dude in the front, because Joe is in prison, the dude in the back is dead, so the dude in the front. Yeah, John Finley. Yeah, he has all his teeth now. Or he has fake teeth, but he has teeth. RIP Travis Maldonado. He took a hard fall, Luke. Yeah. Which, by has all his teeth now. Or he has fake teeth, but he has teeth. RIP Travis Maldonado. He took a hard fall, Luke.

Yeah. Which, by the way, I didn't realize this. They made it sound like it was half accidental, half he was in a bad place. They interviewed the guy who was in the office again for the new episode. Apparently, it was completely accidental. Were you aware of that?

I was not aware of that. They painted the picture in the doc that it was a suicide suicide yeah like he was just out you know out of his mind not exactly right apparently anyway well a lot of this isn't right but speaking of john finley luke would you uh would you remember did you ever see the movie american pie yes uh would you oh god would you split the uprights there luke would you would you no all right yeah yeah all right i i i just got unrelenting diarrhea because of this all right uh check out this crochet work from from some grandma in the midwest look this show is catching i mean it's taking over people's lives this year luke can we can we advance the file joe jay joe jay exotic i'd put on you bro telling you bro she got a raw deal no one wants

to hear it everyone was like oh no way she's crazy i mean she is crazy but and we're gonna close with this on tiger king our um i'd wear the i'd pay at least a hundred dollars for these for these uh kicks right here you those are the air force ones too yeah they're just paying that with joe exotic you could do a a sea punt on carol baskin wearing those you into that yeah you know what you wear those and i'll wear the uh the baskin ones and then together we can be a duo we can wear those to the dying fetus show i'm in on that i'm definitely in on that i would yeah all right hey let's move on here check out this football pass luke i'm i'm a hundred percent impressed by this tell me you're is this another old person taking an l no this is legit look at the tight spiral on that luke that That's like voodoo stuff. Is that guy a magician?

No, he's Australian though, right? Probably. I bet you he's a rugby player. Is that part of the training? Underhanded, not behind the back per se, but underhanded spirals are like that. That's their bread and butter. All right.

Well, Luke, let's roll on. I got an exercise video for you here's a here's another tip for uh diy to get in shape when you're when you're home during the quarantine check out these push-ups not bad right for this old bastard yeah that's pretty good yeah what whoa whoa somebody whoa whoa god oh my god no, no. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, because of Michael Vick of push-ups. What do you want from him, Luke? All right, come on.

What the fuck is wrong with it? Well, I mean, you know, you got to do what you got to do, I guess. All right, I want to close. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me see him fling this dog one more time. Like a scorpion, just lock. Oh, God. I think that's called the scorpion in the Kama Sutra playbook.

I think you get from behind on that. Luke, we're going to close. You know how every day there's some weird holiday? Time out, time out. Am I about to look at somebody's unit? Today, you know, every day it's like today's Pancake Day. Today's National Siblings Day. Do you know what today is for me, Luke?

Because I watch too much of the morning news today. Today is kick Corona in the stick day. Okay, so I'm done with this. Luke, I can't go on anymore. I cannot do this anymore. Life in this basement, COVID-19 no fights, no traveling, no friendships today started with my morning coffee, coffee, cup of a kick today in the dick. Here are some other products that can help you celebrate this day. Luke, tell me if you're in on these. Okay? For a snack, check out these dick chips.

What flavor do you think that is, Luke? Ballfunk. Here's some light reading you could share with your daughter, Luke. God. They just got a couple feet of snow in denver check out this uh backyard activity because look i'm done with this we need to beat this thing i'm getting on team dana we got to kick covet in the stick okay i knew i was gonna look at some phallic object i knew it i knew it all right go you can't go five minutes without being like,

I wish there was a dick to look at. Look, we got to find all the predators in our life who are holding us back. Next file, please. And we got to kick Corona in the stick, all right? Hee hee! Is that like the wax thing at Madame Tussauds? I think it is. Let's move on.

Here's a workout you can do to practice kicking covid in the stick luke high step a little bit i really have to see your curation process for this segment i did predict during the off-camera warm-up that this would be where you pulled out not not in that sense but you just you were done you were done with this you are let's we are we are hurtling towards that at light speed let's let's close with a that this would be where you pulled out. Not in that sense, but you were done. You were done with this. We are hurtling towards that at light speed. Let's close with a cannon blast, Luke, to celebrate National Kick Corona and the Stick Day.

So that's what I used to fire. Those were howitzers, but okay. Yeah, check out that smoke, Luke. Oh, it's a ball and a shaft and a bellend, you fucking bellend. All right, that's all I got. That's enough. Luke, have you seen that shit? That's all I got, all right? Oh, God.

Yeah, I love how you're like, dude, I'm kind of sick of being known as the dick guy. You love being the dick guy. You were born to be the dick guy. You are the dick guy in a way Andy King will never be the dick guy. You understand that? Do you know what I was? The dick guy watching Kiana's Flex Appeal. So shout out to Pat for texting me that.

You're damn right. That's what that show was called. All right. You think Gilad hit that? Probably. Okay. With that in mind, it's time for Odds and Ends. Brian Campbell, what is your odds and or ends for today?

Well, the real news on Floyd Mayweather that came over the past week, which is great to hear in light of his former trainer and uncle Roger Mayweather passing. He wants to honor him. We've seen some videos come out of the Mayweather Boxing Club of Mayweather training young fighters. He announced that he's going into full-time training. I didn't necessarily see this coming. We know that Floyd has a second career as the promoter of Mayweather promotions works hand in hand with Al Heyman. But, uh, where do you think of him as a potential trainer, Luke?

Because we have seen the all time greats in, in team sports sometimes struggle making that transition to coaching. And while we have seen pro boxers become great trainers, I don't know if we've ever seen like an all time, all time top shelf crust elite guy like Floyd. Do you think that can translate i don't know you know sometimes fighters make great trainers a lot of time or you know elite fighters a lot of times they don't i've had like good coaches before in jujitsu

and most not this is not always true uh because gordon ryan is like a really good i mean i never trained with him but he's like a very very effective teacher but a lot of times the better ones were the ones who were not necessarily that great I mean they were good but they weren't like super elite because they had to figure out every small detail before they could get advanced some of these guys that just kind of clicks and it doesn't require a ton of thought about how it's happening when they're like very athletic so it remains to be seen i think floyd is a lot smarter than a lot of his critics want to admit but i remain agnostic brian campbell well it would depend on his patience level certainly of being able to you know you instruct somebody but if they can't do it on your level would you have that patience but one thing is his mind, his IQ was obviously,

you know, probably his greatest strength. So if he's able to teach young fighters how to see the sport in a way that he did, uh, that certainly couldn't hurt. But the other Mayweather news quickly is his old rival, Marcos Maidana,

who we know has gone on to use all that Mayweather money from those two pay-per-view fights and get really fat. Um, he has revealed that he has floyd's tooth on like a necklace or bracelet and that it came look at check this out and that like talk about it we already love marcos maidana right like he kicked the crap out of broner he became everyone's hero he stopped victor ortiz when he was supposed to be the next oscar de la joya um imagine taking your greatest rival's tooth and putting it on like a chain.

Look, that's badass, bro. And he's claiming it happened. Do you remember this punch? Remember, Maidana, Mayweather won. Great fight. The second one, not competitive. Floyd used his legs and outpointed them easily. But do you remember the closing seconds in the third round at the bell when Maidana landed that bomb?

If we have footage of that, let's throw to it. He claims the tooth jumped out of Floyd's mouth and somebody on his team scooped it up. Jay in the back. Do we have the video? Let's go to the videotape. Oh, Jay has no video. Wow.

That's great. Luckily I sent it to you earlier. Wow. All right. Well, luke if you slow it down it looks like something shoots out of floyd's mouth and by the way he got hit hard we thought what round was it do you remember it was the last second of the third round and it was really my donna's only moment in that fight it was like ref jumps in to kind of break him and my donna follows through and clocked him luke, if this is true, how badass is that?

Look, Floyd went undefeated. Nobody beat him. Floyd doesn't take L's. This is kind of like a badge of honor from one guy who came close. I admit it's a less gruesome way of licking blood off your gloves, but it kind of gets the same effect, you know, right? So it's a little bit more palatable, I think, to the average person. I am in favor of

it i'll say i don't know if i would do something like that but i like that my donna might it's kind of like in mark for death when sagal killed the first uh screw face brother and he and they held up the the head to show everybody and then of course there were twins so they came from behind and killed that guy but that's another movie another day um but yeah thanks for playing that video jay there's my segment. Final thing on Odds and Ends before I throw it to you. I don't know if you've seen this yet, speaking of Jay, which I'm sure Jay will have this one, right?

But not my Maidana video. We've teased in the past that Jay was once in a boy band. Can we put that up there, Luke? I want to get your response to this. Check out the new pop sensation, No Escape. And check out this Loulman survivor from the backside on the far left jason what do you think look dude this no escape i mean

you just i mean look at these rue hypno fucking abusers unbelievable wow zero chance no that's what they would say to like you know girls as they cornered them in the end of the bar when it was you know last call i heard they were regionally successful in the philly jersey area uh they could they could have been the next 98 degrees the next um what's that other band that's saying cuz i want it all or not also also you know how there's like xmas or like x crossing hold on yes extreme well there's also if x is like chris so it's like no chris scape like it doesn't even make any sense o-town was the thank you jay jay a boy band aficionado hit me up with o-Town there. But what are your thoughts? I mean, you think that's probably Prime Jay.

Do you think Prime Jay was a magnet for certain things? Fail. Oh, come on. You had a chance to celebrate the guy we get a lot of crap for. Hey, why don't you just fire Jay if you don't like him? No, I love Jay. No, we like Jay. We also just like making fun of Jay.

All right. What do you got for an odd and end? Because that was odd, what we just looked at. And it has ended. I would say, according to the Body Lock, which is a great website, Chael Sonnen plans to do submission underground 13 on UFC Fight Pass on April 26th. Now, they did the last one, I forget, March 29th, SUG 12. That was after, it's believed to have taken place in Oregon, although that's not been confirmed.

That was after the governor there had issued an order that did not allow for more than 10 people to be in a room in conjunction with CDC guidelines as a group who are not essential at any point, which would have put them in violation. Now, they did go through at SUG-19, or SUG, excuse me, 12. They did go through a series of medical protocol. Chael was like a one-man band. He wasn't in the room commentating.

They had to wear long sleeves. They were all kind of held in separate rooms. But, of course, if you're sweating on each other, that has nothing to do with COVID-19. My understanding is, and that could be wrong, but there wasn't any COVID-19 testing at the last event. There won't be any for this one. If that is not the case, I'm happy to correct the record. That's just what we know of as of this time. I could walk into the office, Brian Campbell, and bang my fist down on the formica and ask to see the manager.

But I'm not going to do that. I like Chael a lot. I think he's a good guy. I think he legitimately believes he's not doing any harm. And so rather than trying to just yell at people to get them to come to our side, I would say, Chael, I'd love to talk to you about this. I don't think you should hold this event. I know that you think you're probably doing the right thing, but there's probably some other perspectives here that need to be taken into consideration.

So jail, please don't do it. We'd love to talk to you more about it. I don't think it's the right course of action. And, um, that's it. That's all I got,

Brian. Yeah. I love jail, by the way. I mean, ill-advised spinning attempt against Andy Silva and the rematch, but, um,

ill-advised attempt against Jon Jones as well. But yeah, I mean, look, let's do it right. Are you feeling the itch, Luke? I know mentally, physically, emotionally, we're all going through different cycles of the COVID hamster wheel, but I need it. I need it. Yeah, you know what? I'm not feeling the itch like you are,

but this was the first weekend where I was like, uh, starting to get a little bit of the itch starting to, cause before I wasn't feeling it at all, but now we're kind of settled into this. We're just waiting for this disease to pass us. And I kind of got to that feeling. I was like something I would like to leave my house and go do things.

Right. I would like something new. I would like to have my life back. do things, right? I would like something new. I would like to have my life back. I think a lot of people feel that way, you know? Yeah, and Kremlin Farms has suspended all hot food during this COVID season. How much takeout are you getting these days? A lot, a lot, a lot. Yeah, me too.

Now, when you get the takeout, are you washing the takeout boxes when you take them out of the bag? No. My wife is doing that when she goes grocery shopping um no i haven't been doing that i i bleach everything that comes through the door even beer cans and wine bottles everything everything i mean i'm not going to say that's extreme it's happening upstairs in my house probably right now but uh yeah does jay have the my house probably right now, but yeah. Does Jay have the My Donna video now before we go? No. Jay, do you have any video of yourself playing guitar on a rooftop with fingerless gloves,

or should we run that next week? Okay, great, great. All right, well, Brian, let's let the folks know how they can get more in touch with us of course there is the social aspect of all of this you can uh please subscribe to the channel subscribe to the channel right here on morning combat that part is 100 free of course you can go to showtime as well showtime.com and get a 30-day free trial. There is old. Let me see. Let me see. Point this way.

Does it get to BC? Yes. Yes. There is BC. Yes. Right. That side of the screen. Follow him.

Brian C. Campbell on Insta. B. Campbell CBS over here. Yeah. Let's do a high five, Brian. You want to virtually hit tips here or what? Oh, wait, wait. This is so stupid. We're so stupid.

Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. I can't believe we haven't been fired yet. Yeah. Dude, I felt a move. Luke getting handsy. You can follow me, Luke Thomas News on Inst Insta, LThomasNews on Twitter. And like the video, subscribe to the channel.

We'll have more content coming your way. By the way, Brian, one more time, let's thank all the folks who watched Classic Combat episodes 1 and 2. And by the way, they are rewatchable now, even though they're not live. Go check them out on YouTube. Sync it up with the fights if you can find them. Good times, Good times. It's fun to just crack beers and crack jokes, right Luke? We need a little

levity these days, do we not? A little bit of levity. Except your dong jokes, which I'm a little tired of. Okay. Brian, thank you so much. I will talk to you a little bit later today as we have some plans for some other stuff. But for right now, that is it. Thank everyone so much for watching.

Thanks to all the Vimolca crew and everybody else. Until next time, may all of your games be loyal. 🎵 you