MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 250 Recap, Conor McGregor, Jorge Masvidal | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 46

Episode Date: June 8, 2020

Morning Kombat is back for a big episode 46 as Luke and Brian recap everything that happened at UFC 250, including big wins by Amanda Nunes, Cody Garbrandt, and Aljamain Sterling. The boys also debate Conor McGregor retiring and the continuing fued between Dana White and UFC stars over money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

it is Monday June 8th 2020 and it is time, donks, for Morning Combat. Welcome, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo. I am joined by the gentleman on the other side of your screen. He's the peanut butter to my jelly. He's the conspiracy to my theory. You know him from CBS Sports.

It's the one and only brian campbell hi brian yes yes luke fired the heck up this week okay brother all right not just ufc 250 giving us a lot to talk about plus you know some future labor negotiations more on that to come uh but uh the sun's out today okay we can put some of the negativity aside in this life and world and take 90 minutes to have some fun and something else happened luke since we last met do you want to break it to the people break it before you know what this has been a cause that you have cracked the whip on more than i so good sir i could never take it away from you what news do you have to share with our intrepid and loyal viewers well mama we made it right abuela we in this piece okay uh if you go to

show.store.com at the moment no no no store.show.com and that's s-h-o not s-h-o-w all right luke you handle the specifics here if you gocom. And that's S-H-O, not S-H-O-W. All right, Luke, you handle the specifics here. If you go to this website that's out there and you search Morning Combat, we got merch, baby. We got merch. So, you know, a lot of people saying, guys, you give us this show for free. What can we do to pay you back? Normally, we say like the video and subscribe, Luke Thomas style. Today, we say, why don't you outfit yourself in a hat,

sweatshirt, beer, koozie, whatever we got a thongs. What do we got on there? Shot glasses, something on there. There's something on there for everybody.

Look, yeah. Mugs. We've got a pint, a roll pint glass. Let's see. Long sleeve shirts, short sleeve shirts,

beanies, hats, sweatshirts for, I mean, this, it just opened, I think, today or something like that. Luke pushed hard for a COVID mask, thinking he's going to be needing it for another five years. But I said, no, guys, come on. Let's be optimistic here.

Hey, New Zealand is having fans in attendance for their rugby matches. It just so happens they also have zero cases of COVID in the entire country. But, okay, neither here nor there. We'll make sure we get that link out to everybody. I'll put one in the comments of this video when the show's over. I'll tweet it out so you can have a gander at it then. A couple other pieces of show notes, Brian. Number one, of course, this is big for us.

Thumbs up on the video. Hit the subscribe button. It's the day after, or the Monday, I should say, after a pay-per-view. Big show today. Show us some big support. We really appreciate it. Also, if you would like to try Showtime for free, you may have a free trial. You can go to Showtime.com right now.

And for 30 days, you can kick the tires on a Showtime trial run. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can go and do whatever it is with your miserable life that exists outside of Showtime. But it is there as an opportunity for you, so give that a run. All right, Brian. We got merch. We got our housekeeping notes out of the way.

No, we got one more thing, bro. What did we forget? We have a spinoff franchise called Morning Combat Classics, and I think the people to drink minimum may want to tune in this friday night 10 eastern when showtime unveils uh i don't know a five four five six pack of great mike tyson fights of old but we got a nice mix by the way of like crazy tyson and knockout tyson all mixed together and as a companion piece luke and i will be hitting up m Classics.

You know, bring some cold ones. It gets a little sweaty and gross in there by the end of that, but we're going to go along for the ride with you on YouTube. So let's rock out Friday night. Busy week here on the show. We got merch, we got spinoffs, we got a lot going on, but without further ado, we got to get to the show that is the nucleus here of everything. BC,

without any more delays, let's get to topic number one if we can. All right. So it is in the history books. UFC 250 took place again at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada in your main event, Amanda Nunes. What do you want to say? I mean, just kind of wiping the floor here with Felicia Spencer. Did it totally at ease. BC, go first, my good friend. Number one, what can you say about her performance? And then, you know what, let's just start there. Assess for me how she did.

Did you learn something new? What can you say about how Amanda Nunez performed on Saturday? Yeah, crown her, Luke. She is who we thought she was the greatest female of all time look when you're this dominant consistently all you can do as a pundit or fan or whatever is try to concoct some scenario in which there's a potential that a fight can be competitive this time it was oh the quarantine the ankle injury the baby on the way all that stuff moving up to featherweight for the only the second time in the UFC but at the end of the day when we spelled out the potential positives in Felicia Spencer's game and by the way I have

nothing bad to say about Felicia Spencer uh the only elite skill I really thought she had was was size toughness and durability and in the end, that was what she flashed in spades going the five-round distance. Yes, you could have stopped this fight and maybe you should have as early as the third round, certainly the fourth and the fifth. But at the end of the day, Amanda Nunes can't be rattled. She came off that tough fight against GDR in the rematch. She had mentioned a weight cut was a problem. She's a beast at 145. Her technique, her speed, the right hands. But even if you look deeper into the wrinkles,

and as Professor Salt-N-Pepa, I know you do, Luke, her takedown defense was fantastic. Her cardio over five rounds. If you were waiting at any point for a door to open up for Felicia Spencer to stick half of her toe in there, it just wasn't going to happen. And that's why Amanda Nunes is this great. What else are you going to say, Luke, right?

She's the queen. Bow down, brother. I mean, there's not much I can really add to that, except I think you're absolutely right. You know, we looked on paper and we're like, okay, on paper, how much of a mismatch is this between Spencer and between Nunes? Pretty significant.

I mean, Amanda Nunes had the reach advantage. She had the experience advantage. She had, if you look at the fight metric numbers, she had better striking totals, better striking defense, better takedown defense, better takedown accuracy. There was nothing you could really say, but okay, the win streaks are hard to keep going. It's a different weight class.

Let's just see what happens. All right, well, we did. You kind of indicated to it, but it's worth repeating here. You know, it's funny. If you go back and you look at her losses, particularly like the Kat Zingano loss, and then you look at who she is today, I mean, this is a completely different fighter. The only thing that really kind of holds up is the power is the same between then and now, but the way she applies it, the way she manages a fight,

all the other pieces of the game have undergone, if not growth, outright revolution. It's incredible to see the transformation. And listen, I'm not here to say that, you revolution. It's incredible to see the transformation. And listen, I'm not here to say that, you know, women's 145 is the deepest weight class. It's not, but I also just don't want to take anything away from Amanda Nunes. Not only is she technically superior to her foes, or at least, you know, maybe she's not a better striker per se than Duran to me, if you want to make that case, but the totality of her game gives her more aces in the hole, so to speak. But what's also interesting to me is in addition to this sort of wide ranging technical superiority, she's just physically more dominant than these other women, right?

She can, as we saw, put hands on you in a way that maybe no other woman we've ever seen can. She also has very good physicality when they clinch up. She was rag-dolling Felicia Spencer in these other moments, throwing her side to side. And this was the weight class above 135. So to me, it's like, listen, man, the only way at this point that she's going to get caught is if she makes a tremendous error, she stops caring, or Father Time decides to intervene. Because other than that, these other ladies just don't have a prayer she is so far in front of her competitors it's almost like you know Shevchenko is close I get that but in you know in terms of the other 135ers or the 145ers I mean there it's

not even it's not even doable to make a 145 pound match that's even remotely competitive at this point you know she sealed up her intangibles so tight meaning you don't see her gas out she has a great chin you're gonna have to be a thinker luke i mean we got to give in hindsight jermaine durandamy credit for being tough in that rematch but sort of trying to get the fight on her own terms which is really hard to do against amanda because even if your iq is high even if you're a Shevchenko who can be elusive and sort of set traps and all that you still have to deal with Amanda's power at the end of the day so we're asking someone to be such an a next level elusive fighter to even have a chance against her and certainly we're where we were you know a few months back and a few months before that who's next what's next is there anyone next

i still like a stay busy featherweight title defense against megan anderson she brings length she brings size she brings certain things to the table i still think someone like aspen ladd at bantamweight potentially can grow into a legitimate contender but outside of shevchenko there's no one that can beat her and it's that same conversation over again in which Dana didn't really want to have on Saturday you know his response this time was Nunes beat her twice what do you want me to do do it a third time well yeah because that would be the biggest fight of Valentina's career to finally get that third chance to to write what she thought was a wrong in that rematch it just seems that Dana's more interested in using Valentina to do a Weili Zhang super fight than to do this for

Amanda which makes me ask you this Luke with all those things considered the short talent pool Dana not jumping over hills to make the trilogy with Valentina how much longer do you think Amanda plies her trade well I thought for sure there was at least a chance that after Saturday's win even before like heading into the fight I was like if she chance that after Saturday's win, even before, like heading into the fight, I was like, if she wins this, I mean, I don't even know who's out there for her. And then the way she won, I was like, wow, there's really nobody out there for her. But she did not seem ready to hang it up at this point. She seemed ready to say, okay, I've got a family coming. I've got some other things I've deserved an earned break. So I'll take one. Fair enough. Who could

argue otherwise? And then looking ahead, I'm not super opposed to the Megan Anderson fight. Listen, if Amanda Nunes wants to hold that belt and she's the top contender, she has a responsibility, I would argue Amanda Nunes does, to make sure that that belt stays in rotation, at least in terms of opportunities for those title contenders. I don't think it's a very competitive fight, but strange things happen. And again, that's her responsibility as a title holder. At 135, I'm a little bit less convinced by the idea that an Irene Aldana or a Juliana Pena, or as you mentioned, Aspen Ladd, is really the fight to go forward here.

I mean, yes, all three of those women are very, very talented, I certainly acknowledge. And maybe Pena, with her sort of relentless takedown threat potentially poses something. But I think Aspen Ladd is way physically outmatched. And Aldana is certainly sort of interesting as a stick and mover. But I don't think we'll hold up under the power. She gets hit a lot. So it just doesn't really seem like that's the way to go. So here's what I think.

I think Amanda Nunes is going to take a little bit of a break. Let this kind of thing sort itself out. See who emerges. Somebody get a big win. Somebody show something, and then she can come back. And we're probably still going to favor Amanda Nunes, no matter which way we go. But at least there's a little bit of hype there. Right now, it just doesn't seem like anyone has jumped to the front of either of those divisions in a very dominant way. BC, let me pitch one last question back to you about Amanda, if I may. You had indicated there Shevchenko versus Zhang.

I got to tell you, I don't know if I like that too much. Zhang has this opportunity following the Yonning and Jacek fight to build on something. They're pretty spectacular at strawweight. I think she's overmatched, if you ask me, against Shevchenko, who would be the bigger woman. And as we've seen, pretty dang talented. I'm with you.

I'd rather see Shevchenko versus Nunes three than Shevchenko versus Zhang even though the latter is technically the much fresher matchup yeah and not and not only that but look I get people not even liking us putting the crown on on Nunes and saying she's the greatest of all time because MMA has been around for such a short amount of time and again what happens if she loses is that person the goat well they're not but even in that realm the only person who has a chance at you know besting Nunes in that conversation might be Valentina and if we already thought she may have won at least one of those first two fights giving her that chance to become a two division champion and and stand on top of that mountain would be interesting I'm still lament that we never got the Amanda rematch with

Cyborg it would have been a great pay. It would have given us a lot of answers to how quickly that first fight ended. But everything you said there is true. You know, I don't know if Kayla Harrison's star can get there fast enough where it would even make sense for Amanda to want to move up and wait even more and fight her. So that window's closing, baby on the way.

Maybe, you know, maybe we only get a couple more of these out of the line. It's going to be interesting to see. Yeah, it certainly is. All right, so so that takes us down the card if we can a lot to actually sort of appreciate frankly from Saturday's card in terms of what the fighters are able to turn in how about the return of no love not Rich Clemente no Cody Garbrandt is back folks whoa what a thunderous KO that is easily that second round KO he scored at 459 of the second frame over Rafael Sonsal. It's one of the best KOs in UFC history. It's one of the best

KOs in bantamweight history. It's easily one of the best walk-off KOs I've ever seen. And that was the second of two walk-off KOs on that night. Okay, Brian, back to you one more time. What did we learn about this version of Cody Garbrandt? Well, we learned that he overcame a horrific hair night. Shout out to him on that. But here's what we learned, Luke. You know, there was fear that, we called this a Crossroads ref fight for a reason.

If he lost, and especially by knockout, and this was no easy fight, obviously, he's done. He's done as an elite fighter. I mean, there would be a chance you could rebuild yourself over time but he's pretty much done not only is he back luke but he essentially went all the way back to the things we saw in the dominant cruise fight that showed you he was a super elite a future star and maybe even added on to that and that's a shout out to so many people certainly the the Mark Henry camp

and the idea of getting new eyes and ears in there for what he did in Jersey to build up for this fight it's also just a shout out to Cody Garbrandt's perseverance ability to withstand it was a storm a three fight losing skid the kind of knockouts that's that can just destroy your invincibility we feared that we know what's inside of him and he wasn't going to get a chance to bring that out he not only brought it out he brought it out with a bang this wasn't a lucky punch this was a fight he was dominating he was as crisp as quick as smart as really he's ever been and he looked even more dangerous in this fight than i thought he did on that initial build to the title run it's one fight it's one. But talk about putting the train back on the tracks.

It's a good story. No it's a great story. To see somebody with so much potential. To get back to where they need to be. And oh by the way. He sent my guy Rafael to hell. Luke he pulled that punch from the deep dark depths. Of where he's been the last few years.

And that was one of those performances where not only was it awesome, you jumped up out of your seat, but you felt good for the guy too. Shout out to Cody Garbrandt. Yeah. I mean, you want to talk about a redemption. Wow. So, you know, it's funny. Daniel Cormier was commentating that night and he indicated one of the big,

big criticisms of Garbrandt was his chin. Now, listen, I'm not here to tell you that Garbrandt, in terms of his chin, is prime Noguera or something, but I never really found that to be a very strong argument. If you sat there and take the punches that TJ Dillashaw was handing out or Pedro Munoz, you're probably going to go down, right? They're very, very hard. Again, maybe that doesn't have the best chin at Bantamweight, but he's far from the worst. And really, it didn't speak to what the real problem was. It spoke to a lack of discipline, a lack of in-fighting decision-making. Well, what did he show here?

In terms of sticking to the game plan and listening to his corner and understanding his responsibilities, especially on the defensive end, it seems like he was doing everything he was supposed to. And then, in terms of making decisions in the middle of a fight, right? Responsible ones, but still thinking through problems in real time, he dipped to the corner and came up with that huge right hand. That was improvisational. It was partly listening to his corner,

but he was able to make those adjustments on the fly. They didn't rehearse that. He just sort of made that up as it went, along with all the other things that he was diligently exacting. Dude, this is what you wanted to see from Cody Garbrandt. This is the proof in the pudding that what you saw in that December night in 2016, it is back and maybe better than ever. Not only does he have this sort of new system in place that he's got that accentuates his strengths and minimizes weaknesses, but he's able to live and breathe and think the whole time. And as a consequence, showing you he's got the fight IQ to do devastating things. One more point, if I

may, Brian Campbell, and I think it bears repeating here. I had some folks asking me after the fight, wow, he looks so much better with Mark Henry and Ricardo Almeida. Does this prove that Team Alpha Male is bad? No, far from it. Team Alpha Male was the one that got him to the point where he was doing what he was doing against Dominic Cruz. But listen, it also shows that cross training can help a lot of different athletes at a lot of different scenarios, including those who are in their mid to late 20s who might need a little bit of reinvention. Some people might start somewhere else, BC, and then up at Team Alpha Male and get that same level of growth, that same level of development. They're an elite

camp that's done elite things, but it just goes to show getting some different looks, seeing what's out there, complementing all the different trainers you've had into one is the kind of recipe you can have for long-term success. I commend Team Alpha Male, and I commend the folks over there in New Jersey for doing what they did, and I commend Cody Garbrandt for an absolutely sensational performance. And look, this will serve as a sort of a natural transition

into our next topics, but what a gluttony of riches at Bantamweight. I always tell you, lightweight, historically deep division, maybe the deepest ever. Women's strawweight, never going to let you down. And you made a good point about there's enough business there to keep Weili Zhang busy. She doesn't need to move up.

Bantamweight is as advertised. No, it's only better. Not just the three performances we saw. And you could argue that any of those three deserved story of the night, fighter of the night sort of honors because they were all three statement performances. But we're not even talking about that.

We still have the vacant title bout with Peyotre Yan and Jose Aldo. We got Frankie Edgar coming in. We got TJ Dillashaw eventually coming back. We got Faber we got crew i mean we have so many damn names pedro munoz wow this division is great and cody garbrandt could have disappeared on saturday and i still would have gave you that same speech only now he's an instant title contender i don't know how they're going to map out the future luke but it's

going to be crazy fun to see these matches as they play out. They're all main event worthy. They really are, top to bottom. It's really true, which makes me kind of sad that Cejudo isn't there anymore, but I guess maybe there's a chance he'll come back at some point, but you're right. Below 155, and if you want to say maybe on par at some point, I mean, 135 is making a case for itself as easily one of the very best divisions

in all of MMA. Now that takes us to another gentleman here at point three who had his own absolute shockingly good performance. How about Aljamain Sterling, the funk master? I think the only guest we've ever had on this show, BC, we didn't have him on a regular MK. We had him on a preview, I think for UFC 244, but we had him on just the same. And, um, wow. He submits Corey Sandhagen in about 90 seconds into the first round. I went through when I watched this one in great detail, BC, I'm so impressed by Aljamain Sterling. And I think that there's a point that needs to get made here. Number one, he is so obviously your top contender. I know Cody Garbrandt is back and he's back in a big way. And if I'm Cody, I'm staying healthy. I'm staying ready because you never know what could

happen. But Aljamain Sterling is on a five fight win streak against very top contenders, including this last one, Corey Sandhagen. And what he showed was in terms of his fight skills, there was nothing really exactly new here. I mean, we knew he could find the back. We knew he's deadly as a finisher. We know he's very, very strong. But what it just showed to me was sometimes you get these guys, BC, and they have a lot of promise and a lot of hype when they come into the UFC, but their promise and their hype isn't quite ready for the reality of things yet. And he had good wins to be clear, but you only had a few stumbles along the way. Not everyone has a John Jones-like run. Not everyone has Anderson Silva coming over and beating Lieben and beating Franklin and all these, and Luter and all these guys.

Some people have to figure it out a little bit differently, but boy, has he done that. Wow. He understands himself. He knows how to win. He knows what works for him. He knows if he has to stand, he can do that. If he wants to take it to the ground, he can do that. He had exactly the right game plan. I thought, take it to Corey early, use your grappling and strength advantage, and my goodness, that was such an application of force and skill and tenacity. And the last thing I'd say about a BC is, did you see the look on his face after he won? It wasn't surprise exactly, but it was the fulfillment of something that he was telling himself was true and telling himself. And he was waiting for real proof in the real world.

And then he made it. And it was so satisfying because you could tell there was a little bit of joy mixed with a little bit of pain. The pain of some of the setbacks or some of the hard lessons but he has grown into something magisterial he is your top contender that guy is a is a winner and not born but proven through hard work talent and development what a guy yeah you mentioned joy and pain how about a little sunshine and rain pump it up pump it up statement made here luke i mean it's almost as if aljo like read all the clippings and the headlines knew that this division was about to burst vacant title at stake they didn't call him for the vacant title bout and even though this was like a pick-em fight and you and i you know were very honest about that coming in i think a lot of us started to go,

we kind of feel like we know Aljo Sealing, really good fighter, but how about this shiny new toy, Corey Sanhagen, who may be the dark horse of the division. He may have the brighter long-term potential. And as we mentioned, Garbrandt back and all these other guys. Well, no, Aljo on an already busy night was like, I got next, I got now, I got it all. I live for the funk, I die for the funk. And that's about as impressive of a performance as you possibly could see look you know you never

you never would have guessed he would have made it look that explosively easy with force against a guy who had never been handled like that in san hagen i have so much respect for this performance it was like watching somebody you know it's kind's kind of like Gilbert Burns a couple of weeks back, right? It was watching somebody leap through your television screen and get to that next level right before your eyes. It only makes this division way more fun because Luke, I have no idea 12 months from now, who's going to be your 135 pound champion. The only thing I think I do know is that this win

should be enough to get him in a title fight right now now is it good enough that dana basically said he'll fight the winner of the vacant title bout sure but we never really loved jose aldo in that spot they went back to the well a second time and now these young names who hadn't quite leaped are leaping in a big way i don't think it's wrong to just say we screwed up sorry jose aldo you know you're gonna go fight another legend or another name here uh peyote or yan versus aljamain sterling might be the fight and you're gonna make a star out of whoever wins that so why are we wasting our time luke put aljo in the fight right now do it look would you call sean shelby do it okay would you put cody garbrandt and jose aldo together what would cody go from

here you know cody deserves a a huge fight i don't think you gotta put a you know interim title or anything at stake but if you pulled jose aldo out of there and you put Cody with him in a giant you know live on ESPN main event or a pay-per-view co-main for good money that's a great you know victory I do not think Cody secured a title shot with that win but the way that Aljo did it and his marketing potential long term and his growth as a fighter seriously Luke how could you not right now be like we have to up Aljo's in you know it's funny. You know, this reminded me of a very different fight. And I do think that, you know, here's the thing about Corey Sandhagen.

He lost quickly and viciously and by the hands of Aljamain Sterling authoritatively. But I'm not ready to give up on that kid either. He's still young. He's still got some lessons. He actually still could be the dark horse for the Bantamweight division. Just not right now. There's still some things, obviously, for the Bantamweight division, just not right now. There's still some things, obviously, he's going to have to work out and get better at, and I think he will.

He's got the time and the talent and the team around him to get there. But when I think about Aljamain Sterling and this moment, it reminds me of sometimes in the UFC, BC, you know this. You'll see that this is why I like seeing top contender fight top contender. Sometimes the UFC makes them, and sometimes they don't depend on how marketable they are and what they're trying to do with the champion and blah. But I remember distinctly when St. Pierre fought Frank Trigg. And it was one of these moments where it was like, Ooh, St. Pierre is this up and coming guy. And he looks like the next big thing. But Frank Trigg was, I think on a win streak at that

point. And he had given very good fighters, the business he'd given dennis holman the business uh hanato varisimo he clubbed him and you're like i just don't know what's going to happen here and then saint pierre went in there and absolutely crushed him and i was like well that's your guy there's this moment in time where it looks like it's a pick-em fight and one of these contenders says, no, sir, no, it is not, not today. And that was Aljamain Sterling. Yeah, Jon Jones, Ryan Bader, Luke, revisit that. Similar, exactly, exactly the same kind of thing where you think it's pretty even and it's just not.

So again, look at Ryan Bader, all the success he had. I think, you know, Corey Sanehagen will have that and potentially a whole lot more. But I just love these top contender versus top contender fights sometimes bc i know the ufc is reluctant to make them on occasion but when you do you get magic like this you get sorting like this you get cleanliness like this these are some of my favorite mma memories to be honest with you love it love it so much love it love the bantamweights

the 135ers um yeah i got nothing else for you look can you take us to the next level please i think i have to now we'll stay right on there with bantamweight what a showcase of this division huh ufc should think about doing these with these thicker these bigger divisions more often uh the sugar show folks wow uh we all kind of felt like this was a fight he could win and probably would did you think he was going to look that good against Eddie Wineland? You knew it was possible, but again, he just keeps rising to the occasion. Sean O'Malley, BC, I think you would agree, is the future of the UFC. He dispatches Eddie Wineland with ease. I think he took one decent to good punch from wineland and then viciously one punch ko'd him

bc you got to talk to me about this what do you think about what he did and what does this tell us about his upside i think you nailed it you didn't say this is the future of the bantamweight division which he very well may be you said future of the sport and that's not overdoing it like there's very few guys that understand their value and their marketing ability and willing to connect with fans. And certainly Sugar Sean O'Malley had that flashiness early. He's the weed guy. He's the next Nate Diaz. We had that period of his life.

To see him bounce back so well from the two years off with the USADA suspension and put together two demonstrative, devastating wins and do it with such suave and swagger and flash, the colored hair, the walk-off attitude afterwards, the pay me now, not like, hey, this is my moment like a lot of the big-name fighters, which we'll get to in terms of making a power play. He's just like, I'm legitimately on a rookie contract here

and I'm smoking fools. The reason why you could argue this was as impressive or more than what Aljo and Cody Garbrandt did for their own specific career arcs is because if you're a casual fan buying this pay-per-view, which I have to believe UFC is able to benefit from a percentage of that right now with nothing else going on, I mean, that's the guy you're talking about at the end, the rainbow-haired guy who knocked that dude out. I mean, I thought Joe Rogan went overboard in kind of putting this in the category of maybe the greatest knockout of all time. It's an incredible knockout.

But, like, Cody Garbrandt was a lot better than this one. Great knockout. But it's like he did enough on this night, meaning Sean O'Malley, to tell you that wherever he's going from now on, you need to follow him, you need to pay to see him, whatever it takes. I hope he gets what he deserves, Luke. It's great, great, great when you see somebody, just like Cody in that spot for redemption,

just like Aljo with a chance to make that leap to the top. Somebody come through an opportunity with flying colors and just smash it. This was a showcase fight. It was. It really was. I'm sorry. It was. through an opportunity with flying colors and just smash it this was a showcase fight it was it really was i'm sorry it was you know chase hooper had the same opportunity in a way failed miserably sean o'malley hit a freaking grand slam he really did you know i had someone ask me yesterday why do people like sean o'malley not that they were skeptical but they were just trying to understand what the mechanics were and i was like like, well, let's think about it.

One, he's young, so he identifies with a younger demographic. Two, he's got his own personality. Three, the whole weed thing, right? It doesn't hurt. Four, he can fight his ass off. But you kind of mentioned it. Here's the last part that sort of binds it all together. He is effortlessly cool.

He doesn't have to try. It comes natural it's not an act it's not a thing that he has to think about he's just himself and people like you and i can admire his abilities and then i'm sure you've interviewed him before i mean he's a really nice person there's not a whole lot of like genuinely nice people in mma he is certainly one of them and he's smart. He understands his value. He's got all, he just checks all the boxes about what you want out of a top prospect in this division. And now, by the way, we should sort of call him what he is, not a top contender, but a rising contender. I think with this performance, he'll jump into the top 15 and he just gets it. He made this fight i had him on my show i was like

how did this fight come about he was just looking down the list about who might be available and interesting found wineland called sean shelby said how about this they thought about it called him back and said okay and that was the fight and then so he just sort of understands how to make his own future how to make his own reality the last thing i'll is, I'm not the most pro USADA guy in the world, BC. I think you know that. And I don't, I mean, there's just no evidence that his suspension was in any way scientifically valid. They railroaded this kid.

But, but here's the thing I'll say. You mentioned Chase Hooper. I mean, Chase Hooper obviously has a lot of ability on the ground and is durable. And the kid has just, you know, an absolute ton of heart. I give him credit. But I just don't know if he's ready for this level which is to say he can't get wins at this level but i don't know if he's ready to thrive at this level and i think if there's a little bit of pumping the brakes and he can develop physically and then some of his other skill sets

i do think he can eventually thrive at this level the two years off again i don't want to call it good for him but i'll say this he made the most of it he maximized it he didn't take any breaks he didn't rest he just got way better and in his 20s for two years i'm sure he took bumps and bruises in the gym bc but he didn't get lit up uh with some bad fight in the octagon he saved himself and now he is screaming for a more challenging fight. He's earned it and he's ready for it. Yeah. Whether, whether he deserved the suspension or not, he rehabilitated himself, right? He's like, it's like you went to jail and you read a lot of great books and you came out with a, you know, woodworking certificate. I mean, like he figured it out and I don't want to crap on Chase Hooper, by the way. In fact, I, I thought that was one of

the, you know, bigger betting options because we'd seen bruce leroy be so inconsistent that i'm like if chase hooper's the real deal he's got a chance to show you with a bang um he did show his toughness it's too early though and and i think that joe rogan was as honest on this broadcast in a few different categories as we've heard in a while he was honest and saying maybe this guy shouldn't be here you know maybe he should be somewhere in the, you know, minor leagues, if you will, gaining the experience. They pushed him ahead. You know, they sent out the jar of M&Ms with his face on it. It was cool.

It led us to believe that maybe he was better than he was. And hopefully he can, you know, rebound from this loss and get what he's supposed to get out of it. But, you know, back to Sean O'Malleyalley it's like the comfortability in the spotlight the ease in which he's authentic that you mentioned but the ease in which he finishes dudes like it's effortless you can tell that there's you know some some everything about him is real and that's great so let's let's keep watching him this rise Luke uh one year from now he's you know he's going to be in a title fight. And if he's not, then something failed, right? So the marketing promotion plan or him as a person failed

because he could be your champion a year from now without question. I'm going to pitch it back to you. In thinking about a potential next fight, my thought was, BC, what about putting him against someone 11 to 15 in the rankings? That's where I think he's going to end up probably. What do you think about putting someone there? So let me read that to you. It'd be Cruz, Stammen, Dodson, Song Yunong, Marlon Vera, Rob Font in that area.

What do you think? I mean, it's probably going to end up being somebody like a Dodson who's got a little bit of a name left but is going in the other direction than propping him up against a guy, a veteran with a legit name like a Cruz or a Faber. And I think you'd only do that if you're going to make him, if your next step in his promotional marketing plan is to like, hey, we got something here, let's put him in the main event.

If he's going to be in the main event of UFC Fight Night or be, again, the co-main on a pay-per-view, you might see him with a Faber type, and it might be worthy. Yeah, and I'll just say this. I think Sterling, early 30s. Cody cody 28 he'll be 29 next month o'malley is what 25 or something i mean not only these guys good and there's so many of them i think uh i think uh cory sandhagen too let's not forget about him it wasn't his day on saturday but he will have a day in the future i think he's in his mid to late 20s as well. It's a young division. It's talented. All these guys are different. They can do so many

things, yet they have their own identities. Boy, you mentioned it. An embarrassment of riches. Bantamweight is awesome right now. So that takes us to our fifth point of the show here. I mean, honestly, BC, this could have been the way we started the show, to be perfectly honest with you. It's the biggest story of the week, Luke. It really is. It certainly is. We wanted to give UFC 250 its due, but this is enormous. So Henry Cejudo retiring, it seems like,

because he couldn't get the fights or the money that he wanted. Jon Jones saying, peace out. Let me know when you want to pay me, because if you don't, I'm not going to be here. Jorge Masvidal now joins that chorus, by the way, and got to Twitter early and often with not just a claim that he wanted more but with the citation of figures that have now been widely reported in MMA media about what fighters actually get now we'll get to the Connor angle in just a second because hello he retired apparently over the weekend as well but

first things first BC Jorge Masvidal feuding with the UFC he adds as we mentioned to all these other names Sean O'Malley by the way saying he wanted a new deal as well I think he'll probably get one but what do you make of Masvidal versus UFC right now well you know as much as you want to separate the two topics, I think Conor is a part of this advancement in lineage. And by the way, also check out Gray Maynard's Twitter feed for some honest breakdowns of the money he made and his difficulties financially in that run he had.

What do I make of it? We said last week and the week before of the Jon Jones versus Dana beef about the Ngannou fight and about being paid for super fights, that it's maybe right message, wrong time, but that it's only going to lead to something and be a tipping point. If more fighters follow him, if more become a unified front, and I'm not saying necessarily union, yes, or, or let's lock out, you know, but that basically, and whether this was a, you know, backdoor managers get together and plan this out, or whether this was individually one after another, realizing their lot and becoming opportunistic at the same time, very interesting. You got the hard-ass Dana immediate comments, and then you got some sort of vulnerable stuff from Dana that we don't normally get.

Like, hey guys, I'm trying to keep this thing together. I get it, but what do you want me to do? The future Luke is going to be really interesting. This almost doesn't affect the right now. And the reality of that is, Masvidal wasn't going to fight anyway. Conor's not going affect the right now in the reality that is like masvidal wasn't gonna fight anyway connor's not gonna fight right now anyway john jones is not gonna fight anyway without a live gate these guys can't get paid the regular rate we know this connor drew an 11 million dollar live gate in january right when you take that money off the

board you can't pay him whatever he's used to So for Masvidal to reveal that he was offered half of what he made against Nate Diaz for the BMF title to fight for the damn real title against Usman, he's not going to fight anyway. What I'm looking forward to seeing, Luke, is how serious these guys are at digging in and making this a real thing and coming together. Because when the live gates come back and the ability to make money comes back will everyone jump back in because a they need the money by then will everybody jump back in for just a little bit more than they're used to because it's better than what they had or will they actually get to a point where they'll lock arms and say we need we need we need to lock out now for the future if that doesn't happen luke then i think

this is just a lot of you know noises in a vacuum it's positive noises like this like people need to know this people need to know that the ufc reportedly only pays 16 of their total revenue to the fighters compared to 50 in big team sports people need to know that there's no fighter union that the structure is tilted against fighters controlling their own destiny, right? You're an independent contractor, but you have an exclusive deal and UFC has ways to add on to that deal

that we're now finding out when fighters go public. But it's all gonna matter when that money is back. Will people take it or will they fight for it? Because look, there's a larger conversation to have about the future and it could be a dark one and i'm not saying dark just for the standpoint that we could see like a lockout or something what makes the ufc so great for fans that they have control over everything they're not boxing they're they're they're the manager the the promoter that they're everything in one in a lot of ways, right? They make the best fight the best because they kind of have to financially to get to

where they want to be. We want the fighters, especially with the brain trauma they take on, especially since so many of them can barely afford to do a full-time training. We want them to be taken care of because they deserve it. But what that future will look like, may not be the ufc that we're used to luke and i think we have to understand that we have the potential to go through some very needed but very legitimate growing pains where you may see boxing style matchmaking if that's what it takes to put these guys on the card and pay them what they feel they

deserve the glory days of the best fighting the best every single time, that may be, you know, something like a casualty that has to happen for the fighters to get what they deserve. I don't know what the future is going to bring, Luke. I just know that UFC can't afford to pay right now. And, you know, what will the fighters do when UFC can? Will they cross the picket line and take the money?

Or will they stand back and say, no, we deserve more. Let's fight for it. You raise, I think, as someone who's covered boxing for a long time and understands where they are where we are here in mma and why things might be trending in that direction and what that all looks like i think i take that very seriously bc i think you're probably on to something now it's a lot of that is unknowable we don't really know exactly how it's going to end up, but could that be one permutation? Certainly, I think so. And we need to answer a question here. Why should the fighters make more? What is their case? Well, as you indicated, the court documents, which I tweeted

out extensively over the weekend, you can read them for yourselves. They reveal that basically around 18% or so is what fighters make year over year. So you could say, well, all the other professional leagues, they make around 50, but I think it's actually more than that, right? It's not that they should make more than 50, but my sense is why do you want to pay fighters their share, as you call it? I think you have an ethical obligation to do it, especially as a fan and a media member. I think it's wrong for me as a media member to look at what they sacrifice on the altar of athletic glory, know what they generate from a revenue standpoint. And you can look at the math here, something that is called marginal

revenue product. Like what do they specifically bring as headliners? And then deny them that. I think that's wrong. I think it's wrong. I'm not saying the UFCs are some criminal enterprise. That's not what I'm arguing. They're a business. They're going to do what's best with their bottom line. But I just think if you care about fighters the way you say you do, and you care about the sport the way you say you do, you have to honor what they bring as revenue generators,

and you have to honor that sacrifice. And so folks might be asking, you know, why now it's the middle of a pandemic and it could get worse, as Dana said. And who knows when this is all going to end and blah, blah, blah. To me, it makes sense, BC. The UFC is operating better than virtually any other major sports league. Pardon me. But the difference, it seems to me, is that everybody is kind of wounded by the pandemic everyone kind of

recognizes the institutional power of every sports organization has been substantially reduced and i think that is detected by these elite stars they're looking at this and they're saying aha the ufc probably needs us now more than ever now there's reason to think that feeling is a little bit overstated due to the contractual guaranteed revenue that the UFC brings in these days. But at the same time, I sort of, I sort of understand there's never a good time to ask for a raise. How many times do we see before every single NFL season? So-and-so is upset. Aaron Donald wants a new deal and Michael Thomas wants a raise and this guy wants to be the greatest quarterback. And they might be in the middle of their rookie deals in certain cases.

Aaron Donald was, I believe, before he got a new deal at the beginning of one or two seasons ago. So what does it do? The media beats them up. The fans beat them up. There's never a good time. I'm not calling for a lockout because I think that would probably be pretty bad for all the parties involved. But I just feel like the last thing I'll say on this BC I'll throw it back to you which is I just think you have to have a look in the mirror and you have to say to yourself is it right to deny people what

they have earned especially when what they do when they earn is in the case of Michael Bisping lose an eye or you know pretty close or brain damage I mean they're getting brain damage you have to pay them what they've earned or when when you're Jessica Andrade, what, like two fights ago, selling off your equipment because you need to pay for training camp. I mean, there's been some crazy stories of, of big name fighters in that spot. Um, it's so interesting. Like this could go somewhere. It could go nowhere. And certainly, you know, Dana did identify one thing, you know, you don't have to fight right now if you don't want to. So there are fighters who will benefit. There are opportunists,ists right Justin Gaethje took that opportunity against Tony on short notice and look where he is he's gonna fight Habib so you're gonna see people that

are just gonna that aren't making money anyway that are gonna get themselves into main events and may be able to make themselves stars but uh long term man you know there's a reason in boxing why if you're gonna pay somebody like a Mayweather a guaranteed 30 million the undercard is going to be crap right or if you're going to like there's a reason why that happens the big fights only tend to happen when both reach a certain marketable level and they guarantee i mean the promoters that they can get their money back by putting that on i hope we don't get there in ufc but some of that feels inevitable until UFC figures out how to redo their financial structure and I think even more than ever the whole idea of the debt that Endeavor took on to purchase them for 4.2 billion a couple years back what that means moving forward

is going to be interesting Dana can deny and say it has nothing to do with them but it seems like it does I mean it's one thing for the fighters to say, hey, UFC, you're only paying us 16%. Like, we want 50%, but I don't think the UFC is financially set up to pay them 50%. So how is UFC going to slow their further expansion to keep their employees happy? And it's wild. You know, it's just crazy that a week ago,

we're like, unless more guys speak out, nothing can happen. Well, you couldn't ask for, you know, four or five more famous people to speak out right now. The ish be hitting the fan now, Luke. And while Dana may have a grace period during the quarantine to kind of just be like, sorry, guys, you know, I'm doing my best eventually, right?

February 1st, 2021, Luke, when those arenas are packed again, per our debate and argument we have with each other, then you're going to find out. We're going to find out what happens very quickly. The last thing on this is what I would say is, again, I don't really know how this is going to play out. I don't think they'll ever get, I don't think the fighters will ever get 50 unless the Ali Act passes, which is probably dead in the water for the time being. A union would not guarantee them 50, not on everything. I think it would probably be closer to 35 or so,

but that would be literally doubling everyone's salary, right? So it'd be a significant difference from where we are now. We haven't even gotten to it, so let's quickly mention it while we can, BC. Conor McGregor, suggesting that he has retired. Now, I thought these were somewhat distinct because he's not so much complaining about pay.

He's complaining about he wanted a certain set of individual fights. Neither of which I particularly like. But it was the common thread between what Masvidal is saying and what McGregor is saying, BC, is control. Power. He's saying, I gave these suggestions. It was an interim title fight with Gaethje while Khabib gets ready. Or the fight with Anderson Silva. And they just pooh-poohed it and his

argument is they just seem to say no merely as an exercise of power not because it's a good idea or a bad idea just so they can say we're up here and you're down there what do you make of conor mcgregor's complaints i think it was 10 let me steal the moment of ufc 250 and make it about myself you know maybe five percent a little bit extra whiskey during that tweet I don't know well who knows maybe it was 10 let me join in my fellow brethren and let's take a stand for the sport but I think it was at least you know 40 of uh hey if everyone else is going to give themselves some leverage right now let me take back a huge amount of that leverage because I'm the only guy that's had some lately so let me do that and I think the other 60 was what Dana said and I think he's right there there is no one to fight right now for connor if

he's not willing to take a pay cut if ufc is not willing to make the creative matches he wants because they're too expensive and because he was essentially stiff-armed by how things went in the lightweight division how it played out habib was supposed to face Tony, right, already, so that the winner could fight Conor. Well, you know, the need of an interim in between that delayed things, so Conor wouldn't get the chance to fight that winner until, you know, December at the earliest. So that's screwed up his timeline.

If UFC isn't going to break the bank for him to fight Nate a third time or whatever, then he's just like, I'm done here, F you guys. And that obviously makes his value larger when they come to him next time it's not him coming to them it's them coming to him and saying we'd love you to fight habib can we do this but um one thing i don't think we mentioned enough when we regurgitate all these financial facts you know ufc gonna lose 100 million in live gate this year that espn pay-per-view deal really took some extra leverage from the fighters, right?

When they, you know, this pay-per-view on Saturday turned out to be magical. It was great. Everything was fantastic. It could have been a dud where you look back and you go, oh, you had Nunes in the main event. You didn't really have anybody else that could sell it. Well, it doesn't matter because ESPN's giving them that minimum amount, which is a lot of money.

Fighters ain't getting that, Luke, right? So it's really hard to take the thing out and swing it, Luke. You know what I'm saying? It's hard to do that right now. Yeah, I don't know what that last sentence means, but I'll say this. Well, Luke, if you got a big, let me search it, right? Listen, Missy Elliott, keep your hands to yourself. But here's my point.

This is a 90s counter, but wouldn't that be a 2000s counter? But okay. I mean, Jay's, you know. Jay's a nerd who wears white glasses. I mean, what do you want from the guy? Listen. I follow Jay's dog on Instagram. Look where the quarantine has me right now.

Okay, thank you. Here's my point about Conor a little bit on this. I don't love either of those fights because it's like the winner of serrani to me doesn't get you the title fight against sketchy to me more would have to be done granted they're just doing title fights in whatever way now so i can't argue that the hardest way but i don't like it and i've on this show i was pretty clear i didn't like to fight against silva but i'll say this if you're a ufc and you have a choice to make about what he's doing this way and all the bad press that it brings and they say they don't buckle to bad press but the bad press is right on SportsCenter's doorstep I mean

they had Masvidal on over the weekend this is not going away anytime soon it's I was on local radio this morning because they wanted to ask me about it and they don't ever talk UFC that was pretty rare and it was just about Conor and Masvidal so if this kind of thing continues it's really kind of bad press but the thing about Conor is if if the goal is to keep the guy in rotation and he wants to take a fight against Silva I mean it's kind of like we talked about with Scott Coker for our show Morning Combat Strikeforce Classics when they made Hendo versus Fedor. They had never really planned to. It wasn't a thing. And then, okay, eventually they just decided to make it.

And here in this case, you would have them active. It would sell well. It'd be kind of weird. Again, I'm not up for it, but a lot of people would be. And it would keep Connor happy so that he's back around in December to take on the winner of whoever then. This would be a sort of a mulligan if he lost. I don think people really hold it that much against them so what's the harm that's

the level I don't I don't do I love that fight no not at all but if you're UFC what's the harm yeah what's the damn harm Luke come on the harm is Jay the harm is Jay and his stupid stupid glasses all right the harm is they can't afford anything right now, Luke, because Tom Brady's getting a dividend, okay? Oprah gets a dividend. You know, everybody gets a dividend, Luke. You might be part owner of the UFC. That would be a great conspiracy theory to find out that Luke was actually

a minority owner here. Well, I'm not, let me assure you. Alright, with that in mind, those are our five topics. So let's go to the next segment of the show where we take your questions. It's time for DMs from dogs. All right, there you see the rundown, all that good stuff. All right, BC.

How are they good this week? Who picks these, Jay? Jay, I think does Gaff pick them? I'm not sure. Okay, so let's go to the first one here. Showtime picks them. All right right at the drunken swan that's the guy luke that's the provider of videos for uh have you seen this shit that guy is a he he might deserve a paycheck at this point he might lock himself out of this show until we pay him look all right how dangerous how dangerous is the nunez answer off

baby gonna be boy you want to talk about genetic stock to fight wow dude I don't know if it comes much better than that because Nina Ansaroff folks forget bro she got hands too she'll put them on you she's a good ass fighter and then Amanda you know maybe the best ever that kid's gonna try bullying that kid oh my moms will beat the fuck out of you yes they will yes they will yes they will well luke there's a missing ingredient in that whose sperm is it that could i mean it could be even more dangerous right what if it's like fade or some that's yours speaking of conspiracy theories maybe it's yours luke no it's it's not mine bc maybe it's brazilian shrek over there at att my

man conan again i'm not going to comment on your insanity, BC, but fair enough. All right, our next one from at Miguel. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely do you think it is that there will be a fighters union by 2022, BC? 2022? A lot would have to happen in a year and a half because yeah yeah look luke to get a union i think you would need a work stoppage so you can't get a work stoppage uh without a union it's illegal oh that's a fair well you could you can though, so what you could say is, uh, everybody could just decide

not to do it on their own and that wouldn't be illegal, but you can't coordinate one without union protections. I don't believe that's messy. I think a lot of fighters would cross a picket line just to survive and get paid. And of course it was. So, so no, I don't think we'll, I don't think we'll have... I think UFC will find a compromise in which they're paying more, but we avoid the idea of the business

going down for two years in order to fix it. You know what's funny? If the UFC knew what was good for them, they'd get out in front of this. Because think about it this way. You mean, are fighters unions sponsored by Reebok? Is that where you're going with this? No, no, no.

But understand something. The fighters, they know they're being taken for a ride here financially in terms of what they generate, what they're entitled to, what other people get in other leagues, blah, blah, blah. They sort of get it, right? The Athletic did that report where they had 80% plus who were like, yes, a union would be great. Here's the thing, though.

The UFC took away Reebok and the UFC the fighters didn't do anything they don't give them a single penny of the TV deal obviously if you're uh you get pay-per-view points you get that but the television deal they don't get a cut of that and you know they brought in USADA which railroaded so many careers but they now seem to like it my point being is this and they give them accident insurance too. I have a feeling that if they came out and said, you know what, we're going to redouble our efforts to give you guys what you want. We're going to up fight pay. We're going to have guaranteed minimums. I bet you that would quiet people for a really long time. Now, would that be the ultimate

solution? Would it eventually stop folks from doing it? No, but like if you just up the pay some and you do it out of like this generosity, no one has to risk their career. No one has to fall on their sword. You get a lot more money. They would get a ton of extra great publicity to me. It's like, get out in front of it. The fighters will just ultimately relent to it because that's what they always seem to do. I don't know. It know seems like an opportunity but rather than this court case rather than andrew yang former presidential democratic you know uh candidate tweeting about it relentlessly you know i don't know it seems like if you don't they're going to do something about it just take it out of their hands i'll say this for as much as ufc at times can like shoot themselves in the foot. Cause Dana's so like, you know,

unflinching and in your face on so many topics and say what he says and all that stuff, their damage control is consistently very sharp. And I think you obviously, you take your hat off for them getting back on the road with these fights and figuring out a way to do it. And now like everyone's mimicking what they did, boxing this week like you know team sports coming up so their ability to do that is is something that you do have to respect so i think that you know in business like this the compromise is always the the right way to uh to stem that tide keep people happy in the short term and and slowly work on the long-term issues they'll figure it out yeah yeah uh all right at tylorians what's up with these

people like multiple letters all in a row the same kind is fight night on june 13th the worst card you've ever witnessed uh some of the ufc fight night card this saturday we haven't seen it yet i mean look it's got a main event that that i actually like but it's not a main event right that's the jessica i cynthia calvillo um it's not a main event, right? That's the Jessica I, Cynthia Calvillo. It's not a main event, Luke. We know that. You do realize that until Fight Island gets up, I do understand they have a small pool of willing and able fighters that can do this.

I mean, I feel like Brian Kelleher, our guy Boom, is fighting every six days, and you have that opportunity if it's available. It didn't jump out to me as the worst remember that time there was that ufc albany card and it was like derrick lewis against uh before he was derrick lewis against uh shamil after rock him off yeah that was uh that was like uh well i won't be there okay you know tell me how it was type of deal um you know this is in that category i give them more of a pass considering luke the

circumstances and considering they came out with a bang they came out with you know some really good cards and all things considered saturday's card was very deep so um i i it's tough to complain at this point luke it is you got it's a fight card here's the thing to call it like worst card by what standard have i been to regional regional MMA shows with significantly worse cards? Yes. If this was a regional MMA show and they had this, you'd be psyched. You'd be like, wow, that's a pretty good card. It all is a function of the context and your expectations.

By UFC standards, is this common even by fight night standards? No. It is a far cry from it. A couple of gems along the way, the Victoria Roberson fight, given what happened in Jacksonville, kind of interesting, right? And the main event, I agree, is pretty good.

Cynthia, by the way, now at AKA, so we'll see what happens there. Andre Feely's on the card and some other gems along the way, but yes, I mean, here's the thing. I'm not gonna sit here and say it's a great card because it's not on the other hand i think mma fans are just being a little bit a little bit unfair to ufc and that's me saying that they're in the middle of a pandemic they

can't really travel the country they can't bring in fighters for the most part from outside the country with some exceptions here or there and it's just a very hard thing to do so what do you expect this is what you're gonna get so you know listen i'm not saying you have to love it i'm not saying you have to watch it live your life the way you want but you got to give the ufc a little bit of you know relaxed standards here given the the greater conditions look we gotta stand up for the UFC I mean 249 was a freaking like one of the best pay-per-views on paper of all time and that was how they came back to the pandemic right you know and in 50 was great the fight nights in between were pretty damn good I mean you know the fights over delivered like

I was gonna save this for odds and ends but but Luke, boxing's coming back this week. Top rank on ESPN doing a Tuesday night card, Thursday night card. They've got a couple more scheduled. Is Shakur Stevenson on the card? Yeah, we're going to see Shakur Stevenson moving up in a non-title bout against a guy you never heard of. And if you look at his BoxRec page, he never fought anybody you heard of. It's a showcase, and I've got news for you, boxing fans. They're all going to be like that for a while i mean boxing much more uh you know determined on and committed

to the live gate for keeping them afloat um it's going to be bad in boxing most likely for a while luke you know you're not going to see great fights ufc's been giving us some really good stuff so uh and you know maybe that's because of the pay structure luke it is what it is right it is what i know i agree i agree like they have a certain way to manipulate things in a way that um boxing promoters simply don't have the latitude last thing i'll say on this too it's like you know you're in the middle of this pandemic uh and the ufc is trying to turn out cards and i remember before they were back people like you know we need sports to like save the national consciousness we got to improve the american psyche bc five cards in they're like fuck this i'm out this is shit i don't want to see it i'm like maybe you were just bored and that's okay

nothing wrong with being bored people get bored okay i understand but this whole nonsense about we have to save the american consciousness go fuck yourself you just wanted to see fights that's fine but call it what it is d-bag yeah uh all right so this goes to swazi underscore arts or swazy swazi oh okay which jim carrey character wins in an mma fight Ace Ventura versus Hank Evans me myself and Irene don't forget old Ace had some knuckle game DC did you know he did uh and you know uh he also look he had like some flexibility like his I could think his jiu-jitsu game is probably pretty good you know he could put his legs over legs over his shoulders and almost talk to his own ass. Like, yeah, I'm sure he could roll a little bit, right?

I mean, Finkel is Einhorn, Luke. You got to be honest, right? Ray Finkel as Lois Einhorn beat the shit out of him in that final scene, though. Remember that? Yeah, but that's years of pent-up frustration and lack of acceptance in our society, so you can understand that, you know?

Laces out, BC, as always. I would say i would still go with hank maybe because he was was he royal he was he was mounted he was mounted uh canadian police i think something like that yeah and uh and when he got crazy he was you know he was just knuckling everyone into the dirt so i would go that way but i don't know There's different kinds of crazy. I've actually put the cable guy in here because that guy was like, I'm going to eat your flesh. Crazy cable guy. Underrated movie. Underrated first date.

Senior year of high school. I didn't get a second date. Yeah. I can't imagine why you wouldn't. All right. And then last but not least, uh, at the wolf of winter thoughts on space x missions and sending humans to mars

with a decade like they meant within a decade what do you think bc you know i'm not sure if we've ever gone anywhere in space luke you sicken me i mean look do you ever just sit around and i'm being legitimate here,

and I'm not making, like, you know, mushroom references here. Do you ever just sit around and, you know, sit outside on your front stoop, and there's, like, an ant. And, you know, he only knows his life there in the dirt, in the grass. But if I take my can of soda,

and I pour it, and I suffocate him in that life, he's gone. I just, I just manipulated, I just changed his life and manipulated it. I just destroyed him. I became his maker. Luke, what if our planet and us are the ant on a much larger life force? You know what I'm saying?

No, I don't really engage in the ritual torture of insects or other animals. I don't know what that has to do with space exploration. We have obviously been to space numerous times. I think we've been to a soundstage. Right. Well, you know. I also, unlike you, don't believe in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about prominent Jewish families and their connection to the global financial system.

No, no, no, no. You're digging there. The Rothschilds conspiracy theories are deeply anti-Semitic. But okay, maybe you don't get on that part. That's fine. I'm just pointing out. What do I think about it? I think Elon Musk, every time he goes on Joe Rogan's podcast, reminds us that he's not as bright as he thinks he is. But I am sort of interested in this new version of space exploration where the government via NASA controls it through kind of cool. Will we get to Mars within a decade? I don't know.

All I know, BC, is that movie with Matt Damon on Mars where he gets stuck and then promises to science the shit out of things is one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen. And if you liked it, it's probably because you ate paint chips as a child. Just want to point that out. But, Luke, do you give any credence or clear water to my revival theory here that uh you know that we're not the the the smartest largest most developed species that we could be a you know an insect compared to something different here luke

didn't you see those videos of the uh ufos that the navy put out again we've had this conversation i don't think we're the apex predator. Well, we are perhaps on this planet, but I have no doubt in my mind that there could be incredibly advanced life forms somewhere else. I'm really asking, yo, do we launch some donks past the Earth's atmosphere

into space? Yeah, of course we've done that. Sure. Luke, this will determine it, true or false. Will men land on or in Uranus by 2022? Why are you here? All right, BC. Speaking of that, I could give no better lead-in

than that one to the next segment of this show. Brian Campbell, the steering wheel is yours good sir thank you friend uh you know what we do we scatter the globe the highs and lows in between the good the bad and the ugly in combat sports oh and beyond folks it's have you seen the ship before we start i do want to say luke i am committed to exiting the dick trade. I wasn't fooling around. So while sometimes a few slip in here, you should see how gross my DMs are. Actually, you shouldn't. And our people who do fuel me with these bullets, they do need to take a step back. I like how your DMs have turned into Grindr.

Anyway, hey, we always start off by sending somebody to hell in real combat sports check out this regional kickboxing match luke uh this didn't last long we're gonna touch gloves and then we're gonna start digging the grave luke uh where is this this is the back of a restaurant you know what mariachi band we got let me ask you have you been to any regional mma fights like like oh oh god oh wow oh wow yeah that was maybe this is at a funeral parlor look at this guy Let me ask you, have you been to any regional MMA fights? Like, oh. Oh, God. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Maybe this is at a funeral parlor. Look at this guy. He did the Adesanya. Israel Adesanya did that. Ariel will tell you it's Adesanya, Luke, okay? So get woke. Sure. What I'm saying here, Luke, is that, what did you ask? Oh, yeah.

So regional MMA, anything can happen, Luke. We know this. Keith Peterson ain't the only person that smells like bitches in hooch. Hold yeah. So regional MMA, anything can happen, Luke. We know this. Keith Peterson ain't the only person that smells like bitches in hooch. Hold on. Have you been to one? Have you been to a regional MMA fight? No, I've never been to one. It's amazing to me how many MMA media have never done it.

I've been to a gazillion of them. A good buddy of mine, this is a true story, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, fought in a converted billiards hall. That's a true thing. Yikes. All right. Well, hey, we're That's a true thing. Yikes. All right. Well, hey, we're going to roll on here. One championship.

If they'll give you one thing, Luke, well, they'll give you a lot of PR emails. I'll tell you that much. They won't back down. They want you to interview their people. They'll also give you a knee to the face, knockouts like this to tatted fellas. Wow, Luke.

Buddy. I mean, yeah. Oh, God. I think Rich Franklin just rolled over in his grave watching that oh god is that is that dude part of antifa oh good lord oh that's some vicious stuff here luke yeah wow you know i thought you know cody garbrandt's win was was was a big one for the tatted fellas this week but this guy just set us back you know wow certainly did good lord what do you think of uh mr page van zandt's uh neck tat throat tat would you uh like if you were offered death or

that tattoo what would you pick oh the tattoo all right all right well i just wanted to know where you stood on that uh shout out to this guy with the i wish i had the names i don't always get the names all right he didn't get his moment i'm sorry hey we roll on from here luke um this is we're gonna debut something it's called have you heard this shit did you hear the promo aljo cut on peter young can we play the audio here jay did you hear it luke no no ah that's that's great directing i wrote i wrote in there play sound all right sorry i guess you'll have to look it up online you know i'll say this though bro aljo is jacked i mean he's always been jacked have you noticed that like that dude is just way more muscular than his the other top 135ers luke do you know that sound that he said no all right

well maybe maybe maybe we'll all right hey we're gonna roll on from here it was great by the way that was a great clip really made the show spring and summer is upon us graduation is upon us check out how this chick is celebrating luke i want in on this look Look at this. Is this my second wife? Send it in indeed. Yes, this is great. Look at the horrific look on the regular folks' face. This is how you end a quarantine, Luke. Buddy, look at the mouth-breathing Karen behind her.

She can't believe that this young... And the lady's in a bikini, too. She knows how to party, son. Is this the school of hard knocks or the school of hard i am after watching this luke this is great you know all right hey you know what else kicks off the good weather and you got to be excited about this luke it's getting out in the pool right it's pool season you got to get those abs ready luke pool season is that's called the facial back that had to hurt that had to hurt that actually disfigured him it had to this is what this is what all those white people get for uh

parkour yeah this is what you get right you're right all right hey luke nothing says summer like heading to the beach right cracking a few cold ones ronnie deutsch is back from instagram check out this guy real name tom dowd check him out those are three twisted t's luke you impressed i will be in a minute okay how about two more luke you impressed that ronnie deutsche our guy get getting there okay how about this uh how about a little little uh butt heavy yeah you don't just bite that crap off look that's six beers bang right even this fat guy's loving it look at this guy look i hope to have friends that loyal that when I do good things, they just pour beer all over their fat selves. That's great. You know what?

This guy by himself is making America great again. I can agree to that, right? How does he keep that figure up, Luke? That's a great... I was wondering it because look at the fat guy. That's what you're supposed to look like if you drink like this. This guy is a growing legend, Luke. I don't know his politics.

I don't know if I want to know, but he's a legend in these parts. If he keeps this up, we got to get him on the show. We're close. We're very close. Believe that. Hey, summertime also means concerts in non-COVID. Luke, LSD is a hell of a drug. Check out this chick, Luke.

I've seen people do this at BJJ class. Would you rather date her or the graduation flipper? Oh, the graduation flipper. This one you have to carry to the car. Yeah, you don't really like that hippie vibe. See, Luke, you were in high school in the mid-90s. Remember that Bohemian thing had a comeback? Hot chicks suddenly started.

Fuck all that. I wasn't into that all right all right all right well hey we're gonna roll on here uh hey it's outdoor picnic season as well luke and after you drink a lot sometimes your friends ask you to uh do something here hold this kick luke Oh, that is just awesome. Let me get my friends who've never... This dude kicking can't do a pull-up, and they've got him trying some acrobatic kick. By the way, the dude who's kneeling looks like he's an ogre, like he's like seven feet tall.

So even leaning, it's not short enough and they're playing cornhole in the backyard these losers are my favorite they're playing cornhole and they're like who wants to be terry edam let's just you know let's just do it here luke this is great yeah okay dude uh luke let's that is hilarious well he got the bottle off the can he did he did win on that. Looks like Goonies in the background. What are we, in Seattle here? Hey, let's go to the gym here, Luke.

Speaking of good friends, when your friend needs a spot, you give it to them. Look at the commitment for these two, Luke. They started off as friends, and I think they ended married. Oh, God. they ended married oh god oh he bailed on it backwards oh my god that's so much weight luke that's ridiculous all right and he didn't he didn't even he didn't even get it off the rack properly hold on let it play one more time does he he one-step it off the rack? How much is that? See how his feet are staggered when he takes it off the rack? You knew this guy was a fuck-up.

You can't do that. Is that proper form on the spot for that, Luke? No. Do you want people to the outside like that? I'm never going to the gym with you if that if that's the future of uh of uh yeah that's uh okay dude and these guys these guys are wearing shorts that go up their up their ass this is amazing this is amazing what a clip look at this russian guy indeed all right you know you know what i like this is this is the stuff i like right here well summer is also tip

on tips as in luke if you've drinking too much check out these guys they're friends they got into a fight this is uh that's uh that's that's pretty close luke is this somewhere in russia i don't know but uh is that one guy uh is he is he camping luke are they is this does this count as scissoring is this this i'm this may be too far we may have to get out of here hey let's go back to a real mma fight luke uh you look wrestling's never been far from mma uh check out this finishing move oh my god that is that is gratuitous that's like a i think that's like a double axe handle off the top rope dude what first of all he hit him with the brian kelleher left hook that he hit on hunter azure so that was nice yeah yeah see this is why i don't like professional wrestling people just

gets out of hand bc yeah it does it does. It does. Indeed. It does. Hey, we're going to go to art for this portion of, have you seen this shit? Luke, let's go to nature. I don't know. Is this our,

are we are, is our, our Luke, look at the balls on this tree. Look at that. I mean, look at that. Luke boy,

that tree is, I mean, that tree is kind of hung. Sort of look, is that you in the pool after about six beers? You're like, eff it, I'm just going to go right here. You know, just whatever. Six.

I'll do it on the first one, buddy. Luke, where was the grossest you ever peed? Do you have like a public pool story? You have like a... I one time at a concert, a Dave Matthews concert, just peed on somebody's like blanket with with people sitting there enjoying the concert right there. No, I've never done that. But my wife dragged me to one of those summer tours that all those hair metal bands from the 80s get together and they kind of tour.

I mean, you should see the garbage pail kids that those tours bring out. Good Lord. Anyway, I went to the, the restroom there. It was, this, this was the Merriweather post pavilion for anyone in the DC area. Oh my God, dude.

I looked in the commode and there was like blood and, uh, you know, layers of feces and stay the F out the commode. Luke. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Shot. Yeah yeah that was one of

those things where like when i walked out i wanted to burn my shoes and clothes yes can we get this picture off the screen let's move on here uh luke i got a great spot i don't know what wedding anniversary you're going to celebrate soon but there's a brazilian sex hotel how about the ground and pound room you in on this luke i would rather have ebola shot directly into my eyeballs than stay here for five seconds says the guy who went to the shooting range on his first date you know the cannibal corpse concert on oh yeah and you went and you went to the cable guy you think i do do you think you are cool you i know here's the difference between you and me i know i'm not cool you still are hanging on to the idea you You're cool.

Luke, I also went to American Pie on a first date. That's not a good movie to go on a first date. I didn't get a second one. It didn't happen. In the car ride home, did you tell her to suck me, beautiful? All right. Yeah, okay. I mean, it's a creative idea for a room, right, Luke? What's up, you know?

If you have the brain power of a cephalopod, sure. If you found out that this room actually existed in UFC headquarters as like a casting couch, would you? No, no, no. See, here's the thing. I just don't like any bed that doesn't have a headboard. Okay, okay. You're not one of those weirdos who doesn't sleep with pillows right oh I said the pillows come on now all right yeah yeah okay hey almost done here uh somebody come get a boiler Luke

she's drunk um can you get your mother off the screen here what is what's going on here be nice be friend oh Jesus be friendly okay sorry sorry what does that say in Spanish there, Luke? I don't have the translation in front of me. I can't see. Shocker that it's blurry. Lo bueno que son. Responsible.

I can't quite make it out. Okay, okay. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah, it's a nice little Groucho Marx-inspired glasses. Smells like kittens, yeah. All right, Luke, let's go. We're going to end with this.

We're going to go back to the gym. This is very creative, Luke. If you have the type of body that can pull this off, this is how you strengthen up for the weekend. Do you know what I'm saying? You know, BC, in all my time at the gym i've never done this well i might have to give that one the old college try when they open up the irish in you right that's probably why there i don't know our our is that the is that the is that the official like uh morning combat workout that is that. That is. Yes. Yes.

You want to go tip to grip with somebody, you got to warm up to it, though. So thank you, Luke. Have you seen it? Yeah, I think you've seen it. All right. Pretty good. Pretty good stuff. All right.

Very good. BC, it is time for odds and ends. Good, sir. What do you have for us? Thank you. Shout out to Floyd Mayweather. Look, we call him out when he needs to be called out but you know there are times when uh you should celebrate when somebody does good and floyd mayweather has a

history uh you know he paid for the funeral of the man he won the world title from genaro hernandez the the legendary fighter when he passed and he recently uh paid the expenses of the george floyd funeral and um i applaud him right now luke. You know, I mean, everybody has in their family, friend circle, job, whatever, somebody who's more well-off than somebody else. And it's great to see when they sort of step in and pick up the check, so to speak. This was a great public statement and power move by Floyd.

And I really appreciate it. Yeah, I mean, look, no one is all good or all bad. And this is a, who could who could say this is a bad thing right the floyd dude who could say it's a bad thing he didn't send an instagram at uh connor saying you know when you come back meet me in the rematch but that's an every other day thing luke and um i also did want to lament uh the loss of of employment for many of our colleagues in this game and specifically layoffs at the athletic and you know i'm a subscriber of the athletic i really like what

they're doing i was excited when they branched out into combat sports uh full disclosure you know i was in the running and didn't end up you know i ended up resigning with cbs so i could it could have been me just the same but uh you know from chuck mindenhall to my great friend rafe bartholomew on the boxing side chad dundas josh gross a lot of people there that i really love and respect and think are some of the best in combat sports at what they do um you know we're now looking for new work and and you know nothing's guaranteed and certainly in these crazy times right now nothing's guaranteed which makes me obviously extra thankful for what we have luke and you know we're shouldering on thank you dana for bringing back fights but uh tough pill to swallow to see so many great people that we love luke yeah that was brutal to watch i don't know how

many got laid off on the boxing side was it just old rafe was it anybody else i don't think it was anybody else no yeah i mean look if you don't if you don't read rafe bartholomew's stuff the new york times best-selling author the former grantland aficionado i mean there's a i'd say he's the best in the world at what he does because nobody writes like that you know he's a he's a he's a great author and uh it was it was really tough to see that's some of the best stuff you could have read on there and his previews were always they just got to the meat and potatoes of things and are really like not to say that it was basic but like you could just read his previews and you'd understand exactly for,

like if you hadn't been paying attention to a fight to catch up, it was just a great, great way to get ahead of the game. So that, and then on the MMA side, it was Dan Stupp, the head editor, Gross, Dundas, and Chuck Mendenhall. Chuck, who, you know, obviously has helped us on this show as well

and will be back at some point, I'm sure. It was brutal to watch, man. Really man really really brutal and then don't forget i hope anyone listening who employs people you know reach out to them and i think that they've made the athletic has made uh their libraries uh free so you can you can see the work that you maybe haven't seen of these guys while they were behind that paywall right and the last thing i'd say is the bad news of course is they got laid off the The good news is, you know, I mean, Chuck Mendenhall, you could say arguably the best writer in the game is now available for hire.

So that's, for someone out there, I hope that's the right fit. And I'll just say this too. Don't forget about Vox Media. They had a lot of cuts too from all their contract work. There's a lot of people that they said goodbye to, including Mike Chiappetta, who had not one but two different stints

with MMAfighting.com. And they had to say goodbye to him so it wasn't I mean the athletic ones were brutal but there's been quietly a lot of other ones happening around the sport as well Trivia question, Chiappetta was on episode one of the MMA Beat with yourself, correct? Yeah, it was me, Ariel and Mike Chiappetta

that's right, I was in the first episode and the last episode, how about that? Kind of interesting Okay, so for my odds and ends, speaking of loss but maybe a bit of a triumph at the same time oh you had one sorry go ahead oh were you going to mention this uh fantastic showtime doc that's uh debuting yes ringside uh is going to be happening i think what this friday at nine if uh memory serves i got a chance to to peep this thanks to our good friends at showtime uh this is raw this is

emotional this is good stuff the best way I could describe it you know going to the 90s is this is like boxing's version of hoop dreams meaning you know two prospective right you know young fighters that had a ton of potential cameras followed them for nine years you know through the ups and downs of both the sport their personal lives you know at jail all that 8 30 p.m 8 30 p.m on friday uh this is a very good documentary on two people's lives that went in so many different directions and uh i mean you remember hoop dreams luke that was i mean that's one of the greatest films ever that that affected us in so many ways but uh you know this is a almost a boxing version but but it's its own unique element and uh it's really touching luke i mean boxing is a game that is so cruel and you

know it can be an easy path to the top when you come from nowhere but to see the struggle behind the scenes like this was really interesting certainly yeah so then on friday 8 30 p.m of course you can watch ringside on showtime and then at 10 all the tyson fights then that's where brian and i will get involved on friday night to help take you through that with our companion podcast as well morning combat classics um on my side of things i would say we talked about all the bantamweights that had done so well at ufc 250 there was one more now technically his fight was at featherweight but he's a bantamweight. Everything's happening on short notice, blah, blah, blah. Cody Stammen had lost his younger brother tragically since his last fight previously and was really just dealing with an incredibly heavy heart. I think his brother had

died in his sleep, his younger brother, and he had to sort of gut through it and find a way forward, and he did. He performed really well. He looked super sharp. You know, his fights go to a lot of decisions, but, you know, he just had really clean mechanics. You could tell he was out there thinking Kelleher was game. You know, Kelleher gave him a good fight, but in the end, Stamman was just a little bit ahead in a lot of areas.

And even Kelleher admitted that, you know, Stamman was better that night and said it was an honor to compete against somebody who was trying to do what he was doing. So I really take my hat off to Cody Stammen. If he had pulled out, who could have said anything bad about him? They would have totally understood, but he stuck through the process, which had to be difficult, especially in these uncertain times. And he is a real fighter. He's a fighter in the cage and he's a fighter outside of one. So for everyone here at Morning Combat, congratulations for win to uh cody stammering we obviously share and send our our greatest condolences at the same time yeah the love that they showed as competitors at the end

was really touching the comments they had about each other afterwards it was almost like like a godly ward type vibe in terms of like the respect they had in enduring that together with the the heavy emotional uh toll that was going on you know i don't mean to you know critique walt harris's performance after you know a different but similar tragedy but it can be incredibly hard luke to go in there and be focused on just that like obviously the grief can fuel you and we've seen that in different performances in sports and i think you know walt harris came out incredible in the beginning and you're like oh man you know this is gonna be great but to be able to carry it

out over the distance like he did and and block that out it's just uh it's inspiring because uh you know a lot of people rightfully tweeted when i lost insert family member you know i was despondent for you know whatever this guy went through training camp like this and and you know finished off his training camp and went to the fight. It's, it's incredible. Yeah. And so, um, as you had noted, well, once the fight was kind of funny, it was like, once the fight was over, he went from zero to 60, like he was composed. He was, you know, doing what he was supposed to do. And then as soon as the fight was over, immediately the tears started flowing. Like that dude was hanging on by a thread in many ways. Still able to get it

done. Pretty impressive. Hope he gets some rest. Hope he gets a chance to mourn and obviously hope that he has a better 2020 than what he's had up to this point, but at least in the cage, pretty smooth operator and I think he's going to jump in the rankings

probably inside the top 10 at this point. In that sense, good for him uh okay i missed i missed a big time 90s reference last week during have you seen this ish when you you know opened up about your dad when that japanese fella had the skateboard go between his legs and the parents applauded and by the way that apparently i don't know if it's believable but that guy commented said, said, I'm that guy, you know? So shout out to me. That your dad is Rob Thomas, Luke. I mean, how did, you know, I mean, if it's 3 a.m., your dad must be lonely. You know what I'm saying?

Luke, I understand you want to push him around, you know, and you will. You will. You want to take him for granted. But the point of me making these jokes about you and your family, and I'm sorry, can we get your dad in a morning combat hat? I'll purchase it, Luke. A sweatshirt? Can your dad go to store.show.com and and search for morning combat what is the most what item would he be most willing to to use the coffee mug the the the beer pint is there something that we can get rob thomas outf in. Which one is most flammable? That's the one he'll probably use to set fire to trash.

I just want him to represent you, you know, because you're so smooth, Luke, you know? Yeah, he's not going to, you know. He would never go and buy anything, but if I happen to have one, like a hat, and put it on him, he would wear it long enough for me to take a picture with my cell phone and then chuck it in the garbage. So it's possible to capture it,

just not very easy. I'm going to guess he's not known as Rob. No one calls him Rob, right? No, no one calls him Rob. I can assure you. By the way, there's a Glory fighter

called Robert Thomas that when I was working for Glory, I had to watch him compete. And every time I did, he got viciously KO'd. That was always kind of weird. Oh, that was therapeutic for you in a weird way.

All right. Yeah. We encourage everyone to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jay is right. You didn't hear that.

But Friday night, 10 Eastern, you can watch a handful of fun Mike Tyson fights. You know, I broke my back spinal after knocking out clifford atn there's some fun fights in there and we're gonna give you the youtube companion uh luke you're gonna what are you gonna purchase to drink during this luke that's always part of my my week when it's mk classics right i'm like what am i gonna drink during this i'll probably have some vodka maybe this weekend some vodka okay something like that now have you perfected the craft and the sauce? Do you like to come in sober to our MK Classic shows or come in peeking at the beacon, so to speak? I need to have a couple.

I need a two-drink minimum before it starts. I got to get a little bit loosey-goosey so I can get in the mood. I can't start the drinking at the start of the broadcast. It got to be a little pregame action, if you know what I'm saying. Well, Tyson did have a great run with showtime you know began with those two uh razor ruddick fights and then post jail you know that entire run hey i got a a tyson mcbride pay-per-view poster over my shoulder here from the good folks at showtime so i'm excited to go

back and watch this with you luke as he's making you know legitimate headlines right now and wanting to come back luke he's not kidding he's not fooling around apparently he's not which is uh distressing but the just the same uh i know you have other jobs but uh did you watch the epstein doc on netflix i know you're trying to take us out of here i know you know you got kids you got i did i did watch it it was disturbing disturbing. You know, by the sixth firsthand story of him paying a 13-year-old to massage him, and then it went south from there, I did have to turn it off a couple times. But there's a lot of interesting Eddie Bravo-type talk that comes out of this. A little bit. Bill Clinton doesn't look too good in this one, huh?

He comes out looking pretty bad. No, neither does one of the princes, Luke. And also, Alan Dershowitz does not look great. Prince Andrew. Prince Andrew. Thank you, Jay. Alan Dershowitz does not come out of this one looking awesome. Also, he had super yellow teeth, which was weird.

Yeah. So, in any event. Donald Trump's in it, too, Luke. Yeah, Trump. I would say Clinton came, Trump, Trump. I mean, yeah. I would say Clinton came off worse than Trump, but that's not saying much.

Luke, who would be more likely to boldly wear a morning combat sweatshirt? Your dad or a pre-murdered Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein. All right. Well, at least we got one fan, right? Yeah. My wife would wear one. She's pretty supportive,

and Abuela would definitely wear one, but my dad... Oh, yeah. Yeah, forget about those dong glasses. Let's get Abuela in... Let's get her... I'll pay for that, Luke. Okay, I'll pay for that. That's very generous of you. All right, I have to get to my other job as i always have to

uh reminder again of course we'll tweet out the link for the merch it is available on the showtime store you can go over there now uh store.showsho.com give that a run of course friday 8 30 p.m is the ringside doc 10 pm. Tyson. We're going to be there with our companion podcast to get you through. If you would like to try Showtime for free, you certainly can. A 30-day free trial is available to you. Simply go to Showtime.com. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can go.

We also have our social media handles, which you should be fully aware of. We're at Twitter, and we have Instagram and then in the middle you can see we have Instagram and YouTube obviously for morning combat so give us a follow and what we really care about is subscribers hit that subscribe button hit that notification bell that is what we would like from you that's a free thing you can do and it does us a lot of good. So, BC, any final thoughts before we get out of here? Yeah, try Showtime, but how about you try a little tenderness, too, Luke? I think the last

few weeks, socially, have, you know, affected us in a lot of ways. Love thy neighbor, Luke. You know what I mean? Let's wake up. No more white privilege. Let's get, you know, let's get out there, Luke. Just be nice to each other. That's all you gotta do. It's free to be nice.

And with that, that's Brian Campbell. I mean, hug your fellow man. I don't know about tip to tip, but hug your fellow man. Maybe go grip to grip, but that's about it. And wash your hands afterwards and wear a mask. Okay. For Brian Campbell, I'm Luke Thomas. Thanks to everyone at Malka, Showtime, and everyone else beyond. And to you, the viewer, until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.