MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 254 First Look | Whittaker vs Cannonier | Michael Chandler's role | Ep. 72

Episode Date: October 21, 2020

On MK episode 72, Luke and Brian dive into an early look at this weekend's UFC 254 event between Khabib and Justin Gaethje. The boys discuss what will happen if Khabib Nurmagomedov wins and what happens if Justin Gaethje wins. They examine where new lightweight Michael Chandler fits in all of this. Luke and Brian break down the co-main event between Robert Whittaker and Jared Cannonier. The boys close the show by going through the latest social media beefs and showing off all the fanart you submitted. --------------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You hear that? Ugh, paid. And done. That's the sound of bills being paid on time. But with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, paying your bills could sound like this. Yes! Earn rewards for paying your bill in full and on time each month.

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

This is Morning Combat. It is Wednesday, October 21st, 2020. It is time, ladies and gentlemen, for the Wednesday edition of Morning Combat. Hello, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I am from CBS Sports. I am joined by my CBS Sports brethren on the other side of the screen wearing various dead wrestlers on his t-shirt it is the one and only brian campbell the total package is still with us luke okay and i'd like

to think of us by the way the mk as the total package in the combat sports podcast business luke so welcome back to our great viewers you know we got a great show today luke setting that stage building that foundation for ufc 254 this saturday reacting to stuff maybe get a little fan art thrown in we'll do you know maybe sjw in the house we got like we got a good ass show coming up today i am fired the heck up luke i'm glad to hear that i am fired up as well as you indicated yeah today's gonna be a big look ahead. UFC 254. We didn't do it really on Monday. We had to react to the weekend. There was a lot

of stuff happening there, but now it's all eyes forward. We'll do that today. I'll have my live chat tomorrow at 3 right here and then on Friday, another big look ahead. Well, in theory. In theory, BC. I mean, it's on the schedule. Whether it happens or not, I guess we'll have to see. But that's the hope.

That's the aim. And then, of course, Friday's show, we'll lean into that as well. Please give the video a thumbs up. Hit that subscribe button. Share this with a friend who you think might want to see it. If you want some of the merch that I'm wearing, I think BC has some there. I'm not sure if he does. Yep, there's the hat.

You can go to store.show.com. There it is. It's high quality. It's good stuff. You can wear a hat on your shoulder, which is what it's designed to be wornshow.com. There it is. It's high quality. It's good stuff. You can wear a hat on your shoulder, which is what it's designed to be worn as. Very good. One more thing.

I got one more thing for you before we start. Look, if you want to be my MK brother, you got to get with my friends, and we certainly have some fun bonus content this week with my friends in the combat sports game. Sugar Rashad evans the ufc hall of famer stopping by for a video we published yesterday giving his picks for the big fights at ufc 254 and uh tomorrow going to be reuniting the uh boxing hardcores under the mk

flag as the great rafe bartholomew and myself look at my latest top 10 pound for pound rankings in boxing on cbs sports really debate where Teofimo Lopez Jr. fits in there after the upset of Lomachenko kind of talk about how or when or if that rematch could happen so great stuff along with your live chat and also we got a special guest in MK that's gonna be put out there later today I think people are gonna like as well very good all of that true all of that forthcoming your way. Also, if you want to try Showtime, you certainly can. Go to Showtime.com right now.

You can get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, stick around. If not, pound sand. You guys know the drill there. Okay. I think that is it for preambles. We have to get right to the show, BC. I am super excited. Dana White saying that this thing is trending.

Now, you know, whether that's true or not, it certainly is very debatable. He says that every pay-per-view, Luke. You know this already. He does. He does. But I do think that it's fair to say there is a tremendous amount of interest around UFC 254.

So the day, excuse me, the way we want it to start today, let's imagine two different worlds. We'll go through one, then we'll go through the other. We will give them equal weight and probability, at least for the purposes of conversation. Let us imagine a world where Nurmagomedov wins in the main event at UFC 254, and then afterwards we will imagine a scenario where Justin Gaethje wins. Okay, let's start, BC. If Nurmagomedov gets his hand raised, and we're talking about a world where it's not controversial.

Maybe it's a stoppage, maybe it's not, but right guy won kind of scenario. First, let's talk about what this would do for Khabib and his legacy. One thing that often gets overlooked, and the reason why people might be skeptical of Dana is, you're right, he's sort of the boy who cried wolf about their own success to a degree. But Nurmagomedov is a global superstar. He is much more popular than you might imagine. He doesn't go out there and flamboyantly show it, but it's very true. If he gets to 29-0, peak of his powers, I think he would find a new peak in terms of his visibility and celebrity what would that do for him as a fighter to be remembered like how much can he level up with just this one win uh it would be massive from this sense the intrigue of this fight

and the reason why Danny gets real excited during fight weeks, right? He did it for Cowboy Conor earlier this year and sort of says, this might be the biggest since 229. Habib Conor is because he sees the early metrics of the preview, the countdown show, the embedded, all that. And the reason why there's major intrigue in here, and I think this is a correct statement, is this might be the most danger, the most threat to habib nurmagomedov's incredible unbeaten run inside the octagon that we have seen justin gaethje could not be coming in any hotter as he told us well i'm breaking shit here as he told us in our great interview on morning combat here uh he inflicts damage like no one else so there's the idea luke that this one could be even

harder since he's become champion, certainly, and maybe even before that in the UFC than any fight he has had. If Habib wins this, and if we are still on track to what he's saying, and even this week, he said 30-0 would be a really nice round number to walk away on. We may only get Habib Nurmagomedov inside that octagon one more time after Saturday night. Should he defeat Gaethje who I'm talking myself into believing has a legit chance again might be the toughest out he has faced given the timing and everything that's going on in his style Luke this could be the final hurdle to set up that retirement bout this is almost like when Floyd Mayweather signed that deal with Showtime in 2013 for six big fights and we did the math and we're like, you know, he's going to get to that mythical Rocky Marciano 48-0 at the end of it.

And, you know, whether he takes one more to retire at 50-0 or not, this is it. This is the last stretch here of his greatness. Can he get to the limit? Now, 30-0 doesn't necessarily mean anything extra in this case, but let's never, ever, ever, regardless of where you're at in terms of how many great the modern day MMA, in the deepest, most dangerous division in this sport's history, if you run the gauntlet and you retire undefeated and you do it with 30 and 0,

a nice fat round number, I mean, good Lord, it's going to be very, very special. So I think this fight with Tony Ferguson having lost earlier this year when a lot of us, including me, believed he was really the one who had the best chance,

this might be that final hurdle to set up either a Conor rematch, a G gsp go home or whatever and it's not that if it's not that habib couldn't lose that fight but you can't get to that fight unless you get through this one luke so if habib wins on saturday i think what we talk about from now until that potential final fight in april is the idea of what would this unbeaten record mean for the short history of MMA and how great is this guy who might be willing to walk away at the peak of his powers in the midst of his physical prime as you know an argument in the greatest of all time uh rankings I mean this could be a big deal Luke yeah I mean there's a few ways to slice this right it's like

just you couldn't count the whole career because part of it took place in the regional scene, and that's not nothing, but this is the question I would be asking is, where would his unbeaten UFC run land insofar as you count all unbeaten UFC runs? You know, if I had to ask you, who has the best 10-fight win streak in UFC history, would it be his, right? Would it be one of Demetrius Johnson's?

Would it be Anderson Silva's? Would it be one of St. Pierre? Like where, where would you, or one of John Jones's like who has the best 10 fight win streak? Who has the, you know, whatever you want, however you want to frame that. I think you begin to have those conversations. Second, he currently sits at number two pound for pound.

I wonder if that might put him at number one over John Jones. Now, not just because John gave up the title willingly to move up a division clarify that Luke clarify that quickly sorry to interrupt clarify when you say Habib currently sits number two pound for pound yeah what whose list are you referring to I've had Habib number one since John Harden started having close decisions fair point totally fair all I mean to say is he's sitting number two on the official UFC rankings, which plenty of nits to pick over there, to be quite candid. I just mean, could Khabib get to a point where it's like a no-brainer?

You know, where it's just not even very hard to tell. Like when LeBron and the Lakers won the championship, AD performed ably. In fact, more than ably, he performed amazingly. But it wasn't really much of a contest to figure out who was going to win MVP for that series it was it was pretty straightforward that's the kind of thing that I mean where it's okay John has done amazing things and certainly is still in high regard but look at what Nurmagomedov is doing I think there's a

possibility you might get to that point and there's also this thing where you're looking ahead and saying um yes the GSP fight thing but the one thing i was sort of wanted to talk about for just the moment was how much more popular can he get without a saint pierre or without a connor do you think he's kind of tapped out a little bit in that regard bc like yes he can get he can always get more popular but i mean to say is meaningfully more popular can he really turn the corner unless he rematches connor or sets up a saint pierre fight as as validating and as valuable as it will be to beat gaethje if he gets to that point um and it will elevate things i still wonder if there's if he can no quite obviously he cannot right he must have them to reach that next level. But I don't think that's exactly what he wants either.

If he announces that the April fight will be his last one, people love the idea of this romantic 30, you know, unbeaten. And again, it matters when no one goes unbeaten for this type of stretch in elite UFC at this point. So that would matter enough. But I think you're right. He would need either of those big names to really get to that next level of global stardom he's pretty damn famous i mean you go in there with conor mcgregor in a blood feud and you break the ufc pay-per-view record you're gonna come out of there uh you know

with it on your clothes you're gonna be you're gonna be rub you're gonna rub one no actually it's you let me let me get out of that look let me ask you this bc pre-saint fiar fight so we're talking about a world where numbermagomedov wins on Saturday in some kind of comfortable fashion, yeah? You said you already have him pound for pound, so it wouldn't change that. But now you start putting him in the conversation because for some reason he's not there yet,

I guess because he's still active. I think there is a sense with Nurmagomedov that as good as his record is, there are still some hills to climb. Do you begin to put him on that Mount Rushmore conversation at that point yeah I love this topic and debate and I get that for some people it's all nerds in their basement having it again I'm a nerd I'm currently in my basement uh yeah if if Habib you know beats Justin Gaethje and if we're gonna you know

coherently say this could be his toughest challenge to date he's dude he's right there in that upper room as i like to say right that table where john jones to me sits at the head of it but you got anderson silva gsp fedor demetrius johnson i thought dc had a cup of coffee at that table we can debate that endlessly i'm sorry josie aldo and the other greats are right outside that door habib's at the damn table luke okay so maybe that's the significance here from a unofficial mythical sort of sense. But all it would really do is set up that final fight. And I think that final fight, especially if he does it against one of those two big names that we mentioned, and walks away, like does a Jim Brown, you know what I mean?

Just walks away on top in the midst of his prime. Does a Michael Jordan in 93, although he came back a few times. It would be incredible, Luke. It would say a lot about who he is, and maybe he would still get a Floyd boxing match, for all we know, an F-round and double his star value. But you could say it means nothing, but if this man retires at 30-0, having lost one round, you know,

or two rounds or whatever, Gleason Tebow bout notwithstanding, it's going to matter, Luke. He's going to be in that discussion for the GOAT. He is freaking dominant. And again, you just don't do that in MMA where you can lose 86 ways, and you just don't do that in the deepest division in the sports history, even with not having fought Tony because of bad luck and missing two years in his early prime and having to fight the Daryl Horchers of the world.

Look at his resume right now. He beat the crap out of Poirier. He beats Gaethje. And you add on with everything else he's done. I mean, God, he beat the crap out of Barbosa. I mean, he's beaten the crap out of people, Luke. He's there. He's there.

He's in the conversation. As I do a John Wall bit where I play the thing, I play spades on air. I'm sorry, I'm making my coffee here. Two more points about this and then I want to talk about the St. Pierre fight, which is simply an inevitable part of this conversation.

One, BC, I don't know the answer to either of these things, but here's what I'm thinking about. One, if he beats Gaethje and he says, St. Pierre is the only thing left and he means it, what happens to Conor McGregor's stock if he can never rematch Habib? I wonder. Second part, and I would love for you to answer this one. There is an endless amount of debate right now in the UFC about which division is better. Historically, it's usually been somewhere, well, initially it was 205 for the longest,

and then it became somewhere around lightweight, welterweight was one of the better ones, right? Now it's between lightweight and bantamweight. I wonder if Habib ends up beating Gaethje and fights St. Pierre, and I guess there's a function of what happens there to an extent, but eventually just hands back the belt. Let's say something like that. Would it not destroy lightweight? I don't think that it would. Lightweight is still too good. There's still too many interesting permutations. But it's never great for a division when the guy at the front of it just has to hand back the belt because none of you jabronis could take it from him.

And then he goes and retires. At that point, I wonder if from a perception standpoint, where he's beaten just about all these guys, not all of them, but most of them, hands back the belt. We've already called Bantamweight the division of the future. I wonder, for folks who are already in the Bantamweight camp, they're already there. But for folks like us, who may be a little bit more inclined to still say lightweight, I wonder if Nurmagomedov handing that title back, if and when we get there, does that thing where it shifts the sand

to one side and then Bantamweight really ascends to the front of that pack what do you make about those two considerations I hadn't thought about that and it's an interesting point and I think in Bantamweight's argument should that take place people have pointed out lately you know that it might actually be a deeper division at the moment so lightweight is is more top heavy and the reason why I didn't panic when you said with this sort of downplay lightweight if habib ran through everybody and gave the belt back well i'll say no for two reasons one gsp kind of did that at welterweight and we had robbie lawler and johnny hendricks rise up and eventually tyron woodley and things were fine and number two there are all-time great fighters right now just below habib dustin Poirier, Tony Ferguson, Conor McGregor.

All-time greats, okay? Legitimately, all-time great fighters right there. So I don't think that would be the case. I do think it could shift the power back to Bantamweight in this sort of mythical debate on which division's better. Your first side of the question was almost more interesting to me in a way. That does Conor need Habib and need the chance at redeeming himself from that loss

to ever get to a higher level critically and commercially? Because there's still a redemption chance in there, Luke. When Conor had the mishap against Nate, by running it back, I remember writing that column for ESPN, the only way he can regain the ghost of invincibility and stardom and all that is by going back in there and beating that same guy under the same circumstances. He did that. There is that offer and opportunity for Conor,

who has damaged his own legacy in the past few years while making insane amounts of money and going through different things outside of the cage. He could win it all back in one night against Habib, where there's no other opponent he can do that against. The last thing I'll say in this, and I want to talk about St. Pierre, is it's something we don't talk enough about, in part because he hasn't accomplished the mission yet,

but if Nurmagomedov beats Gaethje, at that point, against St. Pierre, it doesn't even really matter to me. We'll talk about it here in just a minute, but in the modern era of MMA, when two things are happening, one, fighters are more well-rounded than they've ever been. Two, I would say three things, actually. Two, best practices

are better than they've ever been, like the modernity of the skill sets. You have somebody like Dominic Reyes, who's only been fighting since, what, 2014, come in there and give Jon Jones basically everything he can handle, at least for 15 minutes. And then the other part is it's become mostly striking. I mean, you do get to see well-roundedness still. Takedowns still matter.

Ground game still matters. I mean, it's not so much striking that the other portions of the game are an afterthought, but the balance has shifted predominantly towards striking. And here you have a guy who basically rejects all of that. He doesn't have great striking. He barely has functional striking at that. I mean, he's got functional striking, but you know, not much more than it. He has, I would say two skill sets wrestling and then, you know, ground control slash submissions, right? So it's more than just one, but in an era where everything is going one way and leveling up, he went the other way and still dominated the entire time.

I mean, that would be, you know, this is one of the reasons why it's like maybe you believe in Gaethje individually, maybe you don't. But one, people always lose in MMA. And two, eventually your lack of well-roundedness or someone's ability to find any kind of gap there ends up beating you. But what if somebody, what if a whole 30 guys can't do that? That would be, I mean, I couldn't overstate how amazing that would be, BC. I know we don't talk a whole lot of technique on MK

regular, but I do think about that. Like you're doing, and it's not knuckleball BC, because when you're a knuckleballer, you know this, that's the only pitch you throw. You're Tim Wakefield. And sometimes you go out there and you go, you full nine innings and sometimes you get shelled out of three this dude is doing you know complete game shutouts for you know 10 seasons as a knuckleballer it's i've just never seen anything quite like it yeah first to address your point on we don't normally touch on tech there's not enough room in the air for technique here with all this dong talk going on first of all on mk regular luke okay uh secondly again i hadn't thought of this point this is why you were a natural at filling hours of radio time luke yeah habib is almost the opposite of the of

the new mold and becoming well-rounded in every single facet and that's certainly not to say he's um you know remedial at the other facets of the game. He's worked his striking into a level where it works for him. But I think his one-dimensional dominance has been aided by the fact, Luke, that his intangibles are next level, goat level. When you talk about consistency, commitment, mindset, adaptability, inability to be shaken by anything. You've got to have those in place for that one skill to still be your ultimate calling card. And let's be honest here, I don't come onto the show

just to drop dumps onto Ronda Rousey, but those intangibles were not there for her. That's why when her one dimension was finally solved and snapped, she snapped as well. That's another part of habib's legacy that we have to celebrate and give him huge credit for um luke can i spin a not one more thing back at you about habib winning here on saturday please and then we'll talk and then we'll talk saint pierre yeah uh just to close on the idea of habib connor too and i know some people don't want us to

talk about that but aaron bronsteader you know that fine canadian right love that man love that peculiar dresser he goes goes for it, right? He goes to the racks and the stories. Like, give me your weirdest suit. I can relate to that. I like that guy. He interviewed on TSN, I believe, Habib, and said, look, you know, you did say you would fight Conor if he beat Poirier. So what gives, bro-ham?

And, you know, to Habib's credit, he said, I did say that, so here's the deal. If Conor fights Poirier at lightweight and beats him and not some 170 catchweight BS, I will. You respect that? Yeah, I do. I don't tend to think we'll actually see that, but, you know, I respect the adherence and the willingness to stick to your word.

I just tend to think that the fight game will get in the way. First of all, Conor's got work to do. I mean, let's just be real about that. Also, you know, we can't bury Justin. So I actually wouldn't mind seeing it if those things happen, if Nurmagomedov gets past Justin, and if Conor gets past Dustin in January or whatever, I wouldn't mind seeing it,

but let's cross that bridge when we get there. All right, so let's talk about this. No, no, hold on. This has to be said. You saw me looking down at my phone. You know we have No Jay Wednesdays on MK, right? Yes. I believe the nerve of Jay asking us questions

about the future of this show during the show right now. I didn't see my phone. Did he really? Yeah. Can you believe? Can you understand? Shout out to Gaff in our ear today, see my phone. Did he really? Yeah. Can you believe? Can you understand? Shout out to Gaff in our ear today, by the way. Yeah.

Oh, Jesus. Not having that. Seriously? Does he want? Okay. All right. All right. All right.

St. Pierre, very quickly. How big is that fight? Okay. It's huge. But honestly, it's not as big as Conor for many different reasons. Luke, I think in Dana's heart of hearts, he would do GSP. In fact, maybe he will do GSP. But only if Conor loses against Poirier, bro.

I'm telling you that right now. It not only makes sense in dollars, it makes a lot of sense, Luke. Right? So, hey, Lukey, can I give you a theory now? Or should I save this for friday uh is it the one about boxing if so save it for friday save that save that one for friday you know what i will give you credit that is a gem of a theory don't spoil it for today okay so gsp is huge luke but but luke i want to get your take on whether if it happens at a catchweight or welterweight, it is not as big because it would lose the hook of GSP going for first man to hold titles

in three different weight divisions. It could gain, according to Javier Mendez, the idea that the winner would be the GOAT. You can debate that all you want. But does it have to be at lightweight in your eyes for it to mean as much? No, it doesn't in part because to the extent that Saint Pierre goes down too much you can begin to question not the integrity of the result but the what you really learned in the whole process I mean it goes back to Mayweather and Canelo I just didn't think that was a great weight for Canelo now to be clear I think Mayweather was

probably better at that time anyway but I do feel like the extra weight that Canelo had to cut was just a little bit of insurance for Floyd along the way. And credit to Floyd, like that was the deal he worked out. Canelo agreed to it. So it is what it is. I just mean to say under a different circumstance, how different would the result have been? It's still something that I think not just me, but a lot of people who watched that fight and who were there think about boxing. They go back to that one a lot. Like, what would it have been for Canelo to be a different weight? So it's like at 165, we know Khabib is a big lightweight. It's hard for him to get down to 155.

He can do it. He's found a way. But still, historically, the pattern of having some issues down there is very, very real. St. Pierre, I think, talked about all the difficulty in putting on weight to go to 185. Certainly, I'm not a nutritionist or exercise scientist, but I wonder how much manipulation can his body really tolerate in terms of that. So 165 doesn't appear to be a bridge too far from the 170 where he spent most of his career. I like 165 for that reason. Plus, you know, if Khabib loses the title to St. Pierre and then St. Pierre immediately hands it back again, you know, I just don't feel like that's

just the best way to go about things. And also, if you're telling me this is for greatest of all time, yes, you lose the person who went across three weight classes. That is true. And perhaps that is enough of a signifier to get St. Pierre to want to make these sacrifices in terms of his size but at the same time it's really just about the skill set I mean I mean listen I don't like the St. Pierre fight because you know two fights over the course of eight years for me is not enough to really to think that this is going to be all that meaningful however the one thing I cannot dispute there's just no way to dispute it, is at least in theory, BC, St. Pierre would really be the first high-level guy he's faced that was a serious takedown threat. I mean, you think about all the people that Nurmagomedov has defeated, some of them were good wrestlers but really

couldn't get it going or just didn't try, or he was going to fight Tony, and the Tony fought Justin, and even then just Imanari rolled against Justin. I don't think that was a thing. In other words, everyone you think about when they fight Nurmagomedov is, can they knock him out because they're better strikers, and can they defend the takedown? Right, but what about if the roles are reversed? Now, to the extent we have seen Nurmagomedov defend takedowns in the UFC,

which has happened on occasion, he does it quite ably. He's actually pretty good. Gleason Tebow got him down. Some other ones made some good efforts, but not for very long, not in very meaningful impact. So St. Pierre provides, at least in theory, BC, that kind of a test. So you don't really need the title to tell you whether or not that is meaningful. And also, this is the whole thing about weight cutting, BC. You know this. There is a natural tension between how much do we want to do to solve weight cutting by undercutting our business because if you really want to solve weight cutting you just add a bunch more weight classes and make it a lot easier on folks but that's not necessarily

great for business which is why i think dana is reluctant because he has nice neat organization he doesn't want to add super lightweight or junior welterweight to the mix luke i would counter that real quickly and say um the reason why we have so many of that in boxing is because it actually is good for business the more fights you put on tv that are title fights the more in theory you get ratings then why does everyone complain about title fights in boxing big well because they've completely bastardized it like bastard yeah yeah let's go let's move on can I be the

can Khabib be the super lightweight Dagestani franchise champion of the WBO by the way can we shout out Mike Coppinger's Twitter account if you want to see him send WBC head Mauricio Suleiman to hell please check out the podcast that he just posted, by the way.

Thank you. All right. So we started the show talking about Nurmagomedov winning, but let's be fair because that's what you have to be here. What happens if Gaethje wins? So let's imagine a World BC. What happens if Justin wins? How earth-shattering is this in terms of it would be an upset,

not by odds it would be an upset still, but it wouldn't be the biggest upset we've ever seen UFC. In fact, not even close. Still, it feels like if he does it, it almost carries more weight than another fight that was, you know, Shayna Dobson beating, what's her face? That was a huge upset. This would not be as big in terms of the odds, but Jesus Christ, bro,

the implications would be huge, would they not? Yeah. I mean, great, great call out to my savior there as well uh it would be massive luke absolutely massive it would flip upside down your pound for pound rankings the historical narrative of habib's unbeaten career in this deep division at the moment and more specifically justin gaethje's you know what would be then kind of an absurd turnaround luke we talked about it with him in our interview which please check it out on youtube uh about the idea of flipping that switch he was basically arturo gatti of mma coming out of wsof and then he hit a wall and he got stopped twice

by two guys who had it on the inside and eddie alvarez and dustin poirier but to reinvent himself as dramatically as he has without sacrificing Luke the danger. He's still destroying dudes, but to be able to just, you know, trim the fat and really just put things all together. You want to talk about knocking out the guys in a row that he did last year? Cool. You want to talk about stopping Tony Ferguson and handing habib nurmagomedov his first loss in the same calendar year to become the champion of the sports division

you're talking about a shoot to the top of the pound for pound rankings and you're talking about a star when would be the last time luke that at the top of the sport the top of the sport you had a guy who was that pleasing to the eye in terms of his fighting style who whose next fights after that oh by the way could be anything from a habib rematch to a connor fight for the title to a poyer fight to the title to a tony rematch i mean you talk about you would have made a a superstar overnight and it would shake up everything we're talking about right here and it's in play it's in play can you imagine bc after watching the gaethje and poirier fight right so he's three fights into his ufc run he beat michael johnson had me just an absolute i re-watched the alvarez fight my god what a blood and guts war

same thing basically with the Poirier fight, a little bit less so, but in many ways almost the same and then you would have said to me you came back from the future BC, you said to me that guy is going to beat Tony Ferguson and Nurmagomedov I'd have told you, you're out of your god damn mind

there's just no way you could have imagined it I mean, two things stand out to me about what would happen if Justin does it. One, to have that kind of a career reformation that late into your run, not too late, but obviously, you know, it was a mature fighter by the time he got to the UFC, is just, I think, almost without precedent. We've seen guys grow up, but not like flip a switch. You know, I said this, I put it in a video on my personal YouTube channel last night. He's got two chapters to his UFC run, the first three fights, and then the last four, and then the one coming up this weekend. And they're just

totally different animals in every way. I mean, it's a similar kind of one, but I guess, but really when you begin to break it down, there's just too many meaningful differences to not draw a line in the sand that way. So that's the first thing. The second thing I would say is, even after making that switch, and he beat Vic, and he beat Barboza, and he beat Cerrone, even after that point, if you'd have told me he's going to stop with strikes, Tony Ferguson, and then eventually, let's say, in this imaginary world, beat Nurmagomedov, I still would have told you, you were out of your goddamn mind. When was a time where a guy,

even after making a reformation like this, was considered to be like a, let's say charitably, charitably, a distant third, fourth, maybe fifth in the division? I think most folks had in the pecking order before the Daytona and the Justin fight. I think they had Khabib one, Tony two, you know,

Dustin and Connor somewhere three, four ish around that Mark, right? Give or take those are your top four one way or the other. He was sitting outside of that. And then you would have told me he would have beaten the two best guys. We thought we're going to fight for goat title. This is without precedent. This is shocking. I mean, even Verdum who got the wins over Velasquez and Fedor you know he couldn't quite get it done against Overeem and he had some you know he fell apart in certain places along the way but no one did it like and flipped the switch and then just never looked back that's what this would be it would be this come from behind story that I don't even know how to tell properly that to me is what stands out let me add one more cherry on top to what you're saying after the second back-to-back knockout

loss Luke I remember having those discussions on podcasts uh behind the scenes with my staff at CBS sports that man this guy Gaethje super fun but how many more fights can he do this what do you think he has two more fights at the elite level before his you know the effects of this just catch up with him you remember Ruslan Provodnikov right that that fun boxing brawler six seven years ago and for a short window we were like this guy just won a world title like could this guy like be the the first caveman to like actually get to the top and just kind of you know and look it didn't happen for him he't as skilled, but he put on some amazing fights. Please go watch that Tim Bradley fight.

If you haven't, it's one of the best of all time. But the whole point is we were scared at his future mentally, Luke. We were like, this guy's already maybe shot at the peak of his prime because he just walks into oncoming traffic and just throws himself at people. Well, he's kind of still doing that just with a little bit of refinement around him. It would be absolutely incredible, Luke, so incredible, that would you go as far as saying

that this 2020 calendar year, the year where everyone short, I wanted to say short of Joe Exotic, but he ended up in jail, so he didn't have a great year either. Really, everyone short of you and I on MK have had the worst years of their careers or personal lives. Would Justin Gaethje have just authored the greatest single calendar year in UFC history,

Luke, true or false, if he does this? Hard? I mean, I don't know. That's a tough one. You know, two ways to look at it. Two ways to look at it, two ways to look at it, right? You could look at, um, like a calendar year for what Adesanya did. And you'd be like, wow, man, look how consistently he was out there. Just leveling up every time. Didn't lose along

the way. Now, of course, Justin wouldn't have lost in 2020 either. He would have beaten Tony and Khabib. So there'd be a lot less activity in terms of what Tony excuse me what Justin was doing but the wins where you just knocked off the number one contender and then maybe the guy we're talking about who could be goat who should be sitting or does sit depending on one's rankings at the top of pound for pound list I mean I don't know I don't know that's that is such an accomplishment that is so amazing to consider the nominees can i give you the nominees and have you choose sure and this is somewhat off the top of my head in the last couple minutes okay here we go it goes like this israel adesanya's 2019

i'll throw it in the conversation anderson silva kevin kelvin gastelum in the fight of the year and then uh who was the third one? Then he won the damn title, right? And then he beat Robert Whitaker by knockout, who was unbelievable for the title. Number two, Jon Jones 2011 beats unbeaten Ryan Bader,

quick turnaround, destroys Shogun Hua for the title, and then beats Prime, Lyoto Machida and still somewhat there Rampage Jackson. Four wins in one calendar year at like 23. Henry Cejudo in 2019

moves down, knocks out TJ Dillashaw for the title and then comes back and beats Marlon Marais to grab the Bantamweight title and I'll throw in 2016 Amanda Nunes wins a decision over Valentina Shevchenko, submits Misha Tate for the title and I'll throw in 2016 Amanda Nunes wins a decision over Valentina Shevchenko submits Misha Tate for the title and then sends Ronda Rousey to hell in the same calendar year Luke who you got bro man those are what a great question well I'll tell you this much he is easily

a part of that conversation even with and that's the best part about it he would have the fewest fights of anyone you named right? John had four Amanda three I'm not sure I'm a anyhow out of sign you have but three or four maybe more at that point, right? And then he's sitting there at two and who do I do as well? Yeah. Yeah, okay, but still he was moving weight classes I mean, there's a lot to be had there This guy's staying in the same weight class and it's still a part of that I mean, I don't know if you can rank him number one depending on how you want to value it,

but dude, I'm telling you, he is on the precipice of doing something more than just taking someone's undefeated record, more than just winning an undisputed title. He is on the precipice of doing something in combat sports that I'm not sure we've seen, at least not at this level, and not to this degree, given all of the setbacks that he had in particular,

it is absolutely amazing to me. I cannot wait for Saturday. It is so huge in so many ways. Now, it brings us to another sort of part of this question, BC, which I thought was a great one you just asked there. Who does he fight after this? Again, we are positing a world where Justin wins without controversy, whatever you want that

to mean boy you want to talk about having the wind at your back now we asked him in our interview BC I think I was the one that did it and I said have you accounted for what's going to happen to your celebrity if you go in there and beat this guy right what's he going to do who's he going to fight does he call out Connor who he previously had issues with does he if you beat Nurmagomedov once in boxing do you got to do it twice? What's next for him if he gets the dub? Well, let me ask you this, Luke. Let me put on your really smart cap of being a matchmaker

and a promoter and a businessman. Let's say we can drop you in the middle of that war room at UFC Brass, okay? All the power players are there. Are they looking at each other in the eye and going, we got Conor Poirier too this close. We just haven't announced it. We haven't put the blood on the paper yet. Do we wait until Saturday's result first?

Because if Gaethje wins and wins dominantly, I'm not talking about a split decision in which we got to run it back right away. If Justin Gaethje stops Habib Nurmagomedov on Saturday, do they run Conor right freaking at him Conor Khabib too no if Justin Gaethje wins the championship okay so here's they say sorry Dustin you're getting Conor Justin Conor right now okay here's the funny part about all of this I think Conor is the worst matchup for Ga. Okay, here's the funny part about all of this. I think Conor's the worst matchup for Gaethje of Tony. We'll see how he does against Khabib, right? But

again, at that point, if he beats Khabib, again, we're talking about a world where he has already beaten him. If he beats Nurmagomedov and he's already beaten Tony, at that point, I would conclude that Conor would actually be a worse matchup because you know Justin is not going to take him down. You know Justin is going to accommodate him on the feet. And I feel like at least early, now who knows late, at least early that is going to be a place where Conor is going to feast on him. And I know some people will all be, oh, this is the problem with talking about Conor. His fans think he walks on water and he is Jesus reincarnate

and he raises Lazarus from the dead and then makes him his corner man. And his critics think the guy can't do fuck all. And so you have this tension between deity and, you know, the bottom of the caste system. Well, it's somewhere obviously in the middle. Here's what I would say. His precision punching, his ability to manage range, his good chin that he has, the willingness that Justin would have to accommodate him on the feet. I honestly would tell you, I mean, we talked about, well, is it Khabib or bust for Conor? But if Nurmagomedov loses to Justin and then Justin fights Conor and Conor goes in there and does the kind of thing that I think he is at least capable of doing, BC.

Buddy, you want to talk about redemption? Maybe that's not as good as beating Nurmagomedov, but that's pretty goddamn close. Yeah, and then you had the Conor-Habib rematch with Conor coming in with the belt. Good God. So my question was to you, is that why they haven't announced Conor-Dustin Poirier too?

Is that the damn reason, Luke? Are we just encasing it if you're Dana and company? They're saying the contracts haven't been signed. Who the hell knows? Again, I know you have an interesting theory, which we're going to share on Friday. I think it's more than a theory. I think it's actually, I think there's probably something to that.

So I'll put it this way. There's a few irons in the fire. UFC is clever, dude. They're smart. They know, they don't always, look, no business is always going to make the right decision. It's hard to even know what the right decision is sometimes. But in general, we've talked about it.

They bet on themselves. They are fight fans at heart. They're going to give themselves some options here. I'm just saying, it is hard to think of a scenario. Like, if you looked at the odds right now, BC, if I go, this is not a plug, I just use them because it's a good reference. If you go to best fight odds, Gaethje is a pretty significant underdog, plus 275, give or take. That's pretty significant. I cannot think of a plus 275 underdog in my life where if they win, it is that transformative to the landscape of MMA. Can't even think of a plus 275 underdog in my life where if they win it is that transformative to the landscape

of mma can't even come to can't even think of a close home holly home over rousey plus 275 what was she she was way more than that oh okay okay yeah i know i get what you're saying okay for me i mean i mean to say at only plus 275, I can find one. It's a plus 1000, just plus 275. That's it. It's, it's wild. Look, it adds. She was just less than this. When Holly closed against Rhonda, she was plus 700.

That's what I'm talking about. Yes. Yes. Anyway. Okay. Well, it should be a lot of fun. That leads us to one final person in this equation, yes. Anyway, okay. Well, it should be a lot of fun. That leads us to one final person in this equation, BC, and I don't really know how to make heads or tails of this,

which is Michael Chandler. And where the hell does he fit into all of this? Here's what he's up against, right, BC? If somebody falls out, whoever, Justin or Habib, and he fills in, here he is fighting for a title, and you just never know what could happen when a guy has wrestling and power and I think the apex of his own skill set that he's at right now. But if he doesn't get the opportunity and he ends up fighting Tony,

look, Tony is a very formidable customer, I think, still. We don't know exactly how he's going to recover from the beating that Justin gave him, but imagine you lost to that, which is not in any way crazy to think that Tony could beat him. If you do that, you were this close to fighting for a UFC title and now you're already in the

back of the elite pack, but you're at the back of it. How do you interpret what is on the line for him here or how he should be viewed? This is the ultimate all or nothing risk rewards even though he's not really risking all that much this is crazy if you think about it now Chandler's a big get for UFC because you know he's great and he makes fun fights and he's at the apex of his career for how however short the rest of it will be in terms of

his fighting style but look when we talked about him you know as a free agent from bellator going to ufc we were like hey what's a great first fight for paul felder you know wash cowboy what's a great first fight nobody would have ever had said habib for the title or justin gaethje for the interim one in the last minute so as much as them naming him announcing his signing and then announcing that he would be a backup which i felt at first sort of watered down the news i mean you know if i'm running this i announce him that he's there i put him in the co-main event against tony that's just how i operate or against dustin poirier or whatever but he literally has a chance to cut the entire line in a division that was bottlenecked for so long because of talent and because of Conor keeping that title hostage when he went away

and Habib and Tony being unable to match up. Now he has a chance to legitimately cut the line and all he needs is somebody to blow Wade or something, you know, God forbid, somebody catches two positive COVID tests back to back or something, you know, like that. It's wild, Luke. He has a way to turn, you know know an opportunity into a life-changing opportunity my question to you that i think is the most important one though even though chandler

against either guy and i don't want to put the bad juju out there or the bad karma that this could happen although they brought him there because this could happen so let's leave it at that do you like his chances against either of them given the last minute scenario and given who they are as fighters do you think there's a chance sunday morning that michael chandler has one of those two ufc lightweight titles okay i don't like his chances against nurmagomedov i like them a lot better against justin probably still favor justin so let me explain against Against Nurmagomedov, we have seen that he can wrestle

to stay safe in fights. He can wrestle for a full... Like the full round, the first round against Conor, what was the game plan there? Like, if I just asked you. For me, when I look at that, I just say he was just draining the guy. That's it. He was controlling, he was draining,

probably a little bit of mental warfare involved, but in actuality,'m gonna get you down connor's takedown defense was any good i think in a lot of ways right yeah and also yeah absolutely and grappling underneath is he gonna show a guard like what hand is he gonna show and what kind of hand does he have is he do seven off suit or whatever and so that was a lot it was just drain the guy see what he's got blah blah okay and then up the ante over the course of the fight by the time the fourth round came around basically he won although you could say the third round was a good run for Conor either way that's what the first round was about I think Nurmagomedov can probably do that even if it seems like he's stalling at times against Chandler I think that's an opportunity for him and here's the thing if you go back and

watch the first Benson Henderson fight with Michael Chandler, by the end there, Chandler was taking it, excuse me, Henderson was taking it to him in the wrestling department, not because I think he's a better outright wrestler, but because Chandler is just foot on the gas at all times, he tends to drain pretty quickly relative to what is in the gas tank. So if he's able to stay safe, which I think he can, Nurmagomedov, and then take the fight late, I just feel like he's going to wear the guy down and eventually overwhelm him. It's the Justin fight that is a little bit more interesting.

Now, Justin, I still think, is a bit more of a refined product. And we saw in the Tony fight, was able to manage his resources over the course of the fight. I mean, I put up this video yesterday, BC, I just referenced. Here's one thing I noticed in the numbers. If you look at the average output that Justin Gaethje had in his first three fights for rounds that would go the full five minutes,

he was landing anywhere between 50 or more shots a fight, or a round, excuse me, landing, throwing more, landing that many. His numbers have come way down, but not qualitatively. In fact, qualitatively, they've gone up. He has reduced the amount he is throwing to make better choices about it. Chandler, I think, has come along a little bit in that way. I've not looked at his numbers to be sure, but I don't think he's come as far along. The only thing is, Justin's going to accommodate him in the stand-up.

And I think, obviously, there'll be some wrestling involved on Chandler's part. So that's a little bit more of a winnable fight, I think, for Chandler. If you're asking me where he stands, BC, I'd love to know on your part. I'm going to put him somewhere currently in the top five of the UFC.

But where in that pecking order, that part I can't say. Yeah, I mean, what's the highest you could rank him sort of on the idea of the eye test and ability against those guys? Four or five at the highest? Something like that. That might even be generous. Look, let's be honest. Let's be really honest and shed all skin here.

When Eddie Alvarez moved from Bellator to UFC, I was feeling the Bellator stigma to a degree. The idea that you're facing consistently lesser quality opposition compared to the UFC. And I thought Eddie, as a guy in love with brawling was going to be too vulnerable to have monster success in the UFC. When he went in there in a tough, but largely technical fight against cowboy in his debut and lost,

I was like, you know, that kind of tells you who he is now look to Eddie's credit. He retooled and then he knocked out RDA and won the damn title. So what do I know? I'm not going to sit here and tell you that, you know, Chandler's just a Bellator guy. Rewatch his last fight against Benson Henderson in the rematch

in his final Bellator contracted bout. I mean, he blew him away in like in your face impressive style. But we are talking about the deepest, most dangerous division in history. I don't really know if he's better than future champion Kevin Lee. I don't really know if he could beat somebody as hard ass of a gatekeeper as Paul Felder

on the elite level. I don't know, Luke, if he's not any better than the sixth or seventh lightweight in the world at the moment. I think that's fair i mean it's so many unknowns with him we talk about the unknowns between gaethje and nurmagomedov and and their unique styles and how they match and we can't really say you add that times like i'm gonna say a thousand but there's just another layer of complexity when someone's coming over

from another uh organization especially this late in their, where they're 34 years of age. It's like, you're a fully mature guy, and we've not really seen you. There's some overlap, right? The Eddie fights and some other ones as well. But there's just not a lot. The Henderson fights and, you know, but the Henderson that was over there, is that the same one? What does that say anymore?

It's just so many unknowns. I just feel like if Nurmagomedamedov falls out that's much better for chandler's chances than the opposite but i guess we'll have to see luke real quick uh future ufc champion kevin lee uh put out a video that we'll probably see and have you seen this shit on monday about it the back of the skull tattoo design does that do anything negatively to your vision of him eventually hoisting gold one day what's going on here luke not necessarily for one reason two reasons one most tattoos are bad the vast majority of them there's almost like it's better now with instagram because you can do a lot more due diligence but uh most tattoos are bad most people have no idea what a good tattoo looks like.

And Kevin Lee, I don't love the idea of tattooing what he's tattooing but the guy he's getting to do it is mega talented. Super, super, super, super high level, right? He's getting the Corey Sanhagen or something of tattoo artists to do that work. So here's what I'll say. For tattooing purposes, he could be doing a lot worse i'm just gonna say i come from a you know an era and an area where if you got tattoos above the neckline if you got them on your hand if you got

them on your face you crazy so maybe maybe this will make them uh crazy enough to max out you know don't you feel like like that's gone away a lot i mean i see people with like tattoos on their hands and throat even their face now the face one is still a little bit like i've got a line of i've got an occupation you can't be too sure of but i've definitely seen the neck tattoos you know and then people will go get like Taylor made Hugo boss suits. And they kind of have this like, you know, contrast of styles thing going on.

I don't know. I see a lot of that. I guess it's hard for me to have this dated take, right? Well, you know, because everybody in UFC has tattoos everywhere. Okay.

So it is two, two, two white guys in their forties. I wasn't afraid of needles. Look, maybe, maybe. Okay.

Two 40 year old, two 40 yearold dads question tattoos of young people. Luke, I mean, look. Spiders and black licorice and needles. They're three things I just don't need in my life, all right? I'm actually getting a tattoo next month. Okay. Of what? Whoa, whoa.

Stop the presses. Of what? I'm getting my forearm, maybe all the way up to the shoulder. We'll see how big it actually ends up being. I'm getting a Marine Corps tattoo. All right. I was thinking about getting Canelo's wife's eyes right here. What do you think about that, Luke?

Yeah, and then you could put her smile beneath it, and you could do one of those numbers. Okay, last thing on UFC 254. There's not a lot of talk about it, and I'm a little bit unsure why. And then, BCc i saw the odds and i'll be honest don't agree with them could be totally wrong i'm shocked i was gonna ask you about that okay so let me set this up the i guess the co-main event for ufc 254 jared cannon air taking on robert whittaker the odds makers ladies and gentlemen have this as a pick them which is to

say from their standpoint they basically view either guy as having a roughly equal chance in fact no they got cannoneer as the favorite william hill are yes barely but it's mostly pick'em there are a couple places where if you can find a underdog barely it is robert whittaker first of all bc don't agree at all second of all what are they seeing that we are not necessarily so i was going to spin that on you and set it up like this luke i'm not doubting that yeah canadier's got monster power you know former heavyweight that power for power you know maybe he's more destructive than robert whitaker but here's my thing luke have we seen a more

well-rounded technical yet also long-suffering badass great chin type of fighter on the elite level than robert whittaker and typically in these type of matchups when you have two elite guys who are who both can take a punch and deliver it you tend to to lean toward the guy with better top end experience and and better better, you know, strike resistance. So look for me as a, as a close Robert Whitaker observer, as a respecter of what he does, I was nervous on this comeback trail of who he would be in that Darren Till fight, right? Is the fighting heart in the, in the same place is, is the punch resistance.

So there is everything because he burned himself out. He also went through 10 rounds of fricking hell against that piece of iron. All right. Yoel Romero. He burned himself out. He also went through 10 rounds of freaking hell against that piece of iron, all right? Yoel Romero. I thought against Darren Till, even though it was completely a technical point fight, that he answered all of my questions. He ate some big shots.

He's back, more or less. Could he ever beat Adesanya in a rematch? I don't know. I think eventually we'll find out, though. I think, you you know ability to ability he's the favorite in this fight cannon is dangerous but he's also coming off a layoff we've also seen him solve to a certain degree i don't know if i believe in the power of them damn crystals but i'll i'll reserve judgment luke he has a chance to win this fight and and get into

a fight without a sonya yes cannon nears a badass badass, but Robert Whitaker has all the boxes checked. Am I wrong, Luke? I'm with you. I mean, here's why. Kananir at middleweight, we would both agree, that's so far and away the best version of himself, it's not even funny. Not merely because I think it's the appropriate size.

He looks like a goddamn, I mean, he's built like a brick shithouse at that weight class, first of all. But more than that, he has matured in his talent. He has really ironed out a lot of the problems and he's really built up a lot of the skills. So I take him seriously. I'm not saying this is not some winnable fight for him. It's super, super winnable. I just don't understand the odds saying that this is more or less even or that Whitaker deserves to be taken as the underdog. That's the part that I can't quite wrap my head around, and here's why.

To the extent, not so much early, but let's say through his light heavyweight campaign, to the extent that he had any problems, part of it was Glover Teixeira wrestling him. Okay, is that the biggest threat from Robert Whitaker? He can wrestle, I think, better than most people assume, but I wouldn't say that's the predominant threat. I think you'd probably agree with that. The thing that you can also point to, though, is the guys who had, let's say,

clever angles and timing and I won't say unorthodox strikes, but had somewhat less conventional skill sets, they gave him problems. Dominic Ray is being chief among them. Well, Jesus Christ, that's Robert Whittaker, only you're going to add distance and speed to the equation. I don't understand exactly what the oddsmakers are seeing.

Now, if I had to think about a realistic path for Jared Cannoneer, maybe he could corral him, make it a close-in fight, but the wrist control, the hand fighting, the clinch breaking of someone like Whitaker is very good. The other one, though, is sort of leg kicking and intercepting Whitaker as he blitzes in. But to me, it was like BC. He had a little bit of a too hot performance, just recklessly, not recklessly, but he wasn't as considerate as he should have been charging into Adesanya.

He was a little bit too cold against Till. To me, I think we might find that Goldilocks found just the right measure and heat on that porridge when he takes on Jared Cannoneer, who I don't think has some of the things to give him problems in the way that Till or Adesanya did. Yeah, well, somebody's been sitting in my chair. Is that where we're going with this? I'll say luke

that uh vegas is is not you know impervious to being wrong but when a line surprises you like this they tend to know something did they see things in that till fight that i didn't and about whitaker's uh potential vulnerability i'm not sure because the only way i think you would you would have him as the underdog is if he was rocked or wobbled or you said, look, I think he's made out of plastic now. I don't know. I think what they would say is,

and maybe I'm wrong, my hunch is what they would say is he was too hesitant, he got dropped, and Till was injured in the portion of the fight where he did the best. And so you can't really say he's really back-back. He got a terrible loss to Adesanya and a very, very lucky-ish, workman-like-ish decision against Till.

I think that's the way they're thinking, but I don't agree with that, basically. The difference between you and I, though, Luke, is I'll take the L. I'll tell you I'm wrong after the fact. But right now, I think I'm right. I got Robert Kerr Whittaker. Robert Kerr Whittaker, wow.

Pulling out a decision in probably a fun fight. Probably a fight with some damage in there because that's what Bobby Knuckles does, bro. Oh, BC, neither of us have problems admitting we're wrong because we do an entire segment devoted to it. What I don't like doing is just masturbating in front of the audience's face by telling them I can read into a crystal ball.

That's what I don't like doing. Who's that guy who just did that exact thing on a Zoom call? Jeffrey Toobin. Jeffrey Toobin got caught touching himself on a Zoom call and the guy works at the New Yorker. Somebody surely has recorded this video. I don't need to see the ending of it, but I want to see the setup to it like yesterday. Please, for the love of God, send that around.

Make that viral. I love that man. Hero. You ever wonder what Jay does below the waist on camera here? No. Probably lament his existence and why God cursed him. All right. With that in mind, BC, take it away.

Your turn to stay on the show. All right. god cursed him all right with with that in mind bc take it away your turn all right every wednesday we talk about the real street beefs that matter if you will it's sjw social justice wednesday a roundup of the back and forth between public figures in the fight game on the social webs do we don't have any art or intro on this right there we go yeah yeah look at that let's bring in hold on hold on hold on can you throw the graphic up one more time for gaff who's running the show can you throw it up one more time no that's the other one that's the fan submissions i want to see the one for sjw look at these two losers with their hands up. Could we look less intimidating if we tried? That was from a nice photo shoot we had back when we were allowed in the studio. Rumor has it, Luke, I don't want to tip the dick too early.

Rumor has it we may be back in that studio sooner than later. Interesting rumor. We'll see what happens. All right, here we go. Let's start off with our first one. We'll bring in Judge Fauci over here to rule on it. But Paulo Costa in his limited English took to the interwebs. And then Anthony Rumble Johnson went from zero to in your a-hole in like four seconds.

Here we go. Borrachina basically says on Twitter, whoa, whoa, Rumble Johnson, shut up, moron. You don't even know which weight class you should fight. Rumble comes back with, and I will try to say this for the people that only listen to the podcast i don't do the talking back and forth but the last bbc you did that to f your a at the end of doggy style now your name is loose booty you want you must want missionary next um wow it goes on and on there luke um boy that got awfully specific in terms of man-on-man sex didn't it it's so reminiscent of that segment that that great key and peel comedic segment that somebody sent me of the boxing press conference do you know that one where the guys pretend to be mike tyson and he's like i I'm on a Saturday night. I'm going to F you in your ass.

And then he just keeps going on and on. And finally, the other guy's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, bro. Right? You know what I'm saying? No, I've not seen it, but it sounds amazing. Hey, when he says BBC, does he mean British Broadcasting Corporation or maybe something else? I think he means Big Beige, Brian Campbell. I think that's where he was going with that.

Maybe that's what he's talking about. have no idea i've certainly never seen that acronym before um uh luke is this a ko1 or is this like whoa rumble bro go back to the go back to the cannabis dude like please can you can you yeah i mean here's the thing if he had stopped at the bbc it would have been like just perfect like just the right amount of zing. And then he just went into graphic prison details about all the ways it was going to affect him. I appreciate the spunk. He's feeling the moment, but a little overkill. That's like that moment in high school, Luke, where everybody's kind of jokingly throwing jokes at each other about each other's mom,

and then one dude with the trench coat and the Cannibal Corpse t-shirt stands up and knocks a dude right out, and you're like, whoa, bro. I thought we were just playing, and it's like, not to the trench coat mafia. You're not doing that. No, not to Corpse Grinder and his guitar friend.

By the way, here's your moment go ahead luke everyone's people sent me 5 000 times in my dms about that guitarist for cannibal corpse that's not new news okay yes it's not new news and the song lists uh that they put on there two of them were made up two and four because they were like i have skulls in my closet come check check. Those are not real song titles. Are you down with that guy having actual human skulls in his closet? I mean, look, that's a little bit. Here's the thing.

I don't want to be friends with anybody who's like that, but I don't know if you know this. You can just buy those legally. You do know that, right? No, I don't check the dark web for human skulls. Dark web? You could just buy it online normally. You don't even have to go to the weird part of the web you can buy the everything he had in his house well i don't know

if he had it legally because he had a shitload of firearms so uh who knows what the permits are and that kind of a thing but like everything he had is technically uh able to be purchased quite legally so he is a weirdo one day when i do sneak up behind you and produce, if you don't tap, Luke, that you could find one of your organs on the black market, that I will sell it. If I wake up in a bathtub full of ice, you know, that'll be very not nice of you. So back to Anthony Johnson. I think he wins this, right, Judge? Yes, although I would caution the defendant in this case

because the plaintiff would be Bohashina. I would say, hey, fella, you win. Maybe ease up off the gas pedal a little bit there, huh? Yeah. I mean, do you really want that smoke? Do you really want to be in there at 205 against this absolute monster? Speaking of the monster, Luke, we've talked about this before. The guy's been teasing the comeback

for like two years now. I know he's officially in the drug testing pool now. When and in what weight class? Because I feel like if Rumble says, yes, I'm ready, I don't need a tune-up fight. I want to see him against Jon Jones. I want to see him against everyone, Luke.

Yeah, I would say at this point, I mean, I prefer 205 because i think he could be champion there but i i'm not going to be picky whatever here's what i'll say whatever one he can get too healthy and compete at i have lived through many stages of rumble not making weight so let's just let's just worry about that all right all right i'm down with that uh number two on the sjw this week luke uh we know teofimo lopez sort of on became the undisputed lightweight champion except for the wbc's clown show that they have that second title out there that the the great rising young star devin haney holds so we had a nice little back and forth we have audio and visual uh

elements this week to show you how this thing played down. Devin Haney first before the fight saying he doesn't think anyone will mention his name. Didn't they mention his name? I don't think they did. I think this was all about Undisputed, which I get why either that's a joke or it's kind of real at the same time. Look, the WBC, all the alphabets are jokes. Let's build that foundation, okay? Thank you.

Moving on. Then Devin Haney, I believe, yeah, Loma too small, too old. are jokes let's build that foundation okay thank you moving on then uh devin haney i believe uh yeah loma too small too old couple of couple of o's they're missing on the uh they are fighters right all right let's keep going uh haney saying i've been said loma was whack okay on to the next one lopez versus haney 2021 let's do it all the belts hey i'm down for it bro if you can make it work on your end if eddie hearn really wants it now here's in the post-fight press conference teo lopez responding to him it's just for bragging rights just to shut him up and destroy his career that's really what it is i don't care um That's the type of person I am.

I ain't here to... I'm not here to see another fighter build up his career. If he wants to take that step and fight, I'm more than happy to just take him out that route of what everybody's talking about, saying the next Floyd Mayweather and stuff like that. Yeah, get out of here with that bullshit.

And for everyone else out there, man, everybody's cherry picking. Javante Davis, why are you fighting Leo Santa Cruz? For what? That's a 130-pounder or a 126-pounder. That's sad, man. And you guys hype these guys up for so many things, but it's okay.

It's okay. Just put them in front of me, and I'll beat them. Luke, how about the spite there of of lopez to basically say yeah i want to do it only to ruin his career this is interesting now they did have a little bit of a face time which i thought was really cool afterwards uh he and he also put out there on twitter that he kind of called uh lopez a an at you know the first asterisk undisputed champion because anytime you look at who's the champion on the websites there's the weird asterisk because of this stupid franchise champion Luke I want to sit here and tell you there we go there it is right there I want to

sit here and tell you again that it's not likely to happen even though some fans came at me they're like no Eddie Hearn said he could well what about the zone bro what's their opinion in this situation um are we building toward it here Luke can we opinion in this situation? Are we building toward it here, Luke? Can I just be optimistic? Are we building toward it here? I am not interested in the fight. I don't think it's very competitive. Sorry.

Maybe I'm crazy. I know you're high on Devin Haney. You've been saying it for a while now, and I've watched him. Please don't misunderstand me. I think he is very very talented but if they fought in 2021 versus let's say 22 or 23 I think Lopez wipes the floor with him I don't think this is competitive even a little bit that'd be interesting to see you're getting me fired up you're getting me fired up by the way I love that they're talking to each other because at the end of the day Luke if you want the promoters and networks to bend and go to the old school ways of i don't care who you're promoted by i don't care

what network deal you have this fight's great let's make it it has to be the fighters pushing the agenda when they do that things happen okay what is i've not i've not heard it because again i've been gone for the boxing beat for a few years what is uh what does bob arum say about the zone oh he pisses on them yeah he pisses on everyone yeah no i know he pisses on showtime but does he piss on um does he piss on eddie hearn do they got beef no but i mean at times look at the right time bob will piss on anyone that's just the way it works okay now he's all pro al hay Heyman and PBC because the Fury Wild, their first two fights worked out great. By the way, we should mention this. I told you this, and you already kind of assumed

it was like a thing that everyone knew, but I didn't realize this. Do you remember that famous interview that Ariel Helwani did at Yankee Stadium? I think it was when Cotto fought, was it Salida? I forget who he fought. Uri Foreman. He fought Uri Foreman, that's it, sorry.

And they did it at Yankee. This was the original Yankee Stadium. Or maybe the new one. I can't remember anymore. But it was outdoors. And Ariel's interviewing him. And Bob Arum says MMA is a bunch of skinheads rolling around, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay.

Skinhead people watching skinhead fighters inside the cage. Yeah, it's classic. And Ariel took offense to it because obviously he is Jewish, which the whole... Bob's claims are ridiculous. It's not... Well, Bob's Jewish too. Bob's also Jewish too.

Okay, fair enough. But I think the way in which Ariel had taken offense to it was perfectly legitimate in that particular case. Here's my point. It's not about the beef. It's that that claim, the skinhead thing, I have received, I will will say i'm very lucky i have received mostly positive feedback from within the boxing community

about my boxing coverage knock on wood because i try to be very limited in what i say i don't i don't i try to i try to just stick to the straight and narrow because i've got a lot of homework to do given my absence but i've noticed that when I do get any pushback, everybody references that Bob Arum statement that, oh, this is the guy who watches the skinhead sport trying to come over to boxing. BC, did Bob Arum have like the zing of a lifetime that just stuck around in the boxing community?

Have you all been calling MMA fans and MMA fighters skinheads who just roll around on the ground all this time? Yes and no. Yes, in some circles of hardcore fans, but I'm actually, Rafe Bartholomew and I on the CBS Sports RIP, in this corner, and then the State of Combat Boxing Podcast, we have a soundboard, Luke, which is the third member of our show, and that soundboard of Bob saying that to Ariel

is arguably the most played one to the degree of when which is the third member of our show and that soundboard of bob saying that to ariel uh what is arguably the most played one to the degree of when i'm referencing an mma fight like hey rafe you're gonna check out 250 the skinhead fight this weekend 254 we not you know my audience refers to mma as skinheads this is the skinhead sport so you're seeing a lot of my boxing audience reply to you and basically say luke is pulling me apart away from boxing and deeper into skinheads it's a running joke we also use the sound of when ariel interviewed bob last year and in ariel was like bob what do you think now all these years later about he's like what do you want me to say mma is a great sport no i think it's

trash i think it's you know it's it's it's fantastic curmudgeonly old bob uh all right very good what else do we have for sj dubs uh not necessarily looking for your ruling on this luke but this is all over the interwebs uh sorry mike perry's ex-wife danielle nickerson the tennis pro has come forward with allegations, accusations about domestic abuse during their short marriage and their longer relationship. And also tapes were, were acquired, I believe by MMA junkie of the nine one,

one call in which Perry's mother protected Nickerson against her own son. Certainly a bad look in a bad situation. Mike Perry did take to the social webs to say uh that it never happened that he did have a issue with alcohol but he's working on that along with his anger issues as he's expecting his firstborn child we also know that he does send old guys to hell in bars when he gets the chance uh luke i bring this up because it's news more or less uh nickerson did tell in an extended interview with mma junkie that she doesn't believe she has the power to negatively hurt Mike's career by going public with this she's not doing it for

that she's only doing it really to help other women and let let her story be heard do you have any reaction to this it's it's unfortunate at best yeah um I'll say this they're all accusations he's innocent proven guilty, which I don't think he's been charged with a crime. But, you know, you have to remember that. That, at the same time, the accusations and you look at the evidence, it seems quite credible. I never know what to do with these things. You know, in the case of Greg Hardy, it was a little bit easier because in that situation, he had changed. He had basically been washed out of the NFL, in part because he just couldn't get his life together. Not because he, yes, his play had dropped off,

but it was more than just that. And then on top of it, it had worked its way through the totality of the court system, right? And in the end, the accuser didn't show up, which is very common, even when the defendant is guilty because they just don't want to go through with it. It's a very complicated process.

But the point is, it had reached some finality, or near finality anyway. And this one, there's no charges. It's just kind of floating out there. Did anyone at yesterday's presser ask the UFC about this? Maybe they will at the post-fight presser to Dana. I don't know. I mean, the details are gruesome.

They're like full mount, ground, and pound. Yeah, they're bad. Broken ribs, the whole nine thing. You can hear the 911 call from the mom. Like I said, the accusations, for whatever you want to say, they seem quite credible. If this was the NFL, here's what would happen. Let's say he played for my, I can't stand them anymore, but my beloved Washington football team. They'd quite credible. If this was the NFL, here's what would happen. Let's say he played for my, I can't stand them anymore,

but my beloved Washington football team. They'd release him like that. They'd release him. But here's what would happen. He would just spend time being released before someone picked him up off of waivers later on. And then he would go through some kind of rehabilitative process and blah, blah, blah.

In other words, that wouldn't get him kicked out of the nfl it would just get him kicked off the current team that he's on so the team can look better and then the new team can say hey we we're gonna launder this process by blah blah blah pr this and pr that so does he deserve to lose his job on the one hand it's like there are no criminal charges and if you can't fight in the cage in this country, I'm not sure what you can do. On the other hand, holy shit, man, this is bad. It's very, very bad and serious. And I'm a little bit tall on this. I think you identified an interesting part of the debate or the discussion here.

Certainly it's bad, and because of Mike Perry's actions publicly that are true that we've seen, it's not hard to believe that this could be the case innocent until proven guilty obviously but um luke um remember when billy joe saunders made that stupid remark and he put that video about of him teaching you how to hit women and i made the knee-jerk reaction of he should lose the canelo fight for that because look it's ridiculous in 2020 or any year to be putting that out publicly i do i'll take the l I do admit that was a knee-jerk sort of like offensive reaction when I think you're right about the fact that if this were a team sport, guys would just lose their jobs. Even if they get another one after that, they're going to pay a price.

Luke, in combat sports, you don't seem to pay that price for better or for worse. I mean, you know, Floyd got sentenced to jail in 2012 for domestic abuse in the state of Nevada, allowed him to delay his jail sentence so they could make the money off the Miguel Cotto pay-per-view fight before that. And look, full disclosure, Gervonta Davis just had a video out there in which he may or may not have struck a woman. It's hard to fully tell. And he's going to have a pay-per-view fight in a couple, you know, next week. That's a big deal. So it seems in combat sports that it's not the same standard as, you know, team sports.

Either way, not a great look. I hope the best for Coach Latorre and Mike Perry that they can, you know, live a peaceful, uneventful life and move forward from this. Mike says he's on the straight and narrow, which whether he did do those things or he didn't, I certainly hope that's the case because even if you take this situation completely out of it, you know, listen, the old man in the bar shouldn't have put his hands on Mike, but Mike's got at least up to that point. We'll see what kind of life he's going to live going forward. You know, the dude's got anger

issues. He gets mad when Till trolls him on social media, which has to be annoying, you know, but the level he goes to is kind of over the top. And then you're punching, I mean, just don't be punching old dudes in bars. You shouldn't be doing it. You know, this is, of over the top and then you're punching, I mean, just don't be punching old dudes in bars. You shouldn't be doing it. You know, this is, if true, categorically, you know, much, much worse but it's like, does the, let me just say this before we end on this.

Does the audience even care? And not that the audience caring or not caring is the thing that we should say matters the most or the media caring or not caring is the thing that matters the most i'm not saying either group has a purchase on the truth but there is something to be said for the fact that like i just don't see the i mean i think portions of the audience care i think wide swaths of it don't uh even if they believe it to some extent i and i don't know what to do with that

tough situation altogether. It maybe brings more to light why Mike sent me to hell on my own podcast and hung up on me when I brought up the squadron. Well, I mean, there's been times I want to hang up on you on this show, but I have, you know, obligations to it. So I understand, Mike, at least in terms of that. Hey, can we go to the fun segment at least?

Can we transition off? Yes, let's transition to like a fun little thing here. Go ahead. It's good, sir. Just a reminder, we have moved this to Wednesdaynesday every wednesday it's fan submission hour so please hit us up at more it's morning combat at gmail.com or continue to slide into my dms we're talking about pictures with mk merch we're talking about your artistic creations we care about you the audience and you guys are some pretty talented weirdos so let's run through this week's uh we start off with this a late addition to the pile luke from at crackhoon or no at the underscore crackhoon check out this warrior poster uh shout out to the

crackhoon here it's not necessarily web screen level but, but Luke, it's timely and it's fantastic. You know what? It makes sense, too, because you're the one that choked out. You're Brendan, right? The one who won the tournament and choked out Tom Hardy. But Tom Hardy was the former Marine, so I got to be that guy. This guy did his homework. You got to be the guy with anger issues who hates everyone, Luke.

I'm sorry. That's the way it is. That's it. Yeah, I like it. I like it. And I got to be the hero at the end of the story and i will head kick you even if you dislocate your shoulder just like that luke meet me at sparta meet me at sparta you get past kubo first whatever his name is uh yeah please uh well done there and uh speaking of web scream luke i i get

backlogged with this guy's incredible art i know he tweeted this out but we never actually played this on our show i want to give give Web Scream the full credit. When we had the Red Shoe Hotel Room Diaries show going on that week, we did reference Gangnam Style and actually I think we sang it. So let's just watch Web Scream's creation. It's Gangnam, not Gangnam.

Bangnam Style? I don't know. Whatever. Is this what Anthony Johnson was referencing in his tweet? Oh, yeah. Look, this is great stuff here. Sex with the ladies. The old Christos Christoforos, that Greek god of thunder and graphics. That guy's the best.

Oh, that is. That's just mad. Look at you being all creepy. Yeah. You want more web scream in your life? Download the Waze app and put it on Greek, and you'll hear his voice. So shout out to him right there.

Yes, he is the guy who gives directions in Greek on the Waze app. Can you believe it? Unbelievable. Let's move on to this fan submission here. It was this fella's birthday weekend at SaulIsBeast on Instagram. So Luke, for his birthday, he showed up in the MK merch. And Luke, he has a request for you. Are you ready?

You better call Saul. Here's what Saul says. Luke, please unblock me on Instagram at SaulIsBeast. Luke, he's supporting us. Will you support him? First of all, this man has four cakes in front of him. One, it looks like it has either mangoes or peaches. I can't quite tell.

Then he has one of those Kroger cakes, whatever, like the store-bought ones, which, by the way, I'm not hating on. Those things are sugary and awesome. And then he's got another one just like it, except it's got words on it. While he's got a morning combat sweatshirt like the one I'm wearing, while BC, this is the kicker, a blue ribbon and a mullet. Saul is beast. As my wife would say, better call Saul is living his best life.

I was going to say, he kind of looks like Mike Piazza in a mullet, but I think he does time in the gym, Luke. He's filling out that XL pretty well. I know you wear, what, a double XL, Luke? I don't want to out you here as a fat guy. No, it's quite all right. I'm a large man. All right.

All right. Shout out to Saul. Happy birthday, Saul. Very well done there. I love that guy. Please, Luke, unblock him. And maybe, Luke. All right.

I'll do it. Actually, I'll do it right now. Can you make a deal with our people moving forward? What do they have to do? Is this the initiation fee to get you back in their social lives? First of all, I almost never block on Instagram. I block a lot on Twitter because Twitter is just full of absolute savages. I rarely block on Instagram.

So if you got blocked on Instagram, chances are you were fucking around. Here's a little rule of thumb for you don't be a dick and we won't have to worry about it but all right because i am sick of people pleading with me to ask you to unblock them on twitter luke pleading saying look bro i subscribed i like the video what else do i have to do do i have to blow luke yes uh saul is beast is unblocked how about that there you you go. Thank you. Thank you, Saul. Yes.

All right. Let's move on here, Luke. This is from at I-D-E-H-A-Z on Instagram. I-D-H-A-Z. Look, check it out. The honky-donk man. Yes. How am I wearing an Elvis outfit with me on the outfit also wearing an Elvis outfit?

Luke, you may not know this, but the 80s WWF legend, the Honky Tonk Man, was inducted to the WWE Hall of Fame, I believe, two years ago. And this was when he came out on Raw to sort of, or no, I think this is when he walked to the podium at the ceremony. This was, I believe, at the Barclays Center, and that is Jimmy Hart behind him, who is my head on top. So the honky-tonk man, he was good, huh?

He was a good wrestler? He was the longest reigning Intercontinental champion in history. Do you remember he feuded with Jake the Snake Roberts when we were in third grade in WrestleMania 3? How the fuck am I supposed to know that? I know about Andre the Giant, Ultimate Warrior, and Hulk Hogan, and maybe a couple of other dudes.

That's it. Okay. Okay. I think that's Jimmy Hart behind him, who was his manager. Or maybe that's Jeff Jarrett. By the way, you want to know what the greatest wrestling match is I've ever seen? And honestly, I've never seen the Japanese stuff,

so I'm going to give you a terrible answer. But I did think it was pretty good. Macho Man versus Ricky theicky the dragon steamboat yes wrestlemania 3 my favorite match of all time luke yes you know what that one's actually not so bad not so bad it in 14 minutes and 59 seconds there's 21 pin combinations like attempts to win luke that match is the blueprint that every other big match today is sort of built off of on how you, how you book a match. Amazing.

Please read my, uh, 2017 oral history on that match that I wrote for ESPN. No, I don't care that much, but I find it reasonably entertaining. All right. Hey,

let's go on here from at yours. Light beer on Instagram. He's coming for the top prize. Luke, look at this toy. He created heroes of Gujitsu. Luke. Look at this toy he created. Heroes of Jiu-Jitsu, Dino Thomas, based on your weightlifting

nickname, Luke. Well, it was Dino, and that was what a couple of my instructors called me in Jiu-Jitsu because I was big and awkward. That is hilarious. Well, you know what? I think he has the same hair, the same facial hair as you, right, with the salt and pepper? This Dino Thomas hair?

He certainly does. And that's about it. That's about it. But it's not bad. I'm going to buy that for your young daughter, Luke, that toy, okay? She likes ducks. That's what she likes. She likes ducks.

See her stretching the shit out of that? All right. Let's go on here. Hey, this is from Kevin Liu at the Anglophonigma, blah, blah, blah, on Instagram. Where's Jay when we need him? Back to the future, connoisseur hair Luke. What do you like? Do you like this MKR worker?

Well, not quite tip to tip, but something else. What? There's nothing to see here. There's just an old guy mounting a teenager from behind as they check how much longer it takes. Luke, that's, you know, come on. He's giving them the gigawatt from behind. You know that movie, right, Luke?

Listen, the 80s were a different time. You just got to let it rock. All right. Well done right there. I did mention Web Scream. Look, he's not done this week because he's so good. This one also rules from the master himself, Luke. I think you're going to like this one.

The Red Heat movie poster, Luke. Yes. You're playing the role of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'll play the role of Jim Belushi. That's a good-ass movie, Luke. It's like, why does this Russian military officer or police officer, whichever one he was, why does he have an Austrian accent?

Listen, it's the 80s. Don't ask questions. Isn't that amazing? I think I fill out the Belushi role well here in this show so this is perfect that's us i web scream i i he i have to i have to pay him for some services he rented for some artwork i asked for but uh send me this please sir for free if you can because i want to post that that is tremendous it's It's about time, Luke, I take these posters down and put up all web screen movie posters behind me. Wouldn't that be amazing if we just did one of those shows where everything in the back was all of his pieces of artwork?

I think our massage parlor studio in Jersey, I think that's what that should be. Luke, by the way, you made an offhand comment on Monday's show that on Sunday, true what I did to, to relax and unwind. My wife bought me a 2000 piece puzzle. I had Genesis in the air phones, Luke, and I went at that thing for about eight hours.

Web scream, heard that story. And he, he caught it on camera. Luke, check that out. Oh, that is awesome i finished yep yeah hey how come you're wearing a uh you know a unc tarheel blue

underneath the worst plaid shirt in america that's how old guys dress when they do puzzles of women. Of Polish women they pine after? That is amazing. Wow. Well done, Web Scream. But Luke, even Web Scream's brilliance, I personally think got one up this week. I am ready to present to you my favorite piece of art, don't play it yet, please,

that has ever been sent our way, Luke. We don't really have a theme song, right? We got that opening graphic intro. There is a man in Denmark, an eccentric gentleman that I never heard of before, but you say he's been in your life in the live chat for years. He goes by the name Cal Matisen. He has created the morning combat theme song

written and performed by himself Luke this changed my life I listened to it 49 times here we go Fist in your dreams I'm shitting blood while eating bacon Oh, it's so good Is this like that frog rock you always tell me about? Oh, yeah, it is. But I only feel alive doing my morning comeback.

Looking busy. I'm looking busy. Making look easy. I'm losing my dreams for a track. But I only feel alive during my morning comeback. When you wake up, it's life that has won. A fistfight with your dreams. Luke. luke that is awesome luke bc i hope you understand that the danish sirhan sirhan over here is going to show up at your door and plunge a knife into your chest

you understand that right luke i don't know how how the Malka travel budget is, but if we could fly in Cal from Denmark, this Danish prince here, and if you and I could record a live version of this song in person, right? I'll get on the guitar. Maybe you play the big-ass bass. He could play. I lose and my dreams fall flat. Because I'm only feeling good. I lose and my dreams fall flat.

Because I'm only feeling good after morning. The only part of that that was even semi-accurate is about eating bacon and shitting blood. That's really, you eat the bacon, I shit the blood. That really is, everything else was just a little too weird for me. It's very Prague. It's very European. I love the, I look in BC, make it look easy. No. I love the Lookin' BC Make it look easy No That dude's been

He makes songs for all the MMA podcasts And they're all The kind of thing that makes you wonder What he does for a living Wait, who has he done this for? Who has he done this for? I thought we were his He did one for me

I think he did one for Co-main event He may have done one for Ariel as well Like he does, he does them all. You can follow this guy at Cali's world tour, I believe on YouTube and all the other places, but a shout out to Cal there.

Very well done. Is that how you pronounce it? Luke, that name Cal Cali, Cali, Cal. I think it's, no,

I don't want to make that joke, but John Wayne Gase? John David Chapman? Is that what you're calling with this, Luke? I mean, yeah, all right. We'll leave it at that. Thank you, Cal, for finding the way to my heart without having to traverse my pelvis first.

Thank you, Cal. Thank you very much. And if you want to send more stuff like that, good, bad, or indifferent, morningcombat atgmail.com. That is your place to be. Yeah, and I want to close with this little thing. We get so much great artwork and movie posters,

and you guys are all brilliant. Cal has opened up a new door. You want to create our theme song for this damn show, I challenge you to do it, all right? I challenge you to beat that song, the Morning Combat song that Cal just put out there. There you go. You've thrown down the gauntlet.

MorningCombat at gmail.com is the place to be. Plus, we have Dead Wrong on Friday. Get your submissions in for what we got wrong. Same place, MorningCombat at gmail.com. BC, we are on social media. We have graphics for that. I'm on Twitter. You're on Twitter. I'm on Insta. You're on Insta.

And then Morning Combat is everywhere. Twitter, Insta, and then, of course, on YouTube as well. Twitter. I got a new Twitter. At B. Campbell now, all right? Yeah, drop the CBS on that. We'll get that fixed. But, okay.

No, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fine. I work for a lot of companies now, Luke, so I can't be held down by anybody. The official check casher. You want some merch? You go to store.show.com. Oh, there you go. There's the official one.

B. Campbell. There you go. Soup. You can go to store.show.com to get some merch. If you want to try Showtime, you certainly can. Go to showtime.com right now. You can try it for three for 30 days. If you like it, keep it.

If not, you can go pound sand. One more reminder. For Friday's show, we're going to not, you can go pound sand. One more reminder for Friday's show. We're going to be getting you ready for UFC 254 Beyond What We Did Today. Go check out Rashad's picks. They're already up on the site. Don't forget, Elephant in the Room by Patrice O'Neal is the Friday homework. Get after it right now. BC and I are going to break everything down about that.

Patrice O'Neal, Elephant in the Room. Please be on the lookout for it. All right? Enjoy your Wednesday. For Brian Campbell, Showtime, and Molka, I'm Luke Thomas. Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.