MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 258 Recap: Kamaru Usman, Kelvin Gastelum Impress, Maycee Barber losses | Ep. 118

Episode Date: February 15, 2021

Morning Kombat recaps all the action from UFC 258. Kamaru Usman impressed with a third-round KO of Gilbert Burns. Is he on his way to becoming the best welterweight ever? In the co-main event, Maycee Barber fell short to Alexa Grasso. Is it time for Barber to re-think her goals. Plus, Kelvin Gastelum outclassed Ian Heinisch. Did this prove he is still a real contender at 185? ---------------------------- '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

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Reveille, reveveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat.

It is Monday, February 15th 2021 and it is time donks for morning combat hi everyone my name is luke thomas i am one half of your hosting duo i'm joined by the gentleman on the great northeast he is the apathy to myself titled the cue to my anon the conspiracy to my theory he is the uh i don't know i was gonna go in a bad direction i don't want to get fired on our first day back it is brian campbell hi brian hello luke hi great to be back hello us and a i like uh my name is bc i'm very beige and uh i'm very happy luke it's monday right let's let's start the week off with a bang brother oh speaking of bang bros Luke how's your gallbladder I don't know why that has to do anything with bang bros uh but it's okay I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow with a surgeon so I will get some

kind of advice everyone has written me suggesting you know what bro just go ahead and take it out I am probably inclined to just do that because it's outpatient surgery so i could be home the same day i'm thinking i don't want to go back to that day that fateful day in connecticut bc where you got kicked out of the er for loitering i don't want to go back to that day my lawyer yeah yeah yeah i hear you luke i look we just want we meaning morning combat nation we just want you to be healthy because uh i can't carry this ish on my own, Luke. Okay? All right?

I mean, what do you want me to do? We don't allow family in these parts of the territory. Yeah. I mean, what am I going to get Jay Aaron to replace me? I mean, come on. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. We'll see how that goes tomorrow.

I'll keep you abreast of things. I think it should be fine. But we shall see. But for today, we have a lot to get to. We are off the heels now. Afterwards, UFC 258. We have a lot to get to there We are off the heels now. Afterwards, UFC 258. We have a lot to get to there. First things first, of course, please give the video a thumbs up and hit subscribe.

If you are new here from the weekend, welcome. We do this three times a week, 11 a.m. in the East, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Brian will host on Friday. We have lots of different kinds of content in between. If you'd like to try a show. If they are new here from the weekend's halftime show at the Super Bowl, go F yourself. Yes, you can just go and play in between. If you'd like to try If they are new here from the weekend's halftime show at the Super Bowl go F yourself. Yes.

You can just go and play in traffic. If you would like to try Showtime and by the way if you missed the announcement last week Bellator is now going

to be on Showtime exclusively. You can go to Showtime.com and get a 30 day free trial and if you subscribe for Bellator

you can get your first six months I'm told at what $4.99 I believe believe, is the price. I subscribe to everything, so I've lost track of what shit costs anymore. You ever seen those games they do with billionaires, BC? They're like, let's see if Bill Gates knows how much a box of cereal costs. And of course, he whiffs on it.

That's what I would be for cable charges. You know what I mean? It's like, what does HBO Now cost? I don't fucking know. I'm just paying for it. I don't even know anymoreie nelson said in half baked remember how much condoms used to cost yeah i don't know we never used them you know yeah all right wasn't our thing we just weren't that wasn't our steez uh and then last but not least if you want to get some showtime merchandise in morning combat merchandise you certainly may You can go to store.show.com. There you have it right there on the screen below.

Hats, mugs, shirts, hoodies, the whole nine. They are nicely made. The only problem is you can only live in three different counties in the United States to get them. So there's that. And by the way, there's always talk of like, oh, a second round of merch. I don't know where those talks are. Oh, wow. Yeah, those talks are right on like, oh, a second round of merch. I don't know where those talks are. Oh, wow.

Yeah, those talks are right on par with Jay Aaron's music career right now. With the health of my gallbladder, everything is really firing on all cylinders. But in all seriousness, we have a big show to get to today. Tons of stuff. Your questions. Have you seen the shit? So without further ado, let us get this party started. Topic number one, BC, if we can.

I go to you first, good sir, as is customary. So over the weekend, we had UFC 258, Kamaru Usman, in the main event, defeats Gilbert Burns. A little bit of adversity early, but comes back and stops him about 30 seconds into the third round. So now it raises a question, certainly your sense of his win, but I want to frame the conversation in this way because Dana White is framing it in this way, which is that this guy is inevitably, if not already there, on path to be the new George St. Pierre,

to be the best welterweight ever. Your impressions of Kamaru, his win, and then that broader sort of semi-claim that Dana is making. Yeah, Luke, I think it was a beloved American poet, Lil' Kim, who once said, first you get the money, then you get the power, and then you get the respect. It's about time, as this man screamed in the cage after this victory, that we put some respect on his name. Luke, this was a fan-frigging-tastic performance. It wasn't the Marty Snoozman of old, if you're a red hat wearing Kobe fan.

It wasn't all wrestling all the time, wrestle fuck. It wasn't anything of that. It was a complete, strong, dominant performance that I love the fact, Luke, as your family members continue to just hail jesus in the background yeah they just scream i love the fact that he was tested he took the very best that gilbert burns had to offer in that opening minute and he bit down on the mouth guard he got back up he shaked off shook off the cobbs. And then you saw a continuation of this evolution that we talk about where you never want to give one coach too much credit,

but we love Trevor Whitman in these parts. To see him evolve and work with that jab, I mean, it was a powerful weapon. This looked like prime GSP with the jab breaking, what's his name, his eye socket in the rematch. I mean, Luke, he used this as a weapon to set up the right hand it wasn't let me just lean on my strengths this is a guy at 33 already in the top five pound for pound coming in who's only getting better so i really think this is the time we don't worry about hyperbole and we be really honest you want to say is he the next gsp

and he's going to own the welterweight division? I don't know. He's going to have to do that to prove to us he only has three title defenses. It was a little bit different career path than GSP who fought for the title and his first four or five fights had a different path. Usman had to win a ton in a row just to get to the title level. I'm not necessarily here to say, Luke, where he fits in in the all-time great welterweight title rankings. I'm more interested in the short term, where he fits in right now among the best palm-for-palm fighters in the world. Habib's out in my top 10, right? He retired, okay? Jon Jones is there, but let's be honest, they're catching up to Jon Jones. He's winning with mirrors to a certain degree. He's relying on some deeply rooted skills skills to survive Adesanya is dominant and rising

I think this man Usman is right there what the heck else would he have to do he's taken on all comers he's dominating them and now maybe the biggest criticism you would say in the past okay he's really good but none of his last 11 fights coming in had gone the distance and one of those two that didn't went late in the fifth round against Covington. He just went out there and finished a killer in Gilbert Burns. I don't mean to sound like Joe Rogan in one of those UFC hype videos ahead of every card. But Gilbert Burns is a freaking killer. And Usman came out there and he finished him, Luke.

This guy's great. And he might not be the biggest marketing tool. He might not have the funniest personality. Who cares? He's incredible at this game. And he did the right thing when he ran out there and called out Jorge Masvidal's name. What else do you want from him? Will he catch up to GSP in the welterweight title lineage in the history?

I don't know. But right now, today, Luke, if you said something as bold and crazy as Usman might be the best fighter in the world right now, not named Habib because he's retired, would someone throw you out of the bed, Luke? I mean, what would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me? I'm here to tell you Usman's great, brother. Well, lend me your ears.

I'll sing you a song. I'll try not to sing out of tune. I would say it's an interesting claim you're making. If you phrased it like, oh, is he the best fighter currently going, again, Habib being not part of that conversation, I don't think that's at all crazy. I think you can make it. If you also sort of state the claim a little bit differently, which is, which champion is most dominant over their weight class, again, Habib notwithstanding. It is probably Kamaru Usman at this point. Now, you could say, well, maybe it's Adesanya because he's already moving

up another weight class. Okay, he's in the running as well, but he's also at the top of that list. 205 has Blachowicz, so it doesn't count. There's Stipe, but there was some debate about he had a real rival in Cormier. If you go below him at 155, we don't even really know who the champion is there. 145, you know, Volkanovski is very disputed with Holloway. 135, who is it? Peter Jan just had it. 125, it's okay, you know, Figueiredo's doing some things, but he just fought to a draw, right? So it probably is. You could say Amanda Nunes, I think that's also another one up there. You get the idea. This is the company he's in. He's in that company of people where you're talking about doing the most among his peers at the highest level in the best and biggest organization. I mean, that's pretty goddamn impressive. I do bristle though at the claim that he is like already on path to be the best welterweight. Yes, if he keeps going, he will be in that conversation

and he is already one of the best, if you add up like the Miletices and the Huses and the Woodleys and the St. Pierre's. He's part of that elite fraternity of elite welterweights already. But St. Pierre, the win streak wasn't as long with 13, but he had what? Was it 12 title fights and 11 consecutive championship. So it was his 12 fight run was 11 championship fights and nine consecutive title defenses. You know, I'm sorry, but Usman's got work to do to unseat George St. Pierre. We're not talking about any old good welterweight champion. We're talking about maybe one of the best fighters, if not the best fighter ever. And his welterweight campaign was three generations almost of

welterweights just getting wiped out one after the other. Kumaru is on his way and he will have a different resume when it's all over then St. Pierre. And maybe you'd even pick Kumaru to beat this version or today's version, even maybe the best version of St. Pierre, but nine consecutive title defenses, man, that is just very, very much not the same as what Kamaru has done. Even FBC, I grant Kamaru is insanely special. Yeah. Let's wait till the end of his, end of his run before we do that. You know, he may get there. As you said, I want to ask you a filthy casual question. What if somebody with the, who had only been watching MMA for a year was like, I just saw that great performance from Usman. Is he evolving into a little bit of a hybrid of like half Habib, half GSP?

I mean, I'm not saying he's on the level fighting or better than those guys necessarily, but are you seeing the confluence of both styles? You know, it's interesting. If you watch him move on the ground, he doesn't have the same, he doesn't move with the same speed or positional dexterity. He doesn't go for subs in the same way that Khabib does. So he doesn't quite have that flash there. And then on the feet, the jab of St. Pierre. You mentioned the Koscheck fight from the fight in Montreal, UFC, whatever it was at this point.

He broke his face and then Koscheck couldn't even fly home because he had to get surgery on it. The technique of St. Pierre was always a little bit smoother. It's not that Camargo has bad technique, but it just feels like it's a little bit rough around the edges. But I mean, here's the functional equivalent. When this guy is wrestling you, he's averaging for a 15 minute fight, about four takedowns. And now if you take that out where he doesn't go for takedowns, he's averaging, according to fight metric, one and a half knockdowns per fight. Okay, so he doesn't have maybe the prettiest wrestling relative to Khabib or the same submission abilities, and he doesn't have quite the wild card perfected jab of St. Pierre. But

if you're just looking at who is effective, BC, who is wildly effective, dude, Kamar Usman is insanely effective. And that jab was a piece of beauty. And with that stance switching, that does make him a little bit different than St. Pierre. And I've never been a big bang the drum for Usman guy. You know me. I mean, Kevin Lee is a future champion in this sport. But he touched me in every way on Saturday. Again, biting down and getting through

that early punch but even the mental games Luke he is so damn mentally tough and I know that's one thing Usman who we don't consider a big trash talker or maybe a big self-flaunter one thing he does flaunt is his mental toughness and I think he should keep doing that because him in that handshake situation with the referees instructions when he decided not to touch gloves of Gilbert Burns and he kind of got in his face I like that Luke a little bit of edginess his way of saying we are friends I do care about you and by the way I did like the emotional scene after the fight it was touching but in that moment this is business this is war Luke to be able to win this many fights in a row and control people like this you got to be mentally strong I'm just saying

with the point of today's rant wake up whether you like him or not who cares wake up and realize it that this guy's great and if he continues to add to the striking which had been his weakness you know you look up and down that roster can anyone get one punched yes but who's going to get in this man's kitchen and think they're going to cook a meal, Luke? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what that means exactly. I do think this is following a bit. I do think this is following a bit of the Demetrius Johnson thing where I'm not saying he's on a path to do that kind of a run in his division or, you know, that he'll never

get marketed. Or it's again, every time you make a comparison in the sport, everyone wants it to be totalizing. I'm not making a totalizing comparison, but there was a sort of space where Demetrius Johnson was good, but mostly denied. And then it eventually warped into this space where he was like, okay, he's so obviously good, there's no denying it. How good is he? Now, I still think there's more of an upside for Camaro because he's in a bigger weight class and he does have some interesting big name rivals, Jorge Masvidal, Colby Covington to a lesser extent, but still a pretty significant challenge to his potential superiority. But this sort of space where you just don't want to give

the guy credit, but through this accumulated incremental success, you're just left with no space but to do that. So I don't think it's the same thing, but I think you saw a lot of fans after Saturday, especially after getting buzzed early and then coming back and stopping him in the way that he did so emphatically. You just had to say, you can like the guy, you can hate the guy. That's the guy at 170 pounds. And frankly, having wiped out the top four already behind him, it's not especially close.

They have to go to number five, BC, before they find anyone who hasn't beat already yet. Well, let's look to the future here for him. I love, again, that he called out Masvidal because you know it's a fight Dana would jump at. You can do the storyline of the full camp. It makes money. It's a smart marketing move for a guy he already beat to call them out.

He'll probably end up with colby again if he keeps defending this title and stay you know and stays right here i could see steven thompson because of the name getting back in for one more title fight but outside of hamza chamayev who's shelved right now and i don't think we should gloss past some of the reports coming out from chamayev's manager luke that he's like you know he feared death a couple times during this recovery from covid like this is pretty serious stuff we have no idea how quickly or when that will come back um it's not really a full cupboard because everyone else are retreads that he already beat and two of those guys that we mentioned maserati covington he also already beat so

what's out there luke is he gonna end up fighting nate diaz i mean what is that what is out there Luke is he gonna end up fighting Nate Diaz I mean what is that what is out there so let's do that now which leads us to our second point which is let's match make BC the top six at 170 pounds because it is really hard to know one of the benefits had Gilbert Burns won would have been that you have a bunch of fresh matchups right Woodley notwithstanding but he's a little bit further in the pack now but Woodley versus Masvidal technically would have been new Woodley versus Covington same kind of thing I think Woodley evenwithstanding, but he's a little bit further in the pack now. But Woodley versus Masvidal technically would have been new. Woodley versus Covington, same kind of thing. I think Woodley even versus, oh, sorry, Burns, I should say,

versus Covington, Burns versus Masvidal, and then Burns versus even Leon Edwards. So that was a direction they probably could have gone. Oh, yeah, remember Leon Edwards? Sorry, Luke, Leon Edwards is alive and well, too. Sorry about that. Yes, he is. Although he just hasn't fought in forever, but not his fault per per se uh okay so let's match make the top here bc now here's what you have to solve for it looks

like okay you have to solve for who should be next for kimaru and you have to figure out whether he is or is not a part of the ultimate fighter season if you make him a part of the ultimate fighter season you have to match make around that and if you don't make him part of the ultimate fighter season you have to figure out who is and then still match make around that how do you match make the top six and for folks who don't know that's going to be kamaru gilbert colby leon jorge and now wonder boy uh what do you think look uh then it's not gonna be leon edwards it's just not, it's not going to be Leon Edwards. It's just not, right? He's not going to get the next title shot,

even if it's like, well, this might be the time he is most deserving because everybody else lost to Kamara already. But they could make big money UFC right now, putting Usman in rematches with Jorge or Colby. So are you going to guess that either of those guys will end up in an Ultimate Fighter situation with the champ because of the marketing ability? I think there was a time where it could have been colby versus jorge as the ultimate fighter if something interesting had happened but because they

desperately need fresh matchups are you really going to go wonder boy all the way to kamaru i maybe but i don't know look i'm going to guess that they because at this point they're they're realizing usman's not going to lose for a while, most likely. He's really good. So let's give him every possible chance to shine marketing-wise. To me, that's a rematch with Masvidal, and it comes through the vehicle of the Ultimate Fighter, where you can really put over that franchise getting back on and, you know, rebranding on ESPN using Masvidal as your sort of hook. And then in the process, you get over Usman. So give me

that matchup next. Tough or not, Luke? Atop the division, okay? Then what do we do? Do we do Leon versus Colby? That seems to be where we're going anyway, right? I would have thought you could have gone a couple different directions. I would have thought you could have done Kamaru versus Colby

as tough fighters and coaches. And then you could do the Leon Edwards-Jorge fight. I don't know if Jorge wants that. In fact, I suspect that he probably does not. But that would be a way you could go, which would leave still, it would leave a place for, who am I thinking out here? Burns, but he's going to drop back. I think like a Burns-Thompson fight actually might be kind of interesting

or Burns-Kiesa. Or you could do Wonderboy-Kiesa and then add him to that top sort of seven, top six space. Let me throw a wild card at you, Luke, because I know people are thinking this and they're saying, why are BC and Luke not doing, not bringing this up, not putting it out into the ethernet the ethos the ether um luke does dana even attempt to go to vegas to whatever coffee shop he's going to sit down with one habib nurmagomedov and say look we put out the fake narrative that you were waiting for some lightweight to jump out and

impress you none of them impress you because you're too dominant. But we got this MF over here named Usman who fights just like you to a certain degree. And he's just as dominant as you. Why don't you go to 30-0 attempt by trying to become really the GOAT? I mean, look, Luke, if Habib were to move up in weight and stop this run Usman's on and win a second title in a second weight class and then do the, you know, I am done, thank you for calling, you're going to be talking about him as the GOAT.

I mean, it's going to be him and Jon Jones. It's going to be a heated debate, Luke. So do they even try that? I know a lot of people are like, I don't like that matchup for Habib. Should Habib want that matchup for himself? Should he want to dare to be great and look inside his soul and remember what his dad said about 30-0 and go out there

and win a title in the second weight class? Because let's not forget, ahead of 205 Luke, when Habib was so mad that the UFC matched Eddie up with Conor and not him when he was more deserving, he said, what do I have to do? Do I have to go to Welterweight to try to win a title?

I'll consider it. Luke, does this conversation even take place? Does the UFC even want this? Should they want this? What about Habib's family? Luke, answer the question. Yes, if you would ask it more succinctly, I can. I would say if you go that direction it does

offer you some interesting possibilities because hear me out on this let's say you went that direction i'll talk more about the fight in just a second but for the division if you did that you could go wonder boy versus kiesa you could go jorge versus covington then you could go gilbert versus leon and so you have all you have a little tournament happening, sort of, from one to six in terms of the ranked contenders. And it gives you a space where, A, Habib could hold the title for a little bit longer, which would provide at least some kind of clarity, I suppose. And then you would have this fight up top, which I think would be huge, right? You'd have Habib as a big star. You'd have Kamaru, who is the head of a top division.

There would be a lot to enjoy there. I really don't like the fight for Khabib, and I tend to think that the UFC wants to put him in fights that they think might be competitive. St. Pierre at his peak probably would not necessarily be competitive, but he's eight years plus, and he's only been in one fight really in eight years. They might like his chances there, plus the money would be big.

They may not even want that. They may just want to go with the Conor thing. But you could do it. It would really offer up some interesting possibilities of how to go forward with all of this. But I got to tell you, I don't like the fight for Habib. I think Habib is probably, again, sort of the slicker of the two. But the size disparity and the fact that Kamaru was no technical slouch just makes it a really uphill climb. And then if he loses, where are you now? You've got a little bit of rub against Kamaru, but Kamaru's going to be always sort of viewed as like the bigger guy anyway.

Oh, he was supposed to win. It's a little too much risk without enough reward. Yeah, nobody goes unbeaten. Khabib would be risking a lot to lose that L there and might be coming in as the underdog for all we know. But I just want to be fair because I was the guy who was saying, hey, Demetrius Johnson, you cleaned out this UFC flyweight division that they kind of built for you, you know, around you twice.

Maybe you should move back up to Bantamweight and really try to put your GOAT stamp down. We've said the same thing to Jon Jones. You've run this 205 division inside and out three times. Why don't you move up to heavyweight? He is. We didn't say this about Adesanya. He said that about himself. He's moving up.

Even freaking Conor got in Tyron Woodley's face that time when he was champ and was thinking about doing the three title thing. So who knows willing to go up and fight Volkanovski? Maybe we should put the same pressure, keep the same energy when talking about the revered Habib. Am I wrong? Listen, this situation to me cries out for something a little bit different. We're trying to make a situation work that I don't think is just, it's just, it's just far

from optimal. However, if we had a 155 and a 165 and a 175 pound division, where now you have Kamaru, let's say, as your head of 175, and he wanted to meet Habib at 165, I might even be a little bit more interested in that, because I don't even know if he can make 165, and it would be a pretty significant drain for him to get down there. At that point, you're like, well, okay, that makes a little bit more sense. This is a little bit more attainable, a little bit more of a middle ground. But that five extra pounds for Habib, I think, is a lot to deal with. I don't like it for him.

And it just feels like, oh, we couldn't get all of these other fights that were great. Let's just go for something that kind of feels like a next best thing. But even then, it doesn't really satisfy what you're looking for from Habib's career. You're looking for a satisfying conclusion of grandiosity and bigness and attraction between two major figures, and this is not that. It's a fine fight if they made it, I suppose, because you have two very talented people, but it doesn't solve for you what you're trying to solve for. It just creates, I think, additional complications

that we don't need to go down a path for. got a call coming in yeah this bc lava shack yeah put them on hey bj what's going on oh you're watching the show that's great tell luke that okay i'll tell him thanks luke bj penn said he had no problem going up to 170 he didn't need no 65 catch weight to win a second title in a second weight class. Just saying, bro. Okay? Yeah, he did without doing a whole lot to deserve it. Then he won it and didn't defend it.

And then when he tried to get it back again, he couldn't do it. So when the game had caught up a little bit. So not necessarily the best example uh in the world also shouts to the lava shack for putting the morning combat on their sets at uh 5 a.m i think it's morning somewhere luke okay yeah hawaii time uh any other thoughts on matchmaking at 170 who would you rather see for coaches in a perfect world to me the perfect coaches would be colby and jorge but i gotta tell you i'm not watching the show no matter what so i don't i mean i'd be lying if i said i had massive stakes involved great show never met him all right uh yeah luke

i think you gotta you gotta take your shot at trying to use this vehicle to make kamaru as a star i think jorge gets more eyes than colby um and and. And who has a better chance of beating him, Colby or Jorge? I think Colby does. Yeah, I might end up agreeing with you on that. Who drives more ratings? Probably Jorge. So why don't you do that? Why don't you just do that, all right?

All right. You can do that. By the way, before we move on here to point number three, let's talk quickly about Gilbert Burns. This is where I think a 165 and a 175 division would really make a difference. At a 165, he has a very real chance of winning the title. At 170, as long as Kamaru is there, I don't know if that's possible. Yeah, I mean, he did rock the champion and briefly drop him,

so it's not impossible that he could win. But yeah, he's probably, I mean, he's older than you think, too. Could he get back into a title rematch? I don't know, Luke. So there's not going to be a 65 division, Luke. You are no selling the 65 pounders, huh? Luke, I come from boxing where every half pound we got a new division. And each division's got not just four champions, Luke,

depending on how many the WBA wants to shit out, all right? Can we do less? Can we go back to, remember the days of boxing in the 50s when there were eight weight classes? Remember the days of UFC at the turn of the damn century when there was like five weight classes? You know where I'm going with this, Luke, okay? Hey, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 205, and then heavyweight. Nine weight classes.

You think that stopped BJ from fighting Machida? No, Luke, okay? You mean a fight he lost handily? Okay, but he had the gall. He had more gall than your bladder. He had the gall bladder. Saw that joke coming a mile away.

Let's get to point number three here, if we can. Alexa Grasso defeats Macy Barber. Now, Macy Barber was coming back after ACL surgery. Let's talk first about the winner here, if we can, BC. Alexa Grasso looked great. We knew she had a good jab, and we knew she had much improved takedown defense.

That part was not necessarily new. And I will say, Barber made it kind of interesting a little bit later with this hurry-up offense style she was trying. But for basically two and a half rounds, Grasso was the one in control. She did a great job of maintaining range. And even when it went to the floor, she was able to maintain submission-ready, let's put it that way, positions. Is she the new, real, interesting key piece at flyweight for the women's divisions? She's an interesting key piece in a division that doesn't

have many right outside of jessica andrage and uh everyone else so yeah she's a new piece look this was great to see because there's somebody who who was nearly killing herself to make the you know the the star-studded strawweight division and it's good to see her uh i love the quote she said afterwards my body is thanking me right she actually was quoting her body in like third person and saying, thank you, Alexa. Thank you. I mean, I love that because you're seeing somebody who had the perfect game plan to stifle somebody like Barbara, who, you know, after a year layoff, ACL injury, the loss, we set that all up. Was going to come in there to try to knock her head off and remind us who she is. I mean, Grasso had the perfect mix, Luke, of high guard, technique,

movement, but to show what she also can do on the ground, here's a fighter that just keeps getting better and when you do hear, they mention on the broadcast, you do hear that they identified the UFC, Grasso, as this potential, you know, giant prospect of the future, like way back

and there were some stumbles at strawweight as she sort of figured out what type of fighter she is and got improvement but she's fantastic now you do remember what we have here in this division which is Shevchenko and everyone else except for Andrade's puncher's chance which she'll have when they eventually make that fight um I still don't love her chances here against Valentina but I love her chances to be able to potentially separate herself from the rest of that group, which is the very congested and competitive Chukagians of the world who are, you know, they're good, but they're not great, Luke. I don't know if she can be great, but this is a great win.

I'll tell you that much, Luke, okay? Especially surviving that flurry late. It was one of those rare ones your boy BC got right, Luke. I saw it. I saw the future, Luke, and I was right. Good to see from Grasso, who interviewed her in the past, is a bright piece of sunshine in this dark sport of snakes that you like to say. Well, understand how big it is.

It's not just that she beat someone who had something of a name and something of a reputation. But just matter-of-factly, Barber, before this contest was sitting in the rankings at 10, you had Grasso sitting at 15. In all likelihood, she will either take that place or get pretty close. Let's say she jumps into the top 10. Who would then be ahead of her? Roxanne Modafari, Jessica Ive, Vivian Arrujao, and then at six, Joanne Calderwood. Now, I don't know if Grasso can win those fights. We'll have to see what happens. But do I believe her to be a legitimate competitor

and a decent, maybe even a favorite in some of those fights? Yeah, I absolutely do. I truly believe what we saw yesterday, or I should say Saturday, between the physicality she still has and some of the technical refinement in key details of the fight, distance management, and then takedown defense, she's going to be in great shape. I do wonder a little bit, though, if someone who's coming down from 135 can put physical pressure on her in the way that Barbara was a little bit able to later, if that might disrupt her.

Grasso likes a nice, clean game. She likes a clean opponent where they're both really relying on footwork and the technical details, and she likes to have that kind of a chess match. Someone who can rough it up a little bit, make it gritty, make it grimy, that still might be somebody who can give her difficulty, especially if they're coming from a heavier weight class. But for what she showed BC, a pretty pretty tremendous win and it locks her into I think either right at or just outside of that top 10 space now it leads to a question though about Macy Barber this whole time in her career she has been bringing up that she wants to be the

youngest champion ever which I still think is technically on the table. But here's the question, BC. Should she drop this gimmick? Should she just let it go at this point? Yeah, 100%. And this isn't a... Look, I wouldn't say this is a bad loss by any means. It was a tough loss. She showed us a lot. She lost to a really good fighter.

But yeah, drop that thing. Because here's the deal. MMA, it takes time. It takes Ls. We've seen this so many times. And I still look at Macy as somebody who can overwhelm a lot of opponents with her striking, her physicality. I mean, she's got a special mental toughness to her.

You may hate it. It's polarizing. But it drives her. But there are things to learn, Luke, about strategy, about technique, about game planning, all that stuff that she's still very raw on. I mean, how could she not when you are blowing away the bottom half of a division and making your name?

I mean, it's natural that you're going to be picked out of the group. Let's not forget if she had beaten Modafari, which the betting odds said she should have easily, she would have gotten Valentina next. I mean, she was making some serious noise, but you're going to stunt your growth.

You're going to have a Sage Northcutt type ending unless you learn from the losses what you're supposed to. Go back to the drawing board. And it's kind of a moot point now, Luke, because even though, yes, technically the math tells you she could still do it. But she's not. She's not going to get that opportunity. And I would not even by any remote sense like her chances if she did get to that doorstep against the Valentinas. So let's just focus in on the long term.

And the long term is telling me, Luke, that I do see a future champion here. I love the third round comeback. You can't argue with her power. It's legit. You can't argue with her mental toughness. There are a lot of foundational aspects to her that make her unique, special, marketable, and someone who could win a belt one day. It ain't going to be, though, in the next 8, 9, 10, 11 months, Luke, okay?

That's not BC the hater talking, okay? That's BC the reality talking, okay? It's time for a reality check, Luke. The only issue, I agree with all of that, BC, but the only issue about giving it up is of that bc the only issue about like giving it up is that you're so pot committed at this point you know you've been making it about almost your identity putting it on your phone talking about in interviews there's just it's hard to go back on that might as well just let it play out and then once you don't reach the deadline

establish a new goal i mean this this should really remind folks a couple of things. One, you know, not everyone is John Jones or Habib or, I mean, these guys are just insanely special. And I get, I get that, you know, you want to believe to be the best version of yourself, but that still has to be grounded in reality. I mean, look at what the best women's fighter, right, is obviously Amanda Nunes. She had to take some L's along the way too, man. She didn't quite figure it out at first, but once she did, then she was able to really put some things together. Like to go in there and just remain, you know, obviously John is not undefeated, but, you know, sort of undefeated, and obviously Khabib is.

And Kamar Usman has just that one loss from the regional scene. You know, this is exceedingly rare. It's the rarest of the rare, and you should appreciate those folks. Plus, I would also argue a little bit that even from the time the rarest of the rare, and you should appreciate those folks. Plus, I would also argue a little bit that even from the time that John got into the UFC, a little bit less so for Habib, but even for John, you know, could someone just come to the UFC today, you know, a handful of fights in their back pocket and just go undefeated for five, six, seven, eight, nine years? Again, Kumaru's done it, so there is a possibility for it. But I

think what I'm trying to point out is as MMA gets more and more advanced, the kind of thing that John has put together is going to be even harder to pull off. It was hard enough for him to do it, and that's one of the most special runs ever. The next generation is going to make that even more difficult. Just to become UFC champion is insane, even if you never defend it. And you're talking about doing it before at an age that no one else, irrespective of gender or weight class, had ever done before. It's just too much. It's just way, way, way, way too much. And so that was good BC on the front end for getting some hype, especially as she was winning. And now it's this albatross around her neck as she has suffered.

You know, she's not losing to bad fighters. She had the injury against Moda Ferry, and Grasso looked great. She wasn't losing to chumps, and she gave it to her in the third round too. But this grandiose claim is just hanging over her head in a way now where it's like until she moves past it, you know, she's going to be kind of defined by it, and it's not fair to her, and it's not fair to her, and it's not fair to any fighter, quite frankly. And look, this ain't Nico Montano atop this division, okay?

So that could end the argument right there, right? Yeah. No, seriously. By the way, about that third round rally, if this had gone five, how concerned were you for Grasso, if it had gone five? I mean, it's certainly hard to say now because they ration their stamina and all that based on the three-round limit but yeah Macy was coming on although I did like the way Grasso in the final minute Luke you know she forced the standing

clinch she was able to keep it at times on the ground she did what she had to do to slow down the momentum and not keep herself open to strikes I, that's one thing that Grasso did fantastic was smother Barber. You know what I mean? When they were at distance, Macy had some control and landed big shots. But Grasso fought like an old-school smart boxer. You know what I mean? She was doing a lot of those cutting down the angles, clinching. She was doing a lot of things where there's no saying she couldn't have reset in round

four and been fine. So I wasn't that worried. I will say this too, as good as Grasso's win is, and she's still building her flyweight resume, I think is a good way to put it. This was a great win on Saturday. You know, every time I see these flyweight fights, I'm looking for something that can tell me this person might be able to give Shevchenko some problems here or there not seeing a whole lot of that no not seeing a whole lot of that you know even with Kamaru you're like man Colby I don't know you know Colby might be able to do something or Jorge you know

if Jorge gives enough time on the feet you just never know that's we're talking about Kamaru Usman here I just I very rarely see something at Women's Flyweight where I'm like oh that might be like it works on that you know if Valentina is eight months pregnant and gets the gout that may sway the odds a little bit but look just to close i'm no linguist but you are harsh on people so are you gonna keep flaunting around grasso as if it's like i won't say charday it's said to me in america grasso really i wouldn't want to do gras, really? What do you want me to do, grasso? What do you want me to do? You want me to say it with a flicking R at the front of the mouth? It's very Italian sounding,

but even grasso is better than... You didn't do it right either. Grasso in the back of your mouth. What is she, French? It's the front. The R is the front. Grasso. Oh, well, I was in the...

Where was I? Let me heat your hand in the front and get that. Grasso. Oh. Well, I was in the... Where was I? The back? Let me heat you home in the front and get that. Yeah, you were all in the back. You were like, grasso. Yeah. Listen, man. There's all kinds of contradictions. Is it Argentina or is it Argentina?

What do you want me to say? You want me to call it Argentina? Deutschland? Deutschland? Deutschland? Deutschland? Deutschland? All right.

With that in mind, let's move now to point number four, if we can. Should not be forgotten about this. There wasn't a lot of talk after the fact, and I think that kind of says a lot, BC, but it is worth bringing up here on today's show. Kelvin Gastelum managed to get a good, I'll call it that, a good decision win against Ian Heinisch. The question is for you, BC, did you see something from Kelvin Gastelum that told you he was ready to get back to being a top 185 pounder? All right. I didn't see the spectacular that I predicted. I thought he was going to knock him out. I thought he was going to walk through

there and do the, y'all must've forgot. I'm still only 29. I got this rocket left hand in the holster. Don't forget about me. But yet while that was muted by the workmanlike nature of his decision win, he still fairly largely dominated. And, Luke, he got out of some trouble with those early, what do you call that thing? Is that a Kimura attempt, Luke? Yeah, that was a Kimura. When you spin the damn arm backwards. I mean, all things considered, it was a good-ass win.

It didn't scream out, though, that he's two fights away from going out there and knocking out Adesanya. But here's the deal with him, Luke. He's streaky. He's feast or famine. I still believe the guy that I saw against Adesanya, which tells me on any given Saturday, this guy does and still has the skills to dial it up and to be able to beat any other elite, even if that elite is the champion coming in. He's a dangerous ass out, but I do doubt, Luke, whether he will ever be consistent or evolve into sort of a next level status where his whole game just takes a giant leap forward. Well, we're talking about a guy who gets back into that title picture and just keeps winning i think his long run is to fight for the

title once more and you know have his moments and be in that fight but i think even me who is a card carrying member of believing in his potential not on the level of future champion kevin lee by the way but somewhat close to that um i do have to mute it a little Luke I see his ceiling there's a ceiling there but he's a dangerous test for anybody and he needed this win to be able to avoid those other conversations maybe not the conversation of getting cut but that conversation of being just another name uh he did what he had to do Luke it didn't blow me away though yeah I honestly I came away from this, I think, with a couple of feelings. One is that well, one, Gastelum had to get the

win here. I mean, he had to get the win. So I wonder if his game plan and his output was a little bit more reserved in terms of any kind of risk he was taking by virtue of that. Plus, Heinish is such a constant in-your-face guy. He's going to present to you

offense. Counter-fighting that guy is just the right play, depending on your skill set, obviously. But Kelvin has the one where you can just let the fight come to you, and then because you have technical superiority, you can then win. In fact, to me, that was the story of the fight, was that Hynash didn't quite have enough in the bag in terms of overall skills. But if he could make up for that with work rate and an interesting application of those skills, he could make up the difference. But that was not to be because of what Kelvin Gastelum was able to do. So to your point, I actually agree. I thought that this was a win he had to get. May have not been his best or his prettiest, but it was pretty good. And I felt like you could not discount him in a fight with somebody

in the upper tier of that division. But I also did not come away with a sense that you should favor him either. Now, to your point, at 29, he still has maybe another gear or two left to go to in terms of his growth. So when I say I wouldn't favor him against a Darren Till, I wouldn't favor him against a Rob Whitaker. A, I'm not saying he can't win. And B, if that was in two, three years time and he was able to progress, God only knows what

the situation would be at that point. That might be a totally different ball game. It's just right now. I do think it is worth pointing out though, in Kelvin's defense, you know, I've watched a lot of Ian Heinish tape. I've had him on my radio show a number, or when I had a radio show, I had him on a number of times. And I find him to be a smart guy, a very dedicated guy. You can see his motor was ridiculous. I also thought he showed some real improvement here. So that was not Kelvin Gastelum beating Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series guy, who's pretty good and strung a couple of wins together. This, to me, he showed some real improvement. He has changed camps. He had some new wrinkles, including in the scrambling,

that kind of gave Kelbin a bit of a hard time. So, Heinisch can be, this version of Heinisch, can be a hard guy to look good against. And I think we should also keep that in mind. So, with you, wouldn't challenge it. But I do think it's important to note his improvement with his opponent is real. And, to your point, at 29 years of age, it's just not wise to put the ceiling on this guy and say,

oh, that's it, we've gotten as far as we can go here. Not quite true. Luke, as a body guy, which you are, any comments about this man's Jurassic back? I mean, that's the type of Delson shit you can only get in jail, right? Who, Heinisch? Yeah. Dude, how about Kamaru's back?

Can Gaff or Maniche put a photo up of kamaru's back this fucker's back looks like a turtle shell i mean i cannot believe how the definition of that man's uh uh pecs too yeah specimen he's got ridiculous he's got i mean he's just all around just muscular he doesn't have traps as big as Dolka Lungiambula. I think that's how you say his name. I'm sure I'm fucking that up. That dude, Dolcha, Dolka, he has just monster traps. But old fucking Kamaru, dude, I mean, this guy doesn't have an ounce of fat on him.

Heinish has, you know, he's well built, but Kamaru is your king. You know, when we do that thing, when we look back at our baseball heroes of the past 20 and 30 years and we do the juice, no juice, juice, no juice, and then it always ends up with which guy would break your heart the most and just kill the romanticism of your youth if you found out he was on the juice. For me, it's I'm a Mike Piazza guy. Maybe he was, but I would be upset. He was absolutely on the gear. For everybody else, it's I'm a Mike Piazza guy. Maybe he was, but I would be upset. He was absolutely on the gear.

For everybody else, it's Derek Jeter, right? Because he's like the wiry guy who overachieved and was a winner. Who is it in the bodybuilding space that would break your heart the most to find out that he exclusively uses gloves to lift weights? I don't watch much bodybuilding, if you're asking, so I don't know. Arnold? What if you found this out? Yeah, that would hurt. I mean, he didn't, but that would hurt me.

By the way, you and Mikey didn't reply to my text yesterday. I wonder why you didn't reply to my text. Why would you not do that, BC? What, were you flaunting your... Why don't you read the text for the people, Luke? Can you? Yes, because King of the Lifts is an Instagram account, and it's run by a guy who has some interesting perspective

on this kind of stuff. So here's what he says in our Instagram comments. Can we put an end to coming at Luke about wearing gloves for lifting? This person writes, As a competitive power lifter for lifting? This person writes, As a competitive power lifter for the past 10 plus years, national team member at two world championships,

commentator for the broadcast at every world championships for the past half decade, and of course I do podcasts and everything else, I have never, he put in all caps, never, seen or heard of a top competition lifter using gloves. When lifting, having gloves between the bar and your skin decreases grip and increases risk of injury. The risk of the bar movement is far greater with gloves as with gloves or any other layer. This is for both powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting.

Luke is 100% right. I mean, people like to argue with me because I guess they like taking L's. There's this weird thing where my critics want me to dunk on them all the time. They love taking requests, BC. I don't mind handing them out, but the numbers are so excessive

my hands are getting a little tired from all the jamming that I'm doing, but I just want to put that out there. Born right, been right. Gonna stay right. Born right? Wow. Alright. Look, what town in India were you? What's your hometown? Not my hometown, but I was born in New Delhi.

All right. Well, that is your home. That's your home, Luke. That's where you were born, right? That is not my home. I do not get the mail there. I don't think I've ever gotten the mail there. So, no.

All right. You want to? Are we done? Show them? Yes. Yes. Last thing. Last thing. Topic number five, and then we'll call it a day for our top five topics.

BC, there were some other good performers from UFC 258. Can you name one? What stood out to you from the rest of the card? You know, I did, yeah, let me give you that. I liked what I saw out of Bilal Muhammad a lot. I had, you know, good thoughts coming in against Diego Lima that this could be a fan-friendly fight with plenty of strikes. It turned out to be that way.

But Bilal is starting to turn the corner, Luke, of like tough ass out could lure you into a brawl into somebody who's putting the punches together. Now, is Diego Lima a killer at the end of the day? No. I respect his pedigree and his family name and he was tough in this fight but balal's volume and movement and you know he's a body guy too luke there's there's some package going on he's bricked up yeah um this was you know his fourth win in a row it was sort of a step forward i think him you know luke is making

moves lately these guys that are sort of like you know they'll give you a tough out but can they beat you they're starting to beat you now and i think this is a good win for below uh it was a great win for below and you're right i think eight and one in his last nine and he's desperate for a ranked guy i think he's more than earned it you're right he looked pretty good in that one and had a nice flow going too like when he was in that state uh Diego Lima couldn't do much for me I'm gonna go Anthony Hernandez subbing Adolfo Vieira that is I don't think folks understand how big a deal that is yes you subbed a black belt you didn't just sub a black belt you subbed one of the best black belts ever ever ever ever and yes of course you did it

with a submission but you know the rest of it was just beating the guy up it wasn't just applied jiu-jitsu in fact BC, BC, this is the point. Anthony Hernandez was mounted, and I said this on the post-fight show here on Morning Combat. He was mounted, which is really bad. Yeah, I think he had a grapevine too, but at a very minimum, mounted with the hips pressed into him. So your hips are isolated. And then he had both of his arms wrapped. Adolfo Vieira had come underneath both of his arms and wrapped it.

Let me explain something to you folks. If you are rolling with somebody, and they they mount you and then they wrap behind your elbow both of your arms, in pure jiu-jitsu, there is about as wide a disparity in talent as there gets. That is blue belt versus a high level black belt. You don't have a prayer with a guy like that. However, Hernandez kept his calm, got out of the position, put it on Hernandez, excuse me, Adolfo, and then eventually in the second round or whatever it was,

sat for an arm in guillotine and got it. To the point I want to make, Demian Maia, Hadra Gracie, Jacare, Fabricio Verdun. These are guys who won world championships with and without the Gi. Certainly, I think the three of the four have. None of them, none of them have ever been submitted in an MMA contest. Not once. They've got many losses. No one's ever subbed them.

To get this, to sub a black belt at that level, that is extraordinary. Anthony Hernandez should be very proud of himself all right Luke I don't want to downgrade what Anthony Hernandez did in this fight it sounds like that's exactly what you're about to do so go ahead it was a spec this fight was a spectacle it was wild as all heck that first round was insane with the dramatic turn and twist and the comeback but to come out and be like man this guy. There's levels to like what he actually did.

I just want to be honest here, okay? Luke, I played one year of organized tackle football in eighth grade, okay? I wasn't tough, Luke. I wasn't good at taking punishment. But like my dad, my uncles, they all played football, right? My uncle caught a touchdown on Thanksgiving against Ansonia. There's like a framed picture. Everyone knows about it.

It's family lineage. So I suited up one time, one year, Luke, number 56 on the Fairchild Patriots, backup nose tackle, your boy BC, okay? I didn't even have cleats, Luke. I wore sneakers. I was so garbage. But you know what happened in the biggest game of the year we played the Packers, Luke? I sacked the best quarterback in the league from my nose tackle position, Mike Mastropietro. So, Luke, I could tell that story for years. I sacked Mike Mastropietro, baby. Only, Luke, you know what happened? He fell down and I fell on top of him.

I didn't sack shit, Luke. Your boy Rodolfo took the jug of stamina and just poured it out in the first minute of the fight. I'm not saying Anthony Hernandez doesn't deserve a... He does. But this man irresponsibly was gassed out two minutes into the damn fight, Luke. He was a corpse like when Brock Lesnar choked out Shane Carwin after that stamina dump at 116, Luke. Okay?

All right? Rodolfo fell down. Your boy BC sacked him. I could tell the grandkids one day I sacked Mike Mastro, okay? You don't have any idea what you're talking about. You know that, right? The guy was a dead body, Luke. It was sad.

He couldn't even get up off the stool in the corner. You couldn't. In that state, if they had immediately subbed in even me, and certainly you, you would not have been able to submit him sorry not even close he would have rallied and beat the fuck out of you that's a guarantee this bc saying rodolfo blew it luke blew it yes he blew it but i don't think you understand the depth of talent that someone like that has they are programmed to not tap it would take something extraordinary including beyond just mere fatigue,

and that's bad enough, to get them to relent that way. It's not an accident that Black Belt World Championships or World Champions don't tap like that. It's extremely unheard of. It looked like Weekend at Bernie's. It was like Weekend at Bernie's out there, okay? Yeah, Bernie made it to the party.

Yeah, even then, dude. Even then, dude, I've seen these guys train. They push themselves to the absolute point of complete and total exhaustion all the time. Now he did have a bit of an adrenaline dump, but I also think the punches probably hurt him in ways where he maybe have panicked a little bit. You know, I don't know exactly what his future holds in the sport and that's fine to say, but the reason why he was gassed is in part, you know, he didn't look to be out of shape. Um, partly, partly is what Anthony Hernandez did to him. And then even still, to have the wherewithal to submit a guy like that,

I'm telling you, I'm telling you, it would take a thousand lifetimes before you were able to do that. And me too. To get a guy that tough and that skilled, that program to never do that, to then do that, is extraordinary. Sorry, it is. Well, I'm not trying to choke out rodolfo but one of these days luke i might i might try to uh you know yeah those 24 inch pythons those

you're gonna do uh hey luke how how is your like 65 280 all piss and vinegar and brick how have you never played organized tackle football yet your boy b BC's out here sacking Mike Mastro, brother. I played it for maybe a year, but I grew up in the Deep South where football was competitive and where it was all you did, and I didn't want to do that. In fact, I hated everyone on the football team for that reason. I thought they were stupid that they were that invested in it. Plus, it was just insanely insanely insanely competitive dude my high school won six national championships you get the last laugh luke because all those dudes are probably changing oil in old marietta right now and look at you bro look at you yeah that's right well i

don't know if that's quite fair but uh dude when you when when your school is just built around its football program unless you're truly into that kind of thing, it's a major turnoff. And it was a major turnoff for me. Valdosta Wildcats, though, they could fucking play. Okay. With that in mind... Oh, yes. Mine was an Alpha VR. Okay. With that in mind, BC, it is time for DMs

with Donks, where everyone else gets to ask us questions. Every Sunday, we leave an Instagram post up on of course, Instagram. And that is where you ask us the questions. Alright, BC, leave an Instagram post up on, of course, Instagram. And that is where you ask us the questions. All right, BC, you ready? Yeah, I live for this, Luke. From Carmine Alvaro 32.

When it's all said and done, who will have the biggest impact on African MMA? Big Francis, Adesanya, or Usman? Well, that's really hard to know the answer. By the way, when we say Africa, you mean like Sub-Saharan or all of it? You can just say all of it, Luke. It's a continent. You can just say all of it. You don't have to guess.

Yeah, I understand what they're saying here, but dude, Africa is a wildly diverse place. I think if you want to really promote African MMA, but for the northern part of it, you would probably have some kind of Arab hero who was really good that you could really respond to, or Egyptian by actual nationality, or Tunisian, or something like that. I don't know if it means as much to that population as it does to the largely black sub-Saharan population.

I could be wrong about that. There could be pan-African identity, but I do think it's worth talking about those different populations. I don't necessarily know how to answer this from the standpoint of which one would have a better impact on the continent and the specific nations that they're from and the people. Maybe this is a question more on who will go the furthest and that will allow

them the highest impact. I'm not sure, Luke. I don't know. Maybe you know how to answer this. You? Without knowing exactly what kind of footprint UFC even has in Africa, Northern or whatever, I don't know how to answer this question either.

I mean, Adesanya gets back there time to time. I don't know if Usman does or not. Francis does as well, and he's trying to help. But in the case of Francis, he comes from a place that is pretty impoverished um and uh you know in getting MMA to grow and change there is going to be well beyond the limits of what one guy even as a shining star can do there are just structural challenges to that that make it kind of difficult um it's a great question I just we're poorly situated to answer it to be honest with you Luke did you see the transitioning somewhat away from this did you see the post fight press

conference when Kamaru was about to be asked the first question by the man in the blue shirt and he paused to answer the phone and it was his parents and his dad's like hooting and hollering and still and in in Kamaru's like voice inflection changed to speak in a more native tone. It was a beautiful moment. I loved it. I loved it, Luke. I didn't see that, but that's awesome. That's great.

I did not see that. All right, from The Fight Mafia. BC, this is for you. Does Anthony Hernandez have the best underdog win in the past five years with a submission on Adolfo Vieira? Now, I don't know what the numbers were on Anthony Hernandez to submit Adolfo. He was a pretty big underdog just to win no matter what. What do you think?

Yeah, so John Anik had said on the broadcast that, what, it was like a 30-1 submission bet? That's pretty big. And I think our partners at William Hill had it somewhere around like 14-1 or something like that. Yeah, it was pretty big and i think uh you know our partners at william hill had it somewhere around like 14 to 1 or something like that uh yeah it was pretty big i just don't like if you were woke like you were to rodolfo's you know grappling credentials then yeah this is shocking all things considered with my point i made earlier about the football reference this was shocking that you submit the submitter and that he would you know know, I mean, look, Luke, you predicted on CBS

Sports HQ when they were sort of like, Luke, give us a lock, give us something to look forward to. You're like, dude, Rodolfo Guerrero. I thought for sure Rodolfo was going to run over him. I mean, it made sense, fighting a guy in a losing skid. You were like, watch, first round submission. Our boy Joe Musso, I was with him in Stanford, Connecticut at the CBS studio. We were watching

within like four seconds of the fight, Rodolfo had his back, it seemed like. So it seemed like it was about to come true. So yeah, this is massive. I don't think, though, Rodolfo had the same name cachet to make this feel like the biggest underdog. I think, what, betting-wise, that Maria Agapova loss in 2020? Oh yeah, to Shana Dobson, yes.

Yep, that was monster from a betting angle. I think from a nostalgic angle, do we still consider Matt Serra to be the biggest upset when he took the title from GSP? Again, this is a function of what the numbers are. I'm not entirely familiar with them anymore at this point. Obviously, Holly Holm. I don't know how that was the last five years ago

or not or what was that 2016 when that happened so 2015 yeah let's not forget that the odds were stupid in that number yeah yeah they were they were dumb but again just going with the odds say i'll say this in terms of overall i don't know in terms of the method by which he won like if you just pounded out hadolfo you'd be like well that's you know's, you know, okay, that's an upset, but bigger ones have happened. But the fact that he submitted the guy, it's like, you know, it's Safford, that arm in guillotine, the time he did, same sidearm, not opposite arm, is, that's pretty special. So it's at least up there with the method of victory in the end. All right, BC, from cot.mikwright, how would you grade the first run of 8K video the UFC was using? Of course, for folks who don't know,

that was the shots where they had individual fighter shots, not so much the action of the fight itself. What did you think, BC? Yeah, it was the camera that followed them from the cage to the interview area. I thought it was cool. I thought it was cool. It looked at times like they were filming a movie. It looked like a video game at times

because you're seeing the ridiculously clear focus of the fighter and then everything around him looking like a bit blurry. It almost looked fake. I thought it was fun to do. Remember that time, the, about like 10,

15 years ago, the MTV video music awards or did the filmed it with like movie cameras. And it just looked weird and different. I like sometimes when you experiment with that crap, good thing they kept it though, to just the sideline stuff and not the fights. Then you would have had a lot of people complaining. But yeah, I'm all for it. Luke, it was fun.

Yeah, the experimentation, I'm always going to be in favor of it. Did every part work? Yeah, I don't know. Partly, it's like, dude, I'm not sure exactly what resolution it was shot in. Because you had Craig Bossari, I think, on Twitter saying it was not 8K. At a bare minimum, it was like 4K. And most people don't have 4K TVs or 4K screens. And if you do, you have to have it big enough to really appreciate the difference.

You know, and I liked how there was what's called depth of field, shallow depth of field, which means everything behind the subject that was in focus was blurry. I thought that was pretty cool. But the camera had a little trouble focusing. The autofocus was not so great, so that was a challenge. It was a bit weirdly exposed where sometimes the fighters would be washed out from too much lighting. So I'll say this. Keep trying. I don't know what the right answer is, but there was no wrong answer in terms of trying to incorporate it.

And you're right. If they had shot the whole thing, it would have been a mess, but that wasn't what they were doing. But I like this cinema grade, depth of field you know kind of stuff i think i think more of present the product as differently as you can because otherwise it just looks the same all the time how soon because people need to know if they don't already if they don't follow you that you're a giant tech nerd when we are together in public you don't you know you go right up to the camera guy say is that the xz40 is that it because i got the 39 in at my house um how how soon until the luke thomas live chat every thursday on morning combats youtube channel will be shot in this luke how soon an 8k shit a while i can't afford an 8K. I can't afford an 8K computer or a camera. Those shits are crazy expensive.

Like the Sony FX9 or something. All right. Well, I guess you could get the Sony Alpha 1, but that's like seven grand just for the body. All right. From Ken A. Forrester underscore D. That's a weird name. What is the tune Luke always whistles when he's searching for something and there is a lull? Is it bop, bada, bop, bop, bop, bop?

Is that what I'm doing? Shave and a haircut. Boom, boom. Two pence. Yeah. Isn't that the thing, BC? I think that's the thing, Luke. I don't know.

It's your freaking life. You explain it, okay? Why don't we show folks what your eye does when you eat? No, that's not fair. No, there are people. By the way, I've seen a few comments on room service diaries that it's it's starting to get out there okay yes i'll be look i always show the scars luke i have a tick okay when i chew and eat this eye goes do it it raises extra okay it raises high okay it goes one raises high but

then the other squints. So if you've never seen it, BC looks like Egg Shen from Big Trouble in Little China, like the old dude who does that. Close your left eye and open your right, just like this. No, because then people are going to screenshot this and think I'm talking about Risen again. I'm not going down this road, Luke. All right. Well, I'll say it for you. I saw this motherfucker eating.

I'm like, are you stroking out here in front of me eating that fucking whatever you was and it was our collective cbs boss karen portley used to call me cyclops uh and uh he'd get a little afraid he's like oh you're at the the the factory that he he because he would always say you know i rescued you from the factory to to hire, and he'd always be like, radiation kicking in, right? The asbestos? I could see your eye going, you know. Yeah, so Luke, look, I got eyes that one's open more than the other. I got a crooked nose.

We all got something, Luke, okay? I mean, you got undyed hair. I mean, you know, look, whatever, right? No, I went like shit. I understand it. I just like, you know, went it out. All right, and then lastly from tyson underscore calm if you had to pick one tv show character to live out the rest of your life as who would it be and why

okay so not like a superhero we're going like something a little different here look right they said they said tv show character i mean that could be anything. True, true. I mean, like Mike Seaver of Growing Pains was my idol when I was a kid. Remember Kirk Cameron in that role, Luke? He was funny. He got chicks, you know. I was going to say Scrooge McDuck. Oh, no, I got it.

Dude, Dylan from 90210, right? Shout out to RIP Luke Perry. Everybody, everybody. Just looking cool and banging tens all day long? Yeah, just skipping school and doing drugs. And, you know, yeah, come on. With the sideburns, Luke? I mean, come on. Did he work at the Peach Pit?

I cannot remember. No, that was Brandon. Brandon was like the goody guy. Oh, okay. He was too cool for school? Everybody thought they were Brandon. They was like the goody guy. Oh, okay. He was too cool for school? Everybody thought they were Brandon. They wanted to be Dylan, but in reality, they were Brian Austin Green's character before he got cool.

Remember before he became like a rapper and was smashing Tori? I don't watch enough TV to really have a clear sense of things. I would say Scrooge McDuck or like Dexter. How about Zach Morris, Luke? Do you get the Dexter reference at all? sense of things i would say scrooge mcduck or like dexter how about zach morris luke no did you do you get the dexter reference at all no i didn't watch dexter so i can't he was he was a serial killer oh okay yeah that's good so i could just murder my adversaries that'd be nice um i mean it's a decent question luke i i i you know i we all want to be zach morris right just the problem is like some of the yeah but some of the cool ones like Walter White,

I mean, the dude's dying of cancer, and he doesn't get to spend any of his money. It's terrible. So I wouldn't want to do that. But he was a super, super awesome character. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't watch enough TV. Listen, put me in the role for whoever was spitting on peasants

and murdering his adversaries. That's who I want to be, BC. You understand? You ever feel like, Luke, that you were born in the wrong century? In the wrong part of the world? I don't fit in anywhere, including this time. I could see you and Genghis Khan getting along. That's right.

All right, BC. Well, with the Genghis Khan intro, why don't you take over the show, good sir? Yeah, this is what we do every Monday, Luke. It's a wildly popular segment. It's called Have You Seen This Shit? We scour the globe for the highs and lows, the good and bad, the ugly, the in-between.

In combat sports and beyond, it is Have You Seen This Shit? Luke, let's start off the zone boxing from London on the undercard in the co-main. Lee Wood landing a left hook from hell. There we go. Against Reese Mould to capture the British featherweight title. Watch this shot, Luke. Oh.

Caught him coming in. You could tell old Reese Mould thought he was going to be landing the big one there, Luke. And he, wow, yeah. Nothing like two white guys in England who are never going to make it. Just brawling. Love it. Oh, look, we're going to keep going here. We're going to keep going here.

Oh, Southpaw versus O'Reilly? I can't tell. Oh, Jesus. Put it on it. Put it on it. Yes, please get that guy a COVID mask at the very least, Luke. Wow. All right.

Rolling on here, Luke. K-1 GP semifinals from Japan. This is from last year, but somebody brought it to my eye. Oh! Luke, that Brazilian fellow's name is Minoru Kimura. He goes by the nickname Phillip, and he just one-punched Eder Lopez to the basement floor, Luke, of the earth. Wow.

Jesus. He just stepped in line for that right hand and just put it on him. Let's see. Yeah, boom. Luke, that's almost as perfect as the right hand Michael Chandler knocked out Patrycki Pitbull with. You remember that? Yes. That was a vicious shot.

And from an angle, too, where it was like one wasn't even facing the other. It was just a terrible, terrible shot he took. This was a little bit more head on. If your last name is Kimura, I feel like you've got to be a badass, you know? Yeah, yeah, indeed, indeed. All right, let's go to top-ranked boxing from Las Vegas. Luke, the main event fell apart due to COVID, but Richard Comey stepped up.

First fight in 14 months since he lost the belt to Teofimo. Luke, he put it on Jackson Marinas. That was the guy who got the bum decision on Showtime against Roley Romero. I know, I feel bad for him because he's got two losses in a row now, but it shouldn't be. This one is legit, but the one before this, no. Yeah, that was Richard.

That's a comeback fight for Comey. He's still a player at 135. Look at this. Look at the celebration, Luke. Bro, look at this. This guy can move. By the way, this guy Comey is the one that Lopez just absolutely starched. Yeah, that's what I had said earlier. I understand. I understand. But it's just worth reminding everybody,

Comey is not some bum you've never heard of. He's amazing. Yeah, absolutely. He can fight. The guys that come from Ghana, Accra, Ghana, Luke, you know that city in that African nation? They bang, brother.

They bang, indeed. All right. Also on this undercard, Luke, how about 21-year-old Jared Big Baby Anderson taking Kingsley I-Base Soul? Luke, we love a good young American heavyweight. This guy's starting to bang that drum. I think we have too many people called Big Baby, but notwithstanding, check out the angles.

When I was looking on Twitter, I was like, is Jarrell Miller back? Really? Is he back doing drugs? This, look, smelling salts. Check out the angle that he took here. That pull one, two. He just blocks it and rolls one, two. And then comes with the, there we go.

Those are three. Bam, damn. One, two, three. Right up the middle, yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. That's a nice shot. Look at these replays.

Fantastic work here. That's just dirty, Luke. That's just, yeah. You like the pink trunks? No, I never do. Miguel Cotto would wear the pink socks pulled up high. Look, I'm not trying to crap on anybody doing stuff for breast cancer money raising, but it looks weird, Luke, okay?

I'm sorry. What about the gloves? You like the purple gloves? No. I like the punch. I don't like the nickname. I like the punch a lot, okay? Thank you.

All right, Luke, UFC 258 from Vegas. How about this on the old anniversary? It's the same one. Oh, good God. Thank you to the top rank social guy for getting that one. Wow. Yes. Looking great. Luke

Bruce Buffer celebrated the milestone his 25th anniversary of working for the UFC and announcing fights. Did you see this smoking jacket they sent him that on the inside had images of his entire career, Luke? You down with that? That's pretty cool.

It's pretty cool. A very buffer. Nothing subtle about it. Speaking of buffer, Luke, he's in great shape for being a guy, I think, pushing 60. In fact, he put on his social media footage of him training for 258 Luke and guess what he's

wearing brother I saw I said buff I said buff what are you doing my guy what are you doing what are you doing and by the way are those gloves are those like because here's the thing I thought for a second may be true have you seen those

gloves they look like weightlifting gloves but if you put them on they're actually like uh a quick way to not wrap your hands for the boxing match or the boxing training yeah they're like wrap yeah yeah they're like gloves they look like weightlifting gloves but they have padding on top you think it's those and he dropped this and then went right to the like the you know hitting mats or something it's's possible, Luke. Maybe this will take him off of your crap list for wearing those gloves. But I'll give him credit at that age. I won't shit on the buff.

He had a big weekend, but it's like, fellas, what are we doing here? And, by the way, you're deadlifting in the wrong shoes and you're deadlifting for cardio, which you should really never do. Just a lot of problems there with the fitness training training i'm just saying from a programming standpoint but you know shout out to buff luke uh a true legend in this game whether you love him or not he's still there luke okay let's keep it going can i tell you so many people sent me that clip and i was just like i'm not gonna shit on my man but you know we gotta you know we gotta we gotta we gotta change practices around here, BC. Did you ever watch that UFC fight pass thing they did on him

where he told the story about fighting Frank Trigg in the elevator? He's a real man, Luke. I've heard the story before it was a fight pass thing. Frank doesn't really deny it like that. No, Frank's on there. He talks about it. It happened. It happened.

All right. Hey, Luke, also on that UFC undercard, how about middleweight Julian Marquez coming back from a, what, three-year layoff due to injury? He was losing a lot of this fight against Maki Patolo before suddenly he wasn't scoring a late submission, and then he took to the interview booth. Let's play the audio. Damn, Mike, and to call these people out right now, it's my time to shine. And then he took to the interview booth. Let's play the audio. Look, he's shooting a shot here.

Do you have respect for the game here, shooting your shot like that? Yeah, she replied too. You took my odds and ends, so I have nothing for that segment now. You can turn off our audio, please, as well. Thank you. Yeah, she replied even. She was like, shave a JM. So shave an M or MCc in your chest hair and did he do it let's let's go to the uh twitter yeah fantastic she's they they they got the info to

her luke shave an mc into your chest hair and i am yours happy v-day congrats my love damn luke can't believe julian gave miley some vd luke how about that right yeah but what does it amount to you just got a tweet do you think it leads anywhere luke no this is like this is not nearly as cool as like when uh you know oh marine asks this happened years ago but like marine asked ronda rousey to the Marine Corps ball. The Marine Corps celebrates his birthday in ways that the other services don't. And the Marine Corps balls a big time around the 10th of November to celebrate that, which is the birthday. And years ago, I believe this is right. A Marine, if again, if I'm getting it wrong,

you can kill me on dead wrong, but like through YouTube or something had asked Ronda to one of these things. And she said, yes, this is very early into the days of her stardom um but like this is the point he got her in attendance you got a tweet like oh no bro not that cool hey it may end in a hot dog and a hand out you never know Luke okay we'll see what happens right there good win though Luke he rallied back from the uh from the brinks of defeat there hey look an oldie but goodie, but I found this from 2017, a promotion called Front Street Fights. Check out Matt Jones. Oh, God.

Good Lord. How tight was that spin, Luke? Shit was tight. Let's see. Push. He holds it. Let's see. Oh, God. Practice holds it. Let's see. Oh.

Oh, God. Practice that one. Spinny shit gone right. All right. Hey, look, there was some kind of weird grappling match that got stopped because this really strong dude did this to the other guy. That's all I got for analysis. Oh.

So this is high rollers. You see that on the mat shouts to high rollers these dudes smoke up before they compete um i love i love high rollers i've got i've got a million other shirts i don't know what the rules are for high rollers in ibjjf rules you cannot do what this man did you cannot slam your way out of an armbar. You have to technically find a way out or just submit. But if you're as strong as this motherfucker is, and he appears to be quite strong, you can just dump these bitches on their head, you know? And he's high.

Some people were saying the guy doing the slamming was at fault. Other people were saying that the guy who got slammed was at fault. To me, it was entirely a function of the rule set. That's it. Yeah, either way, that can't help your long-term future. I think even Rose Namajunas rolled over in her grave after hearing about this. Wow. All right, Luke, let's keep it going here.

Let's play a new game called Rate That Tat. Resident tattoo hater Luke Thomas. Ryan Garcia added to the lion on his right pec there luke with uh some kind of bird above it and is that like a wreath around his neck um yeah i don't don't love it at all okay i mean he's he's i mean look he's a beautiful young man i mean he's you know he slays luke we know about this guy right he's a matinee Did he kind of ruin the canvas with this, Luke? A little bit. The neck thing there, yeah, I'm not a fan of it.

I think it's a little too limiting. I don't think it's a pretty piece. It highlights the differences in the body section without making any effective use of it. Yeah i don't like it at all this ain't creative fighter on ufc4 luke you can't just delete this stuff all right unless is that like one of those like fake tattoos though is he trolling everybody could be could be we'll see luke i mean he's still he's still gonna get you know he's still going to just slay half of, uh, uh, you know, wherever he lives. I get tattooed.

I don't like women at all. Show me your backside, all men and probably still get it. Right. Luke. Yeah. Every time 10 out of 10, but still, I don't want to tattoo. Hey, let's go to the latest in home workouts. Remember that guy walked around London carrying crap and he was working out.

How about this old bastard, Luke, barefoot carrying bricks and running around the strip mall? This is my fucking hero is who this is. This man fucks more than Ryan Garcia. I don't care what anybody says. Carrying bricks with no shoes, this guy is a fucking hero.

I don't know what country this is, but if it's not America, he's Captain America. It looks like Miami, Luke. No, but look at the license plates. They look like rectangular, but thin rectangular. See that? Am I wrong? Do you agree? I can't tell. Yeah, it's hard to tell.

Do you agree with some of these Mother Earth people who say that we were made as as a species to walk barefoot and that walking barefoot around you know outside on the connects you with the earth and fulfills you with the energies that you cannot get and the connection to the world around you when you're wearing socks and shoes can you so that's not what barefoot runners think barefoot runners believe that um when you have shoe, that the shoe acts almost like if you broke your foot, like a cast would, and it holds it into place. And then because of the mechanisms from casting your foot, that's how you end up getting the injuries like shin splints and other things. It's actually when your foot is able to grip and openly be used the way that

it's supposed to, that you can get much more benefit i've tried both uh i did not enjoy barefoot running very much it did feel a little bit better initially but over time uh different problems emerged so i would say that if it's good for you do it but there are i think changes to the way people move with their gait under a watchful eye of some trainers that can solve some of the same problems i wasn't talking about barefoot running. There are people who believe you should live your life barefoot. Yeah, well, these are hippie vegan weirdos who I don't care about. All right, all right, Luke. Speaking of jacked bodybuilders, look at these guys after our hearts, Luke.

Check out the double tip-on tip from these guys right here. So the guy on the left, his name is Panda Simeone. Kai Green is in the middle. I'm not sure about the guy on the left is is uh is his name is like panda simeon kai green is in the middle i'm not sure about the gentleman on the right but these dudes are all huge influencers well kai green is a legitimate bodybuilder but the other two i believe i see them all the time on instagram lifting absurd weights with absurd musculature again all of this from just eating asparagus bc i want everyone to understand that it's just a good night's rest it's just tapioca that's it all right hey luke you know a lot about getting in shape what exercise is this because this lady's out here uh

strengthening her her dog i mean should i work on this look what's going on here i'm not entirely sure what the fuck she is doing she's got this is a strong man so she's trying to work on her carry and she's got weight out in front of her i guess testing her low back or something all right what could what would this prepare me for working on this exercise, Luke? The thrust? Your prom night? Okay. Okay. That's a nice chastity belt she's wearing there with a giant dong coming out of it. This is unsettling, to put it mildly.

Open field tackle of the week comes from this Texas mom, Luke. I don't know if you saw this story, but she caught a man. Oh, God. What? She caught a guy peeping tomming her 15 year old daughter in the window of her house so she came out and she put it on him luke wait they're there while the news crew is there no this played on the news i think uh somebody filmed it was it a dashboard cam i'm not sure somebody filmed it the guy tried to get away, maybe when the cops showed up, and she took it into her own hands, Luke.

Bro. We must protect this house. You better give her a contract to play with some rugby teams. Look at this. That's a form tackle right there. Luke, I fear in about 14, 15 years for any young man who looks to date your wonderful daughter and has to walk through the

the gym that you call your front yard to get to the door to ask for her hand to the prom and this is how you greet them luke i'm gonna greet him with a fucking sawed-off shotgun that's what i'm gonna do all right all right all right hey look watch this closely they call this a slingshot kick in karate is this a legitimate technique is this a tactic watch this closely. They call this a slingshot kick in karate. Is this a legitimate technique? Is this a tactic? Watch this shit, Luke. I've seen it in movies. I mean, first of all, that's flexibility.

Second of all, does that hurt? I guess. I don't. Honestly, if you'd ask me, is this a real thing? I'd be like real dumb but yeah yeah it's pretty dumb it's pretty dumb all right let's keep it going here hey halloween costume idea for next year check out this montana man dressed as a dick in a box luke your thoughts you this is a very unsettling segment of the show i have to admit

luke what can big brown do for you and your career, Luke? That's my question. Wow, bro, this is... What party would you... If you were at a party and you saw this dude, you'd leave, right? I would, I would, indeed. I'd be like, this is... No, I don't...

No, I'll see you. I'll... Peace be among you. No. Speaking of Big Brown, you might be surprised at how small this guy's unit is inside that box, Luke. Okay. Yeah.

I mean, that's the part. This dude's obviously a three incher, you know? Yeah. Well, hey, well done there. By the way, I got to tell you, did you watch any of the stuff on like HBO Max about the Golden State Killer, like the documentaries or whatever? Well, this dude, you know, he raped, dude he raped dozens of people he killed I think nearly a dozen as well if not more

I mean we're talking about just one of the worst people ever but it's hilarious to the extent that anything can be hilarious in all the reports it all was like this dude had a micro penis and it was just repeated over and over and over through like five episodes

this man's dick was incredibly tiny. As he committed his global crimes. Well, Luke, if things don't work out for you in your house, here's a moving truck idea if you're looking to cut costs, Luke. Your thoughts on this car? Yeah. You know what? Is he really damaging his Dodge Omni?

Is he? That shit can't be legal luke that is uh no that's super fucking what is he taking a fucking mardi gras float on the top of his goddamn car that's everything that man owns he's like all right here we go off to carnival here we come brazil they should show this video to all prospective guys ahead of marriage right look this is how it might end for you yeah bro this is where you this is where you end up this is the inevitable conclusion driving a fucking saturn off the lot with you know the grinch who stole christmas type bag fixated to the top of your shitty roof oh luke speaking of your your beautiful daughter we have footage from her second birthday party

first of all congratulations let's light the candles here there we go very well done time to blow out the candles oh shit oh no what's her friend doing oh shit they're scrapping by the way I love the

the account here. Latino people Twitters. It's no hoagie farts, Luke, but it provides us with good content. Just the same. All right. One more for you, Luke. Play stupid games. You know what they say.

Win stupid prizes. Check out these lovable folks. I don't know what the hell is going on here, Luke. Maybe this is a Cannibal Corpse concert. Do they tour Asia, Luke? This reminds me, when you describe the pornography you consume, it reminds me

of this a little bit. Alright, well they didn't break the balloon okay they didn't they couldn't break the fucking oh there it is there it is oh my god poor poor abuela there yep sayonara all right look that's the end of it that's it that's it that's it uh before we get to odds and ends bc, I know you interviewed him, and he fights this coming Saturday, I believe, on Showtime. Adrian Broner is back. Why don't you tell us what this clip is and what you learned from talking to him? Yeah, you know, I said you could check it out on YouTube on the Morning Combat channel.

I sat down with Adrian Broner. He'll be back this Saturday against Giovanni Santiago at 140 pounds. We have not seen AB since that Manny Pacquiao pay-per-view loss in 2019. So, Luke, I thought it was important to chat with him. He's had a lot of trouble outside the ring in the past couple years, arrests, mental health issues, a lot of that stuff. But he seems to be back at it, Luke. That was a big theme in our conversation.

Let's go to it. Let's check it out. All right. Look, a lot of us being very honest these days about our mental health journey and the quarantine has, you know, made it hard for me. It's made it hard for a lot of us being stuck at home and stuff. What has been your secret in sort of, you know, getting back on track mentally? And and, you know, did you have an inspirational turning point? How did you get to where you are now?

I woke up one day. i was drunk as fuck the night before and i woke up and i said you know what i looked right up and i was staying in some hotel and i looked right up and i called gerald tucker and i was like that's one of my coaches that's coaching today. And I was like, you know what? I'm done drinking. And everybody didn't believe it. I was like, you know what? I'm done drinking.

I'm going to start back training and I'm going to get back serious with boxing. And from that day on it was just like let's do it and i told myself from that day that uh i would be a world champion again and i just been pushing forward since that every day i want to say he's polarizing. It's maybe a little bit more than that. AB has had a long history of purposely trying to get under people's skins for the sake of entertainment and numbers. But, you know, I've said it before.

This guy's got nine lives in my heart. I still, even only, what, 29, 30 years old, I still think there's something left in there. I was happy to see, because there were times in his life it obviously could have ended very badly. Happy to hear that he's turned it around mentally physically he seems to be in great shape i don't know what to expect from him in the ring wise but uh how do you sort of sum up the constant soap opera of adrian brunner yeah i mean he's done some really reprehensible shit man you know like even small stuff like going after after Al Bernstein and kind of making it awkward was weird.

He said he was one time grateful for abortions that other women have had because it's kept him from having to pay child support. It's like all kinds of just, you know, I mean, that's just half of it, you know? So I don't know if AB is a changed man, but here's what I can say. If you're not ready to cheer for AB, and I guess I'll tell you I'm not, I'm definitely ready to cheer for his recovery. I'm definitely ready to cheer for a turnaround. I'm definitely ready to cheer for getting right with the world and his health and with mental health and physical health together because the two can be intertwined. If he's legitimately on a path to that, then I'm a fan of that. And let's see where that takes him. Let's see how long he holds on to

it. So I'll say to him, keep going. If this boxing match is part of that journey, fair play to him. I hope he does his absolute best. And we'll just see what happens. Let's see. The problem is when one person turns in a good effort for a good camp, and then they kind of fall back to where they were they'll do it for a year and fall back to where they were this is really a change it has to last but I will say I'm absolutely not going in any capacity whatsoever to cheer against someone's real recovery absolutely and I did ask him you know how do you think your brand has been affected by the arrests and some of the bad stuff and he goes I think it's helped. I think people want to see me more than ever.

So whether you want to see him, Luke, for good things, or you want to see him potentially lose, you can tune in Saturday night. Tripleheader, by the way, some good fights. Otto Wallin, Dominique Brazil on that undercard good-ass heavyweight fight, Luke. So we'll get into that later in the week as we set the stage for the weekend. But, yeah, I'm here cheering for AB to come back and at least get the most out of what's left of his career. All right, with that in mind, it is time for Odds and Ends.

B.C., what do you have for Odds and Ends? Hey, big upset in boxing over the weekend. It was a little bit lower profile on the zone, but Josh Warrington was 30-0. He's a featherweight. He held a featherweight title. He's got a win over Carl Frampton. He was becoming sort of an out-of-nowhere rising

guy down there at 126. Luke, boxing politics got in the way of his hopes. He wanted to unify titles against other champions. He got stuck with a mandatory against a guy he already beat in Kid Galahad for short money. So you know what he did, Luke? He said F your belts. I'll give you my title.

I'm going to fight who I want. So this was supposed to be a stay- fight against this fella, Mauricio Lara, 22-year-old Mexican slugger. Didn't know a lot about him coming in. We know a lot about him now, Luke. This is why you fight the fights. 11-1 underdog technically, but some books, Luke, almost had him like a 60 to 1 underdog people were giving him no chance laura drops warrington with a vicious left hook here in round four and luke he would go on to stop him five rounds later this was shocking because warrington was trying to set up a

unification with either gary russell or with um zuc. He was trying to get some big fights. He's a fun fighter. Not a lot of power. But he puts it on you in terms of aggression. And this fella here. Mauricio Lara. You love to see these moments. Because we see a lot of mismatches in boxing Luke.

And it wasn't a mismatch in his heart. No one told him. It was an exhibition. He came out there. He sent him to hell. So shout out to Lara right there. It's a fun time. Every time you realize that any fight, anything can happen,

this broke script, happy to see it. Well, for my odds it ends, I was going to do one, but you took it from me. So rather than doing that, I will ask you about something different, BC, which is legitimately Oscar de la Hoya. What did I take from you? You're saying I took everything you worked for? Yeah, I was doing the Marquez-Miley Cyrus thing, but you took it. That's okay.

I guess you didn't pay attention to the rundown. That's all right. I'm used to it. Okay. Let me ask you about this, Dingleberry. Oscar de la Hoya tells Marcos Villegas, Manny Paco versus Ryan Garcia could be a, quote, passing of the torch fight, but admits to zero movement on it getting made, cites difficulties reaching Pac-Man in order to get the talk started,

and hence, Fortuna versus Garcia may be next. Let me tell you something. My interest in seeing Fortuna versus Garcia is pretty fucking low. What's going on? Okay, I don't hate that fight. I like Javier Fortuna. He's had some ups and downs, but he can bang Southpaw. That's an interesting fight for Ryguy as opposed to some mandatory you never heard of.

But I continue to be puzzled, Luke, by the thing we talked about last week. You know, that meeting that Oscar and Eric Gomez had with Bob Arum. If that meeting is to set up a Teofimo fight, then just set it up already. No one would be mad if Ryan Garcia and Teofimo Lopez fought each other. But how are you not going in the damn direction of getting Ryan Garcia against Pacquiao? This could make your guy. I mean, it could break your guy too, but this could make your guy. And I don't think people would be upset if Garcia moved up two weight classes and lost to a legend like Pacquiao. So I think the gamble's worth the risk. I don't know if this is another sort of public negotiation move,

which we see all the time in boxing, act like you don't want something so that it brings down the other person's price. Maybe that's the case, Luke, but I keep getting all indications from this BS that Oscar don't want this right now. Does he know something about Ryguy? We don't. I mean, we did watch that Ryan Garcia win over Luke Campbell, and while it was exciting and it showed you a lot to love

about whether Garcia is for real, you know, he still, Luke, doesn't move his head. He still does, you know, some technical things wrong. I wonder if they have fear that Pacquiao would go in there and expose the crap out of that. I wonder, Luke, okay? Yeah, I mean, I don't know why there's no conversation around Garcia versus Haney.

I mean, I know why, but I'm saying in a normal world, that's where this would be headed. Yeah, they both fight on DAZN. It's not that hard, Luke. Pick up the phone. I know, but this is a broken sport. So what are you going to do? Well, it's a wait and see sport.

Sometimes you got to wait before you see luke okay yeah it's wait mostly not see is what it mostly is uh it's a fine sport when they actually do it right it's a wonderful sport when they do it right but they normally don't do it right so that's the problem i feel bad i stole your shit on that marquez uh yeah you gotta read the rundown guy you didn't didn't read it, did you, BC? You can come clean. It's okay. You didn't read it. I know you didn't, you fuck.

I know you didn't. It's okay. It's all right. BC, do you have any extraneous? By the way, I wanted to make a note of something. BJJ Scout picked up on it, but our own Rashad evans in my sit down with him bc said one of the counters to the hooking punches of gilbert burns is going to be the straight hard punches of one kamara usman boy i gotta tell you i mean he didn't call it exactly but he definitely had a clear idea of what it might come down to very very prescient analysis from Rashad Evans

I have to say I'm impressed yeah Rashad not only his friends with both guys trained with them at Sanford MMA but you know he had an interesting perspective just in general ahead of this fight with two you know teammates turned fight you know something he obviously went through with John Jones so yeah good good pickup there from the guy on CBS Sports HQ they call Mystic Shod because his picks, Luke, unlike mine, tend to come through. That's right. And if you listen to the Joe Rogan podcast, he has done some interesting adventures with his mind. One day as a morning combat spinoff, Luke, you and I, some peyote, we'll lick a toad together at Joshua Tree National Park.

It'll be a disaster. It'll be a disaster. But I'll do it. It'll be a disaster. It'll be a disaster. But I'd do it. I'd do that shit. But you may be healed from all your life, your PTSD from life, Luke. You know, you may be healed from that. We shall see. All right.

So we're all over social media. If you want to throw the graphic up, Morning Combat is consistent everywhere. YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. There's Morning Combat on Instagram. It's on Twitter. It's in a bunch of different places. There you see BC and I as well, although the names differ for us but morning combat is consistent we will do uh fan submissions on wednesday we haven't had a proper wednesday show in two weeks

we will do one on wednesday if you want to get in your artwork your photoshops especially of bc as egg shen from big trouble in little china morning combatgmail.com is the place to do that. Whether it's that or it's of me, it doesn't matter. morningcombat.gmail.com or if you just want to reach the show, that's the best place to do that there. If you'd like to try Showtime, you certainly may. Showtime.com for a 30-day free trial.

And if you subscribe now, I believe $4.99 for the first six months. Pretty decent deal there for folks who want to watch Bellator beginning in April. And we have merch. Store.show.com You can go and buy hats, shirts, mugs, cups, condoms, flasks, tire irons, and umbrellas. I'm pretty sure that's what's in there. And workout

gloves. Coming soon. Coming soon. MK workout gloves, Luke. MK workout gloves and ball condoms. Those are the things that we need uh all right bc any any parting thoughts before we go uh uh god bless you luke and there is one by the way uh and we hope that your meeting with the doctor goes well we want to see you you know back up to speed godspeed to your bladder luke okay i'm sure i'll be fine by the way what's on the t-shirt before we go? What do you got?

This is WWE superstar Andrade Cien Almas. Back when we were allowed to call him that in his NXT days. He currently is in a relationship with Charlotte Flair, Luke. Son of, or daughter of the great Ric Flair. Yeah, I interviewed her for Super Bowl Radio once. She did not enjoy our conversation, I don't think. Did you ask her about lifting techniques or some weird bullshit no no no like uh when you do super bowl radio the interviews i'm not kidding they're like three to minutes at four minutes at most i mean they're in and out

and she was with someone from the special olympics so the majority of my first questions were about the person she was with in the special olymp. And then I asked her about something pro wrestling related. She gave me like a one word answer and then split. And the person who was with the Special Olympics was a competitor. I'd won a medal. Couldn't have been sweeter. I was going fine. But yeah, she didn't care.

I don't even know what I said. You have a long history of turning women off in interviews. True or false? Yeah, but then they marry me. So I win in the end. But, you know. Then I go on dates with them with firearms. Yeah, they take them to a shooting range.

And then they're like, you know what? This guy was not who I thought he was. All right. With that in mind, BC, that is time for us today. We'll be back on Wednesday. If you've got any questions, morningcombat.gmail.com. The doc is supposed to launch within a week, right?

Where's our interview with Steven Espinosa and Scott Coker? We sat down with them. That should be out this week, too. That should be out a long time ago as a matter of fact. Yeah, I don't understand what these people are doing to us, Luke. Okay, we make the content. Can you guys put it up there, please? What is this? Got to post that shit.

Do I have to make a Pat Tillman joke to keep this thing out longer? What are we doing here, all right? All right. With that in mind, for CBS Sports, Malka, and Showtime, that's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. May all of your gains be loyal. Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.