MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 260 Recap: Ngannou KOs Miocic, Woodley Loses Again, O'Malley Impresses | Ep 135

Episode Date: March 29, 2021

Luke and Brian return to recap all the action from UFC 260. Francis Ngannou knocked out Stipe Miocic to become the new UFC heavyweight champion. What is the biggest takeaway from the fight and is Jon Jones next for Ngannou? Plus, Tyron Woodley lost his 4th fight in a row. Is it time for him to retire? Also, Sean O'Malley returned from injury and his loss to Chito Vera, with an impressive KO of Thomas Almeida. What kind of statement did he make? --------------------------- '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

it is Monday March 29th let's see 2021 and is time, diggity donks, for Morning Combat. Hello everyone, my name is Luke Thomas. I am from CBS Sports and some other places. I am joined by the gentleman, I mean, Puerto Rico's finest, back in Gringolandia, my friend and yours, Brian Campbell. Hi, BC. How was your weekend back? Well, I won't say in Los Estados Unidos because you never left, but back here in Gringolandia. Great to be back with the family, Luke.

All good on the home front. Y'all got that McDonald's haircut again? I like that, Luke. High and tight? You're looking good there. Great to see you again. Let's make some digital magic luke okay listen i have seen haircuts given out in mcdonald's bathrooms don't think i have it they look a

little bit worse than this i mean you got to give me that if nothing else you got to give me that now that you're now that you're fully vaccinated luke do you have the freedom to just live your life the way you've always done beforehand very not full not fully vaccinated because i have to wait another week or so for this first shot to uh to vest for the antibodies to be developed and then i get the second one in a month basically so it won't be until two weeks after that basically like early may is when i'll be like ready to to party and you know i'll still obey all the local ordinances and stuff, but you're asking me, will I eat indoors for the first time in a year? Yeah, I'm definitely going to do that.

All right. Are you team Moderna? Is that what's fueling your comeback here, Luke? I didn't really get a choice. You just kind of show up when your appointment is made or whatever, and they were like, we have Moderna today. So I was like, as long as it's not not astrazeneca because they are doing a bad job you should have went in there and like stick me with the johnson i want the big johnson right now i want the johnson and johnson yeah in the johnson

if you know what i'm saying just three johnsons ready to go uh bc we have a lot to get to today we have ufc 260 results there's a ton stuff there. But before we get to even all our normal disclaimers, we should set up some things. You and I are going to be together this week, at least part of the week anyway, for about three or so days because Friday, ladies and gentlemen, is the debut of Bellator on Showtime. Now, we were originally, our plans were up in the air. We didn't know what we were doing, so we're going to be back at the bomb shelter, you and I, for a Wednesday show, for a Friday show, and for, I don't want to give away too much, BC,

but a bunch of other stuff surrounding that as well. Well, I'm being encouraged by our fine producer, Mikey Mormyle, to encourage all of you viewers out there that you want some room service diaries this week between Luke and BC, then head on over to apple podcast give our great show a review five stars or whatever you're feeling but specifically put your questions in the review i don't want we don't want luke to rank his five

favorite lightweight champions of all time all right have a little fun be a little bit original and uh hopefully we can uh get a little saucy and make some fun times there. But yeah, we'll be back in the bomb.com, Luke, and let's launch. Let's make this new marriage, the Bellator MMA exclusive home on Showtime. Let's help them consummate it, all right? Yeah, we probably will on some level, or we'll just be two cucked weirdos watching from the side. Like much of Luke's sex history.

Yeah, it'd be very voyeuristic, but that's fine. Yeah, okay. Okay, so with that out of the way, please give a review on Apple Podcasts. Leave a nice review if you're so inclined. Put a fun question in there. We'll get to it on Room Service Diaries.

But there's a lot more planned than just the show and Room Service Diaries. So stay tuned is what I would say. All right, so if you want to try Showtime and you want to watch Bellator on Friday, this Friday, you can see below in the lower third there, the link show.com slash Bellator MMA. You can get all of Showtime, not just Bellator and Showtime, but the entirety of the Showtime experience. You can get it for $4.99 for the first six months. If you want to try some merch from

mk you can do that you can go to store excuse me yes store.show.com that's just s-h-o hats mugs shirts tumblers again we're told there's more coming i don't want to make any more promises uh you know given how long this stuff takes but know, you're covered for at least right now. Anything else BC? You know, check out our bonus content. We are filling your in-holes not just every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with live shows or Luke's Thursday live chat, but plenty of good interviews out there.

Emmanuel Sanchez, Big John McCarthy, getting you all set for Friday night's Bellator 255. So head on over to YouTube slash Morning Combat and check some of that-ish out. Please like and subscribe. As Luke said, we have so many really great ideas and plans for the future. We just need you to continue to help us

get there. So let's be one team, one dream, okay? And then we can cream, get on top. Cream. Shaboogie bop. Right? All right. Very good.

All right. Keep your pants on. Okay. With that out of the way, let's start the show. Right there. Topic number one, if we can, ladies and gentlemen. Well, guess what? We have a new UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou defeats Stipe Miocic second round KO

to become the new champion uh BC I did a post-fight show so I gave my initial reaction I've got some additional thoughts but first things first we kick it off with your assessment what is your biggest takeaway from Big Francis's's win on saturday night it's a scary it's a scary ass motherfucker luke okay i try not to use those words in this setting too often but uh good lord look uh you know all of our analysis coming in francis could have improved uh nothing he could have improved negatively from the first steepipe fight and still won it because he has freakish power. But Luke, to essentially see him have improved across

the board in almost every single category, from the variety in his striking with body punches and high kicks to cardio, game planning, we know he has a great chin, and then wrestling. Luke, to see him go to the ground

and basically make Stipe look like Frank Mir in the Lesnar rematch with that, you know, whack-a-mole pounding. I mean, this was a thorough, scary, impressive performance that flips everything upside down of what we thought coming in, which is wild because let's remind ourselves, Ngannou just knocked out four of the best heavyweights now and in recent history in four consecutive fights that lasted under four minutes total, right? He just kicked the shit out of the division, yet we were still like, there's levels to this, right? When he gets up to the steep A level again, when he gets to the Jon Jones level, you know, he's, you know, you can beat Curtis Blades twice, but when you gets to the John Jones level you know he's you know you can beat Curtis Blades

twice but when you get to that highest level where somebody can take your punch or somebody can outlast you you're going to see something different like we saw in 2018 oh we saw something different all right we saw a I don't want to call him complete Luke because we saw flashes of a complete game we didn't see five rounds of, but we saw just an absolute monster that is here. It's his time now. And obviously we're going to spin this forward in a minute and talk Jon Jones, so I don't want to go too far here. But just as it pertains to right now,

Stipe came in thinner, had a great game plan, showed a stupidly good chin, and still got sent to the basement floor of Hades, Luke. It's Ngannou's time, and I was in awe watching on Saturday night. Yeah, he got sent to the land of wind and ghosts pretty quickly. Here's a question for you, BC, because this is what I was thinking about too. When did it dawn on you in the middle of this fight that Stipe was in trouble?

What happened? Well, there's almost like periods of that. Like, you know, the first time he stuffed that, Ngannou stuffed the takedown very early. You're like, oh, man. Oh, man, this is a different beast now. But then you give the Stipe, like I mentioned, credit. I mean, to have, like, he took punches in that first round

that people don't come back from. I mean, he took a straight right, you know, cross. He took in close range. So there were levels where you're like, oh, Stipe survived that. He's back. And then even in early in round two when Stipe landed his biggest shot, you're like, okay, this could end up being a lot like the first fight all over again. I mean, look, there were so many different levels to a lot of ranges of emotion

in a very short time. I don't necessarily have one specific turning point, but I mean, what was that? Basically a jab that put them away, a half hook jab. I mean, that was one of the scariest looking shots I ever saw Luke. And he basically went like this with it. I mean, this is just like, I don't have to teach you about his freakish power. We already knew that. But when you put it together with the size, athleticism, explosiveness,

and now he's patient enough to game plan. Luke, you don't want to be in the moment, right? First night we slept together. I love you. I do love you, Luke. You don't want to be that guy right now. But could you imagine this guy losing at heavyweight? No, I can't anymore.

If he's got these skills luke forget stipe everyone's in trouble it's gonna take something special to beat him other than the father time decline overtime question right i mean we should really talk about what francis did in this fight in terms of his improvement one took his time i mean he was you know he had he was interesting about uh francis he has such belief in his power that when he gets a guy backed up or scrambling, right? How many times was Stipe trying to get to his feet or on his hands or, you know, in some kind of transitory moment where he was trying to get back to square with Francis and Francis would just unload on him.

But then at range, really be careful about setting stuff up. So like in the end, his volume was not too high not too low just kind of a real medium overall level of it but but it was voluminous where it needed to be it was patient where it needed to be the setup where he basically what you're talking about is where he drops Stipe in the second round he actually takes a stutter step so he breaks the rhythm throws the punch takes another, and then throws the jab. And it completely has Stipe dead to right. So he's changing up rhythm.

He's changing up not so much stances, but the way in which he's closing distances. He was throwing an uppercut across an angle. I mean, the shot selection here was incredible. But you see, even that final left hook that he threw, right? Why was that so good? Well, first of all, that you can carry power in a six-inch window like that to just drill someone's lights out is incredible. But it's also the right shot to throw because he was able to get off at an angle. The other punch went by him.

And it's a short distance. You can travel to the target very quickly. So you're going to land first. You're going to be ahead. Dude, this was like, I mean, I don't want to overstate things. I don't think that he is the technician per se that Stipe is, but you just look at the takedown defense and then going, I said this on Saturday Night PC, he didn't just stuff the takedown and separate.

He stuffed the takedown and then went for the back and then was hammering Stipe. He went from defense to offense like that in that position. And then I mentioned all the stuff on the feet or when Stipe was circling away, he didn't lunge so he would kick him in the body because you can connect to the body, not the head, because the whole Reyes and Jones thing. Dude, I was like, if a guy is, again, do I think he's a technician that Stipe is overall? No, I don't think so. But if you're reasonably good enough and you are a physical alien who's gonna beat that guy i mean it is obviously possible we know it will eventually happen i'm just saying right now to your point the level of improvement is significant and even where it's at

it's not perfect but you marry that with all of the things else he represents, and it is so formidable. I honestly am laughing at the concept. I mean, it's amazing that Stipe lasted over a round. Yeah, and look what the UFC has now from a marketing potential. I mean, you've got the guy they've always wanted, right? MMA has answered to Mike Tyson, who they tried hard to build up three years ago, and it just wasn't time. It didn't work. It came close.

He did rock Stipe in that first fight, but it didn't happen. And now you've got this guy who is insanely well-spoken and endearing and humble and polite, has one of the most outrageous backstories. Look, I didn't even know the full measure of his backstory, and I thought I did, until writing a preview column for this fight and really digging in deeper I think the more that he's doing interviews you find out even more nuggets of of the things he had to overcome being jailed in Spain when he tried to cross the Mediterranean on his way to France I mean you know just wild stuff and then on top of that Luke uh now he can do the things

that you thought you could expose him right and to expose, you were going to have to be a special animal. I think we are going to retroactively look at Stipe's win in that first fight and just be like, holy crap, that was a Herculean effort. And also one thing we're going to take from that, Luke, when we rewatch that tape, is that Ngannou had a lot of moments in that first fight where this whole run could have been over i mean you know get getting your ass kicked that thoroughly can certainly like stunt your potential growth mentally to a level where you may never get there right not to mention the physical beating he took yeah you look at that

he showed an insane chin francis and gano in that first fight because stipe was just beating on him francis was exhausted yet he kept getting up and he kept coming forward I think that retroactively now that shows us a ton of who Francis actually is now that he's had the time he's got the right team and the right focus to start to close the door on these wide gaps in his in his talent game that he was missing I mean when you saw again that first takedown that Francis stuffed and turned it into him punching from behind, I mean, everyone's going to get finished by those type of shots.

Literally, everyone. Those are some of the most brutal shots that Stipe just barely hung on from. He's going to dissuade you from taking him down. And even if you are ultimately of a John Jones level, which no one is in terms of defensively, game planning, all that stuff, you still have to pitch a perfect game that is going to be so much more tense-filled and dramatic and precarious than the one Stipe did three years ago when those gaps were wide open, when it was wide open for Stipe, probably the only one, again, who could have

done that to just take Francis down and keep slipping the right hand. Now you're going to ask somebody, and hopefully it's going to be Jon Jones, now you're going to ask somebody to have to do that when he can also do these other things and he's not going to shoot his wad in the first two minutes stamina wise. I mean, Luke, UFC overnight has something that I don't think they knew. I don't think they were prepared for, even though they obviously put him in that position three years ago with the hope that he could be this thing, right? This thing that casual fans need to see.

I think when you mix in his personal story with his improvement and all that, he has the potential right now. Luke, tell me if I'm bat shit crazier than normal, right? Okay. He has the potential to get to like Lesnar, Rousey territory in terms of fame and pay-per-view draw. Because this is exactly what people want. And then you add in the globalization, African champion, all that. I mean, what else does he need to have the potential?

I don't know how long that window is going to be, but to be like the biggest star in the sport. I don't know. I mean, his native language is French. I believe that's right. And so, you know, he does carry a pretty thick accent, which, you know, I don't say in kind of a pejorative way. Half my family is that way. It's fine.

It's a great thing, actually. But I do wonder to what extent that would limit any potential upside. He is soft-spoken to a degree, you know, although he has begun to show more of his personality. I think as that comes with time, that could only serve his interest. I mean, I do think we need to reconsider. I'll say this. We do need to reconsider just how big he could be because I think after a performance like that, you know, you at least have to take seriously the possibility that this guy could be a dominant figure for a long time, and all the things he represents could be quite marketable and good for his career and good for everybody else around it.

At the same time, you know, you're talking about a level with Rousey or somebody else that is so extraordinary. I'm having a hard time seeing that at this moment, but I do believe that if this guy can just keep up what he was doing on Saturday. I mean, dude, this last run of his, dude, if you look at all the fights that preceded this one and then this one, they were not hard for him. Like, they were not difficult.

He ran through everyone. Yeah. I mean, like, look, could he just keep fighting every two and a half months? I mean, seriously. Like, if he does something like that he's going to be mma's mike tyson and i'm telling you it's going to take over the casual sphere it's there there i i i would love to see it i would absolutely for i mean this guy is obviously you know i don't know what his nationality is in terms of where you know he collects mail to vote or whatever but he is

very much the american dream to me um he is very much a guy who is easy to like, who has a totally unique yet relatable in some ways, or certainly a, not relatable was the word, but endearing story, however improbable it all may be. I mean, he's Rocky and Mike Tyson combined. I mean, it's sort of a weird thing in that kind of a way. So I really believe that there's a possibility for him. I just want to have a bit of a wait and see approach about what it looks like. Now, before we move to point two, BC, we do have to address a bit of an elephant in the room. You and I spent a considerable amount

of time last week, bigging up Stipe Miocic You know, we were exercising Our own demons For not giving this guy the credit That maybe he deserved on different ways And different issues I did pick against him on HQ And I thought, man, I am going to fuck this up again Obviously it didn't work out that way But the resume review

Every time we do it And if you count the mini one Which we did for Tyron Woodley So a mini resume review If you count that as the fourth one Every time we've it and if you count the mini one which we did for tyron woodley so a mini resume review if you count that as the fourth one every time we've done one bc the guy loses four no i'm we're we're batting a thousand here bc not looking too good for us uh luke and bc make it look jinxy is really where you should be going with this luke uh the resume review it was a joke it started off off at a fun little segment.

No, it's real. The curse is very real, Luke. And if you don't believe in the MK curse at this point, let me sprinkle a little more on you. Rashad Evans never fought again after joining MK, right? Was talking about this big comeback. Chuck Mendenhall, not growing hair on his head anymore, okay? Greg Kelly, Jail Time. I mean, anyone who's come into contact with this show, Luke,

has really gone, unfortunately, in the wrong direction. So a lot of people saying, hey, you know, can you get Peter Yan up next? Oh, I hate Jon Jones. Can you get him up next? We're not actively looking to ruin people's future plans, Luke. But, I mean, have you seen Jay Aaron again since this? The guy had to change his name professionally. I mean, come on, right?

So there's a reason why our producer doesn't like us talking about his music career on the air, okay? But wow, Luke, wow. It's 4-0. Here's more the way I look at it. I mean, I always had sympathy for them, but even more so now, which was like, you know, Modelo is like, they eventually got behind Cip in a way that worked for a while, but they got behind him and then he lost. They got behind Brian Ortega and they lost.

So they got behind Amanda Nunes because they were like, all right, you know, two strikes, that's on us. Third, this is a fixable thing. So, but the point being is it just shows you every time in MMA, we like why do we have someone on resume review well yes it's an interesting fight but we're also talking about someone who has had an interesting journey and dude power at the top is hard to attain it is short lived

it is all those things so yeah I do think eventually we're going to write the ledger here a little bit but it also just goes to show man when you try to do big things in mma even if you've already done big things which is how you get on resume review it is it is impossible to be consistently successful at the top it is just impossible in this game and you know insiders like us keep whiffing on this kind of tells you how hard it is to to identify um at the right

moments luke are you going to transition into Jones next or Stipe? Because I had something to say about old Stipe. Say it about Stipe. Let's hear it. Well, you know, it's probably apropos that I finally come around. I actually picked him to when I switched last minute. That, of course, I would jinx him right there. That's happened before. See, you're blaming me for this shit, but that's the jinx move.

Yeah, but ultimately Luke, I wouldn't even say anything negative about his game plan. Like he probably got finished in the end because he, he got a little bit too aggressive after landing that big right hand. And maybe he thought he had a little bit of an opening and he kind of stepped forward and stepped right into that left hand. And that was the end, but he's 38.

And I think like he's before this fight, even though, yes, the, the, the, the, the wars though yes, the wars are adding up, let's not avoid that, but you know I loved how lean and thin he came in I felt like he was still getting better I feel like I would have no issue with his game plan in hindsight, he just lost to the

better man and I hope he keeps going Luke because I really think he could beat, you know, just about anybody else, maybe short of Jon Jones which would be a great fight, so I hope he keeps going, Luke, because I really think he could beat, you know, just about anybody else, maybe short of Jon Jones, which would be a great fight. So I hope that Stipe, if he wants to keep doing it, realizes that there's still, you know, a big pile of money out there to earn and that he can go out there and win it. Because I didn't see, oh, you know, this happened because it's three years later, Stipe's older. No, Stipe came out there with some huevos and he went after it and uh and you know he swung big and he went down hard but uh do you see any negative issue with

his performance or what his future could be performance i mean you could all i'm sure he looked at that final sequence and is like oh you know why did i do that i'm sure there's some other stuff in the fight where he would go back and do it differently. Listen, the guy showed he had a terrible first fight with Cormier. He had a not-so-great fight the second time, although he was able to salvage it there in a pretty dramatic way. And then I thought he had a really good fight against Cormier the last time. In other words, he has shown a capacity to adapt and change. And I think you have to take that seriously. At the same time, you also have to take 38 seriously.

And, like, dude, this is the point I was trying to make and we'll talk about here with the what's next with Jon Jones or Stipe whatever I've seen people calling for the trilogy fight I'm like dude this fight wasn't even remotely close like there was no part of that Stipe landed what two inside kicks

and you know a bunch of small other stuff like what's the best single thing he did in this fight except survive? Nothing. I'd like to see him make one more run to get back to a third fight. So let's say we could see the future

and Francis has the title, or even if John won the title, it really wouldn't matter. Your whole point is, I think Stipe's got one more big, at the very least, one more big run in him to go out, beat two or three second tier,

you know, number one contender guys, and then I think you can make a trilogy then if you had to, but I agree with you. There's no reason to run this back right now. Yes, and I know people are like, well, what about your status is greatest of all time? And it's like, dude, yes, I agree that that should matter. I agree that

that is obviously a very hugely significant accomplishment, but it cannot be a get-out-of-jail-free card every time you have a loss in a title campaign. You had the loss to Cormier, and he went and took another bout, but then the next bout that Stipe had was that one, and they ran it back. We're going to do this all over again? No, you lost pretty cleanly.

Not back of the line but you know kind of kind of get it going again all right so let's go to point number two bc because this one is highly interesting the ufc broadcast pumped up big time the heavyweight ascendancy of john jones as a possibility for francis and ghanu's next fight we've all known he was probably going to get the winner of this bout whether it was steep airipe or whether it was Francis. Anyway, he took to Twitter ready to go, exclaiming his interest, send me the papers, show me the money,

the whole nine yards. And then UFC President Dana White got out there in BC at the Post Fire Press Conference and did this whole... I mean, I cannot believe we are back here again, but basically tried to argue. If you wanted to take the fight, you could have taken it already because there's what we're going to pay you for it tried to argue if you wanted to take the fight. You could have taken it already because there's what we're going to pay you for it

and that's really not going to change. Let me know if you're ready to do a deal or not. And then presenting it as, if he doesn't want to take this deal, oh, it must mean he doesn't want to fight. BC, question for you. Or go down to 185. Or go to 185. Question for you, BC. Are we going

to actually get Francis versus Derek Lewis too because of how cheap everyone's being here? God, I really hope not, Luke. And obviously there's two sides to the Dana versus John money debate, but this is an overnight story after the fight I wrote for CBSSports.com. Sort of my biggest takeaway is UFC is, look, it's not, I want to say UFC has stumbled into the next great super fight. You don't want to say

stumbled because Dana had already announced before Saturday's fight that Jon Jones was getting the winner, right? They didn't stumble into it, but because Francis' performance was so otherworldly and next level, it just doubled and tripled down on what comes next, what that actually means.

Luke, so yes they stumbled into the next great super fight and it's not a forced connor one coming off of a defeat it's not a well if we can convince habib to come out of retirement this is your sexiest biggest potential division of heavyweight and it's your greatest fighter of all time in Jon Jones against your most dominant champion probably ever. I mean, this is central casting, Luke. This fight has to be friggin' next. So it was disappointing as all hell to see Dana go to that area. Now, why did Dana do that publicly?

Because he knows he's had very heated financial debates with Jon in the past and he wanted to challenge Jon's manhood, in my opinion, by basically being like, are you sure John really wants it? Maybe you should cut to 185, hoping that will force John to go, oh my God, I want this, of course I am, let's sign today for whatever money you're going to offer. Here's the deal, Dana. This fight is a potential monster for you.

Very little fights have that opportunity to truly, I mean truly, reach into the casual fan base across sports and pop culture. This is one of those. Ngannou has that Mike Tyson shtick all over him, right? And Jon Jones is the name that everybody knows as the greatest fighter. It sells its friggin' self. You cannot pay these guys regular money. I'm sorry. If John Jones says, it's about time I get paid, you can't come off and send him the same thing you would

have sent him for defending his title in a rematch with Dom Reyes. This is why I backed John in this debate. You can't do it, okay? Because here's the reality of this. If John goes in there and loses to Francis, Francis could double down on his potential stardom. I was talking about him having the potential to be a Rousey, Lesnar-esque draw. If he goes out there and knocks out John Jones, who's not 40, right? He's 33. I mean, are you kidding me? You pay John Jones what it takes to get him in there.

And again, if John Jones goes in there and wins, Luke, you now can say, here's the greatest of all time, still in his prime, two-division champion, and oh, by the way, you know what's next? Him against Stipe. You know what's next? Him against Francis again. You know what's next after that? Him against Francis a third time.

I mean, you have, like, you will have what UFC has always coveted but never quite got to. A viable star-filled heavyweight era. A like, look, there is no other level of catnip that you can sell the modern audience of people who don't watch cage fighting on the regular, but might be willing to drop 80 to 100 bucks for a big one, then two giant heavyweights and a contrast style of a defensive, thoughtful Jon Jones against an absolute frigging beast. So the fact that UFC is essentially leading off with the, well, you know, does he really want,

like the fact that they're leading off with if we can get the right price. You know what, Luke? Fuck the right price, okay? You know what the right price is? Fuck the right price. Like know what, Luke? Fuck the right price. Okay? You know what the right price is? Fuck the right price. Like, put the money in John's pocket. Okay?

I know he's had issues. I know he's been stripped of the title a million times. But UFC has personally gone out of their way to keep him going. Right? Remember when they moved that card from Vegas to LA last minute? Remember when his USADA thing kind of got cleared and he was back? I mean, they have done everything to keep this star in it you have a chance now to make a generational fight luke when joe rogan closed that pay-per-view broadcast on saturday and said you know what guys this has

the potential to be like the most important fight of all time like the biggest fight of all time like that's not freaking hyperbole like think of what this actually is on paper is it a grudge war on the level of conor habib okay no but nothing else is right this is the super bowl this is a fight you put in a legion stadium in las vegas or you put in jerry world in arlington texas in front of 80 to 90 000 people this is that freaking fight you, if John wants 25 million or whatever it's going to take, Luke, am I crazy? You give them that.

What are we doing here? Yeah. I, I, uh, it's like, so you, you ask yourself,

wow, what would it really take for the UFC to come up off their pockets? You know, what would it really take? And you began to, you know, make a list of fights that are you know not crazy ass ones like connor versus francis like ones you could actually make in a division

right and this one now that you have the reality that you have is like if this isn't number one on the list what is it two behind connor versus whoever the fuck i mean this is the fight to make this is easily the fight to make for anyone above 170 pounds. This is the biggest one you can make at this point. I think quite frankly, now that Stipe is lost, what is a bigger fight you could actually make between two different humans, between the light heavyweight and the heavyweight class? Obviously now I'd assign you back at middleweight, not in that conversation anymore either. Even if he was, I don't know if it'd be as big as this one this is nuts this is nuts and so you know that we're not even really in that part of the conversation i realize ufc is going to you know um play hard

ball here that's the only that's the only pitch they know but okay still there it just is weird that we're automatically back in this position let me just say something i think that needs to be said so that the not that you need to hear i, I think BC, you understand this quite well, and I think most of our audience does too, but we did have some new ones over the weekend. It bears repeating, the argument that Jon Jones, he wants to be overpaid now, or has been traditionally paid more than he's worth, or something like that, it is fiction. It is total and complete fiction. In fact, the only acceptable position to have around Jon Jones' pay and his demands is that this is a guy who's been taking a haircut on this for 10 years.

He has never been paid up to what he has pulled relative to any of his other sporting peers or combat sports peers. However, you want to financially make the arrangement. It's not even close. The UFC has been getting Jon Jones at a discount, and they want to keep that discount, and he no longer wishes for that to be the case, and he's picking this particular juncture to have this fight. Understand something, people.

The only debate about fighter pay, whether it's A-listers like Jon Jones or brand newcomers who are filling in for short notice contests, the only argument about fighter pay is not should it be more or whatever. It is just how you're going to fix a clearly one-sided situation. Do you want to go the Ali Act or do you not? Do you want to sue them or do you not? Do you want to have a trade association or a union or not? That's the only debate you're having now. The idea that Jon Jones is asking for too much.

Jon Jones should walk in there with 10 years of pay-per-view headlining and be like, you should be glad i'm not asking for this i'm not asking for what yo i'm asking for what you can do right now look they are lucky he doesn't do that he's we're not saying like get that that remember when mayweather the last few fights i mean he was on a level where the guarantee was getting up to like 40 or 50 and we he was regularly taking home like close to 100 we're not even saying that but luke you know this is a two and a half million pay-per-view buy i mean this has potential to be a three i mean this has potential to be stupid right i mean even if it underperformed and did two million buys like at that point shouldn't these guys be making the big canelo

the big pacquiao the big whatever money well you know what I mean, where you're coming in guaranteed you're going to make $20 million. I don't understand how, I mean, you can still underpay the rest, Luke, and keep this as the 1% rarefied error that somebody could hope to one day get to the level of, right? Like, these guys are at that level. This is like the level of Canelo calling his own shots and getting, no matter who the opponent, that amount of money. Only this and getting, no matter who the opponent, that amount of money. Only this isn't a no matter who the opponent. It's Francis Ngannou whose stock could not be any larger. And John has an opportunity to make this giant history. And there's no way

they could lose under any circumstance of how Ngannou Jones played out, Luke. It would spawn all of these other big things. Even if John got like Roy Jones prime level knocked out, right? Let's say like John got Tarver or Glenn Johnson, right? Just straight up destroyed. You know, we could still go back to 205. You know, we could still bang the drum for Adesanya Jones at 205. Like there is a lot you could do in any direction here. Let's not let this one slip away for some stupidity.

And I didn't necessarily get Luke. When Rogan, before making that comment about how big this fight could be, his knee-jerk reaction was also, oh, Derek Lewis has got to be the fight to make next, right? And even the guys around him on the booth were like, no, bro, Jon Jones. Like, what the hell are you talking about here? I mean, somebody slip a corporate pill in your coffee?

Like, what's going on here? So I love me some Derek Lewisis that rematch is going to happen eventual title or not title but um let's stop the presses and make this fight and since it's the time now to get people back in the arenas and the stadiums like this is your stadium fight ufc this is the one don't screw it up yeah and the other part here too too, is, you know, I think you raise great points, right? I mean, the urgency of the moment, I think, really is what is at issue here. But something to keep in mind is, like, dude, I don't know how Jon Jones is going to look at heavyweight. Gustafson went up to heavyweight and didn't look good.

DC, obviously, is totally different, looked really good, but faded it kind of down the stretch there a little bit in terms of what he was. But that's, you that's a complicated situation. I'm just saying, the guy to me lost Dominic Reyes at 205 pounds. Jesus Christ. So to me, it's like maybe he goes up to heavyweight and he's instantly competitive and he wins the belt. That's obviously a very plausible scenario, but I'm just saying, if John is going to lose, you'd much rather have him lose right away to Francis than like Derek Lewis or Curtis Blades or something else where those are good fighters but if you lose to Francis you still hold on to this situation where you're like okay but that

was a one-time thing we can do it again we can make some money blah blah blah it's just better for hedging it's not one payday or or one windfall the UFC. To your point, the web of giant paychecks for everybody, if everybody plays ball, is significant here and goes on, BC, for years. For years. It's not one fight. It's an open door to a whole universe of new fights, right? I mean, when you finally have three or four very marketable heavyweights and another three four after that of competitive ones like look they've never had this never it would be

like couture mere and nobody else right or sylvia it'd be like uh jds kane and nobody else and then when you had people injuries fell apart i mean this is they've never had a completely active and red hot heavyweight division and now they have a chance to have one at the pay-per-view level are you kidding me what are we missing here luke what the frick are we missing here i mean wild thing on line one dana okay make make it happen please all right so now um let's go to something different we've been discussing this fight for almost 35 40 minutes let's go to something different. We've been discussing this fight for almost 35, 40 minutes. Let's go to now the co-main event, BC. Topic number three.

All right, I'm just going to ask this plainly. I'm just going to give it to you straight here, BC. After his fourth consecutive defeat, should Tyron Woodley retire? He should be done with the UFC, is what I think. I think they should cut him and I think they will after Dana White basically said that in the post fight press conference I don't think this means though Luke that his career

has to be over, so let me explain this the three losses heading into this were so lifeless that it was really hard to like you know, is he physically too old, can he not take a punch anymore, does he not want to take a punch anymore? There were a lot of just weird, the, the, the computer wires didn't connect anymore. What I love about this loss for Tyron, even though it was reckless, right? And I mean, it was, it was not prime Tyron is that he went

out on his shield. He went in there and gave himself a chance to win this fight. He was just like, you know what? The last three were so I he's like, he can't even explain the last three losses, okay? So he just bit down and went in there guns blazing. First of all, I have a lot of respect for that because, you know, what happened to him and what can happen when you do that. But second of all, I think he still got something left. It just can't be at this super elite UFC level. If he wants to go to a different organization in which the matchmaking would allow for him, Luke, to linger and get some wins against lesser competition, I think he's still physically there enough where it's not completely irresponsible. It would be completely irresponsible, though, for him to keep trying to fight legitimate

elite UFC title contenders. And I think also when you consider the payday level he would demand as a former champion and his history of not being one-on-one with Dana here, his career is over with the UFC, and I think it should be, Luke. Yeah, I mean, this is all heading in the wrong direction. I went back and I said this on Friday night or Saturday night, BC, which was, you know, first you lose to Usman, you lose the title, but okay. Then you lose to Burns and you get taken down and you get cut.

So it's like, I mean, he got taken down obviously against Kamaru, but he got beat up a little bit against Burns. Then he got stopped via injury, but still he got stopped in his third loss against Colby. Now you get stopped in the first round and you got straight up finished by a fighter who is, obviously Luque is very good, but to that point had not really won at the championship

caliber level just yet in this division. You know, it's everything is heading in a direction that is, frankly, if he sticks around at this level, dangerous. It is going to be dangerous for him to keep fighting at this level and I don't think there's really any argument for that. What's interesting to me about this one though, what's kind of problematic, is because, I mean, I'm with you.

On Saturday night, I even read your tweet on the air, or I think I paraphrased it, which was, you know, he went out on his shield, Tyron Woodley did. I think that's absolutely correct. There's no denying that's true. But the problem is he can't seem to find the right gear. So I went back and I watched this fight just before today's show. You know, let me see maybe something new here, what I missed.

And I always like to go back a second time at least and watch without commentary. And what I saw here was, you know, you're right. Aggression from the start, coming out, trying to get takedowns, blah, blah, blah. Intensity from the word go. But there was no real strategy to it. I mean, here's why he got hit with that right hand, because he was throwing the right hand, or maybe a jab in front of it, over and over and over.

No change, no setup, no nothing. Just bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. And by the third one of those, that's when you saw Luque get off to the side and bring his own right and absolutely crush him, and that set up the and absolutely crush him. And that set up the beginning of the end. It was just, I appreciate that he was trying to manufacture the will to get out there and bring out the beast inside of him. And that is, dude, I don't envy the place that

Tyron Woodley is in right now. It's a tough place where you can't not only just win, you can't even be yourself out there. It'd be one thing if you lost and you felt like yourself you know you gave it a college try and it just didn't go your way that night you could live with that a little bit it must be hard losing and then also not being able to show who you are but what i'm trying to point out here bc is in that effort to muster the spirit for that fight he had to give away all the things that make him smart he had to give away all the things that make him smart. He had to give away all the things. Dude, Tyron Woodley is a,

Tyron Woodley, when he was doing those desks for the Fox gig, he was maybe my favorite analyst on the panel. Super smart. He knows he was not fighting in a particularly scientific way, man. He was just trying to flail against it. And to me, that just signals something a little bit, perhaps, perhaps, I don't know, but it feels a little desperate, BC.

I think that's what I'm saying. And for that reason, I worry about still continuing on. It felt very desperate. Luke, his mojo is gone. We talked about this in the mini resume review, that something happened between the till fight and the first loss there where the computer wiring just came apart and never got put back together he can't figure out the confidence level the everything

luke right it's like like again i'm gonna give him so much credit for just like being like i've got one thing left right and it's whatever's left of my athleticism and the fact that i've got a big right hand and i'm just gonna throw it and see what happens. But yeah, it cannot be against elite competition. So if he wants to go out with a win and do it on his own terms and can do that in a secondary organization, that's fine. But you can't put together the pieces anymore. Humpty Dumpty's on the ground, right? Like whatever it took for him to be at that super freaking elite level

when he was so efficient and so smart in game planning, that's never going to be at that super freaking elite level when he was a he was so efficient and so smart in game planning that's never going to be there again it seems so uh what a i mean look what a insane decline i mean it's just like what have you seen something like that in boxing where the guy's champion and then not only loses it just can't like but four fights later they don't even look like themselves no because it's always due to chin or age when somebody just kind of falls off the cliff right it's just like oh man that guy could have been something he just can't take a freaking punch or you know age caught up with him he just doesn't have the speed anymore or the elusiveness you know yes age did play a role but but the difference between who he was in the Till fight and who he was in the Usman fight when it's less than one calendar year apart, it's mind-boggling, Luke.

Really. I've never seen that extreme of a disconnect where your fighting spirit is gone. Your ability to figure out your way out of trouble and make adaptions is gone. I mean, in the fact that he had to, I mean, I don't know if you listened to the aerial interview ahead of this fight, Luke, but he had to really get himself back into like a dark, angry,

aggressive place, a place where he basically said he hadn't been in, in many a year back to like his youth of, of, you know, being kind of in gangs and being involved almost in organized crime. Like he had to get himself back to that mindset just to produce what we saw in there which was a guy brave enough to just throw himself into oncoming traffic um luke that doesn't fall apart overnight typically

right and then in the usman fight that was gone it's just it's wild the only thing i can point to bc is just age because he's going to be 39 here in a couple of weeks and for a welterweight that is just that's I can't overstate at 39 again 39 steep a you know it's a little bit old but not reason enough to think he couldn't get a title shot again for crying out loud 39 at welterweight that is man that is a really really really hard place to be and that's even for an a-plus athlete like Tyron Woodley. I mean, dude, the fact that he won the belt at, what, 36? You know, and welterweight is kind of a miracle.

It's kind of a... I mean, I don't think people really give that enough. When's the next time you're going to see someone, not be a 36-year-old champion, BC, capture the belt at 36? Isn't he 38 now he won the belt five years ago so no no 34 then i mean i'm not saying you know it was still late ish but he wasn't 36 i think he was still maybe even 30 right no sorry he was 34 but he was still older than the

33 or 34 that lawler was yes you did wrong me live on air. I think that's right. Even then though, he is, in terms of how old a fighter was by the time they captured the Walter White title, he is the oldest in UFC history. I mean, the fact that you can do that and be that is amazing that he had that run even after that, where he was beating Till and blah, blah, blah, and Maya and everything. It's pretty remarkable, but it just seemed like that was the most he was going to be able to get out of it, given how the clock kind of ticking um behind him with the age that's the only thing i can think of so we'll see what happens next um all right bc luke a luke luke a luke vincente yeah vincente luke what do you want to say about him i want to say can we not just like look over the fact that he's won 13 of 15 9 out of of his last 10, 11 out of his last 30.

I mean, all these wild stats, Luke. He's not changing his calling card of what we liked about him originally, that he kind of runs right at you with intelligent. You know, he's got good technique. He's an intelligent striker, but he does fight a hair reckless for the elite level. It really hasn't caught up to him a lot lately do you think he can keep up this style and this mindset now that he's going to really start to

get the killers in front of him i don't know i thought that with this win it's probably going to put him inside the what top seven or eight more or less where woodley was occupying something like that which means man you, you've got Wonderboy sitting at four, or I think five, excuse me, five. So he's right outside that window where things begin to get super serious. I don't think he can fight any other way. I mean, he can polish it, he can clean it up, he can make it smarter, he can make it more defensively responsible, but that kind of way in which he fights, it's a bit of a blood and gut style. I just feel like is who he's

always going to be but as you saw in this fight he can take a shot he likes fighting that way it's dangerous to accommodate him in those ranges he has good fantastic finishing ability he's a handful dude i don't know how he's gonna do against those top five but uh this kind of a style is going to make him a fan favorite. I can guarantee you that if it hasn't already. Damn right. Yeah. All right. So we were wondering about this. Topic number four, BC.

We didn't know what was going to happen with this one in terms of how it was going to be received, but Sean O'Malley kind of gets like, what, two, almost three finishes in one fight, something like that. But either way, dominates, stands out finishes thomas almeida and does so with augusto okay bc the question for you is was this win good enough convincing enough thorough enough to undo some of the damage he had caused by the way he handled the loss to chito vera yes yes it was and it's not it's not without uh you know the possibility of handled the loss to Chito Vera. Yes, yes it was. And it's not without the possibility of criticism,

the fact that he did leave Almedia off the hook on the first walk-off attempt. And I know, Luke, he talked a lot in the post-fight interview about almost pulling a BC and declaring himself an artist who's looking to come out here and get these clean, special wins. You could criticize him and say he's too focused on that luke but when you have that freaking thorough of a dismantling of a guy who showed a great chin you got to give thomas almeida this i mean he took some some bombs and and he's on that losing skid and this was a somewhat desperate opportunity for him and it seemed like after he got dropped in

round one he got better and tougher and kept coming more um i'm not going to sit here and lean on the potential for criticism of the walk-off thing because every other thing that sean o'malley did on his feet was brilliant luke his combination of speed technique and creativity is special and i'm glad we're past that chito vera loss where you know he leaned into the injury where i think a lot of us thought it was a little bit more than an injury. Chidovera just sort of out-toughed him on that night. But this makes me feel like O'Malley is back. He's going to be a weirdo. He's going to do it his way. He's going to try to look spectacular in the big moments. Will it cost him? We'll have to see. It didn't cost him though on Saturday night. So let's not hear that side of it. Yeah. This is the part that I don't think that

not that it got worse or a lot better it got a little bit better i would say did he answer any questions you had around his durability hard to say because it was a largely one-sided fight luke right but uh you know almeida did focus on the legs a lot and did land some pretty serious leg kicks. And it was good to see O'Malley acknowledge that in the post-fight interview and even during the fight that, oh, the game plan has just kicked me.

Well, I'm glad. Look, to me, this was O'Malley kind of shutting up a lot of the demons that were chasing him after the Vera loss. So did I love the way he dealt withgan anderson thing when he was in the aerial interview when he was driving in the car and he was like yeah it doesn't matter anymore she's not my co-worker anyway maybe that wasn't the best response luke but what we saw in the cage from this guy right do i love his hair no but what we saw in the cage he's brilliant in there um

he wasn't taken down. We didn't really see him in any potential areas where he could have showed us any rust or any issues, Luke. But when he's able to be in control on the feet like this, he's going to be a problem for a lot of people. I think the more that he continues to step back up in class, we're going to find out just how great any potential deficiencies in his game actually are.

Dude, when he's at range and he's dancing and he's fainting and he's moving and he's setting up, you're not going to beat him if you allow him to do that. He is way too good. He is way too accurate. His timing is otherworldly, delayed, staggered, the whole nine yards. And Almeida just let him do it. Almeida had no real way to take that element of the fight away from him. And he paid for it once, twice, thrice, with that third one being rather thunderous.

That's a hard guy to beat if he's got room to move. And he's going to force you to give him room. And as a consequence, I mean, he was a perfect strategy, right? It was far enough away where any kind of takedown wasn't really materializing he could kick and not get too torn up and then he could shuffle his way on the inside till you let his hands do some of the rest of the work and then go back to that rinse and repeat at changing angles changing stances giving different looks thomas almeida was totally overwhelmed, really had no answer. The question is, did you think the fight

should have been stopped in the first or second iteration where O'Malley did the, I've already won, walk-off thing? I didn't think the first time. It could have been stopped the second. I don't think it was egregious that it wasn't, but obviously when O'Malley finishes it off with that insanely violent of a leaping right hand to the ground, then it's sort of,

it's sort of add some negativity on top of that where you're like, well, maybe it should have been because of how, I mean, that was a sick shot, Luke. No, you know, look, it's, it's would you have liked him to just dive down and finish it and not leave these, these questions open? Yes. I was okay with the refereeing in it, and I'm also okay with O'Malley wanting to just be a wild showman because I think unlike some of these other showmen I tend to criticize, he does lead that showmanship into trying to finish these guys off.

Yeah, he walked away a little too early, but I don't think it's getting in the way of his game per se. Do you think either of those should have been stopped? I was more or less fine with it. Yeah, I mean in real time it's like jesus do we have to let it get to a situation where almeida got blitzed with that right hand and it was a disaster like on the one hand you want to avoid that on the other hand i went and i looked but at both of those again and i was like dude he was kind of there with it he was making assessments about how to handle the situation he was hurt he was really hurt in with it. He was making assessments about how to handle the situation.

He was hurt. He was really hurt in both cases. But he wasn't meeting the criteria of a stoppage. He just wasn't. And so, you know, it's unfortunate he had to get put out the way he did. But it's kind of the game we're in. I think there's better ways to pick fights with referees than this one. So I guess I just, I'm not happy that he got knocked out that

way, BC, but it's kind of the right outcome. Let me ask you about Almeida. Not looking great since his return. You know what I picked up on, BC? Okay. First of all, he still gets hit a lot, but maybe not as much as he once did. It's not quite as bad as before, but he didn't really throw a lot. He just took what he did and did less of it to avoid damage but it just makes him less of an offensive threat he hasn't transitioned to a new form of offense that he can consistently apply it's it's no place to be i rarely ever say this when a guy is in their prime but i think he could actually benefit from being caught lu Luke, and then having

to go somewhere else and be one of those situations where you kind of just go down a AAA and figure out maybe some of the holes in your game, you know what I mean? Whether it's a new trainer, whether it's a commitment to defense or something, and then come back. I think he has the potential to be back and

compete at this level again, but right now he's going in the wrong direction so if they cut him luke with what four straight losses five in the last six uh you know it's am i frozen luke no you're uh i think we're both frozen on the on but not on the thing that they're sending not the signal they're sending to the viewers just on all right great just keep going then yeah uh all right so topic number five bc if we can get to it not not a whole lot to set this one up the card had some you know decent fights it had some duds um along the way who was a standout for you from the card well i you know you love

yourself some miranda maverick and all things considered considering jillian roberts uh robertson's, you know, history in this division and experience. It was a pretty damn good three-round unanimous decision win, Luke. I may have to be in on the Miranda Maverick train. All right. I don't know if our show is on the air, but I'm going to pretend like it is. Does that work for you?

Yeah, that works great. I was going to sayanda maverick she had to um take drastic steps in that second round to avoid getting overwhelmed by jillian robertson you know what i mean she had to she had to really work through very bad grappling situations but she did and i thought that was pretty impressive um luke when each has texted us and said, we are fine, the people are still watching. Yeah, yeah, I saw, I saw. Alonzo Mennefield, now he fought a dude

named Fabio Chirant, I guess is his name, who did not put up the sturdiest challenge I've ever seen, but he becomes Mennefield, just the fourth person in UFC history to score a Von Flu or Von Peru choke. So, oh, and Abu Bakr, Nurmagomedov look really good against Jared Gordon as well. He did, Luke. And look, can we give Jamie Malarkey this credit?

I couldn't have picked him out of the lineup before this night, Luke, but Kamal Worthy comes in there to get a highlight reel knockout, and Malarkey gave him one, Luke. That's two KO losses in a row for Kamal Worthy. But for Jamie Malarkey, who said he trained with Volkanovski ahead of this fight, Luke, and do you think that, you know, he put a two-fight losing skid behind him. Did you see anything positive there?

It was a really nice shot that he landed. He got right to work. I don't know how good he is. It remains very much to be seen. Very nice win, very nice way to start off the card, but as you mentioned, the wider resume has a couple of some concerning things on it.

So I guess we'll see. I just... How about the... Yeah, go ahead. Keep talking. I was just going to say, every time I hear his last name, I just think about Joe Biden. Oh, that's malarkey.

Like the oldest boomer shit you ever heard in your life. I just can't get it out of my head. Luke, were you as glued to the TV for the Slavic versus baltic super bowl that was uh my lithuanian brethren modestus bukalkis i think kind of getting robbed by split decision on the cards against uh mike sheshevsky here nihao yeah well listen i did not realize that bukalkis was going to be fighting the head coach of duke basketball and i thought the head coach

of duke basketball really made a strong account of himself, BC. Okay. It was a fun fight. I thought my guy could have pulled it out there in the green and yellow war Lithuania. Let's go, Rose. Let's bring it back for our country, right? Luke, in the Mount Rushmore of your favorite Lithuanians,

would you have Rose, Thug Rose, Arvitas Sabonis, me, and like Modestus Bukalakis? Or are you big like Sarunas Marshalonis, Yasikevicius? Zydrunas Savickas, I think that's how you say it, is like the world's greatest Lithuanian strongman. Sorry. He's one of the best strongmen ever and is Lithuanian. So you have to go with Zydrunas. Thank you. Thank you.

Shout out to all my fellow Lits. We get lit. I don't know if you call us Lits, but we do get lit. So shout out to everyone in the green and yellow out there. Yes, Luke. All right. Luke, I'm all about Baltic. I'm Baltic by nature, not because i hate you luke

okay very good all right so it's time for when you get to ask us questions it's time for dms from dogs all right so every sunday we put up a post on instagram we ask for your questions and then the producers of the show pick a few for us to answer uh by the way also want to remind everyone uh no never mind sorry that's it okay let's go to tyson underscore calm are the improvements that francis and ganu made between the first and second steepay fights some of the most vast we have ever seen from a fighter we see the answers quite obviously yes yeah uh let's try to make a comparison luke what i mean it wasn't one fight right because he did have five fights between the you know the last fight to now and four of those were early knockouts but can you remember a time where somebody

you know has already had their elite close-up went back and retooled and at least look to be in one night a completely different fighter nothing stands out nothing stands out i've seen guys take breaks and then come back and look better a little bit you know or not not much worse um most of the time dude we end up talking about it on this show, like in the case of a, a little bit Vicente Luque, but the classic one for us is always Marvin Vittori, where it kind of just sneaks up on you, where there's just one fight and you're like, wow, man, this guy really, I didn't even notice this from his fight in August,

then his fight in January before, I didn't realize he had come this way this is like no this is very unusual by the way it's not here's the thing that's why this quote that my answer and this question is a little bit misleading BC is because the other fights were also like nine fucking seconds you know what I mean maybe we would have seen this more gradually if the fights win a couple of rounds, but they fucking don't. They barely go even a minute. They barely go 30 seconds, BC. So you just don't get a real accurate assessment. It's like trying to track your weight. You step on the scale for five seconds.

Oh, you weigh 10 pounds? Well, not even five seconds. Five nanoseconds. It's just not an accurate reading. That was a much more accurate reading because Stipe was trying to operate at a very low pace. He didn't come out like Rosenstreich. So you got to see a little bit more of it. Plus Stipe Stipe.

So you got that. Are you having a bad time over there? What's going on? No, stuff's just falling. It's all right, Luke. All right. Let's go to gregnorius.co.jp. I guess he's in Japan.

Do you think Stipe made a mistake weighing what he did for this fight? I do not. I think Stipe identified from the first fight what was actually his greatest skill. I mean, you could say the wrestling, but I think it really was the speed. In that first round, Luke, where he did get touched up in the first fight, his ability to step aside on those right hands and counter quick was the reason that Francis got tired and got hurt a little bit and and steepay although he nearly got stopped in the closing minute of that first round when of the first fight when he kind

of came in a little bit too recklessly um i think speed was was the deal there and i think that he's also was figuring out late in his career now how to eat better, how to, you know, he said he's using supplements, you know, a more aggressive way for the first time. So I really was all for that look because what would have happened if he bulked up? He would have been slower and he still wouldn't have been bigger than Francis. So you have to kind of lean into what is going to be your path to victory. You can bulk up if you're steep, like you can get around 240 or so. First of all,

you know, you got Francis still sitting at barely. He can barely make heavyweight, right? Was it 263 or something like that? I mean, he's right at the edge. You can bulk up to like a tight end Gronkowski size,

but you're not Gronkowski. You're not going to move like him. This ain't football anyway. So like whatever bulk you get, you're still not going to be as strong as Francis and now you're going to be slower like I don't know exactly what the right way it is BC that you know I'll let him as coaches determine what the exact one is but if they were thinking what's one advantage we could have over him if they thought speed they were right that is one advantage they

could keep it wasn't enough in the end but that doesn't mean that that he came in at the wrong size i actually think he came in at probably you know the perfect size bc i don't know a perfectly good size yes that is not the reason why he lost he lost because he was just overwhelmed by a physical force who now is putting brains behind the brawn and it's a formidable formidable union and again like i i feel like it needs to be said again, even if Francis hadn't shown any of this improvement, Luke, fighting that man six rounds, seven rounds, you were eventually going to get caught. It's just the way it is.

That guy's a special destructive force. Yeah, it's like I said this before too, BC. It's like, well, here was the one thing about the first fight that no one not no one talked about but it seemed more relevant to me than I was watching around me which was okay I mean Francis took a record beating there to the point where I was like you should the towel have been thrown by his corner or how damaging is this going to be and we all have had that debate but the one thing that also stands out about him going five rounds like dude that was stipe operating with a significant

in retrospect a significant lead on him in terms of mma technical know-how and he still after 25 minutes could not put francis away if If Francis just got moderately better, that would have a huge impact on the fight. This is what I mean. It's like, did Francis look good? Yes. But was he doing anything extraordinary in terms of what you see in any other weight class?

No, not necessarily. It was just more of the best practices put to application. It's just that when you marry that with who he is, good luck, motherfuckers. Y'all are going to need it. Y'all are going to need it. It's a bad day to be heavyweight. Luke, how high up do you think Francis belongs

in the pound-for-pound top 10? I've never given it thought, so I don't know. Where are you going to put him? I'm going to have to give that thought today for CBS Sports. So I had him in the honorable mention area heading in, right? So about 12, 13, wherever you want to put that. You know, I had Stipe right around, I think, five or six. I wonder.

I mean, you know, he could be top five here, Luke. You know, like that's not crazy. I'm not going to put him above Jones. I'm not going to put him above Kamaru. But you could have him four or five right now. You really could. Because that type of power and athleticism is the perfect debate for the whole idea of regardless of weight. Meaning if everybody was in the same mythical weight class with the same strengths and weaknesses they have in their own weight class in this mythical one.

With Francis closing some of these holes, Luke, I mean, you could imagine him knocking out everyone if they were the same size as him. For years. For years. At Marcus Vamos E. Would it be Jon Jones' best bet to fight Francis in a bigger cage and not in the Apex? Yes, and I'm glad that this is the one thing we really didn't get into, the whole idea of how much did that Nganou performance change your belief

that Jon can beat him? And Luke, anyone who follows this show or follows my work knows that I'm such a giant, massive believer that when Jon Jones moves up to heavyweight, which will be next, that his speed, defense, and length will give him an insane advantage over typically slower, clunkier heavyweights. And I even said to you on many occasions, Luke, until I see him lose, I'm not going to believe that he's going to lose against these heavyweights. Yes, he could get caught, but I'm not going to believe it until I see it.

Luke, I now can believe it. I now would favor Francis Ngannou over him, even like a minus 200, minus 250 level here. And I think Jon Jones would need a bigger cage. I think when they make this fight, Luke, he is going to have to come out and put on a boxing performance that that is just immaculate it's not impossible but it's got to be immaculate right you know what i mean because he's got great length we can't forget that john's got not heavyweight reach he's got like he's got a stupid reach right yes he's got an 84 inch reach the only other person even close to that was seven foot or semi

shilt so you consider that with his speed his in boxing's not even like his greatest skill but it's kind of become the thing he's leaned into think of the head movement and stuff he showed against reyes and tiago santos just how brilliant john is he's gonna have to do that but it's going to have to be toe in that line and look that's going to be really fun theater like that again that fight is so great on so many levels but yes to the spirit of this question you freaking need that bigger cage you best believe it Luke yeah I mean it's actually you know we're talking about with Stipe it's going to be interesting where John ends up with weight you know right now we he is uh reportedly by his own admission I said I should say somewhere around the 240 mark, give or take, depending

on the day, he might want to bulk and then lean a little bit right before because again, you're not going to muscle fucking Big Francis. You can out-technique him in certain positions, yes. But you're definitely not going to be the physical beast of the two. That's not going to happen.

And then, being a little bit lighter might give you some... If you happen and then um you know being a little bit lighter might give you some because if you have a more cage and you're a little bit lighter you're gonna have room to maneuver didn't help steep if you're charging into francis and he's check hooking you but uh in other circumstances i can imagine you know that's what johnson was doing johnson that's what jones was doing to reyes a little bit stick and move early and then poured on kind of late so i think there would be that kind of perspective uh pop quiz bc john jones has an 84 inch reach what is francis's reach 79 83 83 right i'm telling you this idea that like to me and i was i was debating this before this fight was even made

i made it on this show before dude i don't know what's going to happen with john heavyweight he might go up there and then dominate but to me the idea that that is inevitable i don't buy that i don't buy that inevitable anymore even for me who is a giant believer in not only what john does but luke the fact that the gap between 205 and heavy in terms of speed and elusiveness i still think it's large it's very large right look at look at who the guy who dc was in his heavyweight prime right i mean the speed is just is just insane but uh luke do you think john needs to be uh more active with his with his kicking game and i'm not talking about calf kicks i mean the threat of head kicks we don't see a ton of threat of john jones head kicks that could be a finish for me basically it finished Cormier, basically. Very true, very true.

But it doesn't... That threat isn't there a ton, right? I mean, he'll teep kick you? Teep? Teek? He tends to not do that. He has what I call single shot high variance. So what he does is if he goes left, then the next one is right.

If he goes high, then the next one is low. If the next one's low, the next one's mid. And it's side to side, up and down, all over the place. And so with that, you tend to need to be on your feet a little bit more. It's not a super kicking intensive game. So you're right. There might be a little bit more of that.

But, dude, how about Big Francis throwing a head kick? I mean, his dexterity was kind of shocking in this fight. It's crazy. And he's throwing leg kicks. He's jabbing to the body. I mean, look, dude, when, when we already know that Francis has two things that are that,

like, if you're fighting him, you just wish he didn't have a chin and a willingness to fight through stuff. I mean, again, that first fight was steep. Hey,

he had nothing left yet. He's still to start rounds four and five, the guy trying to come forward, right? He's got those two foundational aspects. Luke, it's going to start rounds four and five the guy trying to come forward right he's got those two foundational aspects luke it's gonna be real it's gonna be really freaking hard to beat him i mean really hard really really hard all right at like someone gives a fuck it's not quite how they spell it but that's what they mean true or false bc jones versus francis sells over 1.5 million pay-per-views.

That seems like a very true to me. Very true. Very true. It's got stupid potential. Okay. It's got, you know, I tease, could it get three earlier? I think if you marketed it right, and when you say marketing it right, Luke, I don't think you need like crazy friction between the two of you,

but you need a, now that COVID is turning you but you need a now that kovat is uh is turning around you need a a world tour a world tour of bringing these guys on camera face to face and showing the size and and you know like you know you need that if you do that if you commit the money to the kind of marketing tour you could you could really go into some you could break the record you look you could i'm not as high as you on that i don't think that this tops i don't think this tops two but i think it can top one five and i think it can be one of the biggest fights in those divisions histories i mean when have we have we not seen that commitment i know kovat's a different story but have we not seen that commitment to a press tour since like McGregor, Aldo, or maybe the second Diaz fight where it's like all, all, you know,

all hands on deck. We'll spend whatever it takes to promote this, this thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a question of like, to what does that meaningfully add? It certainly creates the kind of B roll you need for like preview shows and stuff like that. And obviously it's create some fun memories of connor's out there you know dishing out all the insults or whatever but i don't know how i i'll just say this if they if they both did

the heavy lifting in terms of going on shows and they did a press small press tour for it and then the ufc really pumped it up and they put it right in the calendar there are ways this could I think exceed a lot of people's expectations I still think two would be a stretch but over one five I do believe is absolutely doable all right at Liam Roe and I don't know what the fuck that means AJ McKee against the current top 10 145ers in the ufcbc how does he do i i still don't know luke i still don't know and i think that's the the really cool part about the ending of this bellator featherweight tournament is i say this in every preview show we did and by the way please go to uh youtube and check out on the showtime sports channel the road

to bellator's uh featherweight semifinals that you and I shot that is maybe not getting the love it deserves for the amount of effort. Tearing up the internet right now. Is a great show, just a spectacular show. I'll say this, Luke. The key thing I keep saying is I don't know how good McKee is. I don't think Pitbull does. I don't think McKee does.

And I really mean that, Luke. I mean, like, did you expect him to be Caldwell that quickly and easily? Hell no, right? He's run through this tournament. So I think he has the tools to be competitive against anyone at this weight class in the world. But I really can't confidently say I know that he can go in there against Max Holloway and have a chance to beat him. I don't know yet, Luke.

I don't. Yeah. I mean, here's his top ten. Let's just go through these. Movzar Evloev. Maybe he's still unde undefeated but still a bit of an unknown Edson Barboza it's a tough fight Bryce Mitchell another tough fight Shane Burgos tough fight Sadiq Yusuf tough fight Arnold Allen Jeremy Stevens Stevens might be a little more doable for him. Dan Ige. Josh Emmett. Calvin Cater. Chan Sung Jung.

Yair Rodriguez. Zabit Meghamed Sharapov. Brian Ortega-Maxoff. I mean, those are all fucking tough fights, dude. Like, let's see how he does against either Pitbull or Emmanuel Sanchez, who obviously will fight in the main event this weekend, and he gets the winner of that. That will tell us a lot, but, you know,

I think he can win in that space. I absolutely believe that. But where he sorts out, hard to know. Really hard to know. All right, BC, time to get weird. And that doesn't mean to pull out your Johnson, but it does mean to continue the show. All right, Luke, you know what we do every Monday.

We scour the globe for the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, and in between in combat sports and beyond. This one's called, Have You Seen This Shit? Oh, God. All right, Luke, UFC 260 was the big time thing going on this weekend. Did you see the reaction in Francis Ngannou's hometown of Batty, Cameroon? They apparently have cameras there, Luke, and this was the scene. Maniche, let's go to the videotape.

Very beautiful tent set up here for the locals, Luke. Their local boy makes good. He knocks out Stipe. Look at this, Luke. Not yet, not yet. He's winning. Stipe hasn't run their local boy makes good. He knocks out steep pay. Look at this Luke. Not yet. Not yet. He's winning.

The steeper hasn't run into the left hook yet. He's about to, by the way, I'm not clowning at all. I love to see this stuff. I love to see this Luke. I don't care what country they're from, what part of the world, whenever you see something like this, dude, it is always amazing. I mean, do you remember growing up? I don't know. I mean, you moved around, you didn't have like a ton of civic pride where you're from but whenever like local boy makes good or even

like the guy who never joined the military versus the guy who did okay you even like the guy who got his city tattooed on his forearm okay sure no yeah but you you're you're different like even if it's like the eighth grade little league baseball team wins the district championship, I mean, there'd be parades in my time. People cared about this stuff. I love seeing this stuff, Luke. Okay? I mean, seriously, Africa's taking over right now. When you have three dominant champions,

this is a great time to be alive for UFC global expansion, Luke. There's that one colonist right there, the white guy on the left. What's he doing there? See him right there? Yeah, he must be like the uh no i don't know i don't know luke i mean white people can live in cameroon i don't know what you're trying to i'm sure they can but not a lot of them do all right hey luke let's go into the apex uh ufc do they i don't know that might be true hey is this uh the son of tom hanks

is that chet hanks guy that everyone hates uh No, it's Machine Gun Kelly. I think, Luke, UFC featured a celebrity seating area in the Apex for the first time, and did this ever make you less want to be a celebrity, Luke? Yeah, it's like, everything about this clip is

why people hate celebrities. I mean, they love them, but they also hate them. It's very douchey. So why is, that's Paul Anka, by the way, in the back. Why is Paul Anka there? A. B. This just looks like a shit show of like... I mean, that's Travis Barker from Blink-182.

I mean, I get that there's some name value there, Luke, but this just... Well, let's back up a step here. Travis Barker, I'll exclude from this conversation because when I was at SiriusXM, we used to do post-fight shows and he would come on and be a guest he's a real yeah he's a real fight fan and has been a real fight fan by the way on the boxing side too for a long time so if he's dating courtney kardashian and she's just there because she wants to be on camera

whatever he's a real fight fan i'm actually glad that he's there i don't like his music but he's cool and then on the back right corner is that the heisman trophy winner luke yeah joe burrow in the back and by the way if you look at his table it's only like gatorade and water i'm like stop fucking lying joe burrow you've been boozing in the off season oh yeah oh there's a there's a cocaine and hgh room in the back you better believe that luke okay so here's machine gun kelly who understand the reality about machine gun kelly he got and i don't even dude eminem is only producing the equivalent of like christian rap these days it's the most dad-centric shitty awful rap imaginable and yet he bodied machine gun ke Kelly so badly that the guy has, I don't know if he's rapped since, and all he does now is put out these teeny bopper,

you know, like pop punk bullshit stuff. And he's making a killing doing that. God bless him, it's America. He got badgered out of rap. And yet, and yet, dude, Megan Fox continues to make regrettable decisions. I don't understand life. Yeah, that's the Hollywood life.

Our producer, Manish, jumping in to say, you know, big facts. Damn right. All right, Luke. Speaking of people you don't want to see on your screen. Anyway, Chet Hanks was there. Let's continue it, Luke. Jake Paul and Ben Askren had their big press conference face-off ahead of their April 17th boxing match.

Let's watch this shit. I believe we have audio. What are they between here? Glass. You know, the athlete that Ben is, he must look at Jake Paul and be like, Jesus. Um, Luke? Oh, what is this? I mean... I know that it's a little bit of a bit for me to defend this fight. And look, I am interested in seeing what happens,

but this does not make me care about it. This is cringy as all kinds of shit, Luke, okay? Yeah. I don't know whether I want to watch it just to see how it looks or just to skip it because I know if I watch it just to see how it looks, I'm still going to hate it. You know? I mean,

do you see the announced team? It's like Pete Davidson from SNL and Mike Coppinger. So yeah, there you go. All right. Great. I just don't do there. I said this on Twitter.

It's like, dude, I do. I think this is going to sell a hundred percent. It's going to sell stupid amounts of, of buys and it's going to make a lot of money. I'm not denying that there's a massive interest in it but with all the fucking money that they're spending dude they they bid triple

what almost a double what most people were trying to pay just for teo female you got all these other pieces of money down the way i would be very surprised if they make a fucking dime on this given how expensive it is shout out to uh our boy ray flo ray flores and uh al bernstein also on this broadcast as well luke so it should be interesting there have you downloaded triller on your phone never heard of it okay luke let's go over to his own boxing our co-main event from gibraltar this saturday do you see ted cheeseman put it on James Metcalf. Here's the ending of their brawl, Luke. Wow. Oh. This was a wild fight.

The Big Cheese himself is back with a bang, Luke. The Big Queso. Look at this white guy. Yeah. Wow. I'll tell you, those UK boys, they can scrap. They're good. They are.

They all have low ceilings, Luke, in terms of their international ability to win titles and travel and go to the U.S., but when they fight each other, it's a banger. Look at this. Yes. Yeah, it's nice. All right, Luke. I don't know what... This is in Poland. It's called FEN 33. It was Lotus Fight

Night 5. Luke, this is Katarina Shakalova against Isabella Badurek can you just describe what's going on here luke i mean this is some wild shit luke this is uh these are two well-matched like purple belts i want to see the beginning of that scramble again i want to see the beginning of that scramble again and she just kind see the beginning of that scramble again. And she just kind of suplexes here. I mean, that's just the craziest shit.

This is like WWE style. Hold on, let me see here. So she rolls over with the head, turns, takes the back, single, Iranian. Yeah, it's like a standing Iranian almost. That's weird. These ladies are letting it go, Luke. All right? I enjoyed it. Okay, let's like a standing Iranian almost. That's weird. These ladies are letting it go, Luke. All right. I enjoyed it.

Okay, let's keep it going. What do you think about their tattoos? Yikes. Yikes, Luke. Okay. This is, by the way, you know it's high level MMA, BC, when they have temporary tattoos, like Golden Palace and shit. When they still have that, you know, like Golden Palace and shit, when they still have that, you know you're in the prime of your career.

Oh, yeah. Boxing from Tokyo on Wednesday, Luke. Check out super featherweight Yoji Saito flattening Takahiro Akai. Yes. Look at these Japanese studs. Oh. Dude, people sleep on Japanese boxing. Japanese boxing is legit. And MMA, Luke.

Like Risen, people are never talking about that enough. It's great. I know. And then when they do, they make karate chops with their hands and shit, and people don't like it. Not fair. Not fair. But check out the tan, too, on old Yoji Saito.

That was a hell of a left hook. What's his haircut there? Is he appropriating that haircut from somewhere else that's a sexayama level 10 right there oh good stuff all right luke do you know you know regional mma right anything can happen let's do that luke this brings new meaning to punching your lights out check out this anything can happen in the regional scene luke you got to be careful do you think i dude i have literally it was a former promotion the guy who ran it uh died a few years ago we had a falling out i i um i regret that we never were able to mend fences before he passed but he

put together a show called uwc ultimate warrior challenge there's two of them there's one in the uk there's one in the UK. There's one here. This is the American-based one. I'm not sure if he ever had the rights to that name, but whatever. And I remember we were calling, I think it was like a Mike Easton fight, who briefly fought in the UFC, and the lights went out. This was at the George Mason Patriot Arena.

Now it's like the Eagle Bank Arena or whatever. But this place holds like 10,000, 12,000. And the whole lights in the place went tits up for a good solid while while we were broadcasting. And we had to wait until they fixed it. The lights going out is a key part of regional MMA. Oh, yeah. Luke, so are insane head kicks.

Let's keep the train moving here on the regional scene. Oh. Oh, my God. I think they had lighting issues at this fight too luke what are their shadows right there wow that was i mean he did the convulsing bit on that one oh face first luke i mean he probably got paid shadow realm dude he probably got paid 50 bucks for this and i don't think he saw that kick coming because look at the inconsistency of the lighting there luke i mean this is ridiculous oh he ducked the punch and then just bop oh my god dude that is that's a terrible way to go man well let's check in with grandma luke you know there should probably

be an age limit on downhill scooter racing but uh these ladies don't care, Luke. Oh, these old broads are about to fucking buy the farm here. Here we go. Which one do you think is going to win? Dude, who put them up to this? Are you shitting me? Dude, fuck you. That's elder abuse. That's elder abuse.

They seemed willing, though, Luke. They did seem willing, okay? Dude, they seem willing when Nigerian princes ask for their social security number. It's a great point. Yes, yes. They just gave it to us. Yeah, because you fucking tricked them. Oh, God.

Wow. Luke, it wouldn't be an old person's house in Florida if they didn't have a no solicitation sign out front, right? You know, that's great. All right. Let's go over to see some flying shit. Luke, you love soccer. Checked out Victor Lindenloff going full Masvidal on this Askren cat. Look at this.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, for a set piece. Wow. Do you see them going back and forth on Twitter? No. You didn't see Aspen and Masvidal getting after it? Yeah. I thought you meant Victor Lindenloff.

No, I don't really watch this. This is nubs. I don't know which teams these are. I can't quite tell. That was only the second best flying kick of the week. Let's go into this guy's living room and see what happens next. Finish him. Oh! Oh, yeah, right? Bow! kick of the week let's go into this guy's living room and see what happens next finish him oh yeah right wow damn somebody picked that kid out of the carpet already oh wow yeah they're gonna

have that kid's teeth in the bottom of her foot all right well luke this is why you have to tell the kids no volleyball in the house i know you going to be very strict on your daughter when she grows up because this can happen, Luke. All right. It's a set piece. Yep. Oh, God. That's just not right.

That's just ridiculous. All right. Hey, Luke, I think we found Joey Chestnut's future rival, okay? This is the grossest thing I've ever seen, Luke. Watch how this man consumes these hot dogs. I don't know if this is physically possible. Did you ask this guy out after you filmed this video? Luke, he swallows them.

How does that not shut your esophagus down? Did you take this guy to your high school prom? He's not chewing them. He he's inhaling them luke are you like not concerned for this guy's future no i've i've seen many people both sexes do things like this well i've got video to prove it all right uh let's keep it going luke the uh the new york city subways covet or not do remain the most dangerous playgrounds on earth watch this oh god wow i've been waiting i've been waiting dude sitting on that subway headphones turned on noise canceling to the max and i've got to deal with these panhandlers coming through you know and

sometimes they need it now you give them money And sometimes they're just assholes who just ruin the ride. I've been waiting for one of them to fall. This thick lady appears to be the first to suffer that fate, unfortunately. Oh, God. You get some CTE with that 225, Luke. But, wow, hopefully she didn't miss her stop. Is that the sixth train, too? Yeah, like J-Lo, definitely on the sixth.

Luke, finally, someone who recognized who the real champion was. Check out Adriano Marais of One Championship putting the belt on the waist of who it belongs, Luke. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Did you see? Look at old Shotry right there, Luke. You know, he's like, maybe we shouldn't. No, it's okay. Go ahead. Put it around my waist. It's cool. Yeah, yeah, go aheadri right there, Luke. He's like, maybe we shouldn't. No, it's okay. Go ahead.

Put it around my waist. It's cool. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead, Luke. What is the... God, I want to make a really mean joke. No, don't do it, Luke.

Don't do it. You don't need to... You can get caned in Singapore for that, okay? You don't need to. Yeah, it's true. Be like Michael Fay. All right. Hey, Luke, good news.

Russian fans continue to celebrate Habib Nurmagomedov's retirement and unbeaten record let's let's zoom in here on google maps and uh and see what they're doing down there luke is this chechnya no it's get a little closer here let's uh oh street views okay luke does a uh russian bear shit in the woods by any chance listen listen you think i'm in a position i I just farted on the show right just now. Just now I had to be careful about how I did everything because my rear end is about to explode. You think I'm going to mock this man for his very delicate situation?

Well, look, not only are these next two women huge Habib fans, they're also big Ty Tuivasa fans. Look at how they celebrated Habib's retirement. Can we advance this, Maneech? Oh, God. Yeah, right? of fans look at how they celebrated habib's retirement can we advance this man each oh god yeah right i'm with you on the shoey thing being fucking stupid at this point i've i've done them but it's like if you just do this everywhere you go it's like it's like ty we're just returning some slacks at jc penny you don't have to pull off your shoe here and do this because we're in a new business it gets it gets a little much it does it really does uh i got two more for you luke uh you know people

think i don't like jmma watch this shit from over the weekend luke yes look at this first round i don't know what the hell this is luke but just just watch it, okay? I think this is Korean MMA. Oh, yeah. Ooh, ooh, oh, oh. Are those flies in the cage? This is a war, Luke. Oh, he got sat down big. Oh, there's the other one. Yeah, that was a Who Lands of fight yeah this is korean this is road fc shout out to our friends over there at road fc that's

probably my new favorite uh promotion i like how they have like butterflies and wasps in the in the cage look look at it the dude who lost has a pistol tattooed on his ribs you like that oh yeah it's very very very valentina i get down like that luke okay i might have to i might have to uh scout his igs out for that luke shout out to park sung mo all right one more for you luke uh you know you ever you ever try to cock block your friends as they were like in the club talking to girls check out smacoli right here and this dude looking like he's the fucking captain of the yacht rock fucking channel somewhere yeah yes yes well the ship is south some clue fuck that guy yes and what why is why is uh zach morris jumping on this board wherever the fuck they are. Look at this, Zach Morris. Looking for old A.C. Slater somewhere.

Oh, the ball's there. Screech. R.I.P. Screech, Luke, okay? R.I.P. That's it, Luke. That's all the shit I've got this week, okay? All right. All right, very good.

BC, that means we come now to a point where we have odds and ends. What do you have for odds and ends? Yeah, we had the heavyweight boxing rematch on DAZN on Saturday from The Rock of Gibraltar there. I was happy that you and Rashad on Friday, Luke, gave like an actual preview. You didn't half-ass it, even though you showed your disdain for it and mentioned that you wouldn't be watching the fight. So that was really nice for our viewers, Luke. Yes, that's why I bought my nails.

But Dillian White, fresh off their fun first fight when he lost his WBC mandatory position by being sent to hell by Alexander Povetkin. They did have the rematch. It was a fun little brawl for when it lasted, but Dillian White was able to stop Povetkin in just a couple rounds. But Luke, not a great feeling coming out of that fight because Povetkin had two battles with COVID in the past couple months, including hospital stays, and he just didn't seem to be himself. He just didn't look right. He came there ready to fight, ready to make war, as he always does, but White had enough firepower to get him out of there.

The problem is, though, is it a problem, you tell me, with Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury seemingly at a crossroads coming up for this two-fight saga, which I know every month there's a report out there from somebody named Coppinger that the fight's a done deal, and then it isn't, but that's going to lock them up for a while. So Dillian White, Luke, is not going to get his big title shot for a long time, but I'd love to see him in a big fight off of this. He avenged a really disastrous defeat

against a tough-ass bull in Povetkin, and, you know, we'll see'll see Luke we'll see what happens next I'd love to see Dillian White against uh Deontay Wilder like I if box if heavyweight boxing could be matched like the UFC that would be next Luke and it'd be great I don't know are we ever gonna see Wilder again Luke what the hell's going on I don't know what the hell is gonna happen with Wilder as for this fight White was winning the first one I mean I was was so funny about it he dropped Povetkin twice in the round before he got finished. So he was doing really well there, but Povetkin, you know, had his day. It really, that, I don't want to call it rivalry,

but that two fight stretch there really is one of those moments where you reflect on like, who was better that night? Because that night, the first time, Povetkin was better. But that doesn't mean he's better overall. And so when you got a chance to do it again, you got that. For my odds and ends, I've actually two of them.

One, July 3rd, BC. July 3rd, Oscar De La Hoya is apparently making his boxing comeback. He hasn't fought since, I guess, he got absolutely fucking railroaded by Manny Pacquiao. I took my wife on a date that day. We watched that fight. We were dating at the time, BC. So I took her to a gun range.

We didn't actually go to the Pacquiao fight. We actually watched the Pacquiao fight at a bar. She wanted to watch it, so I said, okay, we can watch it. Anyway, he wants to fight like nothing like taking a fine lady out to a shooting range luke i mean that's that's just that's romance let me say something you know how well it worked super fucking well um point point being is this bc i don't know who's i look is that where you're headed with this i don't know where he's gonna

i don't know where he's gonna follow they're They're talking about Texas, potentially. But July 3rd, he's looking for a big UFC name, BC. Predict now, who is Oscar De La Hoya going to fight if the July 3rd thing is real? So, yeah, the July 3rd thing does seem real. And by the way, for all the ridiculous De La Hoya talk of late, of like, I'm going to fight Triple G, I want to fight the best. No, stop that shit. If you do want to fight again because you were inspired by, you know, the Tyson Roy Jones thing,

and maybe you want another shot at glory and to end your career on your own terms, let's do it in a matchup where you have a chance, right? I think Masvidal would probably be their preferred guy, Luke. I don't think that's going to happen. I wonder though, and would you care about this Oscar against Anderson Silva? Do it at like light heavyweight, even though middleweight was the highest Oscar ever fought that. Would you be into that? Do you think that could be competitive? Oscar's like 47. So it was like 45, but it hasn't had a pro boxing match in, you know, in a decade. I don't, I don't want to see more than Or more than that? Yeah, I don't want to see that. You would not...

So what do you want to see then? Do you want him then against another old guy, like him against Ike Quartey in a rematch? This may sound strange to you, BC. I don't need to see him box at all. At all. Yeah, all right. How about Trinidad rematch?

Would that move you? What kind of shape is Trinidad in these days? Pretty good physical shape, but he's really he's old yeah yeah yeah yeah um yeah maybe i don't know like here's the thing that like i i tend to oversell how much i dislike it which i mean in the following way it's like would you watch ben askren versus jake pa, which I realize is not the same thing as this, but would you watch these crazy matchups? If it was actually like you were in the gym and they were just sparring, yeah, of course I would watch that.

That'd be kind of cool to watch. If it was really low stakes, kind of an interesting test to see how the two matched up or whatever the permutation is, De La Hoya and Silva. Yeah, I'd actually be kind of interested in seeing that, but as a set-up prize fight, it's asking too much of me to be super hyped about it. But I would like to watch him spar, yeah.

That'd be really cool. I would actually... All right, look. Let's say Jake Paul goes out there and beats Askren. Okay, maybe it doesn't knock him out, but let's say he's the better boxer. He wins a decision. What about Jake Paul against Oscar De La Hoya? He's's say he's the better boxer he wins a decision what about jake paul

against oscar de la jolla he's younger he's bigger i don't know i don't know what to say about that i said it before dude listen i'll give jake paul what i think you can give him uh and then you know logan and whatever they're stunt boxers right and to be a stunt boxer you have to have some actual ability you really have to have a piece of it several pieces of it to make it all kind of work but it's just that it's a little bit of sleight of hand you have to actually have some skill but you marry it with sleight of hand very favorable matchmaking you're kind of boxing as a stunt in stunt kind of ways so um is de la joya at the level where he can be stunt boxed i you know the thing with askren is

he was never a boxer never a particularly good striker and he had a fucking hip replacement like that is you're like okay that maybe can work but with de la joya it's like i don't know oh you got aids um yeah i do i do uh I do Luke don't forget that Larry Holmes came out of retirement in his 50s to fight a prime butter bean so it's kind of you know and he won by decision it's kind of like that right yeah that's another guy

king of the four rounders butter bean he was a much better version of it but he was a stunt boxer too where you're not really a boxer you're not really trying to go 12 rounds you're not really trying to win world titles you're trying to use some degree of skill marketing a difficult challenge but one you can kind of cross creates a bit of anticipation a bit of a high wire act it's stunt boxing that's what it is um yeah like also mma career right yeah well something like that uh also bc deserves to be mentioned the ufc reebok partnership

is over in terms of apparel now they'll keep making the shoes i believe for the fighters to walk out or whatever apparel they need for footwear because i don't think venom does that beyond a very limited scope they do do some boxing shoes i don't think they do a whole lot more than that um so i believe that the next set of gear you're going to see is venom gear i don't know what's supposed to look like or what but it turns out Mike Bond traced how much it paid out. It was reportedly going to pay out over the life of the deal, 70 million. It ended up paying out 39 million. So a little bit over half of what was reported at the time. Great deal. I did some math on this. If you take 39.3 and you divide it by six,

which is the life of the deal, six years, and then you divide that by 12. So how much you get in a month on average for Reebok pay was 545,000. So let's say you had a card, sorry, you had a month where you had three UFC cards, 12 fights each card, right? If you actually do the math on that, what does it end up being for per fighter on average under those considerations of per fight about 7,500 folks, I got to tell you based on what fighters were making before the deal, it was not all of them, but a huge chunk of them were making a lot more than 7,500 per fight on average. Let me tell you. So I'll tell you. Sorry, look, I've been distracted.

There's like 50-mile-an-hour winds today, and my garbage can just got sent across the street. We had those last night, dude. High winds. When you start getting winds above 40 miles an hour, bro, it gets real in the field out here. You know what I hate doing? Going into my neighbor's property to pick up my trash

that's like floating around. I hate that feeling. How how long is this banana you think is it too green to eat look do you subscribe to the theory that a real man breaks it before he bites it or what look so i told my wife that and she told me i was the dumbest human in the galaxy i told her joke it's a recycle i told her i know i said i said i said brian campbell says you can't no it's not my joke it's not my joke i blamed you anyway i don't care how fair that is that could be fake news now it's real news and i told her you can't if you're a dude you know hold on you can't eat a banana like oh okay and they're gonna gift me for

that i just did myself in that's okay you know you got to give to the internet a little bit you had said we had to eat like breaking it up into like bite-sized nibbles like a fucking banana she told me i was an idiot she told me i was a fucking idiot so there you go all right look go to the gym today with that with that erect banana and just walk around and like you know make eye make eye contact with other meatheads in there. Fucking just walking around. It'll be great. All right, BC.

Yeah, I got to go pick up my trash. It's all over the neighborhood. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Don't do your typical Irish goodbye, please. If you want to follow us and subscribe to us, you can see below on the lower third where we are. Morning Combat's name is consistent everywhere. BC and I change it up a little bit between Instagram and Twitter.

If you would like to try Showtime, Bellator on Showtime debuts this Saturday, excuse me, Friday night, Mohegan Sun. You want to try it, show.com slash bellator MMA, $4.99 a month for just the first six months. It's a pretty, pretty nice deal there. BC, I will see you what? Wednesday morning, but we're going to get there tomorrow night, something like that, right?

Yeah, yeah. What night you want to do a little room service diaries maybe, right? Probably Wednesday night because I don't think the calendar for shooting on Thursday is that early. But I could be wrong. So I guess we'll have to see. But we'll have that done. So go to Apple Podcasts.

Leave us a nice review. Ask a question that's not, what's your favorite armbar from a bantamweight in fucking Europe? I don't know. And I don't care. Do something fun. If you want to get some merch, you can go to store.show.com. And what else, BC? Anything else? Oh oh email us morningcombat

at gmail.com because we didn't do a dead wrong last week so we owe a bunch for that plus we have fan submissions on wednesday from the bomb shelter bc right yeah um it's gonna be fun to see you again luke you know all right well go pick up your trash this is what your best use of your life is picking up your neighbor go pick up your neighbor's trash um and i'll see you on wednesday all right you think i care you think i care about you what you think about my trash luke it's not even your trash it's your neighbor's trash you fucking peasant all right there he is for mulca showtime cbs brian campbell and everyone between, including his neighbor who lets his trash just spray all over his own property, I'm Luke Thomas. Until next time, may all your gains be loyal. We'll be right back. you