MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 260 Storylines | Mike Tyson | Tyron Woodley Resume Review | Ep 134

Episode Date: March 24, 2021

Luke and Brian discuss the biggest storylines ahead of UFC 260 where Francis Ngannou gets his second shot at Stipe Miocic. Plus, there is a report that says Mike Tyson declined $25m guarantee for trilogy with Holyfield. Why? Also, young boxing star Gervonta Davis finds himself in more trouble. What's next for Davis? The boys dive into a mini resume review of former UFC champ Tyron Woodley who takes on Vicente Luque in the co-main of UFC 260. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveille, reveveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. It is Wednesday, the 24th of March 2021, and it is time, as it customarily is,

during this window of the day, during this portion of the week, for Morning Combat. Hello, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I'm from CBS Sports. I am joined by the gentleman over there, also from CBS Sports.

He is the Pit Stain King, my gringo friend and yours, Brian Campbell. Wow. Wow. We're getting there, Luke. We're getting there. Something about this island that brings out the best of my pits, Luke. Hey, happy to be here, Luke.

We are in, I am in, excuse me, day 10 of the 12-day stand in Puerto Rico. Apologies to everybody who I offended on my food comment. Yes, I have yet to taste the true essence of the island. But happy, doing well. Let's check out, of course, Thursday night, NBC Sportsnet, 9 p.m. Eastern. A must-see unification fight there at Women's Featherweight. Daniela Bermudez moving up in weight to challenge Amanda Serrano. So looking forward to that. But Luke, back at it this week.

UFC 260. So much to talk about. It's just great. I mean, I'm sure my setup will fall apart shortly enough, Luke. But it's great that you and I can be on opposite sides of the globe. Opposite sides of the conspiratorial political spectrum.

Opposite sides of really decency, yet we can come together for a show like this. Yes. Okay. Well, glad you're done with that little soliloquy there. We have a lot to get to today, as you mentioned. UFC 260 storylines. There's some news in the boxing world that's both good, bad, and weird.

So we'll get to all of those different portions. Plus we have Wheel of Death today, fan submissions, and a whole lot more. If you want to try Showtime, the folks who make this show possible, you can. You can go to Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. And if you sign up now for the next six months, you get it for $4.99. But go through the portal there, show.com slash Bellator MMA. But that's for the entirety, of course, of the Showtime experience. Obviously, give this video a thumbs up and hit subscribe. But then on top of that, you want to get some MK merch.

We got some. This is the Tumblr. BC, do you have any merch over there in Puerto Rico? No, none? No, I don't. I'm rocking some nice Bellator merch from our friends over there, though. So happy to be wearing that. Yeah, I guess mine must have gotten lost in the mail.

You know how that goes, right, BC? Well, you know, you aren't well-liked in this business, Luke, but luckily I got your back, brother. I wanted to say, Luke, I will not be here for Friday's MK show. I'll be on a jet plane back to see my family, my Reggie Jackson, all my people. But, Luke, a mystery guest is coming, so it should be a fun time, all right? You mean mystery host. Guest host. Guest co-host bro and while we're here luke can we pat ourselves on the back for the other amazing mk bonus content that is currently available on the youtubes sure but by all means

tell the folks what they've missed look resume review is it cursed you're gonna have to find out saturday at ufc 260 but luke and I definitely took about, I don't know, 90 minutes to go up and down the 10-year UFC run of the great heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. Fight by fight, painstaking details and many L's Luke and I admittedly taken as we have

underestimated Stipe throughout the years. Check that out. Also, last night had a really fun chat with Stipe. You know how these things go, Luke. Sitting down with Stipe Miocic doesn't typically produce gold. But, you know, if this was a bronze interview at the very least, I'll take it. Because he is a very nice guy. It was great to chat with him.

And then, oh, by the way, Luke, how about the connective tissue of this podcast crossover that happened? Your boy BC, Big John McCarthy from Weighing in Fame. We did a nice little sit down where we chatted. Bellator, Dana White putting us up in that video. A lot of fun stuff right there. Also a good chat with Emmanuel Sanchez. Luke, I'm doing a lot of work on our website. Where you been, brother? Yeah, it's true. I got to pick up the pace a little bit. You are putting out a ton of content. And of course, you can pick up the pace a little bit. You are putting out a ton of content. And, of course, you can also see the exclusive interview with Emmanuel Sanchez there.

You saw the lower third for it. Yeah, you're right. You're out there doing big boy work. I got to pick up my end of the bargain here a little bit more. At least you got vaccinated, dude. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, I did. I got my first dose yesterday. I got the Moderna vaccine.

I go back on 420. I'm not joshing you whatsoever. They have to go back at 420 to get the second of the two doses. I don't have any symptoms from the first one. I mean, a little bit of sight soreness and where they, but other than that, I feel fine. So yeah, man, I'm ready to go back to the land of the living. know what i'm saying i'm tired of this all indoors kind of thing all right dr luke fauci i love that normally when people put the words joshing in 420 in the same sentence rosenthal is usually the end equation there but uh great to see luke that you got pricked you damn prick and uh hopefully you can stop spreading shit in your front yard um i can't wait to be back at it, Luke. Look, it is ambitious. We hope we get there. But the combination of UFC 261 with the 15K, Canelo with the 60K, I mean, can we have concerts again, Luke?

Can we have real life? Can I go to a damn movie theater, bro? Well, just to remind everyone, we don't know that those are going to be disasters, but we don't know that they're not. So let's just see how things go first we'll take a wait and see approach you know that's my luckily everyone in miami is willing to test it out for us right now luke thank you god bless the good folks of miami for street fighting and otherwise irrationally congregating in the worldwide pandemic okay

with that out of the way bc let's get this show started if we can. And topic number one for us here on the Wednesday program is going to be UFC 260 storylines. Let me start the topic by asking you this. BC, what is the storyline heading into this event about any fight, any fighter, any sort of relationship that has you most paying attention to it? What really to you stands out as a storyline that's got you hooked for Saturday night, and why? Very often, I typically, by the way, write the UFC storylines piece ahead of every pay-per-view for CBS Sports. I did one on Monday, and typically, Luke, I like to focus on what question do I need answered the most by what happens in the cage at this coming event? For this one, it's a sexy one, Luke.

It makes a ton of sense. How good is Francis Ngannou? I don't know that, Luke. You don't know that. Stipe don't know that. Maybe Uncle Frank's got a little bit of knowledge of what's going on in there, but he's got a lot of explaining to do. The great Francis Ngannou, four-fight knockout streak

since those back-to-back defeats, including that 2018 unanimous decision title loss to Stipe. But Luke, obviously this fight is going to be won or lost on a few different things. And for all we know, Ngannou, because he's so freakishly powerful, could just do what he does and end it and not even answer any of the questions. But Luke, you know those four fights he's had to get him back to this position all we learned is what we already did know that he's a scary freaking individual yet this has given him an opportunity the last few years to really work on his craft

over there at Extreme Couture in Las Vegas where is his gas tank is it five roundable where is his wrestling takedown and you know functional grappling ability can't is it is it better than remedial where is his iq and ability to adjust because one thing luke i noticed in re-watching that first fight against stipe is it wasn't just the wrestling and all that i mean stipe just had a much better boxing game plan he used head movement he used counter right hands he was really just a better fighter top to freaking bottom luke this is my biggest storyline in question can you try to tackle this how much better could we expect francis and gano to be this is to me just what a mystery this whole thing is you know uh and you wouldn't think that it's like after losing if someone said okay he lost to stipe how many fights did he have to win before he got

back um to another title shot if you said four um you'd be like oh that should be plenty of time to get a good read on where a guy is through the course of that journey and it's it's impossible to tell if there's progress at all. And as I mentioned this, you go back and look at, I think it was, I forget who was making fun of it on social media lightly, but they made fun of the combination that Francis used to put out Rosenstreich.

And they were just like sort of remarking like it was one of the silliest combinations you ever heard. And there was like punches that were no way technical. And he was off balance. And none of it was classic 101 textbook kickboxing in any capacity whatsoever. And he still put out the guy's lights in 18 fucking seconds. You're just like, all the rules just don't seem to apply. At least they don't until what we know about Francis facing off against Stipe and I

I would listen here's what we do know we do know that he's made a lot of changes in his life about where he lives where he trains probably to what extent he's dedicated to that portion of the craft right just sort of living that workmanlike in the day every uh in the gym every day kind of training lifestyle so we know he's done that we know he's with a good team we know that that good team is diligently working on him so he's put in the work to make you think that there's got to be some improvement but i do wonder if when the nerves strike when the fatigue hits what happens to all of that what happens to your bearing when you don't really ever get... Dude, he's either never tested

or completely tested in the most thorough way. You never seem to get these in-between tests and that creates the mystery. Well, here's what's interesting about that point you made about the wild technique that he used to finish Biggie Boy is that in re-watching that first round

between Stipe and Francis, which was the only time Francis showed any form of life, and oh, by the way, Luke, I will say this, it wasn't as competitive as I remembered. I was overreaching in my memory banks in that regard. Yes, Ngannou caught Stipe with some, you know, wild flush counter shit that ultimately made Stipe's left eye, excuse me,

you know, effed up by the end of the fight. It still was pretty one-sided, but what I noticed was at the end of that round, as Ngannou's fatigue really kicked in, Stipe started to line him up with some really big right hands, where I think for, you know, maybe a few seconds you're like, is Francis going to get straight up knocked out here? What I noticed through this sequence here, Luke, is anytime Francis looked to actually set up his right hand,

Stipe saw it coming a mile away, and the speed difference between the two of them and by the way it is you know a few years removed for Stipe is that speed difference going to be the same we don't know we'll have to see he has been through some wars since then but anytime it was a regular predictable orthodox style shot from Francis Stipe could could sniff it out. Anytime it was a wild frickin' uppercut from his kneecaps, he seemed to land it, or Luke, right when Ngannou was at his most vulnerable and hurt, backing up to the cage in the final 30 seconds of round one, he unleashed these wild left sweeping hooks

that he caught Stipe really firm, and I don't know if you remember this in your recall, but Stipe actually shot on him in the final 10 seconds there and pushed him against the cage and I think he was a little bit rattled so as much as you want Francis in the past three years to have worked on his ground game his conditioning his IQ and all those things you do have to ask yourself Luke will any of that actually improve his chances as much as still just being a wild ass predator who doesn't need to be sitting down on his shots and can throw anything from left field and although steve i obviously has a better chin than seemingly every other person francis has ko'd that still might be

his best avenue to victory the other part here too that's worth considering is we you know you're weighing a question of to what extent Francis has improved which is a really key critical insight very very important to know also something of interest to me and again this is something I do not I literally do not know the answer to I don't know that anybody other than maybe Stipe and his team does which is to what extent has the natural process of aging and the Daniel Cormier wars what have they done to him in terms of his durability and his sturdiness? And the answer is maybe nothing. Maybe the answer is a little bit, but nothing to really matter here. Or maybe the answer is the toll was much bigger than we thought

it was. I mean, he had to fight Daniel Cormier back to back to back. That can't be easy either in camp or in fights themselves. And we know, at least in the first one, he got got put out clean so I think it's at least worth paying attention to that yes BC you know as well as I do as the audience if you're going to be in a division where you're aging heavyweight is going to be by far the most accommodating and he looked great in his last fight against Cormier nevertheless you have to pay attention to these things sometimes they get old overnight I at least just want to see you know where he's that. I think it's a fair thing to wonder. And one thing to that point, and obviously you can only take so much from this, but having watched multiple Stipe interviews in the lead up to this, including the countdown and the embedded and all that, Luke, he seems to be leaner than he has in

the past, which could tell you he's looking to really double down on that speed. And he's really talked about an efficiency that he's come into in old age to really use less energy, to be much more focused on explosiveness and stuff like that without wasting movement. So we'll see that mixed with him telling Ariel, I think, that he's at the most, let's say, smart level with his diet and supplement use that he's ever been before. So Stipe doing the right things to sort of help the idea of longevity but as we established 10 times over that may not matter if he gets hit with the right shot luke one thing nobody's necessarily talking much about a connective tissue storyline here is the idea that john jones is next dana white said it in john jones versus either of these guys luke, would be, God, one of the best freaking

fights you can make in years. Such compelling theater in so many ways. Which fight do you think would be better for both fans and business? Stipe or Francis winning and advancing into John Jones' heavyweight debut? I think there would certainly be a significantly greater degree of just visceral excitement if Francis was the one to move on. Just because of his big power. First of all, not just the big power, what it would mean to beat Stipe.

Because I got a thing. If Francis is going to beat Stipe, I don't know that he is, but let's say for the sake of argument, he does. He ain't going to win from like a Barambolo to taking the back you know of stipe and getting some kind of esoteric choke from there he's just gonna punch your fucking lights out so if francis advances and fights john jones you have this powerful guy who's just done almost the absurd in this division and he will have done it at that point to the greatest heavyweight that we have known in this organization.

I think that would be huge, but I have to say, I think it would be much more important the other way around. If you had the consensus, forget about goat talk overall, just divisional goat talk. You would have the greatest light heavyweight anywhere versus the best, certainly UFC heavyweight, but maybe more than that as well, squaring off. That's just a much better story.

That's a much bigger fight in terms of the casual fan attraction than I think anything else you could make. So you can't go wrong, but there are meaningful differences between them. Very fair, Luke. I don't know if I have a preference. I mean, I think you nailed it. It's either or, really. Yeah, it's hard to go wrong. It's just a matter of taste at that point.

You see, for a storyline that I'm paying attention to, and I want to break this up a little bit, I would say that there's a bit of a career-on-the-line moment, and not just for one person, but for two. In today's show, we're actually going to do a mini resume review for Tyron Woodley. But there's two fighters I want to point out, BC, that are in really precarious positions. One is Tyron Woodley, as he faces Vicente Luque in that co-main. And also Jessica Penny's on this card.

She faces off against Hannah Golding. Now that'll be on the ESPN portion of the preliminary card. But why do I bring that up? Well, we all know the story about Tyron Woodley, BC. He has lost three in a row, 15 rounds. And it's just been a really poor look since the Darren Till fight, basically. That was the apex, I think. And it has all been, regrettably, downhill from there.

But you say to yourself, okay, he's fighting guys who either were champion, held a belt, or fought for the title. But if he loses to Luque, not a bad fighter by any stretch of the imagination, but somebody who hasn't quite reached that level of the division yet, it would be new territory. Jessica Penne is in a similarly interesting position. Dude, I remember when she fought Watterson in the lead-up to that fight, she was widely regarded, Penne, as one of the leading fighters in the world. She was a force to be reckoned with she had power in those weight classes and it has just not translated she hasn't

had a win bc since 2014 2015 she lost to you on the nj check okay fine then she sits out until 2016 she loses jessica andrage okay we understand that now uh penny could fight at you know 115 but she's actually probably better for 105 um and then danielle taylor she loses in 2017 then gets usada suspended this will be a first fight back both are facing losing their fourth in a row what do you make of either of these scenarios bc the resume review for woodley put that aside but just this really precarious moment he finds himself in. Yeah, look, certainly for Woodley, God, it's like, look, it's like win or lose. He's got to freaking show up, right? Like, that's what I want for him the most, to show up and fight and be whatever is left. Produce the absolute all of what is left and just find that because you want no regrets in this game. And that losing skit that he's been on has been ultra disappointing and surprising and weird in so many ways.

I haven't thought much about the Penny situation coming in, Luke. But, you know, doing the quick look, she hasn't fought in four years. So she's 38 years old. How much could you even expect for her to have left in a fight that maybe could be winnable against Goldie, who's been up and down? But that's a lot to ask of somebody at this age, in this situation, gone for so long. It's a crazy, crazy scenario. I wonder what you think a loss, for Penny, it probably ends her UFC career.

For a loss for Woodley, you think they give him his walking papers what do they do with him at that point or do they you think that Dana White would come out later and just outright suggest you know looking at retirement is probably going to be your best option at this point well we had stumbled into this on Monday's show Luke where I'd sort of said you know I guess there is a potential to lose but lose in an action fight showing a ton of heart and given Tyron Woodley's name value you could survive in advance and get another opportunity, even though he's 38. But Luke, the more I think about that, I mean, he's never been a favorite of Dana White and UFC. And this seems to be the time where UFC is looking to cut the fat, excuse the word here,

don't mean to diminish Tyron Woodley in that regard, but like of aging names who don't have bright futures who also demand higher paychecks because of their history i was very surprised that romero got the toss that we've seen that you know from a few others of note of late it would seem luke like i don't know tyron woodley's contract situation is this the final fight do we have any kind of confirmation on that we don't you'd have to we don't yet know yeah you'd have to believe luke he's he has an opportunity here to go away no matter what i mean that could be the situation and if you're dana went company and you've never truly loved this guy you've had you know difficulties per se at the negotiation table i don't know i wasn't

there i felt like woodley got a raw deal as champion i always try to say that because i believe it but i i can't feel like he's long for this organization either way the more I really look at it, Luke. No, I do think a win over Vicente Luque, particularly an emphatic one, that would be big, I feel like. I really do believe it. He's in the co-main event by virtue of the fact that the Ortega and the Volkanovski fight are off, but still, it was main card territory. Dude, Tyron Woodley is the former champion not too long ago.

I know the run since then has been poor. But Vicente Luque, he's had some ups and downs. But he's generally been on the rise. Certainly is widely respected. This is a good fight. It's a really good fight. So I tend to think if he wins, that would be huge. That would potentially be huge.

Maybe he walks. But if you beat Luque and then you are a free agent, that would certainly entice Scott Coker, I think, a lot more than if you just had another lifeless, in this case, three-round performance. I don't think that would do much for your salesmanship as a potential attractive signing outside of the UFC. So huge stakes for this one. For the Pene one, it's more interesting because, I don't know, everyone knows the passage of time, BC. The rusting of things is just inevitable. It's for you, for me, for everyone, but especially for athletes.

And so I guess I'm not, you shouldn't be surprised about the state of things versus what they were. I will just say, there was a portion in her career, there was a time where Jessica Penny was I'm telling you was considered to be a very very important um uh high level elite weight cross oh sorry weight class crossing kind of fighter like some of one of those kinds of abilities and one thing led to the other where it just never materialized in the UFC and now you're looking at the very, you know, it seems like for the UFC side, the dead end of it. I don't know. I guess I'm, you should never be surprised by these things, BC, but

sometimes you see certain fighters and certain, she never got a chance to show at the UFC what she had clearly shown before that and I just, it's just a weird thing to witness. Well, she did fight Ioana. She did fight Ioana in one of the most violent sort of, you know. That was one-sided. That was one-sided. That was violent as shit. Well, she did fight Ioana. She did fight Ioana in one of the most violent sort of... That was one-sided.

That was violent as shit. Yeah, that was pretty insane. But Luke, with this four years off, do you think there's any chance that knowing your hatred of USADA and the drug testing window, that time will have absolved her and we'll look back and feel like she got

her rest of her career stolen from her. I forget the details of her USADA situation. She never hit it. She had a doctor prescribe something. She told him about it for some kind of medical ailment. I don't know what the nature of that was. And she took all the documentation to USADA

and because of that, remember she was supposed to come back, I think in 2019 or so. It was only a two-year or 18-month suspension. It was on the shorter end of things. But then she turned her ankle the day of the fight. And so she couldn't fight. She was out.

So it just delayed any kind of return until now. And now you're almost looking at this and you're saying, I mean, obviously, it's your life. It's your career. Fulfill it how you want to but there's there's no path from here at 38 years old to anywhere that we could recognize as as meaningful um for you know any kind of title implications or anything like that it's just i don't know it's bizarre it's bizarre to watch for me just a little bit um if i may bc one more storyline that i want to cover before we move on to the next topic. And this is interesting. This is interesting. Sean O'Malley is back on this card. Now, Sean O'Malley made a huge splash on the Contender Series. Sean O'Malley, through his first early UFC bouts, showed a ton of skill,

ability to attract an audience, sort of represented the newer generation of MMA fans, loses in his last fight to Chito Vera, and then not only loses, but you could pretty much argue didn't necessarily handle it in a way that generated a lot of public support. Now he is back on this card, BC, and I don't hear a ton of chatter about it. Why? Why are things in the current situation they are, and where do they go from Saturday? Because it's weird, Luke.

You can't overstate how high his stock was entering that Chito Vera fight. I mean, he had just gotten the close-up opportunity against Eddie Wineland in a fight that was set up for him to have a chance to absolutely destroy him and very much look to be that guy to prove to us that missing those two years from the usada suspension didn't actually hurt him but instead in some ways helped him improve his game and mature and look he blew wineland away and i mean you remember this was in the mid mid pandemic we were like this phantom weight title picture could not any be any more crowded yet how much do you want to bet if sugar Sean keeps winning that he could be in a title fight

within the next year because his upside and marketing potential and all that is just through the roof and then he's coloring his hair the colors of the flag opposite Vera to sort of you know I mean he was in the perfect setting to break through but I think Luke it's because of the way that he handled the loss, to your point. The quotes afterwards on his own podcast, I saw people turn against him like real fast. And then you double that down with, you know, him being linked with that Megan Anderson situation with Casey Kenney. It just wasn't a good look. And I think it's very interesting how much he is under the radar entering this fight against Thomas Almeida. And even though I've loved me some Almeida for years and love his fighting style and all that,

him coming in with three losses and four fights, you could argue that this is sort of the get well fight where maybe it's good for UFC's purposes that we're not talking a ton about O'Malley right now. And now this gives him the opportunity to remind us of that greatness. And then after Saturday, if he wins, we go back down that road where we were like nothing's happened but Luke I wonder if given how oddly bizarre this turn has been not just the loss but how quickly people have you know either turned against him or just removed the buzz completely completely how damaging here do you think a loss could be because it's not as if Thomas Almeida, despite the losing skid, isn't capable of winning this fight.

Could this be disastrous from where that hype had the potential to go and where it still could go if O'Malley comes out here and is flat and loses, let's say, a boring decision or gets stopped? I think in the short run, it could be devastating. In the long run, not so much. Why do I say that? In the short run, losing two in a row is never good for your stock but not necessarily ruinous but to your point to lose the way you

did which was weird and anticlimactic and then to follow it up with a way that again it doesn't personally offend me in any way but I was just reading the room and the room seemed to be a little bit bitter at Sean O'Malley so that obviously brings us to the current scenario then you lose again to a guy like Thomas Almeida, who is respected and to an extent feared, but also recognized as quite flawed. You lose to him, and maybe he handles it well. Your idea as this boy wonder, your projection as the future of the division, that gets put on ice pretty quickly. Now, the good news is he is so young that let's say you spotted him three more years of development, he would just be entering

his prime at that point, and he might be ready to go then. So I think the short-term damage is actually could be quite real, but because of his age and because of what he's shown, it would be dramatically foolish to decide that a career retooling or just a growth period physically, whatever, couldn't serve him very well down the road. I think people need to take seriously what a loss might mean, but be very careful not to oversell it. Don't you agree?

I do agree. I do agree. MMA, of course, has a much proven history of people taking, you know, tough losses, multiple losses together, and guys being able to use it for fuel and come back. But it is interesting considering the hype and the potential for hype associated with this guy. So, certainly a much-see fight, Luke. I want to shout out my Lithuanian brethren, Modestus Bukaukis, who is back on this card. I probably butchered his name. And, Luke, it wouldn't be a UFC card with Miranda Maverick without you mentioning that it is I mean you still feeling

like she's got long-term flyweight title potential here well we'll see the Jillian Robertson fight will tell us a lot but Miranda Maverick is really interesting she was able to make adjustments in the middle of a round and then between rounds you know this ability to think through a fight and then have the actual skill to then transition to that place that you need to go. That sounds quite obvious, but it's actually much more difficult than people realize. You have to both have the skill to do the change and then be able to implement it in some kind of a smooth, integrated way without causing any problems. That's actually quite difficult to do and shows high fight IQ. She's a PhD candidate down there. I don't know. I forget which university in Norfolk.

I think like Old Dominion. So she's obviously quite bright. I don't know how good she is, BC, but I know what she's shown merits paying more attention to her as she progresses and we'll see where she goes. But yeah, I do think quite highly of her. Alright.

BC, let's now run down to some of these other topics if we can. there was a report if you'll believe it that mike tyson was offered a third fight with holyfield a trilogy and all for 25 million smackers which apparently tyson turned down i believe it was the the triller organization somehow i don't know how they came up with $25 million or who did come up with $25 million. Let me just ask you quick. A year ago, if somebody said

to you that there would be an offer for Mike Tyson for $25 million to fight old Amanda Holyfield in the trilogy, would you even believe that we're having this conversation now? I'd be surprised, yeah. I mean, people just love Mike Tyson. They're obsessed with him. All right. Your reaction to this news, please. Well, let's kind of put the timeline back in order here. So Mike Tyson put out a somewhat

odd a week ago Instagram post that basically said, I am not with Triller. I am not connected with them. I'm trying to do my own thing with Tyson's league. And then really went on like, I have no business with Triller and I will never work with them again. I mean, it was really, I made a joke on Twitter, it was on par with the Dana White, Stitch Durant, he was never my friend comment. So then Luke, we get what you just mentioned was a press release put out by Evander Holyfield's team seemingly to really try to put the pressure on Tyson saying Mike straight up has turned down a $25 million offer. Tyson's people came back and said, well, that's not the whole story. Now what we have in the past 24 hours is a story around boxing scene where Tyson came out and posted a video on social media and said,

oh, no, no, it's true. I will be fighting Evander Holyfield for the third time. It's going to be in May. It's going to be at the Miami Dolphins football stadium. But I have no business with Triller whatsoever. They are's going to be at the Miami Dolphins football stadium, but I have no business with Triller whatsoever. They are not going to do it. We just need to find a promoter to handle it ourselves. And then you got Triller coming back and saying, oh, by the way, we have options on your next fight, Mike, through 2023. So Luke, you know, you can say what you want if you care about

this fight, if we are going to be as jazzed up as we were about Tyson Roy Jones, just because, again, it was like, holy crap, is this the right move? What will it look like? Will Mike, you know, bite the referee's face off for no reason? I mean, there were a lot of those questions. But this seems to be somewhat weird behavior by Mike Tyson, Luke. And I think you can mix this with any time you check in on his podcast. I mean, look, I know he samples certain things, but he just looks not perfectly healthy. And I think this was, you know, I'm speculating here.

I know nothing. But remember when we had those fears about Mike getting back into this because he seemed to be so at peace with the fact that he looks at his craziness when he was a boxer as such an ego-driven thing and he looks at it as a lot of negative reasons but then he had the healing through the psychedelics and then he sort of became at peace with it but we were a little nervous saying you know if he goes down that road again and why am I being kid gloves with Mike Tyson because Luke he's the kind of hero from our youth that you can't help but to just feel for i mean nobody's had a life like this guy it's insane so we're i'm very protective of him in some weird ways i just think this behavior is kind of bizarre i don't know how he would pull off a pay-per-view

without triller who has seemingly built up the foundation for this to happen uh maybe we'll see this fight. Do you feel like Mike should even be doing this anymore given these weird things we're putting together? No. I mean, the last one wasn't a disaster by any stretch. People seem to get some value out of it, but do I think he should be doing it? No. Of course, it doesn't matter what I think. He's got his own life to live and so he's going to, but would I prefer to see him do other things with his time in his 50s than try to box yeah yeah i don't want to see hardly anybody uh over the age of 50 spend time doing this this is it's a young man's game for a reason it should remain that way by and large you know exceptions maybe this is the exception i don't know so i don't really care about it in that sense i do find this like triller or bus thing to be hilarious folks

triller is an app that is uh sort of like a tiktok kind of competitor um involving more music for the videos basically and they pay influencers to be a part of their network they've paid users and certainly at least have been accused of it anyway. They've been accused by multiple analytics firms multiple times of inflating their download stats. This whole thing with like, oh, Mike couldn't pull it off without Triller. Well, you mean like somebody's stupid venture capital money?

Because maybe that might be true. But like, what does Triller have to do with the boxing business that ever tells you anything they do is like highly competent and without them you couldn't make it done they're putting on these events as cheap publicity for an app it's not smart business you see how many people they had line up for like music acts that they're gonna pay it's like you're gonna pay all these music acts you're gonna overpay like crazy for teofimo lopez and and this is the model that we're describing as like oh without them we can't do it you know they've only got a few of these more in them before someone looks at the books and goes what

the fuck are we doing here so i don't buy that do i think mike could put it on without triller easily easily no no problem whatsoever. It's weird, Luke. The fight against Jones, even though it went down as a draw and we debated that and it's ridiculous, it was such a win for Mike on every single level, Luke, that

my biggest fear is not that he'll go crazy, right? My biggest fear is that he doesn't actually want to do this anymore and that he stumbled into something that can make a lot of people around him money and maybe he's starting to feel, this is my fear, maybe he's starting to feel the pressure like,

oh, I have to do this when maybe I don't really want to and that, Luke, is where you lead to the crazy situations we've seen in the past with him. When you're not into this for the right intentions and you don't want to be there, then you get craziness. So look, some people are buying these fights only for that potential for craziness. I just feel like there's some weird smoke and red flags here.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Yeah, $25 million is a lot of money. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. All right, we move now to just a guy who is, what do you want to say? All right, Gervonta Davis has been indicted in a 2020 hit and run crash. Basically, this comes to us, I'll read the ESPN version of this. It occurred last November, which was announced by the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office. He's been indicted on 14 counts. If convicted on all 14, he could face up to seven years and 55 days in prison. Baltimore City court documents say police

responded to a two-car accident about 2 a.m. on November 5, 2020, and they found a 2020 Lamborghini SUV crashed into a 2004 Toyota Coupe. After watching red light cameras and convenience store cameras and hearing eyewitness counts, police say the Lamborghini driven by Davis ran a red light and ran into the Toyota. And there was some other details there. The things he has been charged with very quickly, four counts of failure to immediately return and remain at the scene of an accident involving bodily injury failure of a driver involved in an accident to render reasonable assistance

failure of a vehicle driver involved in an accident to furnish required id and license and it goes just on from there bc your reaction well it certainly ain't good so there's a couple other details involved here this was uh less than a week luke after his pay-per-view uh main event debut when he knocked out Leo Santa Cruz spectacularly. And this was in his home city of Baltimore, as you mentioned. And they have footage that night that Gervonta was at his own birthday party at a club. This was afterwards driving home. And, Luke, the key issue here, along with the whole idea of hit and run, is the fact that a second car pulled up and according to cameras from the you know from the scene Luke Gervonta got out of that car jumped into the other car that was waiting for him

they took evidence out of the car that crashed put it in the new car and they sped away so he's really being accused here of you know leaving and switching drivers and a lot of deception here so Luke the key part of this is this the state of Maryland does have certain laws where gervonta uh is looking at more misdemeanor charges here this would be a felony had the injuries to the other drivers been deemed serious so there were four drivers in that 2004 toyota all four went to the hospital and even though the lawyer of the driver of that car said the injuries are fairly serious luke it comes down to how these injuries were declared on the

police report they were not declared as as you know serious so this drops down from a felony to a misdemeanor so even though there is potential for a jail charge here luke if uh you know he gets punished and found guilty to the full extent of the law. This could have been a lot worse, Luke, in many ways, including the potential for losing lives. But I think from a boxing standpoint and where we stand, it's a continued trend in the wrong direction, Luke, for a bright young fighter who we constantly say, can you just put it back on the tracks and get focused?

You just headlined your first pay-per-view. You spectacularly won the night with the knockout there are so many young great stars in and around your division that you can make super fights against and this seems a another fairly large step luke in the wrong direction yeah i mean understand something here about drivante that we need to establish here so you have this all allegations you know innocent until proven guilty. However, in February of 2020, Davis was charged with simple battery domestic violence in Coral Gables, Florida after an incident with the mother of his daughter at a charity basketball game. And that was the one that was called on film. In September 2018, Davis was charged with

disorderly conduct after allegedly getting into a fistfight outside of a bar in Washington, D.C. In 2017 of September, Davis was charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly punching a childhood friend with a gloved fist, although those charges were later dropped. Okay, you can forget that last part. Still, let me just say something about this. I've lived in D.C. He lives in Baltimore. You know, granted, I don't live the life that Gervonta has,

but I've been outside of a lot of bars in D.C., B.C., and I've never been charged with punching anyone outside of them. It's not hard to not get in trouble. It's not. I don't care what anybody says. That doesn't say it'll never happen. It probably will happen to you on occasion. Luck does run out. This is a complicated and sometimes cruel world. Violence and bad things will find their way to your doorstep. But in general, in terms of your own actions, it's not hard to not get in trouble. So when you are getting in trouble, in this case, at least repeatedly on some level, whatever the innocent mitigating circumstances in this or other ones may be, you can do better. You have to do better. This is not acceptable.

And this is not something like, oh, I'm going to be a sports media guy and I'm going to lecture athletes. This is just one dad to another. This is just one person to another. You cannot tell me you can live this way and this is a good, sustainable path for your personal life or your professional life. It's not. It's not. You cannot make that claim. And so, you know, if you need a driver, hire one. If you need

security, get some. You just made a ton of money. You've been making money. I've seen some of the things that he was driving in a Lamborghini. You know, you've got the money for these kinds of things. You've got to do what is right. So we'll see what has happened. We'll see what happens, I should say, BC, with this particular situation situation because there are allegations, who the hell knows, but it does seem quite serious. And I have to say, the charges seem extensive and thorough. Well, it wasn't just running a red light, Luke, and then leaving the scene of the crime.

And there's obviously potential there for blood alcohol level and all that that didn't happen because he left. But he had a suspended and revoked license. I mean, there's just a lot of bad on top of bad here. And to your point, when you reach this level of a celebrity in fame and you have so much to lose, take the steps to avoid the issues. You know, build that foundation of protection around you. This is not good.

And, Luke, I don't know how many times we can keep doing these segments where it's just sort of like, man, he's got too much to lose he shouldn't be doing this this is bad news yeah yeah we do it every couple of years it's like so far so far the worst has been avoided but you keep doing things like this and that dude the house always wins you know what i mean like you can play the tables for as long as you want the house always wins so when you realize that man better way to live to put it mildly uh okay topic number four here bc well i have i don't know if i have good news but i have definitely bad news and then some strange news so we all know at triller frank meir former former UFC heavyweight champion, was supposed to fight in a boxing match Mason Dixon himself, Antonio Tarver. That was his name, right?

Was it Mason Dixon? I think that's what it was. Yeah, Mason Dixon the line. Yeah. Yeah. All right, so it was supposed to be in a boxing match on that Triller card. And you're like, well, that's sad and kind of gross. But all right, that's the sport that we know and love.

But the Georgia Commission was like, no, no, we're not going to allow that. And here is what they basically came down to, BC. I'm trying to find the notes that I had pulled up on this. Basically, they have a set of rules that if you're going to be over the age of 50, you have to have fought a certain amount of times in the preceding years. There had to be just this ability to show you could do this continuously as you age. And the last fight, I don't remember when the winning fight was but the last fight that Tarver has goes back to 2015 so he actually doesn't meet the criteria in order to get the license so as a consequence they're going to have him fight USS Steve Cunningham BC tell the folks who Steve

Cunningham is and what do you make of the matchup? Well, I make, first of all, that this is a bad turn toward entertainment because, look, anytime you're going to have two aging combat sports fighters compete in a boxing match, Luke, it's going to favor the boxer in heavy ways unless there's something compromised against the boxer. In the case of Tarver, being in his early 50s and being so long removed from the ring, there was that potential of, hey, could Frank Mir, who just recently was still fighting decently high competition, could he go in there and make it competitive?

Could this sloppy event be kind of fun as the co-main to Ben Askren and Jake Paul? The problem with this replacement here with Steve Cunningham is he's too good of a boxer and too close to where he was. Cunningham's 44, Luke. He's a former Cruiserweight world champion. He's always in great shape, a great technical boxer, never had power, and that was always the thing that held him back. But he had absolute wars at Cruiserweight against Tomas Adamek, and he eventually moved up to heavyweight. And we can remember that fight he had in 2013 with

Tyson Fury at New York's Madison Square Garden. He dropped Fury hard early on, even though Cunningham's not a puncher, and eventually got stopped, although Fury kind of used a forearm there along the ropes to finish him off. My problem with the entertainment value here, Luke, is that Steve Cunningham is 44 and fought as recently as four years ago, and he had that run there to end his career where he fought fairly world-class names at both heavyweight and cruiserweight in fact he actually fought Antonio Tarver in 2015 and they

had a very sloppy and gross split draw so um yeah Luke this doesn't do much for entertainment value and I feel like Cunningham's just going to be able to go in there and keep Frank Mayer at the end of the jab and do whatever he wants with him so we'll see what happens here i just love how it's like hey you know our idea that we want to have for a fight yeah commission's not even going dude commissions have allowed dada versus kimbo and they won't even allow different commission texas but still they won't even allow this one it's like uh you know you know your idea was out to motherfucking lunch when the Georgia Commission is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is... What do you think this is?

You're going to have some bears fighting kids or some shit? We barely allow that. You think we're going to allow this? Fucking A. Get your shit together, Triller. This is what I mean. It's like you can't do it without Triller, motherfucker. I'm not sure you can do it with Triller.

What are you all talking about? I mean, look, to be fair, there aren't a ton of big combat sports fights in Atlanta, Georgia these days. I know the UFC goes every once in a while. You really don't see big boxing fights there since the early Holyfield era. So sometimes you get these commissions.

Durante fought there in what, a year ago? That is true. I did forget about that one. But the whole point is that sometimes when you go to commissions that don't regularly put on fights, they can end up being either completely liberal and open the door for you to do whatever you want, or they can be a little extra harsh. So I bet you if this fight had been in Texas Forever Street,

Tarver would be suiting up. But it is what it is, Luke. All right, and then we go back to our last piece of news for the day. One championship signs Gordon Ryan. Gordon Ryan has won everything there basically is to win in no gi. He's won gold in ADCC, in both absolute and his division.

He won IBJJF Worlds. He won, or I should say, no gi Worlds. He's won EBIs. He's won submission only tournament. I mean, he's won everything. It was announced by Chachri Sityat Tong, the most honest man in all of MMA. Oh, come on, Luke.

What? I'm saying it as a compliment. You're going to be fired for that, okay? Because this guy is the leader of The Apprentice 2.0, Luke, Singapore style. So, yeah, you're fired. The trick here is he's going to compete in MMA and grappling in one, likely as a heavyweight. They have not announced a date or rule set for his debut.

We all know that his teammate, and actually the guy who's technically a black belt under, Gary Tonin, is 6-0 as an MMA fighter inside one. And of course, it's looked pretty good as he's transitioned, and he's won a lot of big things in submission grappling as well. BC, I'll just say this to open this topic. I'm not surprised by this. He announced he was going to MMA when I hosted the MMA Hour, was it two years ago at this point, something like that? He came on the show and said that was what he wanted to do. He was not going to go back to Gi. Gordon Ryan, for folks who may not realize, is something of an interesting anomaly inside of

jujitsu. He is a black belt in, you know, he trained with and without the Gi through black belt. So he is well versed on the different styles. But as a pro competitor, he really only ever does no Gi. He doesn't compete in any of the high level Gi tournaments. He's become something of a specialist in that way. And two things have happened. One, he's beaten everybody. His last loss was the Felipe Pena one, which was, I mean, I think he's something on like a 60 or 70 match winning streak. And I don't think that Pena, whatever you pronounce it, because I don't know if there's an N-Yay over it.

He's certainly a top-level competitor, but he hasn't looked as good since. And Gordon's looked better than ever. And the other part is that he is like their biggest troll inside the sport purposely he purposely goes after everyone he possibly can to the point BC where he's kind of like suffocating the sport to a degree like if you look at he's like their Conor McGregor almost more so because if you go and read jiu-jitsu media it's just Gordon Ryan stuff up and down all over the place so i tend to think that because a lot of guys won't even match up with him anymore whenever he does they he wins

dude him and his team put out video after video instructional after instructional on all of their approaches to the game which mma fighters never do they still keep a lead on the pack honestly to me he may not have anywhere else to go i think he's almost bored with jujitsu to be quite honest with you this is interesting to me because i'm very under uh not underwhelmed underserved on anything involving this guy i've heard you mention him a million times i'd much rather watch japanese mma 20 times over than nogi grappling tournaments so i kind of want to spin it back on you and say this. I see that he's, like, to your point, you said he's almost the Conor McGregor of grappling. I think he's like Jake Paul or Logan Paul from what I see in the controversies that he gets himself into.

But physically, though, he seems to be jacked only 25 in his absolute prime here. And Wikipedia is telling me he only started grappling at age 15 so this is a 10-year run is this like uh unheard of for somebody to have this level of expertise you know for not growing up at you know age three under hoist gracie's arm you know what i mean like for for who he is is this rare and how would you even begin to predict what he could be like as a mixed martial artist? I don't know how well he would do in MMA because Gary always, you know, him and Gary are from the same team and blah, blah, blah. Gary always had a real scramble heavy wrestling nonstop movement style. He had a motor.

You could just tell he had a motor. If you guys have never seen it, go back to the Polaris match that Gary Tonin had. One with Husamar Pajaras former UFC middleweight but more recently he had one with um who's the Brazilian who just fought for the title at welterweight uh Gilbert Burns he had one with Gilbert Burns and Gilbert by the way folks forget he was a you know world-class black belt as well but the match is incredible I mean back taken scrambling, wrestling. It is nonstop. Gordon Ryan's never really had that style. He's very methodical, step by step. He does a lot of work from sitting guard, which obviously won't really work in MMA. So I'd be curious to see. I'd be curious to see how he

gets to the back. All of his attacks usually involve him sweeping and then getting to the back. That's really what he is quite good at. So I'd be curious to see. He had a wrestling match against Pat Downey, and Pat Downey is a world-level wrestler, so international class is not exactly the best comparison. He wore Gordon Ryan out. So I don't know. I don't know how he's going to look, but I just know on the jiu-jitsu side of things you know he's Jake Paul but imagine Jake Paul was literally not just the best guy in the world but the best guy in the world by a considerable distance like he would go up against number two number three guys and put the fucking smack down on him that's kind of what it's like but Jake Paul is different because he's just a stunt boxer

Gordon Ryan is a stunt jiu-jitsu performer who's also the very best at what that sport has to offer it's highly unusual combo well i hope one matches him against vitor belfort or something weird luke but i know seriously i'm excited about this because i love in the modern era when when a specialist arrives and you have to watch them attempt to integrate their style and add things to it or they just going to sit on that one style? I mean, I like what we saw from Marco Madsen recently, or some of the, you know, Gokin Saki, these guys who maybe didn't pan out, but come in with that one specific strength through the roof. I still romanticize for those days, Luke, when somebody is a specialist in that regard. It says that he fights out of San Juan these days, Luke. I wonder if I can try to find him and have

a mofongo with him and talk gi versus no gi. You want to get a mofongo with him? Hey, mofo, you want to get him? All right. Let's do this very quickly. I want to try this

for today's show. I don't know if it's going to work. I want to do a mini BC resume review with Tyron Woodley. We talked about him earlier being in this interesting crossroads. Here's why I wanted to bring it up. Because if he loses BC, there's going to be a big question about whether he's done now. And if he is, you know, that will certainly be a time to remember his career. But I want to kind of get out in front of that a little bit and sort of think about what brought him to this moment. He made his pro debut in February of 2019 on some local show, but he was fighting in Strikeforce BC by June of 2009.

Very quickly, do you recall the first time Tyron Woodley made your radar? Yeah, certainly in the Strikeforce days. I would probably throw out there the Paul Daly fight from 2011 was one that really caught my attention. And then certainly, you know, who can forget the loss to Nate Marquardt the following year, Luke, which can you tell me a more violent finish between two very well-equipped fighters in modern MMA history? I mean, good God. It was a bad one. It was a really bad one. He made his debut in June of 2009.

He beat some dude named Salvador Woods. Then he beat Zack Light, who used to be the Bellator matchmaker under Bjorn Rebney. And then he beat Rudy Bears, who is sort of an okay fighter. And then he beat Nathan Coy. I think that was the first time he caught my attention. That was on a challenger's card. So the first time he was on a big card was Diaz versus Nunes 2, October 2010, and he beat Andre Galvan. In fact, he stopped him with strikes as your camera goes out, and we'll fix that here

in the first round. That was the first time he got on my radar because I've been paying close attention to the career of Andre Galvan. I wanted to see how good he would look in MMA. He never really looked all that good inside of MMA. Obviously, he had some wins, but it never really was for him or the best expression of what he could do as an athlete. But beating him, obviously, was kind of a big deal for no other reason than name value. You obviously look at Woodley, as muscular as he was all the way back in 2010, so 11 years at this point, and you add in the fact that he had that Big Ten wrestling pedigree in his back pocket, you're like, okay, this is a guy to pay attention to. Then he beats Tarek Safedine in January of 2011, and they headlined that card together.

Very close fight. Tyron had to win it off of his wrestling, but he got it done. He moved to 7-0. We're going to wait for BC to come back. I want to spend most of my time on the UFC side of things. Then, as you indicate, he beat Paul Daly. Not an exciting fight. He had to hold him up against the fence the entire time, but he got it done in July of 2011. So then you move to 2012, he beat Jordan Meehan via split decision. So he had some decent wins. He was certainly undefeated through his Strikeforce campaign heading into a title shot. But against Nate Marquardt, who was fighting at welterweight at the time,

that was a tough go. He actually gave it to Nate Marquardt throughout various portions of that fight. But in the fourth round at 139 for the vacant, at the time, Strikeforce welterweight championship, I believe Shields had abandoned it, something like that. He got hit with a combination of an uppercut and slashing elbow up against the fence. It was a brutal, brutal knockout. But that was the end of his Strikeforce campaign.

We are still waiting for BC. This is BC's way of getting out of this segment. That's what this is. I see him setting up his situation there. So then he moves in February of 2013 to the UFC. He fought Jay Heron and knocked him out in 36 seconds. It was as good of a UFC debut as he could have had. It was over at the time a credentialed and respected name. It was emphatic. It was immediate. And it was a reflection of the kinds of things he could do when he really let his hands go and showed you the possibilities of his offense. He then moved into about a UFC 161 with Jake Shields, which he lost via split decision. This is an insanely boring contest that low on volume, high on both of them trying to

manage error, and as a consequence, just not doing a whole hell of a lot in the process. I'm just going to run through this because BC's BC, what do you remember about the loss to Jake Shields? Oh, he doesn't have him. Alright, well this is fun. This is a good time. I'm having a good time. He's bringing him back now. Let's see hey you guys could just put me back on the show now my camera's on i mean you know there we go come on could we just do i mean let's try to act like it's my fault here jay

aaron gives me this freaking gopro on the road all right can we step up more time in puerto rico i think it'd be great for the show hey i like you for many years i have another job but i've been listening to you luke and you're right so so he was a wrestler early tyron woodley and as much as that terek saffredine win and some of those others in strike force showed you the future you know potential luke even at the start of the ufc run as you're mentioning now, he didn't really establish himself as a dangerous threat with the striking. I mean, it took a while, Luke. It did. Although by the time he got to the UFC, you saw a little bit more of it

because he beats Jay Huron. The fight against Shield sucked both ways. Both guys were not very fun. And then he comes back at UFC 167 later that year, his third fight in 2013, and he KO'd Josh Koscheck at 438 into the first round. This was his first ever bonus because he got knocked out of the night. So now you're like, okay, you had the fight with Jake Shields and it wasn't good. But you sandwiched that between the Huron and Koscheck knockouts.

That's when you were like, okay, we got to see Tyron Woodley against better competition. The kind that will bring it. No? No, that's correct. But also, like, you know, coming off of that, Mark Lawson starting his run in the UFC, I mean, he was only three and two through five fights. So I remember thinking that maybe he didn't have some of that great potential I saw in Strikeforce. Maybe it wasn't going to work in the UFC.

The Kostchek and Condit back-to-back finishes are certainly very bright. But Luke, he was unimpressive for a while. That's really where I'm trying to go for that. I'm a little surprised by that. I thought he was actually pretty impressive. Now, you mentioned, you're right, UFC 171 March 2014. He beats Carlos Condit because he hits him so hard with a leg kick, it actually injures the leg of Carlos Condit, and he couldn't continue.

So you're like, okay, you're 3-1 in your first four in UFC. Let's really match you up with somebody big. And he fought Rory McDonald, UFC 174, in June of 2014, which he lost because McDonald backed him up, had him at the end of his jab, was able to stuff most, if not all, of the takedowns, I think most of them, and just did better work for the course of three rounds. It was actually fair. I'm not going to say one-sided BC, but clinical, something like that. Yeah. I mean, he got, you know, he, he, I think he realized in that fight, the lack of, uh, that there was a gap between him and the very

elite from a technical standpoint, from a game planning standpoint, uh, he was adding the striking to the wrestling base. He was able to get some stoppages there. And look, obviously, in retrospect, at that point in his career, you get back-to-back stoppages of Josh Koscheck and Carlos Condit. It is very impressive. But I think overall, what I meant by saying unimpressed was I wasn't a believer yet that he had a complete game and was going to be able to put that together. I think the Rory loss in hindsight was maybe a bit humbling. And although he came back very quickly, like two months later, Luke, that loss to Rory really kicked off the best run of his career without question, considering he went 6-0-1 right after that and goes on to win a championship. So something got triggered there, not only in you coughing right now, hopefully it's

not the vid, Luke, and obviously woodley figuring out what he was missing i swallowed wrong i apologize you're right it's the mcdonald loss then after that he fights dong hyun kim i remember this fight very very vividly when he fought uh august 23rd of 2014 i apologize in macau he knocks out dong hyun kim in just one minute into the first round. This is the part of his career that makes Tyron Woodley how you understand him today. Because as you indicated, he goes on a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 fight. I won't say win streak because there's a draw with Wonderboy Thompson in there. But remember, that was fight of the night in the middle. So it may have been a draw.

But for a draw to be a fight of the night doesn't happen too often. And, you know, Figueredo and Moreno, something like this here, you got to get something pretty special. That sandwiching moment from August of 2014 until September of 2018, that's the window in which Tyron Woodley becomes Tyron Woodley. So he beats Dong-Hun Kim. And then the Kelvin Gastelum fight wasn't great, BC, but Kelvin had missed weight. He had made some Kim. And then the Kelvin Gastelum fight wasn't great, BC. But Kelvin had missed weight. He had made some excuses. And then later we found out that Tyron Woodley had injuries to his foot and still performed the way he did.

I think he got a lot of respect for that. Then he follows it up by fighting for a title at UFC 201 and smokes Robbie Lawler inside the first round. You're like, wow, dude. This guy beat Kim, Gastelum, and Lawler. Finished two of them inside the first round. You're like, wow, dude, this guy beat Kim, Gastelum, and Lawler, finished two of them inside the first round. He is, I mean, yes, he won the title, but that was, I mean, it was super impressive as a run. And it changed what we thought of him,

not just because he was the world champion, but look, let's not forget, there was a long gap between the Robbie Lawler fight where he got the title opportunity and the Gastelum fight. It was something like, what, a year and a half right there. There were a lot of talk. I remember being there at UFC 201 in Atlanta. There was a lot of talk that Woodley maybe didn't deserve this. He'd been off a long time. They, you know, yeah, he had a couple of wins, nice wins together over some good names. I mean, if you consider that, you know, five fight run, he had

won four of them and beating Condit, Kosciuk, and Gastelum. You know, and Stun Gun is no—is that Stun Gun there, Luke Dong-Hun Kim? Or am I screwing up? No, you're right. Yes, it is. That's nothing to blink at. But, Luke, the Gastelum win had been so ho-hum, and maybe we know now the injuries, as you mentioned, and Gastelum winning weight. But let's not forget, it took him a long time to win respect.

And I'm not saying he won the respect by knocking out Lawler. There were still people who were questioning through the title defenses that would follow, is he really as good as it looks? But I love what he did with that opportunity against Robbie. And I know we can, in hindsight, again, say say was Robbie more shopworn at that point than we realized he had gone through hell and consecutive wars with Rory and Carlos Condon I mean you can say a lot of that but I saw a Tyron Woodley who put the whole game together at that point in his career realized how to be explosive that the wrestling could be there if he needed it but that he has an athletic explosive force who figured out things like

timing and distance. He put it all together, Luke, and that knockout was surprising against Robbie Lawler, but it's just wild, maybe similar to Stipe to some degree, how even each step along the way through his biggest fights, he never really had the public's heart. He never had the, I mean, can you put that toward Dana sort of at every turn putting him down? Maybe that adds and fuels it. But I don't remember Tyson Tyron Woodley ever really getting his due

until finally when the run was over. Yeah, I think that's true. I mean, people definitely respected him. When he beat Robbie Lawler, you're right, there was some consternation and some hand-wringing about to what extent he was porting over damage that he had taken in the Condit fight. Fine. But Robbie Lawler was also, I mean, that was the other problem, too, is that Tyron was

beating people's favorite fighters for a time. Or at least in the case of Lawler, he definitely was. And Thompson and Maya were well-liked on some level, too. So he was out there beating nice guys and or beloved figures. He never had a villain to fight, exactly. I think that kind of hurt him. I mean, maybe that's what the Colby fight would have been if it had happened at a different time.

But in any case, so he beats Lawler and then follows it up with one of the best shows we've ever seen, UFC 205, in a fight of the year candidate. Yeah, I think that's right. Certainly one fight of the night. Great fight. Great fight. Momentum changes. it or yeah i think that's right certainly one fight of the night great fight great fight momentum changes boring boring in spots but that one epic sort of there's a couple epic moments i suppose

through both of the fights but there was a moment there where he nearly gets stopped wonder boy and he has to hang on for dear goddamn life uh and how he did is kind of amazing and the beating that Woodley put on him was equally amazing you had to walk out of there being like wow these two really they poured out the jug that night in New York City right and I think that because of what happened in the second fight people forget how great that first fight was how close Wonderboy was to winning the championship how Woodley really was able to prove even though he only came away with a draw, that he actually was the better fighter that night, Luke. I'm not saying he deserved a win or whatever,

but Woodley showed you championship merit in that fight. But if I'm talking about the fact that he never really got his due, he lost whatever momentum or money in the bank he had with the Wonderboy rematch, Luke. Can we go back there for a second can we can we go back to ufc 209 march of 2017 in hindsight luke because there was a lot of debate afterwards was that the worst title fight we've ever seen the majority decision win by woodley in which both just were content to play chess from the outside or was it an interesting technical back and forth

that the diehards did appreciate at the time, even though they were mocked? And maybe we should give more respect because although entertainment value, it didn't bring it. We are now seeing very different sides of Tyrone Woodley's game. He can go in there with the destroyer and Lawler and knock him the hell out.

And now he can go in there with a very technical performer in Thompson. And, okay, did he wow? You know. But he didn't lose. And he got his hand raised. So what do you remember about that emotional ride from how badly people hated that fight? I was there for UFC 209.

I was there. And remember, it was a lot of pent up feeling. One, those guys that had a fight of the night the first time, there were some interesting moments in the second fight, but they were much more fleeting relative to the first. And the other problem was, remember, Tony and Habib were supposed to fight on that card. I actually interviewed Habib at Media Day, and I remember I was like, wow, dude, my guy has bad cotton mouth. I mean, his lips look like he'd been walking through the Sahara for 45 days and 45 nights. Man, it was bad.

And, of course, he had to be rushed to the hospital and couldn't make weight. That was that card. And so everyone was depressed about it at the last fucking minute, losing Tony versus Habib. And then you had this fight, which fight which was again you're living in the shadow of the first one and it had its moments but not really plus the other thing I never understood was Tyron got more blame for that than Wonderboy did and I don't it's like dude both of them basically created a situation that was kind of like this but because Tyron was backing up I feel like he had to eat a little bit more of the shit sandwich than wonder boy ever did do you feel like that's true a hundred percent and i

think that because he never had the support of dana white and i and i i really can't look that that matters when you are a champion i mean look remember when hennon brow was champion for example nobody wanted to see hennon brow headline a ufc pay-per-view what did dana do he'd go out in the interview and say no you guys don't understand. This guy might be the pound-for-pound best in the world. That's what you do as a promoter to fill in the gaps for your fighter. And I feel like there was something Dana just did not like about Tyron Woodley and held that against him and talked bad about him at every turn

and really threw some more gasoline on the fire with the way that this fight went off, where not only did you not get Tony Habib like you mentioned, Luke, but the supporting fights for this pay-per-view main event, you were there. Wasn't it Rashad Evans against Daniel Kelly and David Tamer against Lando Venata? I mean, this was not a spectacular card. Then this main event dies, and they did the cardinal sin that Dana hates, which is not going after it, right? Trying to be cute and outpoint somebody.

So instead of celebrating it all at any point that Woodley got through two fights with Wonderboy and didn't lose his title, and they were both thrilling at opposite ends of the spectrum, this was where, hey, if you didn't like Tyron Woodley before, I'm going to give you a lot of reasons to hate him now. And I feel like that was unwarranted. Well, he only threw gasoline on the fire in UFC 214, July of 2017. This is where Jon Jones expressed his undying support for me in my career. And he won, Tyron Woodley did, via unanimous decision against Demi and Maya.

Now, here was the problem with this fight, BC. I remember being there. He got booed in the building considerably and not just once, several times in the course of that fight. That was a complicated fight because basically Tyron Woodley doesn't get credit for being the guy to write the blueprint on how to stop and defend the takedowns of Demian Maia who has unorthodox takedowns particularly Demian Meyer, who has unorthodox takedowns, particularly against the fence with that baseball slide that he does. Kamaru Usman can say what he wants, and Colby Covington can say what they want, even Gilbert

Burns to an extent, but the guy, well, I'm sorry, what am I saying? Let me just go back. Demian, yes, because Colby and Kamaru fought Demian as well. Sorry, I had a bit of a brain freeze there for a second. The point I'm trying to make is, I think he defended something like, forget how many attempts it was, some huge double-digit attempt,

and Demian Maia never got close. You can criticize the performance, BC, that Tyron Woodley turned in, because what you can say is is it was a defensive masterpiece. And that's exactly what it was. All the guys who fought Maya after Tyron, they all benefited from what he did. However, it was just one-sided. It was only a defensive masterpiece.

There was hardly any offense that really counted or was really very good. He got booed in the fucking building and i think he doubled down on like kind of fuck the crowd a little bit and that was to me the low point for demi excuse me for tyron woodley and the fan base despite how difficult that a place he had risen to was and and although i'm being very um in retrospect uh you know positive toward Woodley and saying to a certain degree I think Dana did him wrong, and I do agree with that, you get why Dana got pissed off. Look, everybody wants a champion to go after the finish against somebody,

and this is where Woodley – this is where I give Woodley a lot of credit. I mentioned that thing about Dana could have gotten on the mic and said we have another bra or whatever. You know what he could have gotten on the mic and said is we have another Floyd Mayweather and Tyron Woodley. We have another guy who basically says, whatever your skillset is, I'm going to take that away from you for Robert, for, you know, for, uh, for Lawler, it was, I'm going to beat you to the punch and get you out of there for Woodley. It was, I'm just going to slow down the pace of this

fight and outpoint you. And what Woodley figured out here, Luke, um, I'm sorry, against wonder boy, it Boy it was what I was trying to say what Woodley figured out in this one again was to just take away the one chance Maya had at victory so you saw a guy who I think was starting despite the boos and people turning on him he was starting to climb up the pound for pound ladder unless you had something against him because his efficiency and the fact that he wasn't young I mean he finally came around to the title you know into his mid-30s here he figured't young. I mean, he finally came around to the title, you know, into his mid thirties here. He figured out a way to stay efficient. He was always going to be there. If you rushed him, if you made it a firefight, he was always going to have that danger. And he always kept that right hand as a reminder of that, but he wasn't going out of his way to use it and put himself in trouble. If he could beat you one way by taking away your greatest

skill, he would do that. And Luke, whether you were entertained or not, that worked brilliantly throughout his title defense reign. And I think ended up being the factor that led to him falling apart now because he became very much a front runner. He would outthink you and out efficient you. But if he could not beat you the way he planned, he didn't know how to transfer back to that guy of old who would go after it. So there was certainly a price he paid in this, and something I think certainly happened to him mentally along the way. Maybe it was believing his own press clippings, the rap music career, the acting, the TMZ show. He really was trying to basically say, if the UFC won't market me, I'll market myself. But somewhere along that transaction,

even though he would defend the title one more time against Till, which we're going to mention, he stopped being the same guy, and it ended up hurting him when things fell apart. And then it takes us finally to the last win of his career um to date anyway maybe he'll get one on saturday the darren till win ufc 228 september of 2018 in dallas texas and it wasn't especially close dropped him and submitted him got his black belt from dean thomas there this was the i told you so moment in his career because Till had beaten Wonderboy and

Cerrone, although the Wonderboy win was dicey to put it mildly, but he had been declared the winner and so he was riding a ton of momentum into this contest and Tyron made easy work of him basically. He was never in trouble in this contest and if anyone did anyone did any dominating it was him do you believe do you agree that this is the moment he was like you better put some respect on my name you know this is the moment i bumped him up to number three pound for pound in the world and was really beginning to be upset where people weren't recognizing what they're seeing look he played into the storyline that dana went out of his way to prop till up and try to make him maybe mcgregor 2.0 and say hey we got a potential marketable guy.

Let's rush him into the title shot. And Woodley had his way with him. This is arguably his most impressive performance, although obviously knocking out Robbie Lawler early in round one is equally as memorable here. But he didn't give Till a chance. He completely controlled and dominated this fight. So it's interesting in hindsight, Luke, to the point I just made about if he's in control of the fight at this point in his career, he's dominant, but yet that clock is ticking. He's spending a lot of time on other things than fighting, and it's still

remarkable no matter what you want to pin it on, where he was on September 8th, 2018, beating Till to who he showed up as on March 2nd, 2019, what, six months later or whatever, against Kamaru Usman, just a different guy. Something changed along the way, Luke. So then it takes us to this, and I want to treat this as all one thing. They're all very different, but I wanted to do a mini resume review because I kind of wanted to remember why people were so high on Tyron and then what this last chapter means. So everyone knows the story at this point

in March of 2019 at UFC 235, decision by Kamaru Usman. In May of 2020, he fought Gilbert Burns, decision losing there. And then finally in against Colby Covington in September, he got stopped all via rib injury in the fifth there. It is the memory of the wins over Thompson, Maya, and Till. They are but a distant memory. And it's unfortunate because he has this career that clearly builds and crescendos and gets to a neat place.

And then just as soon as it does, just as soon as it does, all of it seems to come undone. Do you have any comments, beyond what we've already already kind of said about that three-fight losing streak? Yeah, I pulled off specific negatives almost about each fight. The Usman one, you could tell that he was going through a lot as he's laying on his back, and Usman is dominating round after round, rinse and repeat with the wrestling, that Luke, he can't figure out why he can't summon what used to be inside of him to counter somebody, to figure out what somebody's

doing and get around that. It seemed like he had a game plan of what he was going to do. That game plan got taken away from him. And then Luke, he almost seemed just content with that. Like, I just don't have it and that's fine. And I think he was really going through a mental and emotional struggle with that. And it produced just an awful going through a mental and emotional struggle with that, and it produced just an awful performance, Luke. He was getting handled with ease, and he had nothing. Then you got the Gilbert Burns fight where I just saw a failure to launch. I feel like it goes down in our memory banks as a lot of the same rinse and repeat

as the Usman fight because of how well he was handled. But, Luke, he just could not pull the trigger. I don't know if it was an unwillingness. It just couldn't summon that connection there that to win this fight, I'm going to have to be somebody I didn't expect to have to be. And then against Covington, Luke, this is almost the saddest of the three because he was more offensive than those previous two fights combined. Yet he just didn't have anything.

He looked old. Even though he had the, let's say say intention to try to let his hands go there was just nothing there so this was a slide that was as uh disastrous and surprising as let's say hennon browse slide from champion to nobody in a couple fights or johnny hendricks's slide too was fairly dramatic the same way where he went from championship level to just an also ran. But Luke, this was extra weird comparative to those two because you just saw a guy who was not putting his best foot forward in these three losses. And you know, to my point in the Covington fight, I think he tried at least, but he just could not activate what may have been left in there. Like we almost would have been more satisfied Luke in any of these three fights. If he had straight up, let his hands go and got knocked the hell out where you're like, okay, he's lost a giant step,

but at least he's going out there to win it. The theme of these three fights was not only didn't he not have it and couldn't activate it. Uh, you know, he's just not trying to win anymore. And, uh, this is what brings a lot of fear for me for him entering this Vicente Luque fight. It could go disastrously bad. I hope for his sake, Luke, that he brings whatever's left of him and he lets it go because this is weird.

This has been very weird. And now, you know, he woke up and he's 38 years old. So what do you have left? Should you even be in there on Saturday? Can you make us forget about those three fights, win or lose, with your performance here? A lot riding on the shoulders of a guy who never really got his due until it was too late, and now we're straight up ready to write off again,

only this time for rightful reasons, Luke. Yeah, I don't have much to add to that except it's kind of interesting that Tyron Woodley had success. I think the reason why he did have success is because he was a plus level athlete and he represents, folks don't realize this, he's around now, but he represents a different generation of MMA.

He's the oldest champion in UFC history to have that. I think he held and then defended the title at a later age than any other UFC champion. As your camera falls apart again because this is a great scene. No, it's working. It's working.

Mage, is this working? It looks like it's working. Yeah, they're going to put it back on the screen. So, yeah, the only thing I would add to that is he was able to do a lot, but he was able to do it despite his age. But that was eventually going to catch up with him. And now you've got Covingtons and Burnses and Kamarus. That's another generation than the one he represents.

And I just don't think he's got it in him to, obviously he didn't, to defeat those guys. We'll see about Luque. Luque is an interesting test case as well. So, all right, BC. Enough with the seriousness. A little mini review there. I think it was kind of, I always love doing these because I think you just learn a lot by going through them. But now it is time for your chance to steer the show.

So here's what we do, Luke. Every Wednesday, or most of them, I collect a bunch of ridiculous categories in an effort to make you answer questions you don't want to. It is called the Wheel of Death. Wheel of Death Balls. We have ten categories. Luke, you will spin the wheel five times times and you get what you get with a good faith response here are your 10 wheel of death categories for this week live in la vida lareda oh hey pick your poison adults who wear pro wrestling belts dank bud siri my face is covered in R. Young Lust and the 1990s.

The Machida era. I've got a phoner for 115. Rectum, damn near killed him. And number 10, Mary F. Kill. Luke, it's a random spin here. I know you physically cannot put your hand on the wheel, which angers you for some reason, even though you're in your damn house. I mean, I don't know what you're expecting here, Luke,

but can you spin the wheel just the same brother here we go pick your poison luke you have challenged me off camera or maybe on it too to come up with better more challenging questions for this segment or you'll walk. So are you ready for this, Luke? Are you ready? I don't know. I guess we're going to see.

Let's see. All right, Luke. Imagine a scenario in which tomorrow you received a random ransom email from an elite hacker who told you he has transferred the entire savings and checkings accounts of you and your wife all of your credit cards and the titles of both your house and vehicles over to his own name using believable variations of your own signatures while also covering his tracks in such implausible ways luke that even law enforcement or cyber security would be unable to assist you in getting back what was once yours are you with me still yes okay and to make matters worse luke he's been spying on you in your house for years and has nudes of everyone in your family that he'll share if you go to the cops but luke don't panic okay you're still with

me here we go there's a catch at the end of the email this sicko is actually not after your money or your family. He's after your shame brother. Okay His goal is to see you publicly embarrassed like you've never been before So here's the offer he surprised he provides to you in order to get all your money and possessions back and never be bothered again You must do one of the following three scenarios and never reveal publicly to anybody about why you did it or your true intention while also dealing with the consequences that could come with your actions here are your three choices Luke okay and remember you can never tell anybody why you did it number one throw a water balloon from press row at John Jones as he enters the cage to face the winner of steep a and gano to as obvious revenge for the press

conference incident from 214. number two tweet out a video of rocco sofredi's greatest hits with the caption forget the ineffective vaccines created by those who hate trump this is the only true cure for covid or number three get a tattoo of Amanda Hibis submitting Emily Whitmire in her UFC debut on your upper chest, throat, and neck that will be visible on camera for the rest of your career in anything but a turtleneck. Luke, pick your poison here. Jones, Rocco, or Hibis?

Oh, it's got to be Rocco. If you do the Jones thing, I'm going'm gonna get fired so i don't want to get fired maybe beat up too luke okay maybe maybe beat up too maybe yeah maybe uh the hebus thing is just a dreadful tattoo on my throat which i don't want the rocco thing could get me fired but there might be ways i could plead temporary insanity and it'd also be just fucking hilarious to that that absolutely dirty dog uh doing the things that he does so i'm gonna go you couldn't you here's the deal though on the rocco thing you couldn't when asked by hr or when asked by anyone be like oh it was a joke like you are no you are maybe i could double down on I've got like a sex addiction and I'm just making that up. Like I,

who says I can't continue my own stream of lies, not the truth, but the lies to cover up the other thing that I'm already doing. That is dishonest. Why can't I just go on my own route of lies? As your camera goes out again, this is a great show. This is a great show. I really, I really love your setup bc it's very good it's on brother it's on okay can you can they hear me on the show at least can they hear on each all right that's fine let's keep going by the, the camera's still on. You got the picture. All right, I know you can figure it out.

All right, Luke, let's spin it again. No one needs to see me, Luke. Just you. Spin the damn wheel. Spin in the wheel of death. We don't need the video right now. Oh, hey, Dank Bud. All right, Luke. Luke, this is not about really good weed. Instead, it's about your favorite boxer, Terrence Bud Crawford.

Are you ready, Luke? Yes. All right. Hey, you guys can go full screen on Luke to remove that black thing, okay? Hey, Boxing's Unbeaten WBO welterweight champion, Terrence Bud Crawford, Luke, he was a guest Monday on the Aachen barack show on sirius xm fight nation and was asked whether he would accept a unification fight against errol spence jr if offered a 50 50 financial split instead of the 70 30 that spence keeps wanting spent crawford said i don't know to be honest

because i'm past that i've been calling for them fight since I was at 140 once I move up everybody was saying get a belt I get a belt my first fight not no tune-up and now they say I'm on the wrong side of the street I'm not playing these games where they say they want me to fight on my terms it doesn't work like that Luke I asked you this question potentially to put it in today's show because I care about it, but you didn't, Luke. You said, I hate these two fighters. You said, I'm not going to talk about minor updates on two dudes

who won't fight each other. So putting that aside for a second, take me inside the head of Terrence Crawford. Not only did he say he's passed the Spence fight and wouldn't accept it if it's 50-50, he said Canelo is avoiding Demetrius Andrade and avoiding Jamal Charlo and doesn't like to fight black fighters, even though Canelo, Luke, has fought Mosley, Mayweather, Trout, Lara, Danny Jacobs, etc. Here's the question, Luke. Get inside the head of Crawford and provide me a good faith response

to his public strategy. Keep in mind that Crawford also said late Saturday, Virgil Ortiz Jr. has to work his way up. That fight ain't even ready yet. Does Crawford sound like he really wants to fight anyone, Luke? No, he sounds awful. And every time he does a tweet or an interview, it gets worse and worse and worse. Less tweety tweety, less talky talky-talky, more fighty-fighty,

is what I would say to Bud Crawford. I mean, I don't even know where to go with this, like, Canelo's not fought enough black dudes. It's like, okay, all right, whatever, dude. Whatever helps you sleep at night, you keep indulging in that. And then you won't even take 50-50 when you're not the biggest star of the two. I guess the fight that needs to happen, that everybody wants to see, where he would get... By the way, BC, I think you told us about this.

If they made a 50-50 split with Spence, he would get the biggest payday of his career, and he still doesn't want it. Boy, I got to tell you, Bud Crawford has quite an ability, an exceptional ability, to not make people interested in what he wants to do. Could you understand and sympathize more with Bob Arum, which I did not think I would be saying, but I actually, in this case, do. Well, Luke, here's what's interesting is, you know, Spence and Crawford don't have anywhere near the clout that Mayweather and Pacquiao had while they were extending that soap opera for five and

a half years and pissing us off still at the end of the day we needed to see that do you fear that that you know Spence and Crawford is going to get to a point soon where like people just don't care at all and and and they you know they fucked up people don't care at all there will always be people who care and there will always be people who care. And there will always be people who want to see it. And if they make it, it would be great on some level, I suppose, even if late. But if they never make it, it will be an absolute stain on their resumes. And you could fight all the Pacquiaos you want.

And, you know, Virgil Ortiz is 22. We'll see how good he ends up being. But, you know, you could fight all the guys who have names who aren't as tough or you know he was the guy next to the guy you know you can fight all those guys you want you don't end up fighting each other because a 50-50 per split your biggest ever payday was insufficient is really just clown shoe central couldn't be further from what a guy like Fury is doing or Canelo. And they're going to be remembered differently probably for a very good reason. All right.

Well said, Luke. Very good faith. Maniche, our producer, I apologize. I think I bumped the coffee maker in which the camera sits upon as I was typing. And no one wants to know this. You being in Puerto Rico is very good for the show, I've noticed. Very, very good. All right, Luke noticed very very good all right luke spin number three here we go all right i'm spinning

all right young lust in the 1990s this title do not get us fired motherfucker this title just about says it all i can only imagine you as a pimply face teen some 25 years ago hanging out in old marietta not playing sports not getting girls and living the same pop culture obsessed life that most of us did during that decade okay but i don't care if we're talking about kelly kapowski or jennifer love hewitt or jenny mccarthy or queen latifah if that's your flavor, Luke. Everyone back then had a number one on their pound for pound list. Their favorite celebrity crush that they would risk it all against from some TV show or movie or music video.

Heck, Luke, I mean, did you watch MTV's coverage of Spring Break in the 90s? No one ever had their pants on. People at both sides of the camera, okay? So, Luke, imagine if you could go back and be that pimply-faced kid again, only you can cash in on those gross adolescent feels. You get one from the 90s, Luke. Who are you picking? You want me to tell you as a 41-year-old man which teen I want to bang?

Hey, you challenge me to step up the questions here, Luke, okay? You know what I'm saying? All right, so I'll say as a teen, my God, biggest crush of the 90s. This is not going to surprise you. This is not going to surprise you. Do you want to take a guess? Salma Hayek. Oh, that is a very good good guess she's definitely high on

the power rankings but i wouldn't say that was my biggest celebrity crush of the 90s no that's a good the tejano music sensation selena luke rest in peace no no that's another good guess but no i'm actually gonna go somebody a little bit deeper cut, but interesting. Do you remember Daisy Fuentes? Oh, well played, Luke. Well played, yes. When your boy was in high school, Daisy Fuentes was your number one seed for a long time. Long, long time. That's well played.

It's an exotic choice. It's not in that normal top five pound for pound of like Young Britney or Love Hewitt or whomever. But it was never that. Because Daisy Fuentes was, for folks who may not know, back when MTV played music and had events and stuff, she was a VJ. She was a video DJ. And so she would throw to videos. But her role eventually expanded where they would be like, oh, MTV's going to be in, remember MTV every year would do like Spring Break in Cancun or in Miami, Florida, and there would be tons of events and tons of people

making out and blah, blah, blah. She would host those events on some level or the other, and she was a 10 out of 10. What do you want me to tell you? She was a 10 out of 10. All right. And Daisy Fuentes was a very, very dominant what do you want me to tell you she was a 10 out of 10 daisy fuentes was a very very dominant figure in your boy's life i think you even got maniche horned up because you jumped into the chat and said great choice right there luke so well you can't go wrong with peak daisy

fuentes i was a big fan of the show e wild on who had some hot hosts jules asner brooke burke remember they had cindy taylor the latino there lu at the end? I don't know if you remember that. All right. Enough of this before we get fired. All right, Luke. Spin number four is upon you. Hopefully it gets awkward. God, she's 54 now. Oh, hey, Luke. You get what you get. I've got a phoner for 115. I know what you know what that means, Luke. No one loves the history of the UFC women's strawweight division more than I do. In the six-plus years since that division launched inside the octagon,

115 has consistently produced the most exciting fights, built the freshest stars, and routinely populated the deepest and most dangerous top 10 in the rankings arguably luke of any other division male or female women's strawweight got its start of course on season 12 of the ultimate fighter 2014 in a season titled a champion will be crowned luke it's trivia time bro on the wheel of death I want you to name for me the two coaches assigned by the UFC for that season and eight of the 16 women strawweights

who made up that cast. Jesus. Were the coaches women or men? Men. Did you not watch that? Because I still think that's like the third greatest season, Luke. It's great.

I don't think I watched two seconds of it. Oh, boy. This is going to be bad. So let's go with the women. Angela Hill was on it. Was Joanne Calderwood on it? Yes. Jessica Rose Clark?

Yes. Luke, you're on a roll here three right now uh angela magana yes was tisha torres on that correct luke you're five you're at five so i need three more shit uh three more straw uh random marcos correct that's six um cookie monster who was her name uh um the the inaugural champion luke yes um carlos barza correct seven luke you need one ding ding ding ding wow congratulations wow impressive you missed uh or you didn't uh answer alex chambers jessica penne felice herrig justine kish aisling daily uh emily kagan lisa ellis beck rawlings luke but fantastic job right there the two coaches were in the men's lightweight division luke got it okay i don't know who they are all right they were anthony pettis and gilbert The two coaches were in the men's lightweight division, Luke. Got it. Okay. I don't know who they are.

All right. They were Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez. Thanks for calling. All right. All right. All right. One more of the Wheel of Death spin to close out this week, Luke. Who knows if this segment will last, but we're trying our best.

Go for it. You get what you get. Come on. Big Latina booty. Oh, wait. Hey, Mary F. Kill, Luke. No, that's not the name of the mathlete you took to the 1997 senior prom at old Marietta Valdosta Technical High School. But it is, Luke, a playoff of the classic game with a similar name, you know F. Mary kill remember that game Luke Obviously don't get nervous. We cannot play that game or we will become the next sugar Shane and Casey Kenny sorry sugar Sean and Casey Kenny. So Luke let's play this game instead It's kind of the same rules, but I like to call it pie punch co-host luke you know it's easy so here's the

rules luke i'll share three names and you tell me which one you would one like to throw a pie in the face of on camera two get a chance to punch off camera and nobody would ever know, or three, replace me with as the co-host of Morning Combat if I perish tomorrow via exploding penicular homicide. So, Luke, the three names that we will play this week in Pie Punch co-host are Uncle Dana, Canadian Kylo, and Yoana Champion.

Oh, God. Here we go. All right, so Pie is throw a pie inana Champion. Here we go. Alright, so pie is throw a pie in their face. Punch is punch. And then co-host is doing a podcast with... Yes, but look, the pie in the face is on camera. The punch, no one will ever know about, alright?

Okay, and then co-host would just be to co-host the show, huh? Yep. Jesus. Jesus. This is a lot harder than it looks. This is a lot harder than it looks. All right. it looks uh all right i'm going to pie dana uh i'm going to punch canadian kylo ren and i'm going to co-host with uh you'll want to

and jay check how about that wow wow luke well played right there i am shocked i would have guessed the pie on kylo punch dana but i think i cornered you where you had to basically co-host Ioana. Luke, would that show do more numbers each episode than what we're doing now? Yes. We are two losers who don't deserve this opportunity. That would be a much better use of Showtime's money in CBS as well. That would

be very interesting to see you and Ioana champion, put the differences aside and make great TV. That's a better question, because that one had me on the ropes for a second. had to you know what i'm saying i had to figure my way out of that one all right hey that's the wheel of death this week we'll see if people like it enough for it to come back luke we got another weird segment that usually wastes a lot of time it's called fan submissions all right let's do it we've got mail all right luke morning combat at gmail.com is the email address please send us what you got folks and we will put it on the air hopefully our good friend mikey more mile has

properly uh went through these so we don't have any issues here here we go number one from richard a he starts us off with some weird cupcakes and the quote b Brian's cupcakes just arrived. This is your legacy. This is your legacy. Can you full screen that? It says special order for BC. Happy birthday, bud. Luke, those are dick cakes. I'm not really into that, Luke, okay?

I'm not really into that. That's all you're into. This is your legacy. This is what you're going to bequeath to your children when they get better at search. I don't bequeath near my kids at all, Luke. All right, Kevin L. says, Hello, Luke in BC.

Hope your diets are going well and just in time for brokini season. Thanks for all you do in keeping us abreast of all things combat sports from your future champ, Kevin L. Wow. What happened to my tattoos? Look at the banana hammock on the guy on the right though b uh look look at bc's uh that's not great i'd say the guy on the left banana hammock there is protruding the guy in the blue has that bde if you know what i mean he definitely doesn't He needs some sun. Woo. Okay. Peter M has two of them for us, Luke.

First up is a meme of your boy, BC. Are you in Puerto Rico, BC? You haven't told anybody. Oh, stop that. You got, like, actually mad about that the other day. You were like, fuck, bro, I know you're there, all right? I know you're in fucking Puerto Rico. All right. Peter M's got one more for us second is an mk adventures tom and jerry meme brian wanting to discuss ufc fighters attractiveness luke what

but basically basically yes that's fair that's fair all right david s says luke said he wanted to see something a little different last week when bc showed my piece so here's a new piece for you thanks for all the content and love the show that's awesome your thoughts on what what does that look like but you look like uh i look cool you look like a stained glass window or something. Well, I love the artistic quality of this. It's fantastic. But what character are we supposed to be, Luke? I'm a little like the Punisher, I guess, or something. You look like somebody from a video game.

You look like Joaquin Phoenix from Joker. Or Screwface No. 2 from Mark for Death, possibly. It is cool, though. It is cool. I like the faces. The faces are cool. Yeah, I'd put that poster up in my office. Believe that, David S.

Thank you for that. All right, Katrine L. I don't know if this is male or female. It says, hey, Donks, I made a cross-stitched embroidery of you guys. Embroidery. I hope you like it. Wow, Luke. Look at that.

She says, my boyfriend and I are huge fans of the show. Waking up to the revelry of your podcast on these slow working from home mornings has made the lockdown more pleasant. I can't read, Luke, on air apparently. Big ups from your fans in Norway with regards, Katrine and I Rick Luke. That is amazing work. Amazing. Super,

super, super good. I look like George Lucas on the left, which is terrible. But maybe I deserve that. I think I look like the, it's a trap guy from a return of the Jedi. Luke on the right.

Yeah. Admiral Ackbar. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. But Luke, wow, that is amazing work from Katrine there. Super good. They wake up to us, Luke.

They wake up to us. Okay. In Norway, they have something called slow TV where they just put a camera at the front of a cruise ship as it sails down a fjord or something and it just goes for hours and hours they must treat morning combat like slow TV I love it I love to be a part of what they do when that couple wakes up Luke okay you're you're an awful human being who deserves to be fired. Kevin L. says, I got one. Luke as Takashi69 in honor of Luke's live chat episode number.

Here is Luke Thomas 69. Luke, thoughts on these tattoos from Kevin L. Got the MK tattoo under the left eye. I'm mouth breathing. Yeah, this is... I look like the predator you know lives on a hippie commune or something luke you you took a lot of um hit from our people who are saying you know you you feel like you're such a critic and cult you know a culture critic of art and yet you watch

the showtime 69 doc and and applaud it you know? Yeah, sometimes I like to smoke reefer and sit on my couch. Not every time needs to be Masterpiece Theater, okay? Okay, alright. Alright, Luke. Jonathan N is here. He says, quote, keep it up, guys. You gotta blow that one up.

I'd rather smell your bullshit than see your bullshit. I don't need to see you to defeat you. Have I ever told you about PEDs issues and how you saw to screwing all? Hey, why are you running? I'm not wrong. I just can't see your point.

Your cable management sucks. And even if I can see that, what blind fury, that's hilarious. That's good stuff. From the producer of, have you seen this shit? And justice is blind. That's good stuff. From the producer of Have You Seen This Shit and Justice is Blind, just like the judges. That's great. That's great shit there from Jonathan.

Cheyenne A. says, Hey Donks, making a highlight series for 2020 of the best MMA show there is. Started this because I would always show my girlfriend and friends the funny clips from the show and decided to put it together on YouTube. So I can go back and watch later. The channel name is MK ultra fan to quote the great Chuck Mendenhall. How much morning combat can you really listen to? I say a lot.

Here's the thumbnail for July. Is this a video or picture here? We're looking at Manish. Oh, look, check out that. Yeah, check out me wearing that Gordon Gartrell shirt right there. That's fantastic. That's so fucking early 90s. And then the oversized sleeve that just hangs at the cuff.

That's the best. Hell of a waistline, though, there, BC. Yeah, yeah, those were the days with that one, right? Thank you, Cheyenne A. I will check out your channel name just the same. One more for you, Luke, from Connor F. Hey, guys, I guess Jay won't be the only one hearing the words you're fired as the boys make their debut on The Apprentice 1 Championship Edition.

Chaudry is also a big fan of the high-quality and comfortable MK merch and looks forward to seeing his 100 billion viewers sporting your fine apparel love the show connor f luke this is uh this is great that's great you look like one of the two twins in the uh not the shining but the uh what's the horror movie where there's the two twins holding hands you know what i'm talking about yeah uh web screen made us that picture one time i forgot what the movie is though yes i have a cool jacket on though it kind of covers my neck isn't that interesting so am i is my head on misha tate's body and is that you on forrest griffin i don't understand this as much as well i'm not sure who that is in the background

but all i know is i appreciate chachri wearing our MK hat. He really showed great support by doing that. Indeed, indeed. And thank you to all of our submitters. Sorry I was unable to read clearly most of the copy. I'm blown, okay? MorningCombat at gmail.com, once again, is your email to slide in. Or DMs, you can hit BC up, but it's sometimes unreliable. There we go, there we go.

All right, that is it, BC. So let's see. You've got Ring City or the City of Rings or Iron Ring or Iron City tomorrow. What is it? Can I pump that one more time? Ring City, USA. NBC Sports, 9 p.m. Eastern. Look, this is one of the better women's boxing matchups in modern-day history.

Amanda Serrano, who's won nine world titles and seven weight classes, Luke, will defend her two titles at featherweight against Argentina's Daniela Bermudez, who has two world titles at 122 pounds, is a three-division world champion, and is moving up. Luke, the catch here, there's two of them. One,

these are two of the top ten pound-for-pound best women in the world facing off, so it's a great fight. But two, the location is incredible. Old San Juan right there in the center square with the fountain and the obelisk overlooking the ocean. Luke, they're putting a ring right there. It is going to be gorgeous. You've got views of the water, views of the old forts, La Perla over here. This is going to be a special night of boxing luke 9 p.m

eastern thursday night nbc sports this guy's face okay check it out are you gonna actually be on camera unlike the last like seven times you were at one of these that was one time luke okay we had some technical issues but yes you'll be seeing a lot of your boy bc tune in check it out uh yes thank you all right are you gonna be wearing gloves like you murdered Nicole Kidman and Ron Goldman? No, that was the California Commission was extra harsh. But we're a little bit more relaxed here, Luke. Okay? You know what I'm saying?

In the PR, we get pit stains. We're good. You know? We just chill out a little. All right. Very good. Well, we'll certainly be on the lookout for that. And, of course, tomorrow at 3 will be my live chat here on the MK channel.

All right. So let's just get the folks to know. If you would like to try Showtime, you certainly can. Showtime.com, 30-day free trial. You can look below. You can see the, well, they had it up there for a second, but you can see the places to follow us. You can throw up either graphic at this point. It doesn't matter. Yes, there you go. That's fine. And then if you want the Showtime subscription, again, for the first six months if you do it now it'll be $4.99 for the first six months show.com slash bellator mma if you want to get in on that but of course you get the entirety of the show time experience be on the lookout for bc's interview with stipe bc's

interview with big john some of the resume reviews that we've done um and do you have any more interviews coming this week, BC, or have you done the last of them? I think I've done the last of them. Again, I won't be on Friday show hosting like I normally do with the orange background, but Luke's mystery co-host will slide in. It should be a fun time giving you your final preparations for UFC 260. Also, Luke, for that 90s weird lust question, how about not original Kelly

Kapowski, but Tiffany Amber Thiessen when she replaced Brenda on 90210? You know where I'm going with this? 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10. I would go with that as well. Thanks for getting that right, Luke. I feel sometimes you and I, we, you know, where

are you? Over here? Sometimes, Luke, we can Yes. Yes, yes. Yes. Wait, it's my left hand, right? I forget. I don't know. No, the one without the tattoo. Hey, why don't you share with everyone your dad's response to your new tattoo, Luke?

No, it wasn't great. It wasn't great. What are you going to say? Dad didn't care for it. I'm sorry, Luke. I'm sorry. Well, I'm 41, and I own a home, and I have a kid, and I have a good career. And you would think that would inoculate me, so to speak, from those kinds of criticisms. But no, it doesn't. It doesn't.

It actually does not. I know, Rob. I want to push you around. I want to take you for granted. I know. I know. There's no 90s counter anymore. They gave up on your ass on this show.

Jesus, did they ever. All right, BC. And also, reminder, I will do a live post- gave up on your ass on this show. Jesus, did they ever. All right, BC. And also, reminder, I will do a live post-fight show on Saturday night following the... Oh, hey, Luke. One more thing, okay? Please, I need to take a dump, and it's almost a two-hour show. Please. Next week, you and I, we're going to be in proximity, brother.

Yes. Next week, you and I are going to be there for the debut of Bellator on Showtime. I don't know what we're doing. I saw a press release go out being like, hey, you know who's not going to be in that broadcast? Them two motherfuckers. I know I saw that. Well, I believe, Luke, we may be hosting press conference and weigh-in streams potentially. I also know, Luke, I got two words for you. Room service diaries and the documentarian, less than Jake, will be on the scene in Uncasville, Connecticut.

So, Luke, you never know. The cameras will be rolling, brother. You never know. They certainly will be. Okay, BC. That is it for us. That's it. That's it for us.

BC, get home safe. Thank you. Please, don't you is it for us. That's it for us. BC, get home safe. Thank you. Please, don't you go dying on me. No. Don't get the Zika virus. Don't get anything, all right? For Brian Campbell, for me, for Malka, for Showtime, for CBS, I'll talk to you guys tomorrow, and then we're back on Friday.

Until then, may all your gains be loyal. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.