MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 261, European Super League, Bellator | Luke Thomas' Live Chat ep. 73

Episode Date: April 22, 2021

Today on the podcast, we'll preview UFC 261: Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal plus the other title fights featuring Valentina Shevchenko vs. Jessica Andrade and Rose Namajunas vs. Weili Zhang. We'll also discuss covering Bellator MMA, the failed European Super League, Showtime Boxing crossover, the decline of Brazilian mixed martial arts, Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler, Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 3 and much more. --------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everybody, ooh let me scoot over, Jesus Christ. Hi everybody, my name is Luke Thomas, this is the Luke Thomas live chat. Episode, I think today is 73. We're going to talk about UFC 261, the microphone is on, huh? Isn't that a change? A swell change. We'll talk about European Soccer League. I suspect that will come up a little bit. And whatever else is on your mind. It's your chat. As you guys know, I put up a post usually the day of or usually the day before even actually.

Let you guys fill it up. It's on the community tab of this here YouTube channel. And then you guys do what you do and then we go through and answer as many as we can for about an hour and 15 minutes I left my glasses in the car. So I got to use these backup ones. Let's see Yep, still look terrible. Okay, but at least I can see all right without further ado. Let's get this party started shall we? Yes, we shall. Yeah. Okay. Like the video, hit subscribe. As you can see with the graphics there, I'll turn that off because that's a nuisance. One last time, subscribe and hit the notification bell.

Okay, you guys might know me from Showtime and you might know me from CBS Sports. Yeah, here I am. By the way, a bit of an update, you know, in the interest of transparency. Many of you, 70% of Americans, it looks like, are probably going to get vaccinated against COVID. We'll see what happens with the other 30. You, we can convince them, but we'll see. But in any case, yesterday, I had the shot, the second of my two Moderna shots, I had it on Tuesday. And if you guys saw Morning Combat yesterday, your boy was tired. Legitimately, it felt like I was sedated. I was really, really tired. But I had no fever. I had no chills. I had no aches. I had no pains. Nothing. I was just really, really tired and took a nap a little bit after the show,

woke up, did a bunch more work. Towards the end of the day, I was definitely feeling a little bit better. Went to sleep, got up this morning and felt like nothing had ever happened. I had two workouts. In fact, I had one this morning and then I had another one just now I just came from there So I feel great, I feel completely great There were definitely side effects For sure on the second of those But In the interest of transparency

I'm a very small price to pay And I feel like My 80 year old dad had nothing Zero side effects from both shots of Moderna So I was like Okay There you go My 80-year-old dad had nothing. Zero side effects from both shots of Moderna. So I was like, okay. There you go. There's my noted moment of transparency.

All right, let's pull up your questions. And you can do with that what you want. If you want to be an anti-vaxxer and ruin everyone else's good time, I suppose that's a legal choice you can make. For the rest of you, you've now been given heads up. All right, here we go. Jesus, there's a ton of questions. Okay.

First one from Ryan Walsh. Not a question, but a comment. Can we all please take a moment to truly appreciate... Oh, here we go. The chemistry Luke and BC have. From BC making almost every sentence a sexual innuendo to Luke no-selling the shit out of him. Not every time.

That's not true. That's not fair. Thank you both. Well, thank you, Ryan. And thanks to everyone who made that. That's the number one comment. That's great. That's great.

Man, fuck this. My fingers are all slippery. Okay. made that's the number one comment that's great that's great man fuck this my fingers are all slippery uh okay the fuck is this well the second one is not a question either y'all putting up questions today or how's this gonna go all right here we go first question i think two years removed from the big trade. God, has it been that long? Of Askren and Mighty Mouse, especially with DJ losing and Ben losing to Jake Paul. Was that really the one and only trade we'll ever see

between major organizations? Boy, that is a great question. Man. No, you'll see something like this going forward. You often find through MMA Boxing 2, you often find scenarios where for a long time you'll feel like these promotions operate on an island and of course, by and large, they sort of do.

But then, you know, they run into situations where they have to do a co-promoted show. Like, actually, if you look up the history of Showtime, there was a time when Strikeforce and Elite XC, I think both had rights to Frank Shamrock. I forget how it worked. But they had to co-promote a show. That was a big one.

You know, and of course, Strikeforce doing some work with M1 was another one. And those are different. Those are holding events. You're talking about trades. Still, they just find themselves engaging. I mean, whoever thought that one in UFC would do what they did, but you get the idea there. So I tend to think you'll see more of them.

But what I would say is like, you know, in reevaluating that trade, what did we learn from it? I definitely feel like both parties benefited. You can absolutely make an argument if you want in favor of one that they got the better of that deal because there was more longevity in terms of the upside for his fighting ability with Demetrius Johnson. And I think, you know, even with that loss, he lost to a really good fighter and it took, you know, he actually had some shaky in his first fight with one, but he won that one. But the point being is you got some, you got multiple wins out of him, I think is a fair way to put it.

You did not get that with Ben. And even the one when you got there was extremely controversial, much less, I mean, the only controversy, I shouldn't even say that, was the performance of DJ's first fight. There was no controversy other than, I just mean that he got stung a little bit and had to kind of fight through some adversity. So, one got the upside of that.

They got the third-party validation that they would even be a place that someone of DJ's caliber would consider going. I think there's a resume and sort of a reputational boost that comes from that. They got that out of DJ's caliber would consider going. I think there's a resume and sort of a reputational boost that comes from that. They got that out of that. You know, but like, did they get a real key entry into the American market? I don't think that they did.

I don't think that they did, even when you combine Alvarez and Northcutt. You know, certainly Alvarez and DJ, some of the best fighters I've ever had, frankly, the honor of covering. And, you know, Sagevarez and dj some of the best fighters i've ever had the frankly the honor of covering and you know sage has done some things but uh even the combined power of the three of them is not a gateway into the market and you know um ufc wasn't looking to it wasn't a they weren't looking for similar things the ufc was not looking to break into some other kind of market they were looking to just see if there was a market for Ben Askren and in the end if there was one it was never actualized

but here's the thing we said this on resume review earlier this week if you look at the career of Jorge I know I think I said this on excuse me we may have said it on resume review but I said it in the interview I did with Submission Radio they were saying like you know do you do you want to do this rematch right away? Did you want to build it up? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Is this a fight you have to make between Jorge and Kimura now? And you can argue certainly a lot of different points about meritocracy.

But if you're UFC, you got Jorge Masvidal when he had 30 fights already. That 2019 after losing in 2017 to Wonderboy Thompson, a thorough loss, like Wonderboy took a 10-8 on him, I think on one of the judges' scorecards. This is all, you hit the lottery, like you never expected this. Ben losing the way that he did, not just the loss, but you know, building that up and being this huge, short-lived but quick moment of attraction. I'm not saying that's responsible in totality for the rise of Jorge Masvidal, but it definitely fucking helped. It definitely helped. So they were looking for different things. UFC didn't get the high caliber welterweight

that they were looking for but they probably helped use what he had in other ways to facilitate some of their other star growth and one did not get the entry into the North American market I think they were perhaps hoping for although you know they're still working at it we'll see what happens but they did get a little bit of that validation of what it means that fighters of the caliber of Eddie and DJ would go there.

So, yeah. People seem to think that one side got really the better end of it. Again, I think you could make the case that one got the better of it measured directly. But I don't think it's as big as people imagine it. Would you be open to having a joint podcast with Josh and Big John for a big Bella tour show? Well, it's funny you mention that. There's nothing planned,

but we have been asked if we're interested internally at Showtime. So there seems to be a real possibility of that. Not like every time. I think just for an upcoming show. But I like those guys. So yeah, I'd be okay with that. Muscle milk.

This is the 40 gram one. Usually the ones are 25. It's only 220 calories. I always tell people this. You do not have to have a protein shake at all. You do not have to have one an hour after you work out. There's no such thing as the anabolic window. It's not for humans.

I just do it because I like it. And it fits in my macros. That's it. Just want everyone to be clear about this. This is not me endorsing this. Although it's good because it's only 220 calories. And if you're working on a caloric deficit to get 40 grams of protein out of it, it's just a lot of bang for your buck. But yeah, that's it.

You don't have to have these. Ever. In honor of the Mortal Kombat movie released this week. Tomorrow, right? Here are my MMA versions of the Mortal Kombat movie released this week Tomorrow, right? Here are my MMA versions of the characters Sub-Zero, Dustin Poirier Scorpion, Conor McGregor Sonya Blade, Valentina Shevchenko

That's very fair Liu Kang as Max Holloway That's funny Jax as Francis Ngannou That's a good one Johnny Cage as Colby Covington That's funny. Jax is Francis Ngannou. That's a good one. Johnny Cage is Colby Covington. That's pretty close.

That's pretty close. Johnny Cage is also a little bit McGregor. What are yours? That's a good one. Oof. Who would be Baraka? Has anyone stabbed anyone else up a little bit? You know? Who would be mine?

Those are pretty good. I don't know if I have anything to add to that. The Liu Kang one is hard to pick. We can't pick an Asian? Well, Max is close. He's not Asian, but you know. Halfway there. Sort of.

Who would be a good, like... I mean, he was Vietnamese, but it's better if, like, Kung Lee was still around, because that would kind of work. But these are decent choices. When was the last time you clean shaved? Probably... Probably 2009? Something like that?

So, Jesus. It's probably... I've definitely trimmed it up much, much lower than this at times. But clean shave? Yeah. Oh, Jesus, no. Clean shave, like no facial hair. Ooh. 2004 or 5?

Something like that. Soon as I got out of the Marine Corps. So, 2005. What season did you stop watching The Walking Dead and what was your favorite moment of the show up until the point? God, who was that asshole who got eaten? That sounded bad, didn't it?

I'm going to end up on Bojashina Depot again. Who was that old dude when they were still outside Atlanta? I feel like. When they were still trying to break into the CDC and stuff. There was this one old dude who was just

I mean the most annoying. Nats on a camping trip. Absolute dirtbag whining. It's like, dude, the world is ending. Your fucking beans aren't hot enough. Shut the fuck up, guy. And just eat what you eat and enjoy it. There's a hair in my food.

Good. That's the kind in my food. Good. That's the kind of fucking guy he was. He got eaten. And I literally, I remember this is true. The zombies finally got him. And they portrayed, what the fuck was his name? He was an old dude. He had like white hair, like a white beard.

You know, maybe a little bit heavyset. Not too, too bad. I don't remember. And the zombies munched on him. And I remember I went to my feet and I was like, woo. I've never read the graphic novels. I don't really know how it's supposed to go. I don't know who the characters are really more richly.

I only know what they put on TV. And even then I just binge watched it. So I probably was on my phone half the time. But that was one of my that legitimately was one of my favorite moments I was like man fucking a that guy is gone um the other one I grew fatigued with it because basically you know when people tell you it's a show about zombies and then the fans will tell you no it's much more complex than that it is true it is true but the problem with the problem with The you, no, it's much more complex than that. It is true. It is true.

But the problem with The Walking Dead is that it's the cliffhanger that never ends. And Charles Dickens was really, I heard a lecture about this once, Charles Dickens was really the first one who would write in such a way where the way his early wider publishing would work is he would write stories. This is what I was told. I've never actually verified this, but the person who told me this was supposed to be a literary expert, but okay.

That he would write chapters and the way it was, every week there'd be a new chapter or it was published in such a way where there were these breaks. And so he was intentionally designing it to leave you, I'm not sure what the literary term is, in medias ros or right in the middle of things, so that by the next time you got it, it picked right back up.

There was this great anticipatory kind of process about it. And he was really the first one to popularize that format, and it was a function of the way he wrote and who he was writing to and the way publishing worked. So I was told. Okay, so everyone does that, right? To be continued kind of a thing, right? But they always do it at the most extreme end. It's always like total existential terror that is unwavering and even when it's not the zombies it's you know the governor or this uh smiley asshole with the barbed wire on his bat who you know just has a more punchable face than i do i mean the worst person on earth basically it's like him and osama bin laden and then the dude who got eaten but at least that other dude got eaten. Osama's gone too. But you know.

You get the idea. You get the idea of this shit. It's just an exhausting path to nowhere. You never feel like the show meaningfully ever changes. It's just the same condition.

The same underlying condition is never really ever solved for. And so something about that is kind of unsatisfying, you know. These shows are not meant to go on as long as they do. I mean, again, I don't know about the graphic novel, and maybe graphic novels lend themselves more to continuation than perhaps television shows. But dude, television shows need to end. They need to end. They're not built for longevity. I mean, Jeopardy or something, right, where it's a game show where, you know, you can do that. That's basically the New York Times crossword puzzle.

You can do that forever, right, depending on the host or something. But in terms of like a drama, a fictional drama, those shows need to end. Even if it's a Law & Order franchise, you've got to end Law & Order, you know, Brooklyn Precinct, and you got to bring up Queens. It's got to be a new thing. And it always just felt like no matter what they did to turn the screw of the plot, you never felt like it was all window dressing.

The existential terror and the underlying conditions, they could just do nothing about it. And it's like, if you can do nothing about it, why do I need to tune in? I really kind of hated that. So I'm not sure where I... They killed the governor. They had broken out. They had stopped living at the jail.

I think it was the episode where... Who was the asshole with the bat? With the barbed wire? It was when he bashed a couple people's heads in. And I was like, okay, alright. I mean, this is just going to go on like this. And then a bunch of characters. People were all upset that characters that were long-standing were killed off or whatever.

To me, that's one of the better things that they ever did. That part I liked. But you just always felt... It was like Groundhog Day. That's what it felt like to me. It just felt like Groundhog Day. Groundhog's Day. Also, here's one reason why I regret stopping to watch.

Does Carl ever get eaten? I'm told Carl got eaten. I think that's true. There was another piece of shit that just... I mean, how did Rick not take him by the scruff of his neck and then his belt loop and then just chuck him into a pit of zombies and like, Sorry, son. You know, not everyone's going to make it to the end.

We need people who don't mind pulling their own weight. Because you, Carl, what an awful... I mean, dude, every week I'd be like, please, God. This is literally my internal dialogue every week when that show would come on. Lord, I know I've not been the most humble servant, but can the zombies eat Carl alive today, please, God? Please, Jesus. I just...

I'll do whatever you want. I just need Carl to die. Alright. Let's see. Favorite character from Breaking Bad. I mean, Walter White. Favorite scene. The scene mean Walter White favorite scene the scene when

Walter White hits I forget was it one of the drug dealers but they're going to kill Jesse basically and he runs him over with the car and then he gets out and he goes run that one that was a great one hey Luke since Floyd vs. Logan Paul

is officially headed to Showtime. It's not official. They haven't announced it. But I think it's true. I was wondering, are you going to change your tune on the Paul brothers and then give them the respect they deserve? No, I certainly am not. I certainly am not. I mean, I said it before. I'll say it again.

Well, this is exactly what I said for Jake Paul. I'll say it for Logan., this is exactly what I said for Jake Paul. I'll say it for Logan. I will leave the door open, which is to say, if they want to do real boxing against real boxers and actually give it a go, yeah, sure. I'd be happy to very fairly assess them. And what I said about Jake Paul, if the first three opponents he had were unorthodox, to put it quite bluntly, but if he was 3-0 in normal boxing, he wouldn't be fighting good guys either. So he'd probably be arriving in a roughly similar position. But it's also true, Jake Paul has never fought a boxer in boxing, a real boxer. And certainly Floyd is, but I don't know what the

rules are for this yet. It's not been formally announced. I've not been asked about any coverage. I think, you know, Showtime kind of knows how I feel about it. So, you know, you can't talk people out of this stuff. I guess they want to see it. I certainly, you know. What else can I possibly say? What else can I possibly say? What else can I possibly say?

Unless it's like... The one thing I'll say in earnestness is I did not ever... You can actually go back and look at my YouTube channel. I had to eat shit for it. I thought that Floyd and tension were going to waste everyone's time. There's a famous... I won't say it's famous, but there is one that sticks out in my mind. Musashi and Fedor had a sparring match one time.

I think that's what they even called it, or exhibition or something. And they both wore the kurtka, which is the jacket, the gi, for Sambo. And they threw each other, and they were armbarring each other. But it was quite obviously, you know, not a real contest. I thought kind of Floyd and Tension were going to do that. And then Floyd went in there and just stomped on him. If Floyd goes in there and stomps on him, I'll change my tune. I'll be like, wow, Floyd's going around and just like, you know, running these dudes over.

Okay, all right. I have nothing against tension, but to take that, what he did to him, and then use it on Logan Paul, yeah, sure, that'd be sweet. That'd be sweet. Would you be in favor of a champion versus champion fight between Shevchenko and Zhang Weili later this year,

assuming both win their bouts on Saturday, or would you argue against it, given the recent history of champions getting derailed when both went up in weight? The idea is tempting, and I understand why it would be tempting, because at that point, if you're Zhang Weili, right, the situation you're positing, she would have at that point beaten Ioannina Jacek in the best women's fight up to this point any of us have ever seen. She would have beaten Andrade quickly. And then in your scenario, she would have beaten Rose. I mean, let me tell you something, folks. People are kind of overlooking this. If you've got Jessica Andrade by stoppage,

if you've got Ioannina Jacek at all on your resume, you know, whatever my feelings about her as a personal matter, as a professional matter, what could you possibly say to impugn her performance? Yeah, she lost, but I mean, you know, oh, she didn't give enough. She wasn't talented enough. I thought she won that contest. I thought she won that contest I thought she won that contest and then you add Rose Namajunas to it you know three not just former champions but you know you're talking about a great era for this division and then one person lords over them so it would be tempting at that point still there's a part of me that would be a little

bit hesitant about it just because like even then, the division's still pretty stacked. Let me see who I'm not thinking about as a next possible fight. The Yan Xiao Nan fight, Carlos Borges. You know what? I don't hate it. I frankly don't know what kind of chance any strawweight champion would have against Valentina at 125. But I don't hate it because if she beats Rose,

there are some other interesting contenders. I think Mackenzie Dern down the line has really turned a corner since missing weight by like what, seven, eight pounds? And then you have your fellow Chinese competitor and Yan Xiaonan. I think she's Chinese, right? On the other side,

you have Lauren Murphy coming down the pike, so I wouldn't want to necessarily overlook her. Still, yeah, that's an interesting idea. I still would favor Shevchenko pretty heavily, but that's interesting. There's my kid. All right, back to the questions. Do you think Rose deserves

this title shot? She was getting pieced up in the third by Andrade, if my memory serves correctly. A little bit, yeah, she was taking some heavy shots. I also remember thinking her corner was giving her some uncharacteristically bad advice in the third round. They were telling her to stand her ground when it seemed like she should have sticked and moved.

That part I cannot speak to. I do not know I don't know what they were referring to I think what they wanted They were wanting Jessica to walk into Rose's range Which is If what you're saying is true That could be what it is

But I have no idea if it is I can't speak to it But yeah she was losing that third round Still she won It was a three round fight She won two of the three To me that's perfectly legitimate By the way she pieced up Andrade in the first. That should be noted. I think it counts as well.

So I don't have any issues with it. Mm-mm. What former UFC champion has had the biggest fallout in history? Barau, Hendricks, Woodley, Dos Santos, or BJ Penn? I think BJ's in a special category, unfortunately. I don't take any pleasure in saying that. I think Woodley has certainly fallen on hard times, but I think his decline and the decline of Dos Santos are very, I'm going to say, natural and to a degree kind of ordinary. You know, in one case, it's more a function of miles than age.

In the other one, it's more a case of age than miles. But in either case, it's just sort of something that will naturally happen if you compete long enough. It's hard to understand because they go from their peak until all of a sudden it feels like there's no decline. And there's no like, they never revert back to where they were. They never go back to being like a top three guy that you can just stay top three forever. I mean, some do. But in those cases, they lose the belt. They hang around a little bit.

Dos Santos more than the other case. Obviously, there was a little bit of a gap in between. And then they just fall off a cliff. But aging can really accelerate things overnight. So to me, what happened to Woodley and Dos Santos is noteworthy in the sense of their stories. But I don't consider it to be anything unusual. Burau's was bad. Hendricks was really bad.

Penn's got to be the worst though, right? Because Penn is, you know, he's still in... Burau and Hendricks had professional loss in a way that was precipitous, and in many ways, I guess Burau's still going, but for Hendricks, it was, you know, calamitous. Like, it ended everything. For Penn, I think that there's really a lot of other significant issues at play.

And that were at play for a long time. And the reason why his would be different is because he got many more chances than even other UFC champions would have gotten. By virtue of his legendary, previously certainly anyway, legendary status in the sport up to that time. And so all that ended up doing, though, was prolonging the misery, I think, a little bit. And so for those reasons, man, it really bums me out to even say this shit, to be quite honest with you, because if you were around when BJ Penn was on top of the world, I mean, this is not right. This is not the same. It's actually quite different. But the only way to explain it was like, you felt like you had a Khabib who could strike or something.

You know, and even that is kind of getting it wrong. But dude, when he was at his peak, he had a phenomenal jab. He hit hard. He had an iron chin. You couldn't even mark him up. He literally was noteworthy because you couldn't mark him up. He could easily fight out of his weight class. Win or lose, he was going to give somebody a hard time up a weight class. I mean, a 205 against Machida, no.

But everybody else was on notice. Loved grudge matches. You know, had a big mouth when he needed to. Literally, world championship level jiu-jitsu. Excellent defensive wrestling. He wrote the book on the early stage of defensive wrestling, both using and not defense. He had incredible flexibility.

Dude, he was just an absolute fighting marvel. Frankly, there's been no one like him since, which doesn't say that guys in today's prime couldn't beat him in his prime. I don't know. That's a different debate, but I just mean what he could do in terms of playing the levels. Maybe there are guys who have enough concentration in a couple of different spaces to give anybody in any era the business, maybe. But to be as good as he was at all the different things. And to be as formidable as he was. And again, just weird shit.

Like, he was hard to make. I remember the first time I ever was like, whoa, about someone hurting him was the Nick Diaz fight. Because Nick marked him up. Really marked him up, really marked him up. Even if you go back and watch the Fitch fight, he took it to Fitch fighting way outside of his weight class. That fight should have been a draw. He should have lost the first two, and then the third should have been a 10-8. Or maybe you could argue he lost the second one too. I forget how it goes. He started strong and then faded quite badly. The point being is you just had a guy who could do it all.

I mean, in everything, he could do it all. He could do it all. And no one could just make him look like he suffered. Anyway, so even against Fitch, after a 10-8 round, he didn't look too bad. He looked terrible after the Nick Diaz fight. That was the first time I was like, wow. I couldn't believe someone did that to him. What do you think about the European Super League?

Boy, that was all the rage, huh, this week? There's a site that I really love called Managing Madrid. It's the official SB Nation site for Real Madrid fans and covering the team. But they're smart guys, right? They have really good self-awareness. They were like, dude, if Madrid wins the Champions League this year, they're going to be the most hated team in history. Yeah, pretty clearly.

It turns out that the mastermind behind this is Florentino Perez. You know, basically the guy who runs the business side of the team. And he appears to be the front man for this and the architect. Now, he had a lot of help. Let's be clear about that. I don't think anyone would deny that. He had a lot of help, not merely from other Spanish teams, but the Italian teams

as well. The English teams seem to be the least committal, although I don't buy any of their bullshit about backing out. I mean, yes, they did it, and I'm sure that they intend to. We'll see if the UK passes any laws to set up

clubs in terms of public ownership with the public, with a 51% like the German clubs do, so it could prevent some of this stuff. We'll see if some of the laws are changed. I don't know if they're going to do that or not. Here's the only thing I have to say. I understand everyone's complaints are totally valid. This was basically the rich clubs of europe um and it's in its initial stage the initial 12 was at 12 or 15 teams

six of the premier league and three from la liga and yeah and then three from italy so it was 12 um this was the rich trying to establish their own country club and private pool inside of Europe, essentially. World soccer, basically. World football. They wanted a private space, more or less, not actually in totality, but more or less exclusive to themselves to bank on their existing power as brands within their relative leagues as a way to cash in and make even more money. And when I say even more money, I mean what was reported as substantial billions of dollars

for each of the top clubs. So there was just a shitload of money on the line. They basically said, we are, pick your team, Juventus, Manchester United, Madrid, whatever. We want to take that brand equity and we want to do something with it. And we want to exclude, you know, the Dynamo Zagreb, Zagrebs of the world,

so that we can just cash in on that. It failed. It failed. And people are very, very happy that it failed, which is totally understandable. I'm not for it. I mean, I'm not, I wasn't like, I didn't think it was the worst thing ever, but I didn't, you don't need it. And in fact, the only thing I was really worried about was like, dude, soccer players already play a shit ton of games. If you follow any other sport as an American, if you're a European watching this, you won't appreciate this.

I mean, maybe rugby is this way, I don't know. But in America, when the NBA season is done or the NFL season is done or the baseball season is done, the layoff is substantial. Usually half a year or pretty close, five months, something like that. It's a long time. Baseball ends in, what, October or so and doesn't pick back up until April or May. So you've got like parts of November, December, January, February, March, April. Yeah, it's about five or six months. It's a long time. Dude, in soccer, it's like six weeks. That's not literal, but it is insanely short.

These guys have to play in their normal leagues. They have to play if they're one of the good teams in the Champions League or it could be the Europa League. Each of the leagues has their own kind of tournament within the structure. So in La Liga, which is the league I predominantly watch, it is, what's it called? Real Madrid keeps washing out of it every year. Copa del Rey, right? Kings Cup. In Premier League, they've got their own.

So, dude, they're constantly playing, and they're traveling. Granted, Europe's not too far, all the places from each other, but still, the wear and tear is insane. You were going to add another layer of that to the, I mean, and forget about what it would do in terms of the economics to the small clubs. I mean, basically, it was the rich wanting to get richer, and not just that, but to entrench their power forever, right? We would be in a position where not only do we have more than them,

but we're going to create enough structural differences so that it will always be this way. They will always be at that end of things. And people, especially in the UK, we really came out strongly against it. Again, I didn't know enough to have a super against it opinion, but certainly I didn't think we needed it. And at any time, it's like pure owner greed. You should have a bad feeling about it. This is the only thing I have to say about it. You know, if you're glad it failed, great. Again, we didn't need it. Part of this also should be noted is that Florentino Perez was saying that, you know, yearly their revenue is like 900 mil in euros and it went

down to 600 mil because of COVID and they want to get some of that money back. Partly I can not even understand that. Not that that solution justifies it, but you can understand why you would want to make, if you'd lost a third of your income, you would want to find a way to get that back if you could. But the thing I'll say about this is twofold. One, dude, if you watch, and I'm not saying that they're better in terms of their structure, where it's a closed shop. I like the relegation system in Europe. I really do.

People have asked me, could it work in the United States? I think it could, but I don't know that it would work for every sport. In fact, I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't. But for some, I think it could. I think our soccer teams could do it here at MLS anyway the point I'm trying to make here is um one dude they make if you watch American sports for all of their problems the parity in the league is significantly greater than it is in any of the European leagues. So don't let anyone tell you, oh, English Premier League is the most competitive.

It might be, but they still have a few, you know, a handful basically of kings at the top of that, and everyone else is fighting for scraps. And there's some that are, you know, reliably mid-table or whatever, and then some that are reliably mid-table or whatever, and then some that are reliably on the bubble, and there's a little bit of switching in and out. But, dude, they are dramatically unequal. The difference between, I don't know, a Swansea City and a Manchester United, you couldn't find the equivalent in American baseball between the biggest and smallest club, the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees. Even then it wouldn't

be as big. And then, by the way, it's actually better in England. You go and look at like you know sporting HeHan versus Barcelona. I mean we're not even talking about in the same universe. And France is bad. Germany's got

two fucking clubs for the most part. You know, Borussia Dortmund and then they got Bayern. And Bayern versus who just got relegated? Schalke? It's just a universe apart in terms of their resources and recruitment and infrastructure and everything. It's just wildly different. Dude, that's only going to get worse. It's not going to get better in the overseas clubs, in the European clubs. That trend is going to continue. Here's what I think. They failed on the European Super League idea. If you think that the Manchester Uniteds and the Real Madrids and the Juvent's of the world are going to just let that slide

when there's billions of dollars to make. All they're going to do is get craftier about it. They are not. They are not going to leave that money on the table. It will not happen. How long you can delay it or what are the kinds of ways you could structure it, I don't know. Some have suggested that the European Super League could be a way to then facilitate change in Champions League and make things better there. That would be nice. I would certainly welcome such a thing. But in a system that is terribly unequal in Spain, in France, in Germany, in Italy, in the UK, that is only getting worse,

that those powers wanted to collectively work to A, recoup some losses, but B, yes, total greed beyond that. Why would they stop? Oh, the fans fought back. Okay, for now. The incentives don't change. None of the incentives change.

If you think that Real Madrid is going to leave billions of dollars on the table, potentially annually, you're very confused about this. So maybe it'll be a situation where the laws change in the United Kingdom, where those teams can't participate. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I have, this is so far outside my area of expertise

that I'm truly just guessing. But what I do know is we live in a world where the very rich will take every measure they can to entrench their wealth. And if you don't have rules set up to stop that, and the American teams, again, I'm not telling you I like Major League Baseball as in their structure more than I like the Premier League. It's not what I'm telling you. But in terms of parity, it is way better than it is over there. But it is that way because of rules around drafting talent,

around salaries that can be played, around any number of restrictions that are put in there to keep a level of parity there. If you don't do that, this is inevitable. To me, this is just the first wave that crashed, and the walls held. But to me, the question is to me to me the question is when the levy breaks not if

look in the last live stream you said your wife is a fan more so of the WMMA. Yes. Then the guys, uh, first, who's she a fan of cyborg big time, big time cyborg fan. And second, she will be watching the two championship fights, which involves some of the best women's fighters there are. No, no, no, she will not be watching that. I don't have... I don't... They're a very casual fan. Loves Cyborg and loves Amanda Nunes. Loves Amanda Nunes. She liked Ronda.

But, very casual fan. Luke, I'm not sure you can answer this one. Yes, I can. But do you enjoy covering Bellator? Sure, for the most part. It seems like so much more work with the UFC news and dramas one and boxing I know you have to show time but on a scale of one to ten how much do you enjoy it I mean look listen this is not very complicated do I watch more Bellator now than I would absent professional obligations? Yes, of course.

But here's what you got to ask yourself. Like, dude, that's what I always try to tell people. It's like, anything you do in MMA, you really get it laid out for you, the cost-benefit analysis. Hey, let me tweet about a scientifically literate position that will go against the grain of the deeply irrational macho culture that permeates MMA Twitter. You know what you're going to get. You know what you're going to get. At least on some level you do, I suppose. The point I'm trying to make here is, in everything in MMA, would I watch a lot less UFC

if it wasn't for professional obligations? Fuck yeah. I'd watch a ton less. I'd still watch, but I would not watch nearly as much. Would I watch less boxing if I didn't have to? Fuck yeah. I'd watch a lot less boxing if I didn't have to. Fuck yeah. I'd watch a lot less boxing.

So, you know, would I watch, would I elect to watch less Bellator than UFC? I don't know how that would all play out exactly. But yeah, I'd probably watch a lot less if it wasn't mandated. Man, here's what's kind of funny. Like every weekend that passes, I say to myself, I should really upload to my personal channel. watch a lot less if it wasn't it wasn't mandated man here's what's kind of funny like every every weekend that passes i say to myself i should really upload to my personal channel and then

the weekend comes around and i don't have any desire not right now to do it um i've done all the tape study on and i've recorded actually some parts of the uh the most parts actually of the Blachowicz breakdown that I owe everyone. I just want to hang out with my kid, man. That's really all that comes, and my family. And I spent so, dude, you guys don't understand. I had someone write me today that they didn't even

know who I was until UFC 214. And of course that makes plenty of sense, right? People come to the sport whenever they come and I'm not some super celebrity so I might take some time to to work through and find some of my work and so it just happens when it happens but i i mean i've been pushing since 2004 or 5 you know hard all the time working giving up every weekend every Tired. Tired. I don't really want to do that the same way. Plus, you know, and then through that process, neglected my health. So now I'm trying to get back to that and make that a focus of my free time when I have it.

Doesn't leave a lot of time for other things. So, you know, you're asking me, like, would I do other things if I was not in MMA? Like, or excuse me, that's not what you asked. How much of a role would MMA play in my life were it not a professional obligation? Yeah, substantially less. And I don't really have any problem saying that. I would still absolutely watch, no doubt about it. But I'm not even sure if I would be a hardcore fan if I didn't need to be professionally.

I'm not sure anymore. I mean, maybe. I don't know. I don't really want to test that theory because I like my job and I like covering MMA. I think I do okay at it. But I pushed for so long that I don't want to keep pushing like that anymore.

Oh, this is interesting. Do you think NBA players need to be accountable for putting targets on law enforcement's backs? Did you guys see this? I try to follow as much right-wing media as I can, in large part because the people I'm around would not put it in my face. So I try to go and seek it out. I follow National Review, Daily Caller, shit like that, and some individual writers. And they've been really kind of all, and I've seen them on twitter they've been all over lebron james let me say this the amount of dishonest bad faith frankly bullshit attacks on him from right-wing media makes it so much that i

am very much wanting to second guess anything about them when it comes to LeBron. However, they're right here. They are absolutely right here. LeBron, if you guys didn't see this, he tweeted and then deleted it. There was a situation where an officer got involved in essentially a potential stabbing. And, you know, he intervened in such a way. Well, you know what? Let me get... Let me say this.

The officer intervenes, draws a weapon. I believe he fired it and killed someone. I need to double check. Hold on, knife. Woman. I want to make sure I get the details right here. I've actually forgotten the incident. Okay, so... is from, I believe this was the Columbus, Ohio situation, right?

Columbus police shot and killed a teenage girl who swung at two other people with a knife Tuesday. According to body cam footage from the officer who fired the shots just minutes before the verdict in the George Floyd killing was read. Officials with the Columbus Division of Police showed a segment of the footage Tuesday night just hours after the shooting took place in a neighborhood on the city's east side. The decision to swiftly release the video was a departure from protocol as the force faces immense scrutiny from the public following a series of recently high-profile police killings that have led to clashes. The 10-second clip begins with the officer getting out of his car at a house where police

had been dispatched after someone called 911 saying they were being physically threatened, Interim Police Chief Michael Wood said at the news conference. The officer takes a few steps toward a group of people in the driveway when the girl, who is black, starts swinging a knife wildly at another girl or woman who falls backward. The officer shouts several times to get down. The girl with the knife then charges at another girl or woman who is pinned against the car. From a few feet away, with people on either side of him, the officer fires four shots and the teen slumps to the ground.

A black handled blade, similar to a kitchen knife or a steak knife, lies on the sidewalk next to her. A man immediately yells at the officer, you didn't have to shoot her, she's just a kid. The officer responds, she had a knife, she just went at her. The race of the officer wasn't clear. Turns out, I think later he was white. So LeBron, in his infinite wisdom, tweeted a picture of, I guess, the officer in question and said, like, you're next, hashtag accountability. Let me make sure I get that right too, actually. I don't want to get that wrong. Hang on here. It was definitely, it sounded very threatening, to be quite candid.

Where's the tweet? Let's see. Yeah, here it is. You're next. Hashtag accountability. And the officer is, he's white and he has glasses. Okay, he then later deleted it because, well, as you can imagine, the situation is not so clear. I don't present to you that I have infinite understanding of the complexities of a situation like this or normal police protocol. But at a bare minimum, at a bare minimum, I will say that taking a moment to back up a second and say that the reflex here to make this automatically a function of systemic police abuse or racial hierarchy played out through police abuse, that we may need to take a step back from that here.

She was unambiguously armed, and she was unambiguously charging at an officer. Again, I'm not here to tell you what the appropriate response is. I don't know what the law says about what officers should do in a situation like that. But I know that that is, at a bare minimum, scary as hell. And a lot of times officers will lean back on like, oh, I was really scared.

And you look and you're like, you didn't really have a reason to be. Again, that would be somewhat subjective, but you could imagine someone wielding a knife, even if it's a kid, could be a little bit off-putting. And at a bare minimum, I think, necessitates a sober, thoughtful, careful review of the facts

before any conclusion about what happened here is jumped to or what should have happened. I leave what should have happened to the experts who understand these complex situations because I don't know what the answer is. Maybe someone will tell me the officer should have known better and other experts will say that. Maybe experts will say the officer was well within his right to do this. I leave that to them. All I know is this is not, I mean, the guy's not been charged with any crime. The guy's not on trial. He may never been charged with any crime the guy's not on trial

he may never be charged with a crime and in fact I think you might see other experts potentially I don't know come out and say that his actions were justified and perhaps even prevented future violence

and you're tweeting out a picture of the guy and declaring you're next, I mean, that was not smart. That was not smart from LeBron James. That was frankly, deeply, totally irresponsible. And I will say, I don't see hardly anyone outside of conservative media talking about it. Like, if I go to the front page of ESPN, will I see it? Let's see. Anything about LeBron on there? Okay, so on the top right-hand corner

just in words, there's no pictures or anything. It says top headlines. There's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 of them. On the right there says LeBron Post deletes tweet on police shooting. Who wrote it? Dave Mac Meneman. I don't know who that is. LeBron, to his defense, such as there is one on this, has said later, Anger Anger does any of us What the fuck

I think he meant to say Anger does any of us no good And that includes myself Gathering all the facts and educating does though My anger still is here for what happened to that little girl My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail I'm so damn tired of seeing black people killed by police I took the tweet down because it's being used to create more hate

Yeah I can imagine This isn't about one officer It's about the entire system And they always use our words to create more racism I am so desperate for more accountability Listen man I can totally understand the general sentiment That people have

Especially African Americans A little bit sick of seeing black people gunned down By law enforcement I think you can totally understand that. I don't think it's in any way for a rational person hard to understand. But that doesn't give license to do what he did, not even close.

And frankly, I don't even see him apologizing. That's a bad look for LeBron. That's a bad look for media who won't say anything. You know. I don't know. Yeah, I just don't see a ton of talk on it on traditional media. Not a lot. Very, very little. And, you know, he took it down.

So how much is there exactly to say? I don't know. But it feels like when... I don't know. But it feels like when, I don't know, they're not exactly equivalent. LeBron is benefiting from the fact in this particular wrongdoing from the reality. When I say benefiting, I mean like in terms of media treatment

from the reality that the larger picture of what he is pointing to is unambiguously true. But this particular point to make that larger picture true is impossible, at least for the current moment. And, you know, the guy hasn't been charged with shit. Like, dude, that is, you just can't be doing shit like that. Gillespie versus Diego Fajero. That's a great fight. Gillespie, phenomenal. Lights out takedowns, hard nose aggression, maybe a little bit still, a bit raw material. Diegoigger Fajera rapidly improved. His longevity has given life to how many skills he's accumulated.

And dangerous. Dangerous backtaker. Dangerous guard passer. That's great. Will Ryan Hall actually fight this year? I actually texted him yesterday. I got to get back to him. I've not heard.

If Tyron Woodley stepped into the ring to box Jake Paul and ended up losing, how much of an indictment on combat sports as a whole would that be? Fuck, that's a good question. Wow. Well, firstly, I actually don't think he would lose. I think Tyron would beat him, to be clear. First. But your question is if, and ended up losing. So I'm going to say he goes the distance in a six rounder and loses. It Because it would make MMA look terrible. And here's the thing about that. It wouldn't just make MMA look terrible. It would make MMA look terrible at a time when we are finally turning the corner in terms of respectability. Guys, you take it for granted if you're new to the sport.

I am telling you, you take it for granted. For years, we dreamed about just getting a mention on SportsCenter. For years, we dreamed about just getting a mention in the New York Times or pick your media outlet, whatever. I don't give a fuck. Whatever it was. Okay? And it just never happened. There were no rankings. There were no articles. There were no reporters. There were no videos. There was nothing or very little, just at the fringe. And all of it was the same kind of story retold for their own audience. And now you're at a place where MMA is just a part of the firmament of the sports culture. And more to that point, this is the real key. This is how you know we've made progress. Forget all of this stuff with boxer versus MMA fighter. When I first started covering

MMA professionally, I would go to boxing gyms and we would talk about MMA. Dude, the amount of vitriol, by the way, this is still very true. You'll still get a lot of this. But the amount of dismissiveness and vitriol around it was routine. And pronounced. You go there now, yes, you're still going to get a lot of that.

Because there's still a lot of old heads in there. To see a Lomachenko and a Dillashaw training together, of that because there's still a lot of old heads in there you know but um you know to see like a Lomachenko and a Dillashaw training together was impossible to imagine to see um boxers good ones you know like really like high level technicians express admiration for, let's say, the striking ability of Adesanya or Anderson Silver or whatever. Dude, you couldn't get it. That phenomena in 2007 or something, if it existed, it was fleeting. St. Pierre was one of the first ones when Freddie Roach began training him.

Arlovsky, too, but the big one was Freddie Roach had a much more lasting relationship with him. Dude, you just couldn't get it. So we're going to, like, again, I think Tyrone would beat him. But if he did lose, to the point of your question, like for the claim that's being made, you're going to undo all of the work about not just acceptance, like we're okay with you existing, but the actual embrace of MMA. The actual act of welcoming it, of being intrigued by it,

of being moved. And it wouldn't undo all of it, or even most of it. It would undo probably just a little bit, but it does feel like that would be a stain. It would be a stain if something like that were to happen in conjunction with everything else that is happening. Dude, Eddie Alvarez might be boxing Oscar De La Hoya. I don't know what the hell is going to happen there. I tend to think Oscar probably will win, but I don't know.

But let's say he does win. We're going to add up that, and then you'd add up this? If that were to happen, again, it would not undo the progress in a real way. This is a little bit sky is falling scenario, but still, to have come this far and to have these kinds of things almost as a matter of routine. Only to then cash it in. So MMA fighters could just get tuned up by boxers?

Because they wanted a payday? It's like, fuck. What a... Again, it would be... The real story there would be partly the fights themselves and what it would say about the striking skills of MMA fighters on some level. Although we all know the bigger story is a lot more complicated. But it would be, I mean it's already this. But it would be, the UFC might step in here at some point if they can because it's just shining a light on how bad the pay is that they're willing to do all this stuff.

It's a complete indictment on it. Are there female referees on the regional MMA scene and do you envisage a situation where we see female refs in UFC title fights within the next five years? It seems like an unexplained. There was Kim Winslow in Nevada for a time. That didn't last. No, I don't see many of them.

It's probably a pretty thankless job. Have you seen The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix? Great movie. You should check it out. Great is a strong word. I would call it good. Luke, what are five or more if you have them? I don't know. Documentaries that you have watched,

you've found to be the most instructive about how the world works. Jesus, I don't know if I've seen five documentaries I could say are that profound. I would say Blackfish. Story behind the capture and containment of orca. Not just at SeaWorld, but predominantly at SeaWorld. And what it says about animal captivity, orcas, human profit motives. That's a wake-up call and a half. I saw it recently, but it was just incredible.

If you guys have not seen it, especially if you have a 4K TV, if you don't have a, listen, I realize that's CEO, Florentino Perez. Hey, especially if you have a 4K TV, I don't mean it that way. I just mean to say, if you have a 4K TV, you got to watch My Octopus Teacher. Wow, man, that dude to watch My Octopus Teacher. Wow, man. That dude knows how to make a movie. Have you guys seen this movie?

There's this dude. He's South African. I think he's South African. He had four major companies made documentaries, particularly in the African bush, for a long time. This guy was in the thick of it trying to make these nature documentaries. He eventually gives that up i think moved back to wherever he was from in south africa which was right on the beach and he goes snorkeling and over time what you see him do is he begins to and i mean it in these words develop a relationship with a particular octopus that lived near in the water

where he lived and he made it a point every single day to go into this octopus's environment and then to see how he could learn from, learn about, and then develop this relationship with this octopus. And he watches every part of it, including the octopus, die, and the whole life cycle and everything. And the way he tells that story and the way he shot it, because he shot it, I think, by himself himself or he had just a little bit of help um you know like a two-person

crew at most uh is magisterial magisterial an incredible job this guy did i don't know his name it's on it's you haven't seen it's's on Netflix. I saw that during the pandemic. And to call that moving is an understatement. Documentaries I've seen. Man, I don't know if I've seen any of those. I mean, I've seen some other good ones. Oh, Pumping Iron. Gotta be a big one, Pumping Iron.

Generation Iron is a good one. There's a series of those, but the first one's pretty good. There's a bunch of like Making the military documentaries That are all kinda good None of them really Can tell the story Because All the fuck fuck games

Are saved When the cameras are off Which you can well imagine Um Oh Um Restrepo There you go

There's my last one Restrepo If you guys haven't seen's my last one. Restrepo. If you guys haven't seen that one, that was an outpost in Afghanistan in the, I think it was either in the Kandahar or was it in a different valley? What valley was that in? Hold on.

Let's see. 2015 film. This was in, oh, the Korengal Valley. You know, we're just talking. You're getting shot at every day. Every day you're getting shot at. It was this outpost. This was made in 2010.

It was this outpost that was the, let's see, it was the men of 2nd Platoon Battle Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade. And they had to hold this place just because the military needed it for whatever reason they said they needed it for. And all that meant was daily death and daily, just like rain in London, you were going to get shot at that day. That movie is spectacular. thoughts on Usman saying he would rather walk away than rematch Colby or Leon I don't believe he'll actually walk away before he has a rematch with Colby or Leon

I think he's probably somewhat inspired by what Khabib has done. But I'll say this. I posted about this, and people seem to get the wrong, some people seem to get the wrong idea, which is that with Usman, when he says he would rather walk away, I mean, he's talking about walking away not just because of rematches, but because he's thinking about not much time left in the sport,

want to move on, want to go do other things. At 33, I think he's wise to do that because you're going to get old at welterweight fast. I think he's actually got a lot more time left than he probably imagines, but it's not wrong to be a 33-year-old welterweight and thinking, I need to figure out how much I can do with the time I have remaining. I think that's probably wise. But the bigger point was that you see these guys get on top of the game.

I mean, Kamaru Usman is the top 1%, probably even, you know, the 1% of the 1% of all MMA fighters, right? You're looking at the cream of the crop, right? UFC champion, he's going to get pay-per-view points. He's not Conor McGregor, but, you know, fighters don't get to a much higher level than what he's got. It's basically, he is what you could call rich in terms of the levels of MMA success. And he can't wait to get out. And folks are like, oh yeah, because you would want to get out on top. Or the grind has worn out.

Or any of the reasons that you might ascribe just from sort of, I won't call it obvious things, but the things that aren't that hard to figure out. But it's like, dude, you don't see this level of eagerness to call it quits at the peak of earning potential in boxing. You don't. You do not see this. You don't see any of this. Hardly. Where guys get to their peak earning potential and then go,

I'm going to have a few of these and I'm going to get the fuck out. If our peer sports had a similar mechanism in play, I'd be more sympathetic to the idea that that mattered. But they don't. So what's going on?

To me, it's probably, I mean, I don't know exactly, but to me, there's probably a few things. I would say, one, the pay is just, it's good enough at the top to collect some real wealth, but certainly not what it should be. Two, I think one thing I have to just accept

is the injury load in MMA is just much higher. You know, boxers might be in good shape, but I don't think they put their entire bodies through the same amount of, I'm not even going to say stress per se, but injury potential stress. There's a lot of that in MMA.

So I think that's part of it too. Like we're talking about long-term quality of life issues, not just with brain trauma, but do your knees and ankles and fingers work the same way? Elbows, shoulders, back, you know, any kind of connective tissue that you may have torn over the years. I think there's that.

I think the, you know, I think the community is pretty toxic for the most part, candidly. Surrounded by a lot of someone's calling me from Arlington I don't know what the fuck that is I mean there's just so many bad faith actors in the business

and it's probably hard dealing with them your contract if you're you know Bellator or UFC if you're a champion is going to be more lucrative than not, but it's going to be restrictive. And they just want out. They want out. that by the time people get to the part of the game where all the things that they wanted

are now beginning to happen, that they want out much quicker than you would have said if you had asked them a couple of years ago how much longer do you want to do this or what are you going to do when you get there or how long do you foresee yourself up there is such an indictment.

Such an indictment. Such an indictment. See, I don't mind answering questions that are like, you know, relevant and good faith, but there's some weird ones here that I just can't answer because they're silly. Okay, we'll end on this one. Luke, I'm separating from active duty in the Coast Guard later on this year. I was wondering what general advice you'd have

for transitioning into civilian life and how you look back on your time. Blah, blah, blah. Don't know what kind of life you led in the Coast Guard, but I think one thing everyone who was in the military should do is understand who they are. Did you like if you lived in a city, did you like it?

If you didn't, don't move to a fucking city. You should live in a lifestyle that accommodates and in a place that more accommodates who you naturally are, I think as a way to ease back into things. I would also say, I hope you saved a little bit if you had a chance. If you have a GI bill, get that cooking. Don't waste a lot of time on downtime. Start hitting the books right away. That gives you structure.

It gives you something to do. Even if you don't know exactly what you want to study, try some things at a community college just to start. You should have the money for that. And if you have a GI Bill, you definitely have the money for that. And begin to pattern a life from there on out. But to me, I mentioned the part about where you live

because I've seen a lot of guys end up in circumstances for jobs. Like, oh, here's a great job right out of the military and I'm just going to move to a place. And it's like the job was fine and rewarded them more than ordinarily would have if they were still in the military. But then moving to a place that is just like totally distinct from who they are.

And so they're okay at their job, maybe even good, but that's not where they want to be because they just took it because they were a little bit scared of like the transition time. When I say take your time in term, you shouldn't sit for six months and do nothing,

right? Even if you had lived with your parents or something. What I'm saying to you is if you have the GI Bill, obviously you're going to have bills to pay. But I guess I'm trying to point out is you want to be in a situation where whatever you're doing, yes, if you have to make money right away, well, then you got to do what you got to do. But I'm trying to point out there are some circumstances where I don't want folks to rush into things that require real substantial commitments versus going and getting an education that could, depending if you have to go to a university, okay, fine, but putting yourself in an environment

where that's an exploratory effort and it also sets up potential future employment opportunities. I think you should definitely get right away into that, but try to be wary if you have the flexibility of making a big, quick change from what you were doing to something that you don't necessarily jive with just because you're worried about if you have enough runway. All right.

That's it for me. Thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe. Let's see. I have an article coming out on CBSSports.com tomorrow. I usually don't write, but I decided to get back to one for just this one time, I think. We'll see.

So there's that. MK tomorrow. There's going to be a post-fight show for UFC 261 right here. So don't go anywhere for that. I appreciate you guys watching. Thank you so much. And yeah. That's it for me.