MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 265 Storylines | BIG Fight Announcements | A.J. McKee & Dana White | Ep 188

Episode Date: August 4, 2021

On Episode 188 of MK, Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell look ahead to UFC 265 this week. What are the biggest storylines heading into Ciryl Gane vs. Derrick Lewis? The guys also react to a few big fight announcements. Paulo Costa is expected to face Marvin Vettori. Islam Makhachev vs. Rafael Dos Anjos is Set for UFC 267. Cody Garbrandt is making his flyweight debut against Kai Kara-France. A.J. McKee made some comments about eventually wanting to go to the UFC. Dana White responds to McKee. The Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley undercard was announced. Are there any fights to look out for? Plus Jamel Herring and Shakur Stevenson have reportedly agreed to terms to fight. 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

All right, it is August 4th, a Wednesday. It's a gold medal lashita lahadzi day it's also mk's middle of the week show hello everyone my name is luke thomas i am one half of your hosting duo from cbs sports and showtime joined by the gentleman on the other side of the screen who is also from cbs and showtime has a kick no no crown today but you know is the king of Connecticut we all know that it's Brian Campbell BC how goes it sir you know fired up Luke it's it's Wednesday it's hump day this is the day where we typically don't have a lot of good things to talk about so we have to fill the show with excess sparkly shit and Luke the online fever pitch right now for all things celebrity wheel of death and today's show is is uh it is uh it is active it is alive it is well are you feeling what i'm feeling ahead of this definitely not

but if you say so we'll do it all right great should be a great show then all right sure we actually do have a lot to get to today we have some topics so some news to get to ufc 265 storylines. We've got some fight announcements, both on the boxing and MMA side. Showtime put out the full card for the later in August Woodley versus Paul boxing match. We'll talk about that a little bit as well. We'll do some fan subs. We'll do Wheel of Death. We have a busy day today. So first things first, thumbs up on the video. Please hit subscribe if you haven't done so already. Let's see. You can get some merch like this, sort of. When I say like this, I mean kind of like this, not this one exactly, over at morningcombat.store. And there you can get all different

kinds of stuff. If you want to watch Showtime, and why wouldn't you? You can go to showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can it and keep it if not you can go pound sand and uh let's see uh oh email for today's what you call it for today's i know my armpit itches i'm sorry today's uh fan subs and then friday's dead wrong morning combat at gmail.com is the place to reach us there and uh bc you've got an interview out right now it came out this morning for saturday's headliner cyril gone are we going to tease that now we're going to tease that later oh we're going to tease that during the ufc 265 storyline shortly but check that out youtube.com slash morning combat uh we hit you hard right mk all day nearly every day three live shows per week luke's live chat on thursdays

and some great bonus combat interviews to feast on. So get some of that, if you will. Thank you. More big plans for interviews to come, Luke, later this week. We'll see if they pan out. But you do understand that MK is... Are those the ones you told me about? Yeah, yeah. That is tentatively scheduled for Friday,

so it could be a big deal for MK. And also, Luke, I don't know if we're supposed to talk about this yet because it's in the legal process right now. No, no, not another Pat Tillman joke. Doc number four of the Morning Combat documentary series, which has been incredible, Luke. This one focusing

on our escapades in South Beach. A little bit of action over there in Las Vegas for the Conner fight. This is pending legal approval. This could hit the streets later this week as well. So a lot to look forward to in the expanded MK universe. I look forward to that debuting in September.

That'll be a lot of fun. I have seen it. It is very good. So hopefully it doesn't get out sooner rather than later. Be on the lookout for that. If you haven't subscribed, of course, please do that now. Okay, BC, let's get this show started because we've got a lot to get to today. First things first, we kick things off with UFC 265 storylines.

We'll start with that main event. There's an interesting ESPN article about Derek Lewis and how he was sort of identified by George Foreman to get into boxing. He chose MMA instead. It is, I mean, I guess my question to you, BC, would be like, what is the dominant story of the main event? Because here's the thing. We'll talk about the X's and O's a little bit later. This Foreman angle is kind of interesting.

But the basic problem is this, BC. I went through and I looked at the odds for every Cyril Ghosn UFC fight when the odds opened. And they move afterwards, but when they open. The only time he's been a bigger favorite were for his first two fights and one of those guys if not both of them are not in the UFC anymore like in other words since then the odds makers believe this is the least competitive fight plus it kind of got made last minute I realize that Lewis is beloved he's going to be in his hometown

there's something to it but part of this problem right is that it's kind of rushed and on paper not very competitive well you know in the theory yes it's it's I wouldn't say not very competitive but it's somewhere in the middle there right what is it my uh Caesar Sportsbook our partners there have it minus 360 for Cyril gone right now plus 280 for Derek Lewis but, that's every big Derek Lewis fight, because he's the ultimate example of a puncher's chance, and, I mean, Luke, here's the deal, you said, what's the dominant story? The dominant storyline

unfortunately is still the interim title business, we already hit that hard on Monday, I sort of asked you, I asked our good friends down under on Submission Radio last night, like, when can we stop talking about that? How about right now? How about right now, Luke? Okay, enough of this interim title bullshit, okay?

We've got a pretty damn good fight on our hands. The dominant storyline for me is that I just didn't expect Derek Luce to be back here. I know I've said it before. I don't know if people agree with me or not, Luke. I thought he poured out the jug of what was left of him in the elite sense against Cormier. He made it to the top. He was a storybook, storyline type of run there. out the jug of what was left of him in the elite sense against Cormier. He made it to the top. He was a storybook storyline type of run there. Cinderella-like is really what I'm trying to say.

You know, beating Alexander Volkov after losing every second of that fight gets into an opportunistic moment against DC. Got in top level shape, which is something in the past he said he just didn't do or didn't care about doing because he was always more about the money and going for the KO. I got to give him credit, Luke. That fight is, what, three, four years ago. And he's lingered to a degree, but he's also had some big, bright moments, including this current run he's on, where he's more dangerous, I think, now than he was then. So do the odds reflect the fact that Cyril Ghosn is just really looking like an absolute, complete fighter with the only, up to this point, Luke, the only lack, right, is do we know for sure he's got an elite all-time championship level chin? I'm not sure we know that yet for sure about Ghosn, and that's why you love this matchup to hopefully find that out. But everything else, you know, short of one-punch power, Ghosn has looked the deal.

These odds do reflect the accurate odds of where we're at here, but I think when you add in the hometown equation, add in the fact that it doesn't matter if Derek Lewis is losing every second, he can still pull it out. It's a pretty damn good fight at the end of the day. Hate the interim title tag. Do love what it means because Lewis was already the number one contender. They've fast

tracked Ghan into this spot, and we're going to have somebody who comes out of this fight on a really good-ass streak heading into the Nganou one for the real championship. So, Luke, I think those odds are right. I do want to spin it back on you, though, and say normally we don't talk a lot about hometown advantage. It's not the first time somebody's fought for a title in their backyard or done it as an underdog. But do you think that matters at all in this case? I think it does. I think it does. I mean,

sometimes fights should be in someone's hometown and they're not, but it didn't make that big of a difference. Like, for example, I remember when they put Cruz versus Dillashaw in Boston. Remember that? They put it in Boston of all places. And you were like, neither of the, I mean, it was a fine fight, and the crowd was hyped for it, don't get me wrong, but you're like, neither of these guys are from there. Wouldn't you want to have it in their hometown? But, like, you could have put it, you know, I guess in San Diego where Dominic Cruz lives, or you could have put it in Sacramento or whatever.

And, you know, yes, the Team Alpha Male thing at the time would have been big for TJR. I can't remember if he had left by then. But the point being is, yeah, there would have been some value to it. But some guys are just tied to their hometown. They are majorly identified by it. And Derek Lewis is that way. Houston really embraces him and him, them.

And so I do think that it will either boost him in some kind of way or maybe the jitters will get to him too because this could be one of those fights where everyone's asking for tickets and what do you know and can you get us in and we're all going to come see you and blah blah blah i suspect that for all the fighters returning to their hometown who would be affected by it positively or negatively there's gonna be a lot that wouldn't you wouldn't see a whole lot of it you may see a whole lot of it with derrick lewis given that the ties are so deep. Still, I mean, this is the problem with the fight,

as far as I can tell. You're right. Forget all the interim stuff. These guys have, you know, they took the fight, but they have nothing really to do with that. That's just UFC awarding something, and it's a different consideration. The problem for me is that while we have seen routinely,

and to your point, Derek Lewis was a plus 340 underdog to Curtis Blades, and he viciously KO'd him. So this is a guy who can defy the odds, a demonstrable ability to do so. He's going to need to do that to a guy who is a master of range and can be patient. The thing where you bring in the hometown crowd is you've got this crowd that's going to want Derek Lewis to be Derek Lewis. And you've got Cyril Ghosn, who sometimes can have this really amazing offense. But what he's very good at is just pulling, I should say, putting the pin back in their grenade. He's very good at just disarming the bomb, so to speak.

And sometimes he'll just let that ride round over round over round. I think if you're a Houstonian and you're and you're cheering for Derek Lewis of course that's the right call but I would be a little bit prepared for a fight that could go long and you're going to need some late heroics because it could be exciting I cannot rule that out but you have to take seriously I think is what I'm saying BC the possibility that it may not and that could cause some issues yeah and we're going to get into the Cheryl Gonside and throw to some soundbite think is what I'm saying, BC, the possibility that it may not, and that could cause some issues. Yeah. And we're going to get into the Cheryl gone side and throw to some soundbite in a second.

I did ask gone specifically about his fighting style and the idea of, do you feel pressure at this point to have to go for a knockout, especially in an interim title fight? And, you know, that's what the fans want. And, you know, I liked his response. He was basically like, no, I mean, my style is my style. I see myself more now. He's not calling himself the Mayweather of MMA like AJ McKee does, but he was basically like no i mean my style is my style i see myself more now he's not calling himself the mayweather of mma like aj mckee does but he's basically saying look at somebody like floyd mayweather whose persona as a fighter is of a defensive you know style meant to

diffuse the other person he sees himself that way which i thought was really interesting luke but before we transition into cyril gone like who the hell the hell is Derek Lewis? And I want to ask you this. He's 36, which doesn't matter because it's heavyweights, right? And on top of that, he has a style where it really doesn't matter. He can carry that puncher's chance forever, like an old Marcon, whatever. But Luke, you know, I mentioned, I didn't think he would keep up the motivation level and stay at this, you know, super elite level since that Cormier fight he has. But yet we're showing pictures of his last recent fights and it brings up the Aliyah Latifi fight. Luke, Derek, Luke looked like absolute shit in that fight, straight up.

You know, I don't even think he won that fight. I think, you know, Latifi may have got a little bit jobbed on the cards. So I got to ask you, that fight's relatively recent. Like, is Lewis still the you all or nothing puncher's chance or nothing do you think that fight's an aberration or is he just lazy at times or like i can't get a real full grasp and that's why the odds are the way they are on who he actually is as a fighter because a lot of his game I think is set up to deceive you disarm you because of the jovial nature because he looks like he can be exhausted and then explode out of nowhere with a big surge and he probably was exhausted Luke do you get a handle on how good

he actually is so it's it's it's very hard to answer that because he's had severe injuries for a really long time years in fact and so sometimes I think his back really was debilitating. I think, remember the first Francis Ngannou fight? A big part of that was the guy had trouble standing. If anyone's ever had back problems, and I've never had them like that dude has had them, but I've had them before, and it's debilitating. You can't sit up.

You can't move your hips. You can't rotate. Sometimes your neck can be affected. It feels like your stomach's getting pulled out in front of you. Like, it's awful. And the pain can be severe and shooting. It can cause numbness in the limbs. Like, if that's what you're dealing with, how do you train?

How do you focus? How do you compete? How do you win? And he's somehow found a way at times to do that. I'll say this much, BC. He lost two in a row to Cormier and JDS back in 2018 and then March of 2019. But since then, okay, it was a split decision against Blagoje Ivano, but he's very good. He has Latifi win, which let's call a little bit dicey, but he got it. But then he bulldozed

basically Alexi Olenek. Okay, he's long in a tooth. But the last one was maybe his most impressive win to date in some respects. It's Curtis Blades, and yes, Curtis Blades was a little bit one-note with the wrestling, but we all know how good he is. We all know what kind of ability he has, how fast he is. He's probably the best wrestler maybe now that Cormier's not there in the heavyweight division. You could say Stipe too. They're up there pretty similar, but Blades is very, very good, and he got horribly KO'd. So I tend to think that,

I think you'll get a good version of what you're typically accustomed to with a guy like Derek Lewis. Derek Lewis is something of a overachiever in many ways in life. You know, this guy served time in prison. The UFC did a special showing and this guy in his prison sentence had to go out there and work in the fields

in certain places. I mean, we're talking like you know uh old school styles of judicial punishment and he served his time and he got out and he found this and he's had some ups and some downs competitively with injuries and everything else but bc this is what he's good at you know as well as i do huge power he is patient as all get out he can be explosive when he needs to be and i think he sort of leaned into those strengths in a way where he'll take risks when he has to. He'll be patient when he has to. And by and large, it has worked out for him, dot, dot, dot, except the very, very best, which I have a feeling Cyril Ghosn might be.

BC, let me ask you a question about this. However unlikely you may view it, however unlikely I may view it however unlikely I may view it we just talked about a guy like Lewis being overachieving dude if he won even an interim title even an interim title you would have to argue this is one of the more something of an improbable success story in MMA given how far he has pushed what appears to be potent power, but otherwise limited ability. Yeah, absolutely. I guess like, it's almost like a Dennis Rodman type story where it's a guy who, you know, in his early twenties was doing nothing with his life. And like you mentioned, you know, did time and really didn't have a path or a passion. And I know he had the George Foreman

thing where they tried to turn him into a boxer and all that, but then, you know, he just had such incredible, natural athletic ability and aggression that once he put it together, he kind of just defied the odds and got here. But I think it's interesting that you call him an overachiever because given his backstory, he is an overachiever. I wonder sometimes, Luke, if he's an underachiever in the cage, meaning does he actually capitalize on what he has there? I think there's been times where, yes, injuries play a big key. I mean, look, I once pulled out my back three years ago on the toilet. I'm not even kidding, like reaching for something. And I

had to crawl out of there after I was done. I mean, it's freaking crippling. So I don't understand how anybody from old Larry Bird to anybody operates with back issues at an elite level. But look, is it wrong to say he's also a little bit of an underachiever, given that he fights kind of lazy? Like he'll bend over and be completely out of gas. Sometimes it's playing possum, sometimes it's not. I feel like he could be much better on the ground. We give him credit for not having wrestling skills in the traditional sense.

He's so big and powerful that he's hard to keep down. I feel like he could be much better down there and and be a much more consistent ground-to-pound finisher maybe with i don't know more time more focus i feel like he's loves the image of the one punch chance guy and he plays that to a t and that's why i think for me it's hard to really gauge how good he actually is because i think sometimes he's not always putting it together you know short of what we just saw in that blades fight his biggest wins before the blades fight haven't been accidental but they've been in fights volkoff even jds where you know you don't or the jds when he lost it was reversed where he looked great and then he lost

but you know there's a self-implosion part of how he lost the JDS one and then there's other times where he looks awful and then he surges to win that I don't really know with the perfect camp and the perfect dialed in mind mindset if he could be even better than he's shown up to this point Luke and that's why if you're just talking from a betting standpoint you gotta love plus 360 here for for this guy coming into his hometown on Saturday yeah it's an interesting point. Like, did he fully maximize some of the skills we've seen flash now and again? No. In part because of injuries, but maybe because of work ethic

or, you know, exactly what kind of commitment does he want to make with his life to training that would get him the results. So in that sense, maybe he's a bit of an underachiever. But in that sense, this goes back to being an overachiever, a guy who did time and had to go and find a career sort of later in life to make kind of money. What else was he going to do to make this kind of money? I don't know that there's an obvious answer.

And look, that's not me. Hold on real quick. That's not me judging him and being like, oh, this guy's lazy. Listen to like every interview he's done the past five years. He's like, I hate training. Like he lays it all out there, Luke. There's no fooling around with this guy. I think he's even told me he didn't even like drinking water before.

It's like, I don't like drinking water, man. That's a tough place to live and a tough sport to train in. But the point being is, the reason why I would say overachieving is because I sort of take people as they present themselves. If you're the guy who repeatedly has told us you don't like training, I'm just going to assume that like, it's not really possible to motivate you to be anything other than what you are.

And so if you take that person and you look at the place that he has found himself in four wins in a row, the last one thunderous KO over a guy who was a sort of perennial top contender now in interim title fight, Jesus Christ, man, that is like way, uh,

way, way more than it was ever supposed to be given these abilities. If you took Derek Lewis's abilities, as considerable as they sometimes can be, with all the weaknesses too, and you tried that at light heavyweight, you'd have some success, but less. If you tried it at like middleweight or welterweight, you would get absolutely destroyed. You would have nothing. It just because he uh yes the division and also you know there's just a set of special circumstances for him in this current time so I feel like it's pretty impressive that he's found himself in this position I gotta tell you if you

go out there and you win interim title or otherwise it's something of a transformative moment not so much for Cyril Gaunt although it could be puts him on a collision course with Francis but for uh Derek man it makes them reach a level of achievement that I just wasn't sure was ever possible for him it would be a huge huge moment and to be fair some of the other comments he makes where he's just like you know I don't love this sport it's a job I'm just trying to feed my family I think that's partially why we love him so much we love him because he's hilarious but we love him because he sounds like one of us he just trying to feed my family. I think that's partially why we love him so much. We love him because he's hilarious, but we love him because he sounds like one of us. He just happens to have this ability to knock people cold. It's awesome to watch.

It's hard not to love the guy when you watch him. But, Luke, let's spin it over to Cyril Ghosn. It's like I want to take the angle of here's a guy who's 31, but, Luke, he's only been fighting professionally for five years, I want to take the angle of here's a guy who's 31, but look, he's only been fighting professionally for five years and he only was fighting in Muay Thai for a few years before that. You can read his Wikipedia. And I did ask him about it in the interview.

I mean, he's working at a furniture store full-time and he only went full-time into fighting because the furniture store went out of business. He didn't know what to do next. Here's a guy who's sort of just still figuring out the game, how good he can be and yet is he ready for a stage this big is lewis somehow and actually an easier fight for him than the last two against rosenstruik and against volkov do you have any fear of him given how young

he is in in the sport walking into the the spotlight of a title fight in an opponent's backyard, do we talk enough about the things we don't know yet about Khan? No, but I think the reason why we don't is that what we see, like if you didn't know his resume, you didn't know how many wins or how many losses or even how many fights the guy had. You just knew, hey, I'm going to show up and watch some UFC fights today. Here are these two UFC fighters. Here's X, whoever would have been previously. And here's Cyril Ghosn.

And you watch Cyril Ghosn compete. You'd be like, oh, that's an experienced competitor who has a clear understanding of what he's doing and how to get there. And he understands timing and distance and setups like all the things that senior advanced level fighters get not just senior level fighters but senior level fighters with sort of significant experience under their belt so he actually doesn't have that significant experience although he's got you know each time he goes out there it certainly gets better and better but you're right dude if you just look at his resume you would think there's a lot of questions the problem that you just encounter is that it doesn't match what's on tape.

I do think what the tape shows you is that he's got a real keen sense of offense, but he's got a very... His game, I'm not going to say is defensively dominant. That's not quite true. But again, his game is neutralizing dominant. There's still an element of that. He can have devastating finishes, but they're not quite as accessible yet and so that tells me that there are still some levels of comfortability and experience

that he lacks but what he already has is typically the province of someone with triple his experience he's just so good he got there in a short amount of time i think he's a breath of fresh air stylistically to this division and luke this is something i asked him about if we can toss to this sound i'd like to get your reaction because a guy this big six foot five and jacked really should not be this quick let's hear from cyril gone well the way you fight it is somewhat magical because we don't see heavyweights who who are as as you, have the footwork as you. Why do you think you're different from everybody else in terms of your fighting style?

What makes it so different? This fight or not? I don't know exactly. Maybe I just started that three years ago. Maybe this is my advantage. I don't have a pressure, and I started that three years ago. Maybe this is my advantage. I don't have a pressure. And I just want to make a show for the fan. If I win, if I lose, I'm comfortable with that.

And yes, I have a good footwork. And maybe this is because I did a lot of sports when I was young. And basketball, soccer, and a lot of a lot of sport. And maybe this has helped me to to do very well today. What kind of a basketball player were you? What kind of game did you have? A big jump.

I was really fast. I have a big jump. I like to smash. Nice, okay. Yeah, it was easy for me. A really good jump. Luke, he loves to smash, and it was easy for him. I think all of us look up to that, Luke.

Listen, who could be angry at a man who can admit such escapades? But in all seriousness, he is an incredible talent. Do you think there's something to that, Luke? The idea that because he didn't grow up wanting to fight, he didn't start training in a gym in his teenage years, he's playing soccer and basketball as a regular dude, that his footwork's a little different. You know, Hakeem Olajuwon grew up playing soccer his footwork as an nba center was just completely different

um that mixed with what he said luke i win i lose you know whatever i'm i'm new to this game it doesn't really matter all of that does make him i guess extra dangerous he's not coming in here with the typical pressures or or the you know the typical blueprint of your average heavyweight yeah i think that kind of stuff can absolutely matter it's a different kind of a situation but with the typical pressures or the typical blueprint of your average heavyweight. Yeah, I think that kind of stuff can absolutely matter. It's a different kind of situation, but I talk about him all the time, but Arnold Schwarzenegger was famous in bodybuilding because he actually took ballet classes. You can see this in Bumping Iron.

And the reason why he did it was so he could get more artistic poses that he would never have learned in a gym. You could talk to all the other bodybuilders in the world. They would have never have recommended the things that he got from that, and he took that to the stage, and it really aided in his ability to win. And so exactly what he got from those other sports, I don't know, but he's clearly athletically gifted, and just his understanding of distance and timing and range

is second to none maybe in that entire division. It's very, very good. And so for me, the collision course with Francis is really the big story beyond that because if he wins against Derek, which, you know, still a big if, but if he wins against Derek, he sets up a meeting where you're going to unify the titles, which we know is kind of silly, but whatever. It's there. It's the guy who used to train with his current coach, you know,

heavyweight champ versus sort of this new era. It's a guy who used to train with his current coach, heavyweight champ versus this new era. It's a big deal. It's a big deal if he wins for UFC. We'll have to see what happens. I still want to get into some of the ones on the card here, BC. Very quickly, if we can, this co-main event. Jose Aldo taking on Pedro Munoz. Aldo, three losses in a row. Some of them were tough, but he was kind of in them until he lost.

But then he rebounded against Chito Vera, looked really good in the process. And then you had Pedro Munoz also sort of some backsliding, but I think he just beat Jimmy Rivera. So he found himself in this all-Brazil co-main event. Biggest storyline to you? I think that, well, first of all, the storyline here is that this has a great chance to be your fight of the night. It's a slugfest. Two guys at this weight class, Luke, from the same country.

I looked it up. They're born two days apart the same year, and they both operate in somewhat similar styles. They don't take a step back. They're heavy counterpunchers, and they're ready to bang. I mean, that's gonna mean great theater for us, but I think it's really good matchmaking between two top ten guys for

the idea of if Aldo's still who he has looked to be so far at Bantamweight. Yeah, he's only one and two. Sure, when he went up to the Peyote or Jan level, he got served. But, you know, you could argue that he won against Marais. He looked very good against Vera. I love this version of old Aldo. There's a romanticized feeling around any time you get a former champion who's still

going and still can give you the big moment i remember when he knocked out jeremy stevens and it just reminded us that he's not going anywhere he's still around it just felt so good i think that spirit is still following him although luke i don't i don't really know if josie aldo is done competing at the title level i think there's still a potential run in him i know the division's jacked up there's there's still a potential run in him. I know the division's jacked up. There's a bottleneck on top, but he's got a huge name and UFC loves plugging in huge names with title histories. You know, Frankie Edgar lingered for a long time and found his way into a few more title fights than maybe you would have guessed after that original run. So I think this is a winnable fight for Jose

against a guy who fights a lot like him in the same style. Only Jose's got a sneaky long reach opposite Munoz. I think it's like seven inches where this is a very win him in the same style, only Jose's got a sneaky long reach opposite Munoz. I think it's like seven inches, where this is a very winnable fight for him, Luke, even though there's danger, and I think it'll be high theater. But this is a good piece of matchmaking. I'm into it a lot.

You know, it's really interesting to see what has happened to Jose Aldo since the Conor McGregor fight, especially with the modern Conor, who with every subsequent post on social media appears to be losing it more and more. I guess we'll see what happens when he comes back. You see Connor with the blunt?

That was a little much, Luke. It was a little much, bro. All right? Was it a blunt or was it just a cigar? I couldn't tell if he packed it with weed or not. Good point. What was it? An oversized joint?

I don't know. I know it was for recovery. Because the way it burned, it burned unevenly. Yeah, that could have been a joint, but a lot of times it's from regular tobacco in a cigar. So I don't know. I don't know. It looked a little like, hey, everybody, look at me.

I'm really cool. I'm smoking weed. Didn't it look like that? I know we're all turning on him. But rightfully so right now, Luke, right? A little bit. But what I would say is since then, it's not like Jose hasn't had a share of difficulties. He's had, frankly, a lot of losses.

But you had to ask yourself here, what's he really going to get with a win? Is he going to get a title shot? Not really. He's not really close to it. Certainly, it gets him a little bit closer. But would anyone really expect him to beat the very, very best of this division? He had a chance against Peter Jan, and Jan's extremely difficult to beat. But Jan beat his head like a drum by the time that fight was over.

He's still out here doing it. He's still out here really competing. He's still out here really competing. He's still out here for the love of it. Dude, his longevity in the sport is remarkable. And it's not without its blunders. It's not without its shortcomings. But that he can still be in a fight where you're like, wow, this is a co-main event against a very good guy,

probably top five, top seven-ish. If you get this, you're definitely going to stay in the top five. After all these years competing, after so much fighting one tough guy after the other, I have to say it is so commendable to see him in this position. I don't know if he'll ever look at another title shot ever again in his career, and he probably has to recognize that too, but he's still out there giving his all and, in some cases, winning. Let me ask you this, Luke, okay?

Let's say he beats Munoz. Let me see. Where are the odds right now at the old Caesars sportsbook, Luke? Very close. Minus 115 for Aldo, minus 105 for Munoz. So we're looking at this, two guys, both 34, as a virtual pick-em, right? Let's say Aldo wins this. Do we have a bottleneck atop the division?

Absolutely. It's going to take some time. Dillashaw's got next after Aljo. But let's say to fill time, then the UFC says, all right, Jose Aldo, we'd love to put you back in the main event, bro. You want to fight Dom Cruz? You want to fight Faber? You want to fight Edgar?

You want to fight somebody where we can either make it a pay-per-view co-main or a big deal to draw tickets in Brazil? Let's say he wins that too, Luke. If at that point the division is sorted out just a bit, I could very easily see the UFC plugging him in there against the guy who's left standing. And I think you know in your heart, Luke, that they love doing that too. I think you know that. Yeah, they could do that.

I just mean the idea that he's gonna waltz into another title shot and we all have to take it very seriously about his ability to win I feel like that day is over but that he could reasonably earn a spot and you know make a strong account of himself that is very real and alive but like here's my point you see like are we even sure that's what he's competing for like when he goes and does these interviews is is he like, well, if I wouldn't, couldn't win a title, I don't want to be in this anymore. I don't, maybe he says it in Portuguese. I don't recall seeing an interview like that from him.

I think he wants to keep doing it because yeah, there is still a possibility of it, but he's still just good. He still has an opportunity to fill out his contract to, I don't know, cross every T dot every I look under every rock that he can in his career before he calls it a day. And you know, for a guy who had, I mean, when did he make his pro debut? It's something insane. He made it in, let's see, all the way back in August of 2004. You know, this will be his 37th fight.

I mean, that's just an incredible ability to be successful at this level for a long time. In one way, he's only 34, but that 34 is deceiving with the mileage. But, Luke, the fact that he went down in weight late in his career is the key here because sometimes you would say, okay, those last few fights at featherweight for him, he put it all out there against Max twice and got served. Look, I think that against Volkanovski, he lost that chess match and was like, dude, I'm out of this. It was last fight of the deal.

I felt like he was just sort of like, all right, whatever. If he had moved up in weight from there, you could almost go the narrative. Okay, now he doesn't have to, you know, hurt himself as much. Maybe we'll see a guy just have fun. No, Luke, he's going down in weight. So every weight cut is even harder, which leads me to believe he has to be more mentally dialed in. I don't think he can just be more mentally dialed in.

I don't think he can just go through the motions down in weight at this point in his career, Luke, right? Unless it was full on. And I was there when he could barely make weight and folded in the fifth round against, or whatever round it was, against Mark Hominick at the GSP Shields fight. He had a terrible weight cut, and that was for 145 to make routinely 135. To your point, is, you know, once more into the Breach, dear friends kind of territory. Yeah, you're right. Also on this card, BC,

is the one that... This might be my favorite fight on the main card, honestly. Michael Chiesa taking on Vicente Luque. Michael Chiesa has had a run at welterweight that I would describe as you just can't ignore it. He currently sits at five, Vicente Luque at six, but this is what I love. Chiesa is relative. Luque has had a lot more tests against the better versions of this division. I think that's right. I got to go back and double check. But he's come up short a little bit against some of those names.

But a guy like Chiesa, who had his own issues at 155 with weight, since coming to 170 has been just a bruiser. He simplified his style to a pretty strong degree. He got a lot bigger. He filled out. And he has been an absolute force. Wonderboy just lost. He's sitting at four. BC, if Chiesa wins, does he fight Gilbert Burns? Does he fight Leon Edwards?

I don't think he'd get a title shot, but you're pretty close at that point. I think that if the storm is perfect, with an impressive win, I actually think he could get a title shot. So here's the deal, Luke. Covington next. Then you got Leon Edwards, but you also have Gilbert Burns

coming off a win. I seriously could see the Then you got Leon Edwards, but you also have Gilbert Burns coming off a win. I seriously could see the UFC going to Leon Edwards and say, okay, here's your fights. We'll offer you Jorge. We'll offer you Gilbert. Which one are you taking? And in that time, let's say Chiesa just wins on Saturday and looks fantastic. He's the only guy of that group who hasn't fought Usman and is coming off a win, Luke. That's why I think there's something a little bit extra special there, okay, where it could be a good time filler because we've got Usman coming off of big money rematches against Masvidal and now Covington. You're going to want, you know, the fan audience is going to want something new.

I think there's an opening. He's been a company man. He's an announcer, all that stuff. It's a great style matchup right now, Luke. He's a sly underdog here, by the way. If you look at the odds, we've got plus 100 Kiesa, minus 120 Luque. Luque's 110 of 11. Luke, he's looked fantastic.

But I still think Kiesa on paper is the more skilled fighter, and I think their styles are going to contrast really well in that cage. Don't discount Mike the Mav. If he can go out there and pull a spectacular submission for having a great shot at the next at the next title shot i'm telling you luke i'm telling you okay yeah i mean since what year is this so since 2015 luke has only lost twice once to leon edwards via decision and once to stephen thompson via decision but that's it he's got wins over Woodley, Brown, Nico Price, Mike Perry, Derek Krantz,

Barbarina, Jalen Turner, Chad LaPriest, Nico Price, again, Bilal Muhammad, Hector Urbina, Alvaro Herrera, Haider Hassan, and so on. Just an absolute transformation of his career, but when he stepped up to that next level, he's fallen short. We have not necessarily seen that from Chiesa only because he has not really put himself in a position to get those fights. This is the first of it. What do you think the UFC,

what do you think they would want out of this bout? What are they looking for? You know, in some cases, it's like, let's not discount Luque. He's got such a fan-friendly style that it would be fun to see him against guzman but i've got a lot of questions luke because of those two losses when he did step up how good luke actually is like he's exciting as all hell but he does run into oncoming traffic it works against a certain uh ability level now look these styles contrast well where i think luke

has a great chance to win this fight that's why he's the betting favorite at the moment. But I do question above that. I wonder if because Mike Chiesa brings a very interesting cryptonautic style here with his submission game, what that fight could look like against Usman. Are you intrigued by that? Or like, basically, here's what I'm asking you, Luke. Do you think Usman has an easier chance on paper against Luque or Chiesa. I think Chiesa's the tougher fight because of his ground ability. Probably, but the only issue for this entire division is I don't think any of them are going to out Usman Usman. That's really the problem. And neither guy

sells a ton either, to be fair. So, yeah. We'll see how he looks. Let's see how he looks on Saturday. either guy. If either guy goes up there and just looks like they've leveled up and, you know, Usman has a bad day, anything is possible. I just feel like as a strategy, you're going to have to be able to play all the levels.

It's like you'd have to combine Luke A and Chiesa to get something really different rather than one or the other to beat Usman. But, you know, one never really knows. What if all my scenarios end with Leon Edwards not getting rewarded for his win streak Luke or I mean could it still happen where he somehow doesn't get the title shot yes yes I I there are big fights that could be made with him dude but you know as well as I do man the amount of like if your whole case oh, you've been winning for so long that you should be rewarded for that.

If that's the entirety of your case, your case is not as strong as you think it is. I've seen it with John Fitch. I've seen it with a million guys. So do you think the Edwards win over Diaz in the eyes of UFC and title marketing is a loss? No, I don't think they look at it that way. I mean, because he got dominated

for 24 and a half minutes what i do think though is that like he didn't put diaz away which okay diaz is hard to put away but you know when you're winning for that long and you can't put him away that's a little strange and you know look is there a giant who's the biggest audience in combat sports it's the casual fan is there a big casual fan push to get edwards into the fights that his resume calls for there is none it doesn't exist and you can like that fact or you can hate that fact i don't either side you can do what you want with it but that's just the way the business is run and uh again he doesn't pull that lever so you gotta recite on the resume the resume is strong but it's not it doesn't it does wow you the individual performances don't come with you know these

dramatic finishes and these punctuated moments of total excellence it's just consistent excellence minute over minute it's that's a little harder for the average fan to appreciate. And to be fair, it's not fair. It's not meritocrat-ous. Is that a word? I don't know if that's a word. Meritocratic. Meritocratic. But by the way, Leon Edwards did buy his mother a car,

and that video was heartwarming to see. So shout out to Mrs. Rocky and the crew there. Okay, thank you. All right, let's move on to some announcements if we can, BC. Topic number two here. We've got one, two, three, four, five some announcements if we can, BC. Topic number two here. We've got one, two, three, four, five different announcements, some bigger, some smaller.

I actually had a little birdie in my ear about one of them. I might break some news here. Wow. Well, let me get out of the way, Luke. Go ahead. The first one is for Max Holloway versus Yair Rodriguez for November 13th main event. So here is my understanding. My understanding is that a

Max Holloway is still injured and has not been cleared not that they I'm told that um they still might want the fight maybe even on that date if it's possible but that he is still injured and still hasn't been cleared and they woke up him and his team to the news that the November 13th fight had been announced they had not even told been told that was coming so that one just came completely out of nowhere UFC sometimes does this where they announce stuff a little bit before the teams have decided they're going to sign off on it it's not uncommon it's not new yeah that's fair it is a bit of a pressure move with that in mind BC what do you make of it? Imagine if our bosses came to us and been like, Luke, you're traveling out of

the country for the next few weeks, okay? It is what it is, bro. Deal with it. And you're like, well, I got a vacation planned, all right? Yeah, yeah. Luke, I don't know what to make of this. I want to see this fight. It's necessary because Yair's been on a great run that promises violence. I don't really have much of a reaction

here, Luke, based on the added layer of your news. But I hope Max is healthy because I got to see him fight for the title again, Luke. I mean, you know. I'm told he's on the mend. It's just that, you know, again, my understanding is that they weren't, that actually UFC did know

what their expectation was for a return. It's kind of like what we're dealing with with Francis. Francis is like, okay, I'm back now. I can make a return at such and such a date. And they kind of skipped over him. But in this case, they just went ahead and said, oh yeah, you're going to be fighting Yair on a timeline that we haven't really actually sat down and formally discussed with you.

So here's what I would say. Holloway versus Rodriguez, as it was announced could still happen I would caution everyone that it is absolutely far from certain totally far from certain all right all right we'll see what happens there Luke fantastic fight um you're gonna go to the middleweight division now Luke because I'm ready for this let's do it yeah I'll give you first reaction Paulo Costa versus Marvin Vittori expected for October 23rd, BC. What do you make of that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, people are really, really upset that I go to the Jake Hager line so often, Luke, so I won't go to it this time. I won't bring up my phoner, but this is perfect. Both guys coming off a title defeat. Look, Paulo Costa has a lot of explaining to do, Luke, about who he is, the whole wine experience, the whole whining that he's done since that loss to Adesanya. What happened with the hair transplant?

Did you see that, Luke? What the hell were those pictures? Do you know what I'm talking about? People were tweeting me about it. I have no idea. I don't follow a lot of fighters on social media, so I don't know. Yeah, apparently he's not only the hair club president, Luke, he's also a client. But look, this fight is explosive.

And I think it's won, by the way, despite the fact that Vittori has looked great. I mean, he worked himself into a title shot that Paulo Costa can and should win, Luke. So it's a bit of a referendum on a very elite guy who hasn't done a whole hell of a lot of good stuff for his career of late. But it could put him right back into the mix. And Luke, he needs it. He needs a big explosion. And Vittori, he's going to have a guy who's going to come forward on him but it's also a guy who could take him down and give him some problems too Luke so that's why I think you love this fight what is it targeted for October 23rd yes please do it now yes thank you

yeah I basically echo everything you're saying you talk about a guy in Costa who has a lot to prove and in Vittori has proven a lot but also proven that there are some limits still 27, almost 28 years old. Those are still very much not permanent. They're not, he can overcome them, but you know, a guy like Costa, if he can fight the way he has been fighting last fight, notwithstanding, that should be a really tough test for either guy. It should be very exciting. Look, I don't do this often. I don't go on UFC Fight Pass and look at my search history, not because it's got bang bus type things on it like your internet search history, but I would guarantee you, though, if you ask me what are the three fights

you've watched the most on UFC Fight Pass in your history of owning it and just putting a few drinks down at night alone and watching it. Good God, Luke, Costa versus Romero has to be like number two on that list. I mean, I watch that fight every two months, randomly without fail, Luke. That fight rules. It does. It rules.

It's very fun. It's really fun. Thank you. That was all I had for you. Yeah, it was really fun. Yeah, that's okay. All right. Islam Makachev taking on Rafael Dos Anjos set for UFC 267. This will be on October 30th.

This one had been telegraphed to BC. Should be really good. It's a good test for Makachev. Still lacking in some of the bigger names I'd like to see him fight, but I guess the idea is you beat Dos Anjos, and at that point, those are the only names you're going to get offered. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it is the perfect fight Anjos and at that point, those are the only names you're going to get offered. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it is the perfect fight in the, in the life cycle of a division, a young fighter against an old fighter, sort of, excuse me, hanging on to prove that he's still got it, that he's still a contender. And let's see, what is RDA right now? 36. He did beat Paul Felder in that fight last November, but had two, had lost four or five before that. It feels like a fight Islam should win if he is that guy,

so that's why you're booking it, Luke. I wonder, though, does that take RDA out of any comebacking Conor talk? Because I know, Luke, we always inevitably, it always ends up back on Conor, but I think you saw that premeditated RT Sport tweet, or premeditated, maybe the wrong word, preemptive one about some wheelchair fight against a comedian that isn't happening. And then did you see Conor's subsequent tweet saying, you know, hey, guys, won't be able to fight by then, but I'm healthy. I'm trying to make a comeback for October.

He doesn't mean UFC comeback for October, right? That's way too soon, Luke. That seems virtually, I'm not a doctor. That sounds crazy. Yeah, I i mean could he sit in a wheelchair and he did come back from his acl injury he fought 11 months after getting it so he sustained it healed from it trained for his next fight all within 11 months that's very fast all right i'll give him that you have any interest in seeing him box Al Foran, the comedian, in a wheelchair, Luke?

Do you have any interest in that? Who can give a fuck? I mean, it's hard to think of a thing I can give a fuck less about. Okay, okay. Thank you, thank you. I'll just say this. Even if Dos Anjos loses, does he get removed from the Conor sweepstakes?

Not necessarily. I mean, you had Cerrone going on that fight on, what, three losses consecutively yeah if it's the right kind of fight and they can kind of make it work i don't i don't think he's out of the running at all uh all right you're like you're like actually if he loses he might get a better shot at it just in some ways yeah dude in some ways he honestly might it depends i mean if you get if you get stretched I don't know but if it's competitive and you lose meh um okay Cody Garbrandt this is interesting to me Cody Garbrandt

taking on Kaikara France you might be like well wait a second once Bantamweight was featherweight right Cody's making his flyweight not featherweight excuse me flyweight Cody's making his flyweight debut December 11th BC I gotta say Cody Garbrandt needs a refresh I don't know if 125 is that refresh but it could be and they gave him a tough test for his first time out yeah and I didn't like even before the loss to Rob Fontenot Luke I didn't like that that the talk was just Cody's gonna you know parachute into the 125 division and get an instant title shot I don't like when that happens unless somebody is of extreme superstar level. And, you know, Cody obviously a former champion.

It's not that he's a nobody, but this is a much better path. I know the loss to Rob Font did seem to force him to make that decision to really commit to this and do this. KKF, Luke, has already been on Submission Radio saying essentially that, you know, be careful. Be careful

what you ask for here because of that weight cut. The punches that you accumulate at 125 are going to feel a lot different than at 135 and have more damage. Luke, I think, you know, you can look as far as Cody rival TJ Dillashaw to see that to be true. Cody's got a lot of questions to answer, Luke. You don't usually see a guy with potential chin issues then cut down in weight, which could be a dangerous or difficult cut, and see those chin issues improve. Now, also when you cut down in weight, your power tends to carry more, so it could be part of the advantage thinking here.

Either way, it's going to be high theater to see somebody with this pedigree, a former champion who looked great in his initial comeback. Good God, that one-punch KO of Assuncao was incredible. I want to see what he still has. Cara France seems to be a perfect test, a guy who's near elite, who seems to be ready himself to jump into that top five. This is good matchmaking, Luke. I'm looking forward to it. And quick question, Luke, because I'm big fans of those guys down there,

Casper and the other fella. Do you think that they are the Australian MK, or do you think it's inverse? What would be the inverse? We are the Yankee submission radio. Probably that. They were first. You got to give them credit.

They were first. So, you know, love those guys know I like the the fight BC because you're right Cody had good power at 135 he should have really good power at 125 assuming all things are reasonably uh within order but the thing about it is like he had a major speed advantage at 135, too. He was very explosive. Now, I don't think he's going to be slow at 125, but I've got to say, curious to see how that goes. And for a guy who got jabbed a little bit, a lot, actually, against Rob Font, Kaikar France isn't necessarily that guy, but he does have a good jab.

He's not as rangy as Rob Font. Okay, he's a down-away class and has a different body type, but a lot of those guys that flyweight, they're stick-and-move types. They have different ways of setting it up and executing it. Kaikar France has very good footwork. He's fast. He's got fluid combinations. He can wrestle a little bit defensively. He can scramble pretty well, too.

That's a tough... I mean, if people think that, like, oh, Cody's going to go down to 125, we're just going to give him somebody who he can easily beat, dude, Kaikar France ain't that guy. He't that guy at all uh in fact I would probably favor him to win this one I guess we see more about Cody but it's to me it's exciting because I can imagine a series of scenarios where he comes out and actually can get things going on the right track again however I can also imagine maybe not in equal form but in some ways I have to take seriously the possibility that like this is not a to anything, that there isn't really one, and there's no magical weight class where things all of a sudden just get better.

Some of the issues you may move away from, but you may encounter a whole series of new ones. Whenever someone goes down like this, man, I am always curious to see, can they pull it off? This is big, big stakes for a guy who went from unranked to champion in a single four-fight stretch. So huge doings with that. And then last but not least for Bellator BC, I will candidly admit, I forgot this guy's on the roster.

Not that I forgot who he was, but I forgot Bellator even had him. Vitaly Minnikov is going to take on Tyrell Fortune for Bellator Moscow. This is the card that Fedor is going to be retiring on, supposedly, back in Moscow. We don't have an opponent for him just yet. Josh Barnett has been lobbying for it. It seems like a decent enough choice, all things being equal.

But we have Minnikov here taking on Fortune. Minnikov, for a while, BC, was kind of like the next big thing at heavyweight. And then just sort of quietly has sat on the sidelines, or he took fights with, I remember he fought on Fight Pass for something like Fight Night's Global Card or something like that. I don't know where he is anymore, but it's a decent test, I guess, for both guys. Yeah, Minkoff, as I look at his wiki, is still just 36, Luke, and 22-1 is his record.

We saw him lose to Czech Congo in 2019, but he came back and knocked out Timothy Johnson later that year. So he still hasn't shown us, Luke, that he's done. Now, what was the whole deal about, I know he had to give up the Bellator heavyweight title due to inactivity. And if you look at his ledger, he didn't fight at all between 2017 and 2019. But this was a guy who i think still has a shot at being something and you know in the the belter heavyweight division has got some life

right now with bader having moved up moved up and won the title i still think rumble despite what he says will end up there um this will be an interesting test because i think fortune has shown us that he can punch that we know he can wrestle he is an interesting player uh fortune still wanted that johnson rematch from his only loss, but this seems to be an even bigger fight on an even bigger platform. So interesting bit of matchmaking here that I'm certainly not against. And Luke, you mentioned, is this being billed as Fedor's retirement bout? Is that true?

I believe so. I mean, it should be. Because I'm not going to believe it until I see it. And I'm starting to get to the point where it's like, I need to see who he's going to fight. I don't think Josh Barnett would move me, Luke. I'm not moved by that. I mean, I think...

I don't have... I'm neither positive nor negative about it. To me, Fedor should have retired years ago. He should not still... He should have retired after the... God, who was the guy who got who bounced his head off the canvas who later was like the brazilian kind of uh bigfoot no no no the other guy i forget his name oh fabio maldonado fabio maldonado i mean that was such a terrible beating fight he should

not have won it was a total disaster yeah yeah that was really bad really he should have called it a day after that so like who are they gonna are they going to pick? Like, I mean, you know, I don't know. Needs to be somebody of a commensurate age and kind of experience level, which is why, you know, Barnett has been doing this for a long time. He kind of fits that description. But, of course, they were with them with the affliction thing and the whole show came with a positive test. You know, I like weird shit.

You know, I've already told you the Fedor fight to make is Anderson Silva. And look, I still think at this point, if you're going to still promote Fedor, you got to put him in there with smaller guys. Remember how much fun that Dan Henderson fight was against Fedor? They did it at that catch weight of like 215. Henderson, who of course has had some big moments

at light heavyweight, but he's a middleweight. So this was a smaller guy with big power moving up. Dude, those are the type of fights to make right now for Fedor. And, Luke, we remember Uncle Scott Coker in the Strikeforce days did go to big CBS and did, like, insane, stupid, absurd ratings in the past. And one time he used Fedor, and I don't have the number in front of me. It wasn't, like, between 6 and 7 million live viewers. I do understand that was pre-streaming a different time and day but you're telling me they couldn't take fedor and andy silva and put it on

big cbs as like a old guy nostalgic super bowl dude i'm telling you that's the way to go don't go any other way if you're anderson silva and you can just box logan paul versus having to fight fedor in an mma fight and you'll get double, triple, ten times the amount of fucking money, what would you do? You know what I mean? This is an easy call if you're Anderson Silva. Okay, but is there anybody else in the Silva mold who is old and a division or two smaller that you would be down with that same level

of gas station curiosity that I'm into, Luke? Got to get creative at this point, okay? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what that would have been. I don't know. I don't want to see him against Pugia. I don't want to see him against Jeff Monson, right? Come on.

Can we have fun here? Can we do something fun? Could you pull? I mean, God, I wouldn't want to see Nogueira out there anymore. Yeah, I don't know, dude. I don't know. I mean, that's why Barnett, he's still kind of fresh, you know? I don't know. It's not so easy to solve the problem, but there you have it. Okay, so we go to topic number three. AJ McKee, to me, BC, I want to

read a quote from Dana White. He spoke to our friend of the show, Aaron Bronstetter. I think it was Aaron Bronstetter. Maybe it was somebody else, but I think it was him, and he said, when he was asked about AJ McKee, how would he do against UFC fighters? Dana White said the following, quote, I don't know. We'll see. When his contract is up, he'll have to call.

Yeah, right. He'll have to call. We'll see what we can do. Now, here's what folks may not appreciate. That sounds, BC, like a very dismissive, at best, tepid comment. It doesn't sound dismissive to me. No. Well, he said in his history of shitting. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me finish the point.

Which is when his contract is up, he'll have to call. That's passive aggressive. But, BC, for the love of God, let me finish. I was just going to make that point, which is if you know Dana White from all the years anytime someone has asked him about ex-fighter from another organization he has gone out of his way

to completely shit on them and dismiss them and take them not seriously at all the fact that you even got this lukewarm with it it is the biggest tell of all true or false true true and I did interrupt you and people get very angry, Luke, when I don't let you have your say. But you've got to understand the ferocity inside of me. It can't be held back. Luke, this is like a win in that regard. I mean, what do we win? You win nothing. But this is

like real recognizing real. Dana, a real promoter, recognizing a real potential superstar. I think the bigger story beyond even Dana's comments comments and in a lot of ways this is completely unfair to bella torre and scott coker and and everyone showtime because aj just had the biggest win of his career like let's see him defend it let's see him go to lightweight and try to take you know uh pitbull's belt and now we're already talking

about it but it's also aj talking about it luke i think the story here are aj's comments to your friend mike boner over there at mma junkie i didn't expect i'll read i'll read those now so here's what he says quote six months six years doesn't matter when i get to the ufc mckee said quote at the end of the day as long as i'm cashing in big checks i'm okay i'm happy i'm satisfied as long as i'm able to do the things I want to do and create new openings, new opportunities, new companies, the second all that hard work pays off, that's when I can say, okay, what more is there for me to do? But at that point, the fruits of the labor already being enjoyed so much, what need is there to do that? There's really no rush. This is just the beginning. That's the crazy part. This is the first world title and I haven't even

defended it yet. I'm looking to get that second world title. That's what I've been calling champ champ. In that same interview, he also had this quote, Luke, which was the headline of the story. So credit Mike Bone for putting together a good piece there of a quote. I want Bellator to show me what my value really is. So Luke, this was AJ putting it out there to Bellator Brass and Company, basically saying like, you know, I know that what I just did was huge. I know I did it under your

banner and I've done it the whole time here. But, you know, not only pay me, but I'll delay this, right? You know, I have no need to leave as long as I am getting comfortably paid. But it's an early sort of threat put out there, right? It's a little bit of putting the chips up a little bit and just saying like, acknowledging that there

is somewhere else I could go, that people want me to go, that, you know, he did say in the interview, inevitably, I do see myself there. It's just the whole question of, do I see it in six months or six years? It's dependent upon how well they not only pay him, Luke, but I think present him and also the challenges they give him. So, look, this will be a challenge. I think a positive one that you welcome if you're Scott Coker, right? Because if you're going to build up somebody who, under your own banner, who is this potentially marketable and elite, you want him to get to this level where other companies are going to want him

or other fans are going to want to see him in those other companies it's now what do you do to keep him would you say in the past luke and look your value is only as good as your last fight and that's true in this game meaning if aj mckie goes out there tomorrow in his first title defense and either loses or is boring and flat it's going to change the value for that moment that's how this game works but you would say in the past luke whether whether we're talking about Eddie Alvarez or Michael Chandler, who did both end up leaving Bellator and went on to big success in the UFC, that I think there was some underlying thing of,

okay, they could go over there and be competitive, but could they be real UFC champions? Are they really on that level? I think there was questions. I think there's less questions with McKee. And that's why Dana isn't dismissing like he did askren or or whatever that back in the day um this is a challenge for scott and company and i'm going to be very interested to see the creativity they're going to show whether it does involve boxing or big cbs like he mentioned or whatever because i think this is what you want right you want somebody that the world wants because that draws them back to your brand. I think that the lessons of Michael Chandler

are going to be really important for Bellator here to keep this guy in any capacity long-term. Could they keep him forever? I don't know. Strange things happen in MMA. But Michael Chandler made a quote once he got to UFC that there was one time, I think he was even Bellator champion at the time,

and he was rolling with his friends, fellow fighters in the UFC, at some either event or some place. And the story is this. A person came up and asked for pictures of the UFC fighter and asked Michael Chandler to take the picture, not even realizing that, A, he was teammates with these guys and just as good, if not better than them, and also a champion in another organization.

He essentially pointed out that the UFC popularity machine is so big that even though I've done all these incredible things elsewhere, the average MMA fan doesn't even know. They can't even pick me out of a lineup. I think if you're Bellator and you just look at what kind of ratings your events draw and what kind of shadow you can cast, you have to keep your core product what it is. But if you want to keep a guy like AJ McKee, you have to go beyond your core product. I think you've got to put that guy on CBS. Pay-per-view, I don't know. But you've got to put that guy maybe

in boxing fights if you can get it. You have to do the kinds of things that draw commensurate levels of popularity and earnings or even beyond them with what UFC draws. Otherwise, they will always have that advantage over you. Now, whether they can do that, whether they will do that, how will they do that? Time will tell. He's 26. He's eight years the junior of Michael Chandler. Everyone's got time to figure this out.

But Michael Chandler, I remember distinctly, was calling for fights at 170, and I want to do this crazy thing, and I want to do that crazy thing. And Bellator was kind of like, eh, we'll try and give you the best we can, but no. I don't think you can do that with AJ. I think you've got to give him a lot of different opportunities

and see what happens. Yeah, interesting stuff. I asked you this question briefly on our post-show Saturday night, but I think it's interesting to re-ask it right now, Luke. Being that Bellator now has a fighter legitimately in the argument, look what Nemkov, too, as light heavyweight champion, where you're basically saying, I feel like this guy could be top five in the world.

But I think with McKee and with Pitbull before him, you could say, you know, is he the best fighter in the world? Now, we're never going to know unless they fight each other, but you want to be able to have that argument and they have it right now will that alone attract free agents who are closer to their prime whether it's ufc or anywhere else because they just want to be in the same organization with this guy and have a chance to fight him or do you think that's pushing it a little bit too far i think that's pushing it but i do this is the one thing i keep going back to It's like if you're somebody who works at a big camp,

whether you're someone's dad or not, but you're at a big camp, you're a coach at a big camp, and you're trying to get someone some experience, but also you know they're special and you know they're going to do big things, you can put them in Bellator right away and they can get all of the regional experience they need in Bellator.

And then when they're ready to graduate to high-level regional or even top 25 in the weight class, Bellator can offer some names there as well. And then even beyond that, maybe some top 10, top fives, depending on the division. You have a real opportunity for everything to happen under one umbrella that you can watch. You can get all the levels.

And it sets them up whether they want to leave to go somewhere else or they can stay and then make concessions from bellator it's a powerful thing man because eliza other promoters you know what kind of coverage are you getting you know is anyone even looking at it you know are you going to get paid on time there's a lot of things that bellator can do for an elite blue chip prospect that literally no other organization can do you got it you got to milk that for what it's worth so i yes i think if you're scott coming you got to lean into that what do we offer that the other brands don't you know that's right flexibility has got to be the number

one thing for sure all right so let's talk about this bc they put up the card showtime did for the uh jake paul versus tyron woodley fight So we know that's the eight-round cruiserweight bout that's going to be your main event. We also knew about the WBC and WBO featherweight world championship between Serrano and Mercado, the women's bout. They were at the press conference together. The other ones that got announced, and I wonder if you had any reaction to any of these,

we have a 10-round heavyweight bout between Daniel Dubois and Joe Cusumano. I'm not going to pretend that I know a lot about this gentleman. A 10-round junior welterweight bout between Ivan Baranchik, who we know a lot about, and Montana Love. And then a six-round cruiserweight bout between the brother of Tyson Fury, Tommy Fury, who I guess was also on Love Island in the UK, versus Anthony Taylor. What do you know about these guys? Look, there's some fun matchmaking here.

This obviously goes down on August 29th, a Sunday night Showtime pay-per-view from Cleveland, and a five-fight pay-per-view main card, which is interesting unto itself. But look, Daniel Dubois was in that young heavyweight contender fight there against Joe Joyce. That's his only pro loss. He's bounced back and knocked out Bogdan Diniu, so he's

looking to climb back into the heavyweight title contention there. He'll be featured on here. Tommy Fury's a potential, like, legit crossover celebrity here. That's interesting, Luke, that he's continuing down the boxing path because he had made his name in reality TV. Luke, I want to say

trashy reality TV, but I don't even watch UK Love Island or any country's version of that. But Fury's the half-brother of Tyson Fury, a cousin, of course, of heavyweight contender Huey Fury, and he's trying down this path. He's fighting a guy with some MMA and Bellator experience who's won five in a row on the MMA side, but is also boxing to a certain level,

commensurate to the ability level of a rising Tommy Fury to see what he has here. Ivan Baranchuk, Luke, he was in the fight of the year last year. You remember all those knockdowns? All those ridiculous things that we saw on that? Look, who's the guy that he fought? Who?

That Baranchuk was in the fight of the year. Oh, I just had it up. It was Jose Zepeda. Jose Zepeda, which was an absolute brawl. Baranchik's a former world champion. He's never in a bad fight. Fun. He's up there against Montana Love, who'll be fighting in his own backyard there in Cleveland.

A guy who hasn't lost a rising 140 guy looking to enter the title picture. So there's some fun matching making here. Amanda Serrano, you can argue, right along with Katie Teller, is in the conversation for Pomp and Bomb No. 1. Obviously, Clarissa Shields is there as well on the women's side. So a good mix, Luke, I think, of, you know, quote-unquote serious fights in the traditional boxing lane and then some of let's see what we've got here with potential crossover attractions. I mean, look, the Fury family must see TV, right, whether they're in a boxing ring in front of a microphone or even on an island trying to hook up.

And so it's going to be fun to see if Tommy Fury, who I think up to this point is 6-0, can put some wins together. And maybe Luke can enter into this sphere that the Paul brothers have built of marketable crossover boxing. And I know Jake Paul is trying to be more than that, and that's why this fight against Tyron Woodley is such a tough test for him to do that. built of marketable crossover boxing and i know jake paul is trying to be more than that and that's why this fight against uh tyron woodley is such a tough test for him to do that but i also

think tommy fury who's right around that weight class is trying to enter that conversation just the same luke his opponent is by the way a training partner of the paul brothers down there in puerto rico so there's some connective tissue across the board here. Interesting set of fights. A small thing I would mention, BC, I don't know if this was intentional or not, but I actually feel like they did a smart thing. Listen, if you're trying to get fans to watch this, are boxing fans going to watch?

Yes, some. I think you're going to get a lot of MMA fans crossing over to see how Tyron does and blah, blah, blah. But what's kind of interesting is you've got a six-round fight, a 10-round fight, a 10-round fight, a 10-round fight, and an eight-round fight. Not a 12-rounder on there. I think if you're going to keep MMA fans and get them to watch,

you've got to have shorter boxing fights, at least at first. Obviously, educated MMA fans who like boxing and understand it are going to prefer the longer ones. But for the casual one you might be getting, it's a smart play to have contained smaller bouts in terms of the rounds. And the women's one, I think they're going to have, what, two-minute rounds even, if I'm not mistaken.

It'll be shorter, each one. Absolutely. And I think there's potential for combustibility in those fights. And look, Showtime's been up front. We do what we do on Showtime Championship Boxing. We're also in this other lane. And we're putting on fun fights. And I think there's a chance here to create attractions. And the opponent of Tommy Fury,

by the way, Luke, as you mentioned, Anthony Pretty Boy Taylor, seven and five in MMA, but has won five in a row and he's a Bellator veteran. So you've got sort of this continued world of boxing and MMA and, you know, social influencers coming together. Let's see if we can create new opponents. Let's see if the Jake Paul train can continue, Luke. I mean, his success sort of in a lot of ways dictates the long-term success of this crossover bubble. So we'll see if this can keep going. But, you know,

if you're a boxing fan just as well, you're going to see some bangers. Ivan Baranchik versus Montana Love is a very interesting fight. Former champion against a guy who's trying to enter that conversation. And this is what I mean about Bellator getting, like Bellator has to keep its core product what it is. They can't get out of it.

But on the other hand, and they shouldn't. They should keep developing it. But what I'm saying is for special case scenarios, you've got to do special things. Correct me if I'm wrong, BC. This is going to be on Sunday, August 29th, which as you indicated, live from Cleveland, Ohio on pay-per-view. The day before that, it's Showtime Championship Boxing.

David Benavidez is fighting. That's a real fight, real top-level guys. I think at the Uzcategui fight, I think it's who he's taking on there, right, if memory serves. So the point being here is Showtime didn't get away from what it does. It kept doing it. It just added some extra stuff for these different opportunities to leverage him, and I think it makes a lot of sense absolutely and by the way don't sleep on that benavidez who's caught to give fight which will take place in phoenix the night before as you mentioned on showtime who's caught to give former champion and we know benavidez is just come forward all the time who's caught to give also has the fun style this could be a fun little banger and if benavidez can survive in advance here luke you know that that Caleb Plant-Canelo fight kind of just fell apart.

Caleb Plant is the opponent, the IBF champion unbeaten for Benavidez. They have history. They don't like each other. This should be fun. Also on that undercard, Luke, you remember David Benavidez's brother, Jose Benavidez Jr., once fought Terrence Crawford for a welterweight world title. He's making a comeback.

He'll be featured in that main card as well, so it should be interesting. And then last but not least, BC, a smaller fight, but we put it on here because I actually thought, this is the first time that, like, if you had to pick out, like, the last three or maybe even four opponents Shakur Stevenson has had,

could you name them? I don't know if you could, but you're going to be able to after this uh Jamel Herring Semper Fi himself and Shakur Stevenson have agreed to terms on a fight uh we don't have a date yet but I think it's going to be November 13th according to promoter Bob Arum it was almost going to go to a purse bid it did not Stevenson of course undefeated 16 and 0 Herring 23 and 2 but a big win over Carl Frampton how much do you like this fight I like it a lot and you know I didn't know if Jamel Herring was on this level I know he'd won a world title and you know he's been in

some tough fights we remember two fights ago we kind of criticized him for the way he reacted to that injury and all that well he came back against Carl Frampton and sent him to retirement Luke a an all-time great and two division champion Carl Frampton and sent him to retirement, Luke. An all-time great and two-division champion, Carl Frampton. Huge win for Herring. And what makes this fight great, Luke, is not just that Herring's tough and we finally have a tough opponent for Stevenson to find out how good he is

as he tries to win a title in the second weight class. It's that these guys know each other very well. They're in that extended sort of Terrence Crawford bubble of fighters who have trained together, who all get along well, but they've said, you know, we're going to put the personal aside. This is business. And what was interesting is this fight almost went the purse bid route, which is rare again, when they're both with the same promoter. This could have been disastrous for Herring Luke because under the specific rules of the WBO purse bids, they average out the fight purse of your last three fights to try to

figure out what percentage. So even though Herring was the defending champion coming in, had this fight gone to purse bid, he would have only made like something like 37% of the actual purse based on the fact that Stevenson's a bigger name and makes more money. It didn't end up going that route. It doesn't matter to fans anyway. October 23rd could be one of the dates. Also November 13th, as you mentioned. Some talk it might end up being in New York's Madison Square Garden as well, Luke. Maybe the theater or the big arena if they can package it. But it'll be on ESPN.

Should be a very tough fight. I think Stevenson, of this elk, of these four lightweights we talk about that have next in the sport, I think he's going to eventually move up to that weight class and be right with them. No, Stevenson's last win, Luke, was not exciting. It is what it is. But I think that if any one of these young guys that are under 26 years old are showing you a little bit of Floyd flash, I hate comparing anyone to Floyd Mayweather.

But I'll show you a little Floyd flash for Shakur Stevenson because hit and not get hit that's what he does luke he's brash he's slick he's dynamic and we know herring comes to fight your your your old boy the former marine although that's not such a thing according to you luke right no ex-marine is not a thing former marine is the thing but uh i'm actually watching a video on the on the jab by one of his trainers it's kind of interesting um luke we had talked about fight rumors fight announcements before both the ufc ones we hit and this one i'm not breaking any news here and i and sometimes when there's a fight rumor it's tough to find the source of the rumor on the internet we were like is this a real thing did somebody report it or

somebody just talking about it there's been some internet chatter luke and i'd love to find out where it started of the idea of tank davis our guy right pay-per-view star fresh off that win against mario barrios exciting at 140 where he moved up in weight maybe going up to welterweight to face keith thurman now look i'm not breaking any news i'm just saying there's been some legitimate internet chatter on this even just as a fantasy fight luke could you see tank davis this early going up to welterweight and fighting real punchers like one time i don't know i mean i that is so out there yet so intriguing i don't even really know what to say about it because i honestly feel like tank could punch with him i really do mean that i think that's probably the limit of what who he could punch with but he could

do it and he'd have a speed advantage but like dude thurman can thump a little bit too man and that's a small guy relatively speaking in tank davis like you know you're able to stand to mario barrios's punches that's one thing keith thurman's another level I don't I uh I'm not gonna say I hate it because I wouldn't but that's you know because everyone was bitter at Floyd for like oh you know I'm gonna fight the PBC guys and and fuck everybody else everyone's like well that's where all the exciting fights are and that's still true but it's an interesting workaround right if you go the Keith Thurman route that's actually real that's a hell of a workaround dude that's If you go the Keith Thurman route, that's actually real. That's a hell of a workaround. Dude, that's real daring to be

great. And here's the deal. Thurman's only 32, but he hasn't fought in two years since the Pacquiao fight. He didn't fight for a long time before that. You remember the fight right before the Pacquiao fight? Jose Cito Lopez almost upset him and rocked him. I mean, Thurman at his best can certainly box and punch.

We saw that in the great effort he put in there against Pacquiao. But he's been out for a while, and Tank is surging. I'm just saying this. When Floyd became a star, now, look, remember that argument I had with him in South Beach? Like, in the end, Luke, Floyd fought everybody, okay? Mostly. In the end. Sometimes there was some talk about the timing.

But during that peak of his career, we argued about the timing. You know the best way to remove any of those arguments is take bold chances and keep betting on yourself. If this is something that's actually real and Tank Davis wanted to do it, dude, we'd be heaping tons of respect on him. And it would be rightfully so. I don't think you can lose, even if you lose, in this type of setting, Luke. Short of getting knocked out cold and it being bad for you.

So interesting thought here as we move forward into the second half of the year. All right, so before we go to fan subs and Wheel of Death, real quickly, I forgot to do this at the top of the show, BC. If the producers have the graphic, let's use it. We have been nominated for some awards. Whether or not we should have been or not, whether or not we win it's up to you but you can vote so here's one best mma programming nominee for the world mma awards that's world mma awards.com slash nominees you can go and vote for us down there and we're also on a very prestigious other one that i don't even know the name of

like the podcast awards or something something a little bit generic. Morning Combat can win for best sports podcast and best male-hosted podcast. You go to podcastawards.com slash app slash sign up. With that, BC, please take it away. Here's what we do every Wednesday. You know about this. You love it. Sometimes it's spectacular.

Sometimes it's boring as balls. Depends on Luke's demeanor at the moment. But sometimes there's questions Luke just doesn't want to answer so we've created the segment built around that of course it's called the wheel of death only this time Luke to spice things up just a little bit more your boy bc has given us i don't if this works maybe we can do it every month i don't know but luke today is the debut celebrity wheel of death so here's the deal luke i have reached out to 10 different celebrities of various levels of fame and had them send in their own recorded question that they want luke thomas to answer so i'm going to read to you your 10 categories normally the categories describe

the type of question coming your way luke this time the categories will describe which celebrity could or could not be asking you a question we've got categories. You get five spins of the wheel. You get what you get. Here are your 10 categories for celebrity wheel of death. Big booty Latinas, singer songwriter, raised in Marietta, famous featherweights, international man of mystery,

serious like a heart attack, Canadian journalists, sexy straw weights oh wow yeah first time long time and surprising comedians in fact luke you might be surprised at that one so luke before we spin you got you nervous what do we got going on here luke nothing to it but to do it let's do this shit. I mean, you got some celebrities coming your way, Luke, and these questions are not written by me. They're by them.

So ten categories, five spins. Go after it. I have a feeling you're using the word celebrity loosely. Here we go. Spin number one. So are they going to read the questions, or are you going to read the questions? Oh, singer-songwriter. They are going to read their own questions, Luke. Let's go to the videotape celebrity number one.

Hey, guys. Pennington James here live from the set of Orchids of Combat as we get ready for our 2022 music tour. And, Luke, question for you as I embark onto the rock scene. Which sellout band is your favorite? We're talking Nickelback, Three Doors Down. Chris Daughtry, when you close the door at night and nobody's watching and you abandon your death metal for a little modern rock, what is your guilty pleasure?

We'll see you soon. New single out this Friday. Check it out. Pennington James on every music platform you could possibly listen to. Pennington looking good with that haircut, Luke. I will say this. I've never seen a person who would be more in love

with the idea. Jay is such a failure. He wouldn't even be eligible to sell out wow wow so his question luke is under the category of modern rock you know think late 90s early 2000s maybe some of the shit you hear today what is your favorite sellout band jay asked luke now how are we defining sellout what does that mean like so so poppy that they can't have any credibility anymore that's why he put out there as examples nickelback uh you know i think of like stained i think of like i mean are they all sellout no but they have a very i was gonna say metallica does metallica cut class i mean in a hipster argument you know certainly metallica had their sellout moments.

If you're like, yeah, bro, St. Ager, it's actually not that bad. The drums don't sound like pots and pans, but I won't accept that. Luke, we're talking about radio modern rock from that same era. I'll say there's probably a couple of them. Three Doors Down has that one song called Duck and Run. You ever heard that? Yep.

Yeah. I won't duck and run because I'm not built that way. Are they also the ones that sing, I'll be without you, baby? No, see, I don't like any of that shit. It's just their upbeat stuff. I don't like that one. Okay. I'll save that one, and I'll throw another one in there.

I'll throw in, you know what? Same kind of naming convention. I'll throw in, I think it's Three Days Grace. Okay. Because they have a couple of songs that have been played at every fucking aggro lifting gym I've ever been in. And so you kind of get, you know, the guitars are super shitty. They're like Everclear. Brr, brr, brr, brr, brr. Just, you know the guitars are super shitty they're like ever clear just you know totally tone deaf but you know they get the blood pumping a little bit so i'll say

you know the names are similar three days grace three doors down how about that those are those are those are accurate accurate descriptions i got a text i feel like that fits the bill i got a live text from jason aaron that says metallica is not sell out he loves duck and run and citizen soldier and he also loves three days grace so i guess you accurately answered the question luke there you go i'm getting live live feedback he says he he says hate everything about you i don't know if he's referring to that song by uh hey everything about you yeah it's terrible yeah all right lu Hey, spin number one is in the books.

They're from our first celebrity, Pennington James. Thank you very much. Let's go to spin two. Let's see here. God, this is going to be terrible. Hey, famous featherweights, Luke. Let's see who we got here

at 135. Or 145, excuse me. Let's go to the videotape. Hey, how's it going, guys? UFC fighter Billy Q here. Had a question for Luke for the Wheel of Death. All right, Luke. Who is your number one underrated UFC featherweight in the whole world.

Second question. If you had to pick any MMA journalist, who would be the favorite to end up in jail this year or to go to jail? Thanks, guys. Luke, I want to say shout out to Billy Q. He's on his honeymoon right now, and he stopped to help us out. So shout out to the great Billy Q. Luke, a two-part question.

What do you got? All right. Let me ask that second part. Did I hear him right? Did he say which MMA journalist would be most likely to go to jail? This year. Yeah. Yeah, that's what he said.

I don't know. First of of all shouts to billy q uh he'll be the answer to my question about underrated featherweights although i'll add to that list because he had an ass whenever gabriel benitez he beat the fuck out of him i'll add um i'll add ilia toporia i'll add you know i think josh emmet at the top of that is kind of uh unheralded despite his ranking so i'll put those three on the list. Shouts to Billy Q. He belongs on there too. Which MMA journalist? That's the most bizarre question. He's like, he's going to go to jail dot, dot, dot this year.

Who's most likely of all the MMA journos to end up in jail, Luke? I feel like Gareth Davis probably has a lot of skill. It is like if anyone got caught at a swingers party, he'd be like Gareth again. Yeah. I can't hate on that. I thought you were going to say Mike bone on a plane. He gets a little handsy. Luke,

you know what I mean? I'm not even saying like I'm against Gareth or what he's doing. Like go party, bro. But yeah, I'll say Gareth yeah i'll say gareth i'll say gareth there you go to the warlock i love it luke i love it all right two spins in the book so far celebrity wheel of death a monster success luke let's go to spin number three billy q's awesome

come on latina big booty. Oh, you fuck. Oh, it's Rob Lee. International man of mystery. Do we have Austin Powers? I think we've got the next best thing. Let's hit it. Yep.

It's the warlock here, as Brian Campbell calls me. I've got a question for you, Luke Thomas. You're a military fan. You're a bit of a military historian. You've had a little bit of that in your history. Which British regiment did Prince Harry serve in? Which British regiment did Prince Harry serve in? Don't call a friend.

Don't go to Wikipedia. Just answer honestly. Love to you both peace out yes fuck that's amazing that's amazing that i picked him for the answer to my second question and he was the guy reading the third by the way shout out shout out to the warlock he was traveling back to the uk and he took time out the airport to help us out here um yes luke he is talking about of course prince harry of wales right yeah uh duke of sussex uh i don't i don't know i'm gonna have to look this one i i i used to know this uh i don't anymore hold on let me see if i can find it because i don't know all right hold on he was in he did he go well is he royal marines i don't think so no he was in the um he was commissioned as a cornet into the blues and royals serving temporary temporarily with his brother william in the british army luke

yeah but what unit that's just the side so it looks like he was with the first mech brigade out of the third mech division he was blues and royals which was a cavalry regiment of the british army luke proud of the household cavalry so yeah didn't know that didn't know that but uh shouts to gareth davis i like giving him a hard time he's a he's a wild man he's a wild man he's on a bus one time and he was telling me about his sexual escapade boy he has lived a life, huh? He's an original, Luke, okay? First time I met him, he put his hands down my pants. I'm actually not kidding, Luke. More news at 11.

That's him. That's him. That is. All right, here. Three down, two to go. Here we go. Let's spin. Did you see Mikey's text?

No. Oh, God. All right, Canadian. Oh, Jesus Christ. Will you guys leave this topic alone, please? Oh, my God. Is it really him, Luke? Did we get him for this?

This is great. No, there's no chance you got him. Zero chance. Come on. Come on, Hellwands. Really? Oh, you're serious. Okay.

I'll let him know. No, that's okay. All right, thanks. Oh, hey, it's Morning Combat. Luke, I just took a really bad phone call. I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but that was your bank. They're going to foreclose on your home.

Unless they say if you're able to beat a UFC fighter in a three-round fight in the UFC in the Octagon, they'll spare you. They're going to spare your home. But otherwise, they're going to have to foreclose. So I need you to pick a UFC fighter that you think you have a shot of beating in a three-round UFC fight.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news. Anyway, see you guys soon. Luke, shout out to ab our canadian friend he um he basically read to you the uh the plot of the movie here comes the boom starring kevin james but luke if you were were tasked with saving your house by challenging any ufc fighter to a three-round fight which fighter do you think you would have the best chance of beating obviously we, we're going open weight here, Luke. Okay? Obviously.

Okay. All right. So who is the shittiest women's strawweight fighter? Because that's the one I'm calling out. I'm going to do the Andy Kaufman bit and just be the champion of beating up. The intergender champion. Yeah. Yeah.

Intergender champion. Honestly, dude, I would just lose my fucking home. I'm not trying to lose my home and lose my teeth all right well the the lowest rated now this is just top 15 obviously there's more fighters beyond that but felice herrick right now is ranked number 15 among ufc straw weights a very talented uh beautiful fighter luke um you know could you beat her in a three-round fight, Luke? This is the spirit of the question from young Bronstetter. I mean, I could, you know, obviously given my size and, you know, relative, well, geez, I'm 42 and pathetic now, but I could probably win a grappling match

without a whole lot of issue. Oh, wow. Okay. That sounds like a challenge, Luke. No, no, no, no. My days are, I'm retired I never really started BC, but I'm now officially retired I don't know, Felice might beat my ass

You ever seen her in person, dude? She's fucking bricked up I don't want that smoke at all No, I'd just lose my home, fuck it You know what? I would torch it and then collect the insurance money And then blame it on you Well, producer Mikey is offering CM Punk A 175 170 pounder with limited experience,

as a guy you might be able to beat, Luke. I would say that if the UFC put on a fight between me and CM Punk, they deserve to, you know, have Bellator become number one in the business. I should never disgrace the octagon by being in there. All right. Well, there you go, Luke. Four celebrities down, one left. Luke, spin number five.

Spin that bitch. Let's go. Are we going to get one that I like? We never get the categories I like. First time, long time. See, I don't give a shit about this. You don't even know who it's going to be, Luke. Could be a big time celebrity, right?

Big time fans of our show, right? Here we go. Are you going to draw a beard on Jay's face in permanent marker? No, I got somebody much more famous, Luke. Probably our most famous fan. Let's throw to it right now. Oh, God. What's up, fellas?

Damon the Donk from Stockton here. And I have a question for the great Luke Thomas. Luke, what are you waiting for, brother? When are you going to join me in bc and join the three needle society i mean you don't need any more kids we can already hear your daughter scream in every dang episode can you imagine you with another kid and no offense but abuela's getting kind of old i don't think she needs another grandbaby you can't do that to her okay so i did you a favor. I know you like

the facts, right? I picked you up right here. Some peer reviewed journalism. I will go to the Stockton Post Office tomorrow morning and send this to DC just for you, brother. Okay? You may lose your libido and sex drive,

but it's okay. You're old and washed anyways. Have a great day and stay frosty. Luke, it's a legitimate question, as Mark Raimondi would say. When are you planning on joining the Three Needles Society? I don't know. I haven't really thought about it yet. Probably not far, honestly. Probably not far far a buddy of mine is getting it in next month wait no this month sorry the end of this month so he's the same age as me but he's already

got two kids i don't know what my wife and i are waiting for we don't have the other one i don't know i probably honestly probably next three years okay Okay. Okay. There is some, some threat here, Luke, that you would lose your libido and everything that makes you a man. I've, I've, I've been there. Look, I mean, it's not quite like a dog getting neutered, but like, I mean, how much more pathetic could I be? I mean, we're talking about the bottom of the barrel here. All right.

Hey, Luke, you got to give it up to our five celebrities. I mean, that was, you know, that was, that was pretty good. Pretty. Billy Q was the, was the, you got to give it up to our five celebrities. I mean, that was pretty good. Billy Q was the, you know what? Billy Q and then Gareth. MVPs, really, I got to say. I would say I'm sorry for slandering Gareth, but I'm honestly not. I thought it was a great slander, so I'm going to stick with it. It was well-timed comedy, Luke.

Would you spin the celebrity wheel again in the future? Is this something you're into? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Okay, okay. Thank you to all submitters there and presenters. That's it for the Wheel of Death this week. But Luke, every Wednesday we also have another fun segment. It's where our fans

get a chance to send in their gifts and pictures. Morning Combat at gmail.com, of course. Your fan subs on Wednesday. Your dead wrongs for Friday. And boy, I think we have a lot of them this week already piling up. But Luke, let's hit this week's mail. It's called Fan Submissions.

Fan Submissions. We've got mail. Alright, let's see what kind of artwork our people sent in. Luke, this is from Abraham. He says, hey guys, day one fan here from North Florida. Been following Luke since he took over the mma hour i have two submissions today one from several weeks ago wearing my 1.0 merch

uh and what can we go back to number one here hold on a second hold on a second this one the first one is his 1.0 merch and can you blow this up luke can you speak to his technique his setup how how he fills that t-shirt out at all i mean hard to luke can you speak to his technique his setup how how he fills that t-shirt out at all i mean hard to say exactly because you have to watch everything in uh in real time but he's got his grip is not too wide he's got a mixed grip which is fine um he looks like he's breathing out into the belt which is correct he's got the right shoes on just don't lean back too far and everything looks pretty good man it looks like he's in the right kind of gym too so even he's got a deadlift jack yeah this is a real gym with a real deadlift great great job by him abraham then says for picture two this one is from this

week in my 2.0 merch with slightly more weight i've been a jujitsu guy for eight years but got inspired to start lifting in march thanks to Luke Thomas in his front yard gym. Thank you to both of you guys for great content. MK all day. And P.S., can you guys get Showtime to add a shipping order confirmation for your orders? Both times were incredibly stressful not knowing if the order went through. Hopefully, Luke, we can run that tidbit up the chain to your boy Krupp and get to the bottom of that. But, hey, Abraham, thank you for supporting us.

Luke, you inspired this guy to change his life. That's fucking awesome. I love seeing that. There was someone I inspired years ago, or at least they said I did, to pursue jiu-jitsu. And then five or six years later, they got their black belt,

which was fucking awesome to see. And I'm looking at the numbers here. If this guy's a novice lifter, relatively speaking, novice to intermediate, this is about 400 on the bar here and if uh if he's uh if you're a you know a reasonably new lifter and you're at 400 with clean technique dude keep going you'll hit five or six maybe even more um good for him man really happy to see it our boy abraham looking like the uh wwe wrestler that that now in aw rusev it looks like rusev crush yes look he looks like a russian weightlifter i have no idea what

his background is but and i don't think he stormed the capital on january 6th he was in the weight room instead hell no luke no way all right lewis is here luke he's got two photos he says please give a shout out to my beautiful daughter brianna we. We are both huge MK fans. Just a couple of donks bonding through MK all day, nearly every day. Love you guys. Oh, hey, look at this. Can you zoom in here, Maniche? What do we got going on here? We got the Pauly Wings.

Look at my man's collection. Not this one where he's got his prescription drugs all in the back. Go to the other one. Go to the other one, the other photo. Yeah, zoom in on that one. Bro, look at my man's cereal collection. That's solid, Luke. He's got Apple Jacks, Trix.

He is having a good time at 3 a.m. He's got the Gatorade, the Spices, the UFC replica belt. But, hey, Luke, he put his daughter behind a UFC belt and says they both watch mk together it is a you know a family bonding experience luke it can be especially when we talk about pornography shout out to both lewis and brianna thank you for wearing our awesome stuff thank you guys yeah love you thank you all right michael is here he says hey, have not missed an episode yet. Down since day one, my two sons, ages eight and five, can your show, oh, they call our show Dad Jokes on YouTube.

Thought Luke would appreciate my gimlet and my Camp David engraved glass that I got from a buddy that worked in the Obama administration direct from Camp David. Cheers from one fat 40-year-old dad to a couple of others. All right. That's awesome. Shout out to you. I don't have any Camp David paraphernalia,

but I got a lot of stuff that my friends gave me when they came back from Iraq. So I love stuff like that. And your hair fell out of distress as a speechwriter for the government, Luke. That's right, it did. And my fingernails. All my fingernails came out.

Michael, thank you for supporting us and watching the show. Scott slides in with two photos. Vegas splash pads with my three-year-old training to take on Luke's daughter in Toddler Takedown 101. Thanks for the insightful coverage, you two old Donkey Kong kings. Luke, that's your daughter's favorite play area right there. That's the number one go-to these days.

She loves that thing. Oh, Luke, that's the number one go-to these days. She loves that thing. Oh, look, that's the new hat available at morningcombat.store, the Donk hat. Scott looking good in that. Yeah, he's at a beach where you'd have to wear all your tennis shoes, otherwise your feet would get sliced to shit, but otherwise, great picture. Yeah, sure, sun's out, guns out.

Big fan of this guy, Scott. Thank you, sir. It looks great on you, okay? And keep your kids off the Scott. Thank you, sir. It looks great on you, okay? And keep your kids off the internet. Thank you very much. Try not to drown your children in open-air environments. All right, Anthony's here with two photos. He says, hi, Luke and Brian.

Anthony from Chicago, emailing MK for my second fan submission. My first one was on Valentine's Day when my girlfriend surprised me with this green hoodie. Now, just when I thought she could not be any more amazing, My first one was on Valentine's Day when my girlfriend surprised me with this green hoodie. Now, just when I thought she could not be any more amazing, check out these photos from our trip last week to her home country of Ecuador. She took me on an adventure to the capital of Quito, the middle of the world, the volcanic hot springs, and most importantly, she introduced me to her family in Cuenca? Cuenca? Cuenca. The collage is a photo of the middle of the world and the Basalica in central Quito.

As for the second photo. Basilica. There we go. God, why am I the one reading this? Let's zoom in on this for a moment. Luke, love this guy, right? Anthony, I remember him. That's great. First of all, the sightseeing looks pretty cool, actually.

I don't know much about Ecuador, frankly. But that's a hell of a... Dude, what is Anthony waiting on? Put a ring on this girl already. Wow. This is a very fine-looking woman. She loves MK. Can you make this happen already? Lucy, show

of hands, raise your hand if you're a girlfriend. Oh, look at that. That is awesome. Raise your hand if your girlfriend has taken you on an international trip and got you swag from your favorite podcast yeah exactly yeah okay let me read this luke here we go as for the second photo she wanted to remind luke that despite his advice back in february i have yet to bend the knee and pop the question i made her a promise that i would propose once mk 100,000 subscribers. Just kidding.

I have a plan and will report back with my third fan submission. Thank you to the whole crew for making us feel like family. Luke, that is perfect. Wait a second. BC, let me ask a question. We're doing this on air, right? Yes. Do you think he's waiting for us to put this on air,

and then while this is airinging he then proposes to his girlfriend that look huge if right now he is on one knee he like boys to men on bed did knee and she's you know she look they might look they might be consummating right now i don't know their religious beliefs they might just be be getting professional counseling. Wow. Wow. Shout out to Anthony there. Please put a ring on it. Get it done.

Well done there, sir. Let's keep it going here with Vincent. He's got, he says, all cats are friends to MK. Morning, noon, or night, these cats listen to Luke and BC while they dine on Fancy Feast. They've been together for 14 years and love nothing more than kicking back on the 1.0 merch and watching fights with their mom and dad. Been waiting for a show about combat sports like MK since I was 14 years old and watching Randy and Chuck coaching the first season of Tough. Love the boxing coverage. Love you guys.

Review more movies when you find time. Luke, I think his cats are named Bill and Nancy or something like that. Looking great, Luke. Shouts to all the cat owners out there. All that sign. No, no, no. All right, all right. Thank you, Vincent.

Big supporter of those cats. Looking great. All right, Jason's here. He's got four photos. He says, what's going on, BC? And Luke J from Boston, back for the third time. This week, I am once again paying my respects to the MK curse. We all know the curse is real, and unfortunately for Pitbull,

it's time for him to carry on the streak. First, to Patricio Freyde, there is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as Big Country's belly and as timeless as Mike Goldberg's play-by-play. It is the middle ground between Joshua Fabia and Edmund Taverdian, between movement drills and touch-butt in the park, and it lies between the pit of man's fear and the summit of his knowledge.

This is the dimension of art and imagination. It is an area we call the MK Twilight Zone. Very well done there, Jay. Next, we have BC as Lord Summer Isle in The Wicker Man, ready to burn down Pitbull's seven-fight win streak. Luke, do you get this reference? I think this is from the Outdoor Burning Man Festival or some shit. I'm not sure.

Okay, okay. Next, we have Paul BC Bearer and Luke Undertaker Thomas holding their lucky urn filled with the ashes of Pitbull's championship run. Wow. holding their lucky urn filled with the ashes of Pitbull's championship run. Wow. It's when the Photoshops are both either amazingly good or amazingly shitty. That's the sweet spot right there. Yes. And last but certainly not least, why did y'all have to do this?

I love Pitbull, but we all know the curse is real, and his chances of winning on Saturday are about the same chances Ricky had at the end of Boys in the Hood. If you look closely enough, you can see the two donks taking him out. Manish, can you zoom in on that, please? How am I the only one firing? Fuck that. Wow.

Ricky, I mean, dude, Ricky had that USC scholarship. He was really going places, Luke, right? It's a pity. It's a pity. The only plus about his mom having the couches covered in the plastic is when he bled all over it. At least the couch survived, right, Luke?

Yeah, a little Windex cleans that right up. Wow, that is rough stuff right there. Thank you, Jay from Boston. Sagar slides in. He says, hey, gents, love the show. Especially Luke's ability to analyze fights in his command of the english language despite him being born in india haha but bc you my friend are the real

gold medalist here i'm one of your biggest fans what the hell's going on here this is that weird fellow that we sometimes... Oh, yeah. Can we not get disturbing videos sent to us, please? Yeah. I stopped putting this guy on Have You Seen This Shit because it got weird, but thank you, Sagar. Can we stop with the nightmare fuel, please? All right. Hey, CG is here.

He says, BC checks out an art gallery. Wait. I was like, who am i knocking out oh right okay oh wow they got it wrong they got it wrong it shouldn't have been lareda it should have been uh j uh joanna right yeah or antonina your choice there luke mk all day thank you very much all right brian says uh hey donks here's a little fan submission it has pained me that bc pulled this from his wall but here's a little something for you guys shine on mk yes luke a bunch of crazy diamonds indeed look the best album cover in rock history let's be honest it's pretty good it's a pretty you know why do you know why i love that album cover so much not just because the album is is kick-ass badass but luke that is us right like that that's who we are right i'm on fire constantly on the verge of getting us burnt and fired and

you're the uh the guy who's like i can't believe i've extended my hand to this you know professional friendship next one all right luke's got a crap here we go uh scott says the donks need one more resume review colby uh i don't know if he qualifies i don't know if he's done enough but uh that's fucking hilarious yeah all right a couple more here anamesh has more resume review curse memes for us. There's no joke here, Luke. This is just a recap of everything we've done. It is a recap, yep. I mean, look at the after pictures, Luke.

Yep, they're bad. You got to hit with... Although Adesanya, of all of them, Adesanya was what the only one who like he just lost but he didn't get like no he fought well too yeah he fought well all these other ones kind of got crushed a little bit yeah like absolutely crushed yeah no doubt about it all right jack says hey bc happy belated birthday from your fan down under in melbourne i thought this is how your conversation with luke would have gone on your birthday if he had actually bothered to call you love the show

good luck with the podcast awards i know it doesn't mean shit to luke but i'm sure it would to the people that bankroll you i also have a dead wrong i was hoping somebody would have surely sent in now but clearly not a lot of people watched the five knockouts review of gervonta it's your graphics department who stuffed up the final graphic in which it showed all the knockouts of tank and they listed number one and five both against jose pedraza okay nobody cares about that thank you though for showing us that error luke let's see is this a video we got to check out here what do we got i don't know. Can you read that conversation, Luke?

Hey, BC, on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is your pain? Pie. Pie? Low level, but never ending. Well, we're both incredibly washed white 40 plus dads, so that's natural. Anyway, happy birthday. Yeah, don't get into comedy writing jack all right i don't get it okay luke uh david pie is the relationship between the circumference and the diameter of any circle 3.14159 thank you thank you for that i knew i know a pie is luke i

didn't know the uh the meaning on this case okay thank you uh this is damien from stockton hey fellas i just started making memes i hope you enjoy let's see what we got here that is sadly true luke that is sadly true dude i couldn't believe how bad of a tipper you were and you were like unaware that you were bad i'm like what yeah i'm getting better in fact i i over tipped this morning at the coffee place I'm getting better Luke okay I was wrong my whole life when I was poor and I didn't recognize people for their work okay keep it going keep it going you taught me how to give the people that clean your room

you know a couple twenties you know what I mean let's see what we got here I can't read it you gotta blow it up it is a tough choice it really is a tough choice well done there damo all right let's keep damien going what do we got yeah bullshit you can hey listen first all, that's very funny. Second of all, I didn't say I was good. I just said I was tall.

That's it. All right, what else we got here? That is true, Luke. You took that way too personal. Not really. First of all, we were on set, and he wasn't insane. I mean, he was kind of mean to you, but he wasn't, like, super mean. Look, he recreated that scene in Oz where the guy shits on the other guy's face.

That's basically what happened. I think that's a little strong. I think that's a little strong. And listen, you're a big boy, but you just bringing up something out of nowhere to shit on me, I think it's a little different, but whatever. All right, all right. right is that it for damien or we got any more of these 209 treats oh the last one okay i gotta say these are good jokes these are i can't even hate on them they're really funny all right really funny uh here's a guy who we haven't heard from in a while scott m rizzo luke two bases one cup.

Remember that time we were doing air base on the old MK, Luke? Yeah, that's funny. That's good. That is great. Let's keep it going. Hey, Antoine, all six foot eight of him from Alaska, continues to send in pics wearing our gear and the beauty of nature. Luke, this guy slays up there too.

It's amazing the FBI hasn't caught him yet. For unibombing or for that time at the Capitol? Luke, which one? Yeah, just a wonderful day in January. That's all. All right. Hey, Luke, Pennington James is a little upset with me at the pic that I showed Uriah Hall

that had nothing to do with martial arts. So he's setting this one, Luke. This is Jay Aaron back in the day as a martial arts master in northern New Jersey. Your thoughts? I mean, just a complete pretender his entire life. I'd love to see that. You know what?

Aaron Bronstetter's question, it should be you versus Prime Jay. Three rounds to save your house, Luke. Me? Yep. Oh, I don't, I don't, you know, what are you going to do? Weekend at Bernie's for rounds two and three

all right luke i don't know who sent this in but but this is a bc presser meme sorry for for who i didn't give credit to well see it's not quite right because the hat that they gave you is part of the scumbag meme. Yes. Which doesn't make sense for this one. All right, Luke. Final fan sub. This is from me.

You know, I don't get much use out of the old Versace robe anymore, but my dog Molly, Luke, looking great in it. Your thoughts? There are poor people starving all over the world and you're just dressing up your hound in versace fucking clothes unbelievable look she's beautiful look at her she's she's amazing she's the best so shout out to molly the wonder dog right there thank you for your fansubs morning combat at gmail.com is the home for that that's all we got for shit this week luke you speaking of, you probably have to go. Yeah, I do, but those were good.

I got to say, sometimes we do this segment, and I'm like, eh, they weren't that great. They were good today. And We Love Death was good today, too. So, yeah, did yourself, BC. Great job. Reminder, everybody, if you want to try Showtime, you can. You can do that for free for 30 days.

If you like it, you can keep it. If not, blah, blah, blah. But you guys know the drill. Let's see. We're all over social. Morning Combat's name is the same everywhere on Twitter, on Instagram, on YouTube. Just, you know, Morning Combat with a K. BC and I have slightly different names between Twitter and Instagram. We have a merch store. You can go to morningcombat.store for some of the merch that you saw all of the various fans wearing. If you haven't got your hands on those, you can do that and um yeah morning

combat at gmail.com for friday's dead wrong or any subsequent fan sub that you may want to get into and then um vote for us and stuff anything else we see i hope that guy proposed today i hope he did that if he did send us like some kind of you know aftermath or confirmation or something we want to know we want to know that'd be cool well also gareth sorry not sorry kind of aftermath or confirmation or something. We want to know. We want to know. That'd be cool. Also, Garrett, sorry, not sorry. Kind of sorry, but not really. It was kind of fun.

Hope they had fun in Ecuador, Luke. Are you heading to South America sometime, Luke? Yeah, yeah. I've got a vacation coming up here pretty soon, so I am looking forward to getting the fuck out of the... All right. So do I. We're going to get a little bit of Luke and guests,

BC and guests, maybe get a little bit of Luke and guests, BC and guests, maybe get a little mailbag. So please continue to send in your mailbag questions, right, to the Apple Pod Scam? That's right. Yeah, we're doing the Apple Pod Scam. You can go to the, let's see, the Apple Podcasts review, give us a review, five star, and then leave a question.

We'll scam the system that way, but we'll also answer your questions for mailbag episodes all right should you go to south america and not return what do you want me to you can read your will right now what do you want me to do with the show burn it and collect the insurance money like a cadillac with four flat tires just burn it and leave it I mean BC and Hawaii does have a does have a nice ring to it right it sounds like something right you'd make it through you'd make it through three shows before you quit let me all right all right all right Canadians love them thank you uh okay so we are out of here for today I will live chat tomorrow and then the preview for the weekend's fights on Friday. All right. Uh, for BC, for Malka, for CBS sports, for Showtime, I'm Luke Thomas.

Until next time, may all of your gains be loyal.